WestEddy

Yes, that is the answer, jettison actual knowledge for gut feelings. There's a lot of data that back up 28 being the prime of a baseball player's career, experience and athleticism crossing on separate paths. I'm certainly not saying "yawn" to the time after 30, or calling players under 26 rushed. In the conversation about whether Robert still has the ceiling of his 2023 season, or whether he's now the stats he's put up in the last two seasons, it's not crazy to notice that the upcoming season is his "prime", and if Robert has any upside left, it's in the next year or so he'll have youthful athleticism to pursue it. As far as the Pete Rose part, analytics loved him. I'm not sure how the actual events that get analyzed would "mean nothing". Maybe you should read up on analytics, and you'd learn that BA, OBP and base running are all factored into WAR and RC+. He might have even won more than one MVP and made more money had he paid closer attention to his own trend lines.

Wasn't there a period where it seemed that JR and Hahn seemed a bit obsessed with the Dayton Moore Royals? Moore was even floated as a possible mentor to Getz. Chris Getz doesn't seem taken with the connection. They seem happy to filch an assistant here or there from organizations that see a promotion with the White Sox as a career builder. Somebody was making fun of these two hires, but Miami is now being run by a Tampa Rays dude.

Josh Nelson's expertise seems to be in following College ball, and gaming the draft. I'm surprised his anticipated off-season plan on his own website consists of signing 6 known free agents. Not all that creative. I'm generally traveling at the end of the baseball season, so their OPP launch always catches me in between. I'd think the focus will be on unfound FA relievers, or projects, and a few bounce back starting candidates. Lenyn Sosa or Quero feel like trade candidates if they can bring back a blocked OF, or something. A team can drill Sosa and maybe improve his defense to zero, then they'd have a pretty valuable, cheap 2B for a spell.

One of the highlights of my life on Twitter was when Josh Nelson blocked me.

Why Sosa in RF? I'd put him in LF, and Baldwin in RF.

Rays decided to not pay Fairbanks $11M. Seems short-sighted.

Seymour got a lot of catcalls around here a while back. Big power.

James Fox of FutureSox breaks down the Rule 5 options: https://www.futuresox.net/2025/11/06/chicago-white-sox-40-man-roster-decis-2/

Bowden thinks the White Sox will trade an infielder. Bloggy reaction and breakdown: https://southsideshowdown.com/predicting-which-white-sox-are-on-the-trade-block-after-mlb-insider-s-prediction

https://www.futuresox.net/2025/11/06/chicago-white-sox-40-man-roster-decis-2/

I agree with you that he is now a 1.4 bWAR/85 RC+ over 100 games CF.

Sure. But it's his age 28 season coming up. His prime. It wouldn't take much, stay healthy OR mature a bit as a hitter, and he's worth his contract. If Teel, C. Monty, Vargas, Sosa, Brooks, Quero, Meidroth, Antonacci - a few of these guys get just a little better, maybe Robert doesn't press as much thinking he has to hit a 5-run HR every time up. He did just put up his highest walk rate, and lowest K-rate since 2022.

Kent's accumulated bWAR places him firmly in the Hall-of-Really-Good, but that used to be really borderline. I think Robin Ventura has 56 career WAR, and nobody talks about him for the Hall. Kent should have moved over to 1B, but he wanted to set the 2B HR record. And he was a complete prick to the media, so much that the "character" issue detracted from his original candidacy. Oh, and there was him breaking his wrist doing a motorcycle stunt, which was not allowed under his contract, then lying about it to the media.

Or just normalize his post-ASG hot streak and iron out some of the slumps.

And this is all in hindsight, admittedly. In 2025, Getz chose well, or got lucky. In 2024, he didn't. If he paid Perez $8M, and 2023 Perez showed up, that's bad. It's more that spending that $16M on one or two guys puts all your eggs in one or two non-elite baskets instead of spreading it around on 9 guys, 6 of whom actually worked out reasonably well.

I think Robert serves a few purposes on this team - He still plays plus defense in CF, which they don't have in the upper levels. His offense is middling, for a CF, but again, he covers the position for a team with no good options in the upper levels. He also has name recognition, which isn't nothing. For the state that this team was in, yes, you can look at a bunch of players in aggregate. They needed bodies to play positions and eat innings. For that $16M, they covered RF, backed up CF, and got 185 innings pitched (not counting Wilson's 47). I'd argue that Maton and Rojas didn't block anybody who was worthy of ML playing time, and Wilson was eventually displaced by somebody more deserving. If you spent $8M on a starting pitcher, and $8M on a RF, you're still slotting in replacement players for bullpen innings and OF/IF backup.

Not so much. He's put up 1.4 bWAR in part, due to his only playing 100 games a season. His injuries are baked in, at this point. I agree that this is the player he is, now. That's why my "IF" maxes out at 2+ bWAR, not 5.

I'm not saying he's "barely" overpaid. One bWAR is worth about $8-9M on the free agent market. So Robert's 1.4 bWAR is worth about $12M. If he hits and stays healthy, maybe he could clear 2 bWAR, which pays for itself, as the difference between opting in or out is $18M. Getz signed a bunch of free agents. For the (roughly) $16M he paid to Houser, Alexander, Perez, Bryce Wilson, Maton, Slater, Michael A. Taylor, Tauchman, Rojas - they produced around 5 bWAR. Of those 9, Wilson, Maton and Rojas can be said to not have really worked out.

It's a stupid meme. Chris Getz is not Rick Hahn.

Yes, in retrospect, the best time to trade Robert was in that off-season. I'm not sure why Getz should have traded Robert, but not Yoan, Eloy, Benintendi, Vaughn and Crochet after 2023. He probably saw Robert as part of the remaining "core", to be evaluated in the first 4 months leading up to the deadline.

Blog story about the Contemporary Era HOF ballot candidates being released, along with analyses of their cases: https://www.lonestarball.com/general/87510/the-2025-contemporary-era-hall-of-fame-ballot The players are: Roger Clemens Carlos Delgado Jeff Kent Don Mattingly Dale Murphy Gary Sheffield Fernando Valenzuela While I don't feel he's generally a Hall-of-Famer, a Fernando enshrinement would certainly be a statement by MLB on the current "situation".

I agree. Adding on, looking at the guys they just "picked up" for nothing, Houser, Civale, Perez, Bryce Wilson, Gomez - Bryce Wilson is the only one who truly sucked for them. I don't think they're going to have trouble finding innings floating around on the free agent market or the waiver wire. They can fix guys.

The game changes. Hahn was a "genius" when he tied up Quintana, Sale and Eaton to those contracts, then was a dupe when he tried replicating the same template on Robert, Yoan and Eloy. I don't think they're overpaying him by much. They don't have a CF in the upper minors. He's a nice risk to take. If he turns in his regular last two years of ho-hum, for them, that's solid if he can stay on the field. If he finds his old self, maybe somebody panics in July and gives them a guy or two.