ChiSoxTrojan

Agree with all of this, except that I am doubtful any outside addition is coming for the OF and I don't really see a need for any of Hamilton/Marisnick/Haseley. In a division where your main competition doesn't have a single left-handed starter, I would rather have Sheets around. I also worry about Vaughn's durability and think he should get plenty of off days throughout the season.

In a world where Burger and Sheets are both on the bench, the last bench spot has to go to Leury; he's the only candidate with the versatility to cover all of the IF and OF. So I don't know how you can in the same paragraph advocate for both of them, but also advocate for DFAing Leury. In general, it seems like you're setting this roster up to try to win a playoff series rather than for the grind of 162 games. The main purpose of the bench isn't to provide pinch hit opportunities, it's to give guys days off and fill in for minor injuries.

I think a lot of people are underestimating Romy’s ability to play the OF. From what I’ve seen and read, he’s perfectly fine in either corner spot (at least as good as Leury, likely better). CF I’m less confident in, because he hasn’t played there much (if at all) in the last couple years, but he did play a bit of CF in Kanny or Winston-Salem and from what I’ve read he didn’t look out of place there. He’s fast and athletic, so I wouldn’t put it past him to be able to play CF in a backup role. What worries me more with Romy is his ability to hit RHP. That’s something he hasn’t shown the ability to do in his (short) major league stints or this Spring. Until he shows the ability to hit RHP at a Leury-like level (a low bar), I think Leury’s roster spot is safe.

Well if Robert was to get hurt you would call up one of Haseley/Hamilton/Marisnick (assuming they don't have contract opt outs) to help in CF, but I'm pretty sure they would want to have someone on the roster who could play CF other than the starting corner OFs. Sheets/Burger/Leury could work, but it would be the bare minimum of defensive coverage and would mean a lot of Leury, as he's the only backup-for 2B/SS/CF.

Leury is on a major league contract and can't be sent to AAA. This is not an option.

I guess technically this could work, but it's actually a lot thinner than you make it look because you're using the same starters all over in multiple places. Especially in CF - your backup CFers are your starting RF and starting LF? I mean yeah, Colas could technically slide over to CF (I don't think Benintendi is really an option there) but then you need someone to cover RF, and you have worse defense at two positions. If the Sox want to keep both Burger and Sheets, they might be able to make it work if the last spot goes to Leury instead of Romy, unless Romy can play CF (he played there a couple years ago and was supposedly okay).

I'm guessing he's saying that Burger would replace Sheets. I'm with you though on Sheets > Burger.

In that case I agree with your projection of Leury/Sheets/Alberto. I've come to grips with the fact that Eloy will get a couple starts per week in the OF, at least until Colas gets comfortable.

Unless Leury is your backup C, that's one too many.

Can Romy back up CF? If not then the only guy who can do it is the starting RF (Colas) which isn't ideal. But I guess none of the options are ideal. Romy seems to be coming around over the past week, but I would still rather give him a little bit of time in the minors to make sure he's on track. I'm still not convinced that he is a better hitter right now than Leury (particularly against RHP, which is going to be 70% of the opportunities).

I don't want Haseley taking those at bats either. I still blame him for kneecapping Mendick last year.

I wouldn't be all broken up by it, but it would be nice to have them around in case of an injury to one of the starters. Who's the next man up besides them in the OF, Haseley?

Hamilton seems the least likely of the three to be in a position to demand that kind of clause in his contract. He was in the minors most of last year and still couldn't get his OPS above .500 against AAA pitching.

He wasn't a "butcher", he was fine. Around average or slightly below. Definitely someone you can live with in a backup role to fill in once every couple weeks. Now if Robert were to get hurt then they would need to bring in reinforcements, but I'm not feeling very confident in Marisnick/Hamilton as long-term fill-ins either.

Is this confirmed? I know people have guessed that this is the case but I haven't heard of any confirmation. What about Marisnick/Hamilton/Reyes, is it known whether they have any opt-outs?

