WestEddy

No, it's about the people who have beaten the senseless "ex-Royals hire" meme to death. By all means, tell us why you think the Sox have hired the wrong people. If your only argument is that they once worked for the Royals, close your eyes when the sauce gets poured on your meatball head.

Well, it is the offseason, and it's basically trickled down to about a dozen posters doing drive-bys, now, until there's any kind of movement that would give a hint to the direction this team is going to take for the next season. I am kind of curious how the MLB pitching and hitting coaches now fit into a team's greater pitching and hitting philosophy. Do Bove and Shoman just take direction from Manny & Fuller, or is it all more collaborative? Hey, they could have signed Tino Martinez, who would just choke hitters who were in slumps.

FanGraphs does an analysis of teams' 40-man crunches. With the White Sox 40-man at 35, they deduce the Sox really aren't in a crunch that needs to be broken down. The deadline to set rosters for the Rule 5 draft is this coming Tuesday, November 18. American League: https://blogs.fangraphs.com/2025-american-league-40-man-roster-crunch-analysis/ National League: https://blogs.fangraphs.com/2025-national-league-40-man-roster-crunch-analysis/

Nobody thinks the Sox should trade Teel. If other teams offer substandard returns for Quero, then keep him. I just don't think his stock is down. He'd have to do a lot to raise his value from where it is now. He can play in the bigs. He's not overmatched. He still has the ceiling of developing his power and defensive game with more reps in another system.

And that's why you keep Teel. He's the better prospect. Quero's most probably at the crossroads between prospect and backup. Hang onto him giving him backup reps, and you may kill his value even further. He's shown he can hit in the bigs. Every team has the hubris to believe their development system is better than the one they're acquiring from.

How is his stock down? He was a top 100 prospect who was a just below league average hitter in his first exposure to MLB pitching. He looks like a guy who needs a little coaching and pro reps to be a regular starting catcher.

And O'Hearn really makes Lenyn Sosa expendable. If somebody thinks they can Ron Washington Sosa into a viable 2B, that's a valuable bat. Between Meidroth, Antonacci and others, we have 2B covered for 2026.

Taylor pitched about 63 innings this season. Maybe they want to ramp him up to about 100? That's Mike Vasil usage. 30 starts at 4 IP each is 120 IP. Maybe they don't want to guarantee a bullpen day every 5.

MLBTR surmised Ponce at 2 years, $11M per to the Sox (by 1 of 4 writers). Kazuma Okamoto also strikes me as a not crazy option at 1B.

My eyes opened this morning. That's about as much rejoicing as I can handle in a day.

In an act of desperation to get a middling bat into the lineup, they overpaid Benintendi in both money and years. He outlasted everybody from that short-lived window, and now he the only "veteran" bat who can contribute league average offense. Had they paid him normal, 2025 would have been his walk year. What would we be adding Naylor to?

So, do you think the White Sox are a few players away from being competitive, or would you be sales-lying to him?

That's how we ended up with Benintendi as our clean-up hitting left-fielder for 5 years. Overpaying.

Trade and signing rumors are, in essence, hypotheticals. So my question is, why are you here reading about hypothetical signings?

What if he did, but Naylor's agent told you to sod off, and don't call again until you have a winning team, because Naylor wants to be in the playoffs, and Seattle's going to top your offer anyway? And then, when you checked in on Pete Alonzo, his agent said the same thing? Then Framber's people, Kyle Schwarber's people and Murakami's people all told you roughly the same thing? Would you then have a Plan B beyond "Spend as much money as it takes to sign all the best players"? Because that's literally the first thought every single person has when thinking about putting together a winning team.

Every MLB Pipeline ranked prospect not on 40-man rosters and needing protection: https://www.mlb.com/milb/news/rule-5-draft-prospects-protected-on-40-man-rosters-2025?t=mlb-pipeline-coverage

Just racking up the off-season awards:

Apparently, a Seattle writer gave Monty his one 2nd place vote, and also voted for Shane Smith 4th or 5th.

Actually, Dick Allen's comment got me thinking. Your's was just easier to find and respond to.

Story at Royals Review and oddly enough, none of the commenters bemoan the hiring of a White Sox castoff. https://www.royalsreview.com/royals-news-transactions-signings/90310/royals-hire-marcus-thames-connor-dawson-to-hitting-coaching-staff#comments

Teams around the league looking at the 2025 White Sox and thinking, "I gotta get me some of dat!"

South Suburban Harvey, IL. Maybe the trick is to fill the team with White Sox fans, so they start screaming about how they should all be DFAed before fans get a chance to?

Offseason budget bin article about the Guardians that probably covers some of the same dudes the White Sox will be looking at - https://www.coveringthecorner.com/cleveland-guardians-analysis/63820/more-bargain-free-agents-for-the-guardians-to-pursue