WhiteSox2023

Pipe down! Getz wasn’t around when the young pitchers he just traded away for vets were acquired and developed! It’s not his fault! That was all on Hahn… Oh wait.

Let’s not look back at that trade. Arguably and literally three times as bad as the Shields/Tatis trade currently if you go by WAR output of the players involved. 🤣

The Sox ran out of arms last year? Really? No, they just never had good options to begin with. They kept cycling through either bad internal pitching options or Getz’s awful offseason and in-season pitcher acquisitions. All of their options were bad, primarily because Getz had a garbage offseason. Deivi Garcia, Brad Keller, Justin Anderson, Sammy Peralta, Jake Woodford, Tim Hill, Jordan Leasure, Steven Wilson, Jake Eder, Touki Toussaint, Nick Nastrini, John Brebbia, etc. And ultimately, the Sox were going to be terrible regardless so would it have even mattered in the grand scheme of things if they kept a guy like Touki and let him continue to get beat up? He would have at least ate up some of the innings you are acting like are so difficult to cover.

Trading young pitchers, especially recent draft picks, for 31/32 year old vet relievers without any history of success sure doesn’t seem like a wise strategy to me. Last year, at least Bailey Horn was still somewhat young but Getz still admitted failure on that move within two months. Enjoy those farm system rankings. We saw the same thing during the last rebuild. Remember that? Any team can dump their best players, wind up with a top 5 or so farm system, be as barren as the Sahara Desert with their major league team, and set a major league record for losses… Oh wait, other teams tear it down and rebuild and still don’t manage to achieve that last piece of history that Getz did…

I can’t imagine a contending team won’t be willing to pay more money for Junis than the Sox. He’s been pretty good the past three years.

Completely different situations. The Brewers are contending and looking for bullpen help now. The White Sox just started yet another rebuild, are not even close to competing in their own division, and should be prioritizing developing young pitchers rather than trading them away for veteran relievers. God knows they will have plenty of time to do so. Anderson’s numbers with the Rangers were terrible but his strikeout rate in both the majors and minors looks pretty good. The Brewers were buying low on his arm and thinking he will help the big league ball club before Molina who may take 2+ years to develop.

I’ve gotta think a contender will up the ante. What has he not done in the past 3 years to not get paid? I almost wonder if the Sox plan is to convert him back to a starter.

You are probably right on that. But it also gives the Sox plenty of innings to see if a bunch of their own pitchers can break out.

Maybe Getz wised up and realized Vargas has no glove?

Very, very small sample size at a low level of competition, considering his age, but the strikeout rate could have been promising.

Sure, contending teams wanted him as a backup / utility-man, due to his good glove but weak bat. Meanwhile, Rojas signed with our lowly non-contending White Sox. Why? Because he was likely told he would get plenty of playing time. The Sox will no doubt overexpose him as a full-time starter.

You are right. Lux is definitely a better player. But why does Lux make sense for this Sox team? With only two more years of control, are you thinking that Lux will produce more like he did in the second half of last season and will be flippable for prospects, or is he a guy you would want the Sox to give a contract extension to?

Exactly. That’s what he would’ve been for the other interested teams. We will use him as a starter at 3B.

Acquiring Lopez, Fletcher, and Rojas shows that he still values slappy little scrubs like himself. All guys that could be replaced internally with equally bad players, so why bother?

Look at the positives — if Rojas has a good first half, Getz can flip him for prospects like the ones he gave up for Booser and Gilbert!

You mean the rumor that Harold kept mentioning that made zero sense to begin with considering the Sox would have to give up talent for a guy with only 2 years of control left? No s%*#, fathom! 😉

Yep. I was hoping two Little Nicky’s would be enough for the Sox in Madrigal and Lopez. Now we have Rojas to fill the void. Other teams including the Cubs wanted Rojas as a utility guy, but he probably signed with the Sox because Getz told him he would have the starting 3B job. Even though this move won’t mean much in the grand scheme of things, it’s scary that it continues to show the type of players Getz values — crappy little infielders and outfielders that are as bad at baseball as he was.

Hyperbole is assuming that when someone says another team may have offered more than the Braves for Bummer, that immediately means it was two of the Orioles top prospects. No one ever said that, but it wouldn’t take much to beat an offer that included the Braves two DFA candidates in Soroka and Lopez, a mediocre longman with crappy stuff in Shuster, along with Gowens and the recently DFA Shewmake. I don’t care about last year and acquiring bums like Soroka and Lopez. Everyone knew it was a lost year and those guys sucked. So yes, it is possible that two prospects from another team could be worth more than Shuster and Gowens right now, and they don’t have to be two of Kjerstad, Mayo, and Basallo. I know I’d rather have the Twins #3 prospect right now over Vargas but I’m sure you’ll defend that trade to your dying breath as well.

We don’t know what the other offers were. Getz thought he was getting back two rotation arms in Soroka and Shuster and a starting 2B in Lopez. He was trying to fill out a rotation and lineup with cheap fliers [junk]. Perhaps another team was offering a couple prospects better than that 5 player “haul” that Getz got back.

Do Shuster and Gilbert also strikeout 11 per 9 innings like Bummer?

Shuster is pretty much smoke and mirrors. His stuff is trash and he walks far too many guys. He was lucky to have an ERA under 5 last season.

But Bummer didn’t take a haircut. Team options aren’t guaranteed money. Like I said, did either Eloy or Moncada get theirs? Robert won’t get his either if he keeps sucking like Eloy and Moncada. Meanwhile, if Bummer was as bad as you and @PaleAleSox are saying, the Braves could have paid him $1.25 to go away. Instead, they gave him $13 million guaranteed.

It would have been interesting to see if guys like Booser and Gilbert would have been cut outright eventually and become free agents with no other teams having interest, had Getz not jumped to give up a player for them.

Bummer received a new contract which guaranteed him $13 million over the next two years. His previous Sox contract was two non-guaranteed $7.25 and $7.5 million team options for 2025 and 2026 respectively, each with $1.25 million buyouts. All Bummer was guaranteed after being a “corpse” last season was a $1.25 million buyout. Instead, he got $13 million guaranteed. Guaranteed money trumps team options with buyouts. I’d say Bummer did pretty well for being a “corpse” last season. As I said, club options with buyouts aren’t guaranteed money. Moncada and Eloy can attest to this. Neither is incentive-based money. Unless you are Kenny Williams and truly think the Sox offered Machado the best contract.