SoCalChiSox

Yeah I don't see BOS taking on Myers full contract, that defeats the whole purpose of getting cap relief.

Grandal: A. Hopefully we can get two prime framing years out of him before the league transitions to the electronic strike zone. He checks a lot of boxes, and kills like 4 birds with one stone: solidifies the catching position for the next few years and hopefully can steal some strikes the next couple years, satisfies the need for high OBP, power, and the ability to bat LHH with an above average wRC+. FO deserves great credit for striking early and not playing games. I bet CIN regrets not matching the 4/73 deal when they ended up paying just 9m less for Moustakas. Home run signing. Hopefully he can also help Collins develop a little bit too so he can be ready to be the full time backup in 2021. Abreu: This grade was an D but now it's a C-. On paper, this was indefensible. An aging RH slugger who is a liability at 1st probably is a 2 win guy going forward (declining from there) so a three year deal for 16.8 a year makes little sense especially with Vaughn coming up in 2021 and the DH long term prolly should be a LHH. Yes, there is lockerroom value and leadership but even that couldn't totally justify this. I did read on this board that Abreu really pushed Robert to sign the extension, which if true, would help to justify the deal somewhat. If he can play a role in Moncada doing the same, the deal would go from a C- (post Robert) to a B. Keuchel: B+ Ordinarily give this a B or B-, but I cannot blame the FO for Wheeler turning down 125m. He would have been a more ideal 2, with untapped upside, but the valuation there was already stretched and the offer was very generous given the risk. Keuchel is nothing special, but should give us a lot of quality starts, and his groundball game should be a good fit in GRF. If the other pitchers develop, I doubt Keuchel will hit the IP marks to get the 4th year, so 55m over only 3 years to leave money for Kopech, Cease etc if they develop makes sense. He should be a solid 3 and being LH helps too. Given the circumstances with Wheeler turning down an overpay, this is probably the best risk reward deal they could have done. It's certainly less risky than 4/80 for Ryu. Gonzalez A Very good deal with additional option flexibility. Should be one of the better 5s out there. He can serve a variety of roles when other guys come back from injury. Mazara B I would have preferred Pederson but I suspect LAD was still insisting on Bummer. Props to the FO for coming up with an alternative LHH platoon in RF for a fraction of the cost. Even if he doesn't develop, I'll take 20-23 HR with 830 to 850 OPS against RHH for 70% of the starts. That's a ton better than what we had. The D will be slightly below average but that's not too bad. Looking at it in retrospect good cost/benefit signing. If he doesn't perform, we can sign Pederson for free next year and there's a lot of other OF talent available too. A couple years of control is good too....excited to see what Menechino can do with his swing. Even a small improvement would make him an above average player offensively. Cishek A Very good addition to the bullpen at a reasonable price. I like the option. RH has done a good job getting additional flexibility for 2021 with very cheap buyouts if they don't need it. Encarnacion: A Another smart short term signing. Makes so much more sense than having to give Castellanos 3-4 years. Putting him at DH is great because he will prolly give us more than the 2 WAR he is projected for considering there won't be too many situations where he will play on defense which limits the negative value situations. I'll happily pay 12m for about 30 HRs and decent OBP. Huge upgrade at DH for only 1 year and cheap buyout on the option. Again, RH did a great job on these deals for flexibility for 2021. Robert Extension A+ Tremendous deal. We will have Robert pretty much for all his prime. Id expect Robert to be a 3 to 5 WAR guy on average, which at AAV of about 11m (over 8 years) is great. He might have a few 5+ WAR seasons in his prime. This is an excellent use of the difference between Keuchel and Wheeler's deal. Overall: A-

That would have been terrible.

Vlad will need a lot of improvement quick or it's off to first base sooner than later. I read he was working hard at getting into shape this off-season which makes sense since his body type doesnt exactly scream third base.

I wouldn't be shocked if Heuer becomes a valuable piece in the pen starting late this year, either.

There's a lot of bullpen guys that had injury issues this year or slow recoveries (Burdi) or still need work (Hansen). I'm confident that by the end of the year at least a couple will be solid pieces for the pen. And Hahn did a good job getting options for 2021 on Cishek and Gonzalez where we can still use them next year if need be.

McCann?

That would be terrible. Assume 70+ million for one year of Betts?

Castellanos?

Perhaps I am reading this wrong but is wsd implying we are still interested in Joc Pederson? https://mobile.twitter.com/barstoolWSD/status/1212823039781552128?ref_src=twsrc^google|twcamp^serp|twgr^tweet Wouldn't this be duplicative with Mazara? Pederson is certainly much better in RF and has more proven power. Unless against RHP, one guy would be RF and the other would DH...but it would be a waste to have EE only as a DH against LHP and nothing more. Just doesn't make sense at this point as much as I wanted to get him earlier. Maybe I'm reading it wrong but Dave is going out of his way to read something into a simple statement and he doesn't do that usually for no reason.

Since Fernandez seems to be very competent defensively, does this mean he would get those 40-50 starts to give Grandal a rest even when he is healthy? If so, would Collins start in AAA to work on defense until he gets to the point where they feel he wouldn't be a liability as the primary backup who catches two games a week? I agree that this signing seems to suggest a McCann trade is imminent. However that MLBExec guy said interest in him was not as strong due to framing so I wouldn't expect a great return.

MLBExecutiveBurner @HotStoveintel #WhiteSox James McCann is available, but not valued by league due to pitch framing issues. Internally, would love to extend Giolito. Hard to find right number. Still in on a couple relievers... 6:41 PM · Jan 3, 2020·Twitter Web App

The MLBExec guy said we like McHugh but aren't willing to commit multiple years yet.

Long term vs RHP... 1 Madrigal R 2 Moncada L 3 Robert R 4 Jimenez R 5 Grandal L 6 Anderson R 7-9 ???

I think those signings make it more likely he does sign there, unfortunately. They can put all their ammo into just him now.

There will be no floor because there's no incentive for the owners to agree to that. Analytics provides the possibility of being successful without spending so owners have a win-win scenario where there is winning plus mega profits. The union would have to offer a massive concession to get the votes it would need for a floor and even then the floor would have to still be relatively low. You have to provide them similar profit margins in a new system otherwise they won't vote for it.

Robert's OBP is gonna be around 310 at least to start. Speed or no speed, you can't justify leadoff with that. When he gets north of 350 then sure move him up there. Actually he should be 3 eventually, right in the heart of the order Long term this would be awesome too half of the lineup 1 Madrigal 2 Moncada 3 Robert 4 Jimenez 5 Grandal

I like Blake but with Mazara as the platoon lefty RF for the next two years, he seems to be blocked.

Domingo Santana looks like a good platoon option, at least offensively. Defense is pretty bad though.

I would hope not but they've gone out of their way to block any path that he could meaningfully contribute this year and I doubt that's a coincidence unless McCann is being moved. It seems like a stretch that someone would give up a decent reliever for one year of James McCann.

Please do not move Collins.

Thats a very good hypothesis...although now Puig has seemingly reduced the number of potential options in any event. If the Sox are truly interested they are now in a better position to squeeze him. He could very well end up in Japan if he insists on multiple years and or 10m or more.

Mid to upper 80s.

I wonder if we could get Brandon Marsh from the Angels for McCann as it was noted by the MLBExec guy that this was one of the teams that was interested in him. That would be a really good long term get for RF....left handed...plus arm/plus defense, high OBP.

Just give Pillar 1 year/4 million and invest in a good reliever.