WestEddy

I know this is all just posturing, but this is the first I've seen this tactic floated in this particular instance - keep Robert and pick up the option White Sox’s surprising new Luis Robert Jr. trade plans revealed | Sporting News

Uh-oh, a 36-65 team celebrating victories: White Sox partying like it's 2005 ... but celebration is top secret I like how they snuck this in...

Boy, could the Phils use a CF, and maybe an IF bat who could cover 3B for a couple of weeks, then slide over to 2B. Also, Tanner Banks has been a great pickup for them.

Which is why they're a good pickup. Trading for top 10 guys who have a year or two before Rule 5 is the classic definition of buying high.

The Blue Jays had a pitching prospect (Huck Flener) get hit in the eye back in the 90's. Exploded his eye.

Sosa tanking his own trade value.

Why so down on Altavilla?

"Miguel Vargas is who we thought he was".

If that was the offer (4/40), I could see Boras taking it with player opt-outs after every year. That does nothing for the team. If he's opting in after the first year, something has gone horribly wrong.

I see Robert's value as one year at somewhere between $5 and $10 because his career has fallen off the table, and he has to rebuild his value. Were he to hit the market after a healthy 3+ bWAR 2026 season, he could certainly get Anthony Santander's 5/92.5 (Santander had a QO penalty attached).

I thought there have been multiple reports that the Sox would be willing to eat money on Robert and Benny.

It actually does. Credibility is a commodity. If you walked into a new car dealership and offered $10k for that $55k list price pickup truck, you'd have a hard time getting a salesperson's attention after that.

4/40 isn't a reasonable offer for either party and multiple people here have explained why.

There's also about 8 teams in playoff contention for whom Sosa would be a definite offensive upgrade at 2nd, if that's a thing being bandied about.

Oh. I read the wrong line in Baseball-Reference.com. Drinking after 60, and all. But my main point still stands. Well beyond the situation of the TDL coming up next week, 4/40 is a strange, in-between number that doesn't hit anything that Robert might be. And Robert would have no reason to tear up the existing contract and replace it with something worse, especially with a team that seemingly has him drained and pressing. Robert taking 4/40 would tell me that he knows he's not worth 10/300 anymore, in which case, you can just keep signing M.A.T.'s and Austin Hays to 1-year deals the next 4 years and get better value.

I find this confusing. Who's offering this 4/40? The White Sox or another team? If it's the White Sox, Scott Boras would say, "We already have a contract. Let us know if you're picking up the $20M option, or buying it out." If the White Sox buy him out, then he hits the free agent market. Robert falls into one of 3 boxes: A) He's "that dude", and everybody knows it B) He's "that dude", he just needs to prove it for a full season C) He's not "that dude", but he's a great platoon CF, or a below average bat, above average glove If he's A, the Sox are picking up his next 2 option years. If they don't, he hits the market and gets 4/150, or 10/300. If he's B or C, he hits the market and signs a one year deal to prove himself. Probably for $10-15M. That 4/40 number you keep trotting out is just a weird, in between offer. It's too cheap for too many years. Or too expensive for too many years. If Robert were to jump at your 4/40, that would mean that Robert thinks he's C, and wants to grab whatever's being offered. Austin Hays was a productive (2.5+ bWAR) OF who was non-tendered after a down year due to injury. He signed a 1 year deal for $12M to rebuild his value.

And even calling it a "problem" feeds into the game here. My guess is that veterans take a rookie when they see a slump developing and go talk to them. It's not a clubhouse problem. It's the normal course of life. Coming out of the All-Star break, a couple of vets stepped up and decided to focus the team on some feedback Venable talked about recently. There's no problem, it's not bad, and to frame it as such is silly.

The picture looks like the cover of their 3rd album, Moon Rage Candy, an electronica departure from their previous work.

And Kopech probably could have been thrown in with a minimum of whining on their part.

Veteran leadership is no joke:

That, and moving the schedule of the rookie leagues up. There's also the elimination of the short season leagues that would be the catch-all for the college draftees.

They say that drinking over the age of 60 is even more deleterious. Go figure. fixed. Thanks

The White Sox would have to go 47-15 just to finish above .500, and they just knocked off their 3 easiest games of the third hardest schedule of the 2nd half.

We're looking at Baz, Rassmussen and Bradley. A step up from Falter, Heaney and Burrows.

Looks like the Rays just turned the O's into deadline sellers. A 4-2 road trip would be nice. 5-1 great, and 6-0 will make me insufferable.