WestEddy

Yeah, Bader's '25 could certainly be his dead cat bounce. The guy sure went through the wilderness in the '20s with OPS+ numbers that are lower than my age. Hays isn't a bad place holder and can replace Robert's offensive production just like that. Neither would make me angry on a one year deal. Either would be gone on August 1. They're still rebuilding. They were never going to sign Tucker or Bellinger. Now it's just wait for Braden Montgomery - McLain and Saucke were supposed to be quick movers.

The FanGraphs list still shows who's available. 2026 Free Agent Tracker | RosterResource | FanGraphs Baseball

I think Getz tried to be as cautious as he could. He ended up cleaning out pro scouting after that off-season. I don't even remember what trade rumors went around with Cease, Eloy and Yoan. Vaughn. Yes, that off-season would have been the perfect time to trade Robert, just as one week before the great crash of '29 would have been a great time to divest from the stock market. There was no rush with Robert if he was going to be pretty much the player he just was.

It's not a good comparison. They're 2 stupid premises. There was no rush to trade a player who just started to show his promise. You're also pretending that everything we know now was obvious then. I'll give you that Getz should have taken the Reds' offer last off-season. Was that Edwin Arroyo and a pitcher? But even with that, we're still pretending that it was obvious that Robert wasn't going to snap back and have a strong 2025.

I'd like somebody to tell us if, when and how bad Colson Montgomery will be injured in the future so Getz could be sure to trade him when he's at his peak value.

I'm sure I'm one of the worst ones.

Give me something to criticize Getz for, and I'll do it. I'm not sure why I have to pretend that innocuous things are bad so I can be enraged.

Cedrick Mullins, Leody Taveras, Lane Thomas and JJ Bleday are the CFs who have been signed. Which one of those did the White Sox miss out on? 2026 Free Agent Tracker | RosterResource | FanGraphs Baseball

I still believe all of that, as evidenced by Getz holding onto Robert last TDL. I believe they wanted to trade him, but would have kept and played him if they couldn't get what they wanted. Acuña's been mentioned since last July, so maybe they finally decided to let him go. I'll admit that my opinions are fluid as things change.

Yeah, that's a normal, logical take that half the board here had. I suppose you expect Getz to go to the press and tell them that he has to trade Robert because he made a grave mistake by picking up his option, because he doesn't know how the system works. That's stupid. I'd love to continue a conversation with a person making up quotes, but I have to go be embarrassed that the Brewers protected Oliver Dunn instead of Shane Smith.

Wait, are you referring to this? That wasn't the discussion at all. SS2k5 was upset because Getz wasn't speaking to the press without a filter on his every move as GM. I guess things people don't say are funny.

But I've yet to top "Vinny Capra is better than Shane Smith because the Brewers rostered Capra and not Smith". I'll keep trying, though.

That's where I am. They probably didn't see that big a difference between what the Reds were offering for a bought down contract and what the Mets took the whole contract for. That, and maybe Getz saw an opportunity on the market that wasn't going to be there soon, so he moved on Robert.

It's so long ago, I can't seem to remember. They signed Murakami this off-season, right? Like, they didn't think he'd be available, but then he just fell into their laps at a great discount. Again, I find it easier to believe Getz felt he had a good chance of trading Robert, but if he didn't, they'd be fine with him in CF rather than to believe that nobody in the White Sox front office has any idea what they're doing, and they're regularly perplexed at the silence from the other end of a phone connection when they ask for a Crochet package in return for Robert.

The alternate caps/lower case phrase only really refers to the 2023-24 off-season. Robert then got injured in the third game of the 2024 season, was out 2 months, then came back diminished. We're all doing the same thing, which is trying to make sense of baseball conduct after the fact. I find it easier to believe that the front office is dealing with issues in a rational way rather than believing that a couple dozen career front office people operate in a constant haze of stupidity, and that even good moves are bad because reasons.

I believe that if there was a question of whether they'd be able to move Robert or not, they wouldn't have picked up the option.

I agree with you on the return. It would have been nice to get a package that was a little more exciting.

I get what you're saying, but having Robert on this team wasn't a catastrophic outcome. I think they could have always traded Robert for something that was better than being down $2M. The pool of players they were going to shop in was always the same. I don't think they missed out on anybody who signed while they were shopping Robert around.

I don't get that last part. He was saying that Pete Fairbanks was going to get somewhere in the $40M guaranteed range.

Except that the downside here isn't killing a family or getting a DUI but having a good defensive CF on your team for 4 months. You're saying they couldn't have traded Robert to the Reds, Pirates, Dodgers, Yankees for anything.

Getz is saying that the Sox are now going to be very busy.

I guess pretending that Chris Getz is secretly trying to impress you and only you is a better argument than pretending that everybody can see the future and judge the returns of a trade against what is waiting for them in 2 years. It's like the old Earl Weaver anecdote: "If you knew you were going to hit into a double-play why didn't you just strike out?"

But why is it "insane"? Here are the 2 choices: A) Pay $2 million, get nothing. B) Pay nothing, get two players. The more people criticize this deal, the more I think that Chris Getz won going away.

Because if they were getting offers that were below his value, why should they have taken a lesser offer? You're saying this while pretending that everyone saw the Acuña/Pauley deal sitting here in 2026. There was no urgency to trade Robert in that off-season. Looking back, we know that was when his value was highest. Should they trade Colson Montgomery right now and take the best offer because in 3 years, they might want to trade him but only be offered garbage because of that injury and slump he's going to have in 2028?

I would expect a full rebuild to take around 5 years. You are arguing that the Sox should have traded Robert for a substandard return after the 2023 season. Getz did just that with Cease, and you still scream about it. And really, Aaron Bummer wasn't a setup man at that point, and Gregory Santos was the guy who was napping in the bullpen.