I agree. Or rather, I think they're thinking of Eloy as the first guy who would back up the OF corners, and Leury would be the backup CF. Leury's defense in CF is perfectly adequate, it's the corners (specifically RF) where he has had some trouble. Without Leury, there are only 3 guys on the roster who have the ability to play 2B or SS. That's the bare minimum, and they could get by with it, but having Leury around gives them more coverage in case someone has to rest for a few days with nagging "soreness" or whatever.

So we think Grifol is running his roster decisions by the marketing department?

This is why I think it’s important to rest Vaughn often over the course of the season. Two years in a row he’s worn down due to nagging injuries. If you want to see an ugly batting line, check out his career numbers in September and later. Part of the wear and tear was likely due to playing the OF, but here he is with nagging soreness already after only playing 1B. I don’t think Vaughn should play more than 5 days/week during the season. Start Sheets 1-2 times/week against RHP. There’s not much of a dropoff between the two (in fact Sheets’s career numbers are better thus far against RHP).

I disagree that there's no difference between a 73 and a 33. Look at Romy's career numbers against RHP to give yourself a sense of how bad a wRC+ of 33 is. 73 is replacement-level, 33 is unplayable. I agree that Alberto's bat is useful against LHP, which is why I suggested keeping both Leury and Alberto. Both are more useful than a defense-only 5th OF like Marisnick or Hamilton.

He's the guy that plays when there are no better options. Like if TA or Andrus need a day off against a RHP. You can't say those guys are only allowed to take a day off when there's a LHP on the mound - especially since neither is particularly good against RHP, and Alberto is borderline unusable against RHP. Btw, about 2/3 of major league at bats come against RHP, so not being able to hit RHP at all is kind of a big flaw in one's game. My suggestion was to have both Leury and Alberto on the roster, and mix and match based on the situation. I don't see the need for a defense-first OF like Marisnick when the starters are all pretty good defenders. It's not like you're going to have to sub them out in the 7th inning any time you have a lead like Sheets/Vaughn have needed over the past 2 years.

I was referring specifically to backup infielders. Someone has to backup the infield, right? Especially 2B/SS, where the starters both have a career wRC+ that is <100 against RHP? A 73 wRC+ against RHP for Leury's career is not good. But it's significantly better than Alberto's 54, or Romy's 33.

If you're not taking Sheets then you're taking Burger? Same situation where the OF is covered and the IF is thin (I suppose Burger would get some time at 3B, but not at 2B/SS). If you're suggesting Leury/Alberto/an OF, I just think that's a really weak bench with absolutely no pop, on a team that needs more HRs, not less. Btw, I know you didn't want to discuss it, but I'm going to bring it up anyway. I think the argument for Sheets not having a role is based on the idea that Colas will get almost all of his off days against LHP. From what I've seen, Colas does not need to be platooned like that, at all. He's just as good against LHP as RHP (his numbers last year were slightly better against LHP, actually). Colas will get plenty of days off, especially early on, but they're just as likely to come against RHP as LHP - in fact more so since most SPs in the ALC (and in MLB) are right-handed. I want Sheets's more well-rounded LH bat around for those games, over the "two true outcomes" approach of Burger.

For the sake of argument, let's consider that a lot of Leury's awfulness in 2022 was due to overuse/resulting injuries/having to play through resulting injuries because of the corpse making decisions in the dugout. If that's true, and Leury is closer to the guy who slashed .261/.342/.375 against RHP in 2021, that's probably better than we should expect from any other option for the backup infielder spot. Not a great situation, but I don't see any alternatives?

Maybe Marisnick or Hamilton replaces Alberto, but I don't think so. For one thing, Alberto has almost doubled the batting lines of either of them this Spring. But for another, if you consider that the team seems intent on playing Eloy in the OF, they're actually in more need of infield depth than OF depth. They're at least 3-deep with guys at every OF spot even without one of Hamilton/Marisnick: LF: Benintendi, Eloy, Leury CF: Robert, Leury, Colas (in a pinch) RF: Colas, Eloy, Leury, Sheets (in a pinch) At 2B/3B/SS, it's just the starters and Leury. Admittedly CF is a bit thin, but having one position that is thin is better than having 3.

With Romy seemingly playing himself out of consideration for opening day, I think Leury's spot on the roster is all but assured. I think my favorite bench configuration (as of now) is Leury/Sheets/Alberto/Zavala.