WestEddy

I do think the days of running a Palacios/Taylor platoon in RF for a solid month are behind us....I hope.

Vaughn, Rojas, Palacos and Amaya being gone is already baked into that win rate after the ASB. Most of the worst was long gone by then. Pereira and some of that bullpen still indicates that '26 is going to be tryouts, still. Which means some dudes are going to snap and put up 1.4 bWAR, while others struggle. I don't think they're far off, being competitive requires a lot of the young guys to not stumble.

We can all stand to take a hint from Muni

I've been saying for a while - the Sox played at a 70-win pace after the ASB. I thought just a couple of acquisitions could augment the growth of the 'core' to push them up to 75 wins, or thereabouts. If they follow through with a mid-level, established starter, maybe keep or replace Robert with an ML average OF and everything breaks right for them, I would not be surprised by 81-83 wins. But that's like buying 5 scratch-offs and having all 5 hit. Kay could certainly be a step up from Cannon/Burke/Gomez, but replicating Fedde's 24 is a huge ask. Even Houser's total output paced over a full season would be Christmas morning. To be competitive, a couple of Smith/Davis/Burke/Schultz/Hagen would really have to blow up and become dominant. And then Monty/Teel would have to look like 4-WAR contributors over a season. Vargas/Baldwin/Murakami/Meidroth would all have to step up and be above average. The bullpen would have to snap to, and Leasure/Taylor/Vasil/Wikelman - all get solid, maybe with a closer pushing them all into slightly lower leverage rolls. That's asking Getz to check every item off his todo list, every one of them hitting, and most (if not all) of the 'established' starters continuing to progress - and then they could get over 85 wins and get knocked out in the first round.

I think they still do that somewhat, evidenced by Kyle Teel and Braden Montgomery, but I don't think we're going to have a "Getz always gets his man" meme. Acquiring former 1st rounders like Jared Shuster and Ryan Rolison seems more inadvertent than the focus.

If they sign on the wrong lines, does Murakami have to pay Getz $34M?

If he's putting up 1 WAR a season, he's probably worth around 2/$15. So, depending on what they're getting back, I'd think they'd have to kick in $15M. Maybe they'd take back a failed bullpen arm getting $7-10M.

But doing a quick perusal of the league, there aren't a whole lot of overpaid, middling starters on teams' books. Luis Severino, maybe? A persistent rumor is that Toronto would like to move Jose Berrios, but they're not just going to dump his salary, as he's still pretty serviceable.

Don't know about that, but James Fox said on the latest FutureSox podcast that he's hearing the Sox would take on money to trade Benintendi, like a Taijuan Walker type of contract, and then just plug him into the rotation.

Was it "trash", or debris from the Chicago Fire?

Pirates trying to up the spending to avoid grievances

That's on the front page, right now, called "If Ishbia gave us one early present, who would excite you to add to this not ready team" Well, it seems that it was a weird year for teams needing 1B and scouting tanked this kid's value further. $15M per felt about right to establish himself. Somebody answered SS2K5's question about staying in Japan. Like the minors, he's got nothing else to prove there, and he can't solve his issues against 90 mph junkballers. I figured he'd take a prove it contract to get his feet wet, then go back into FA.

Red Sox to Getz, be like: you could of had a bad b****, noncommittal, I could have helped your roster, just a little

I guess this move precludes the Red Sox from bugging Chris Getz to trade them Murakami all spring.

Fegan and Longenhagen clocked in back at the end of October: Let’s Scout the Players Coming Over From Asia | FanGraphs Baseball

And FanGraphs addresses that in their article I linked to above.

I was luke warm on the prospect of signing this guy as there's a bunch of risk. I get it, they've certainly mitigated that risk. It's a fun signing to make a splash in the Asian market with, and maybe he did pick the White Sox over the Red based on a sober assessment of his weaknesses, and the White Sox presented a coherent plan to rectify his swing that could make him a pure monster. I now wonder if/how they plan to improve upon Luis Robert if they trade him. They don't have a lot of bWAR to make up (1.4).

Keuchel was allowing 2 baserunners an inning and was worth -1.1 bWAR after 8 games. Benny hit league average last season and was worth a win.

FanGraphs pipes up about Murakami: Phenomenal Cosmic Power, Itty Bitty Contact Rate: White Sox Sign Murakami | FanGraphs Baseball

No takers, as of yet.

It is when you're paying that to Masataka Yoshida to ride the pines.

Venable hinted at a bunch of moves. Rumors are nonexistent. They still need a SP, veteran OF, trade Robert, a back-of-the-bullpen arm, and then the group of extraneous bullpen fodder. I can't imagine that Murakami was holding up any market.