WhiteSox2023

Agreed, I still think the Sox are gonna suck hard regardless.

Once the Sox proved to be terrible last year, I couldn’t stomach watching many games. Was his defense that bad in RF or was it mostly his fundamentals? I remember he was supposed to have a great arm but didn’t understand the concept of throwing to the cutoff man.

Sure, they’ll be better. They’ll lose 90 games instead of 101. 11 win improvement! ?

I don't remember any trade offer rumors for Quintana either. I just remember KatyPerrysBootyHole getting the snub on breaking the news. Chuck only mentioned wetbutt23. https://www.reddit.com/r/baseball/s/fTkpckR0H6

This was also Quintana’s contract when he was traded. The Cubs kept him for all 3.5 years, from July 2017 through his second team option for the 2020 season. I remember Quintana having a ton of value due to his multiple years of cheap control. 17:$6M, 18:$8.35M, 19:$10.5M club option ($1M buyout),20:$10.5M club option ($1M buyout) The best part of the trade at the time was that two posters on Reddit broke the trade, and they both had hilarious names that were published in ESPN, SI, etc. articles. https://www.si.com/extra-mustard/2017/07/13/jose-quintana-trade-white-sox-reddit Good ol "KatyPerrysBootyHole" and "wetbutt23". ?

Seems to me the Sox are probably done making any multi-million dollar one year free agent signings, outside of picking up guys on very cheap or minor league deals. If Cease isn’t traded with an OF coming back, I don’t see who is reasonably solving RF outside of Colas. Also, the rotation is still likely to be terrible even with Cease in it.

Hicks did start 8 games for the Cardinals in 2022 but he didn’t fare very well, which is why they probably kept him as a reliever. He walked the world in a small sample size, but it is what it is. Failed starters become relievers.

Other than Clevinger, he might be the only other free agent pitcher that the Orioles could reasonably afford with their payroll. I think I heard Heyman also mention Hyun Jin Ryu as an option after Paxton.

That’s why Heyman gets paid the big bucks. ?

He’s going to walk the world.

You guys have bigger balls than I do. I wonder if Getz has the stomach to do this. There is still time to make a deal and it could even happen in Spring Training if some contending team’s starting pitcher gets injured during ST. I still can’t imagine Getz having Cease start on opening day.

Basically, the Orioles need a good cheap starter like Cease more than the Sox need to only trade him to the Orioles. There are other teams to deal Cease to and if the offers truly aren’t good enough right now, they can still hang on to Cease until the trade deadline (even though I don’t agree at all with this strategy primarily due to the risk of injury). How many other realistic starter options are there for the Orioles that don’t have much money to spend but a glut of prospects (and some redundancy) to trade?

I thought it was that the Orioles have a bigger advantage with Cease’s salary compared to other teams. But everything is relative based on each team’s payroll. It may be a huge deal to the Orioles cuz their owner won’t allow them to add much payroll but the additional tax hikes on Cease’s salary wouldn’t really matter too much to larger payroll teams like the Yankees and Dodgers.

The Eaton trade is probably the best trade Hahn ever made, and would probably go on the list of best Sox trades in history. I think most Sox fans would agree. But he also made some absolutely awful trades and was one of the worst GM’s in free agency. One great trade does not overcome his overall failures.

Good luck. You are going to be crapping your pants every time Cease has a funky finish to his delivery coming off the mound. ?

Those sources may not be exact, and I wouldn’t be surprised if posters’ payroll numbers on here were more accurate. I knew the Sox payroll was pretty high the past two years (especially 2022), but I didn’t think it ever got that close to $230-$233 million. That is pretty high and yet 8 teams were willing to eat the LT penalty. Pretty nuts.

Couldn’t two things be possible — either Getz is asking for too much or other teams aren’t offering enough? I mean, the Yankees supposedly wouldn’t even include Spencer Jones (#73 overall) in a trade for Cease, when they already have Jasson Dominguez. Is Jones really too high of an ask as the frontlining prospect in a trade for Cease? I don’t think so.

Agreed. I think they wanted to move on at any cost, right or wrong.

Giolito was a representative for the MLBPA so Jerry had to try to stick it to him. https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/2022/11/28/giolito-mccullers-among-6-elected-to-mlbpa-leadership-roles/50984921/

His glove isn’t good enough for Getz. While his bat for last season would fit what Getz is looking for, Anderson may actually revert to his usual production which would be too good for Getz.

The Sox had a $181 million dollar payroll to start the 2023 season, while the initial luxury tax threshold was $233 million for the 2023 season. It was $230 million for the prior 2022 season as well. I’m not seeing how the Sox were ever close to the luxury tax during the entire 2023 season, or the previous 2022 season in which their payroll was even higher. Sources: https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2023/11/white-sox-not-expected-to-match-franchise-record-payroll.html#google_vignette https://www.truebluela.com/platform/amp/2023/12/23/23985042/dodgers-payroll-2023-competitive-balance-tax

Jerry is probably gritting his teeth right now. He probably called Angelos and advised him to have Elias trade them all away.

$32.4 million wasn’t enough flexibility? Same place he ended up pitching for both the Royals and Rangers — high leverage / setup.

This is a good point. The Sox draft position is locked in no matter what but Getz did not add any offense with his signings and is having an offseason that would lead you to believe they are intentionally tanking, which serves no purpose anymore with the draft changes.

The Sox weren’t near the luxury tax last year. Eight teams were and had to pay up. https://www.spotrac.com/mlb/tax/2023/#:~:text=MLB Team Luxury Tax Tracker&text=The 2023 CBT Threshold is %24233%2C000%2C000.