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He last pitched in his age 32 season , his last high end season. If anyone thought he was still high end after 2 years basically not pitching entering his age 35 season he won't be had for $6-8M. Just a guess he signs for more than that. Probably get's a 2 year or 1 plus an option for 10+. If the Sox sign him I'd be surprised.

What makes you think he is either one of those ?

This is why I think Joe Musgrove is the most likely guy to be traded for. He only has 2 years of control left and anything more than that the Sox likely give up at least 2 pitchers and possibly Crochet, Kopech and another pitcher like Heuer or some from the minors like Burdi, Johnson, Kelley , Dahlquist , Thompson or Stiever. The Sox will do their damnedest to not trade one of Kopech, Crochet or Vaughn but it wouldn't surprise me if they did.

I was hoping Dahl would still be available. I was surprised he signed so early because I thought for sure with his injury it would take longer. I thought he undersold himself and at $2.7M he would be the best choice since I am seriously doubting the Sox spend much more money after the Hendriks signing and $18M cap hit. Mitch Moreland makes the most sense to me now. But I'm not certain the Sox address a strictly DH option.

True and If ptatc already knows that we need 1 more solid starter and rather trade for it than sign a FA that somewhat negates his argument that 3 solid starters plus Cease and Kopech plus the good group in the minors because some of that will be traded for the 1 more solid starter. We aren't trading for pitching without giving up pitching.

The Sox are pretty much tapped out right now . There will be no Bauer . There will be no FA starting pitcher signed . If they do trade for the cost controlled guy expect one of your favorite prospects to be leaving. If they can nab anyone decent with 3 years of control without a top prospect that's what we will be getting. That being said I think it's Musgrove unless the Sox think they can get Taijuan Walker for a 2 year $15M or less contract. He's the 4th rated SP available through FA but I doubt too many here would be thrilled with him. His peripherals and statcast stuff isn't good which always indicates to me that he's a guy that mixes and matches and tries to keep hitters off balance because he lacks stuff. He's good against RHH , not so much against LHH. His slider or cutter ( it gets characterized differently by different places) is his best pitch and he seems to have settled on using his 4 seamer less though he can run it up there to 95. I do like that he had a strong second half last year which means he's all the way back from his TJ surgery. I am somewhat envious the Blue Jays picked him up for a PTBNL while the Sox were spinning their wheels going after Lynn at the trade deadline. Walker would have easily been our 3rd starter and had that game 3 start against Oakland . He had one start against Oakland 7/31/20 and gave up 1 hit , 8K and 2 walks in 7 innings. After he was traded to the Jays he started 6 games with a 1.37 ERA and 4.14 FIP . His career FIP is 4.24.

Then we will see if the Sox settle with Lopez or let an arbitrator decide if he's worth $2.2M and if the Sox DFA him as an early sign that I am correct that they are tapped out and we either see a trade for another starting pitcher and dumpster diving for anything else. By that I mean any FA signed from this point forward will be $5M or less . And I agree about the closer but I also think that with Hendricks and a strong pen it lessens the dependence on stronger starting pitching. If there is one thing we know about the Sox they would rather take the cheap route to winning than the one that requires them to make a commitment to a top of the market starting pitcher. The options the Sox currently have are 3 starting pitchers, one of whom is gone in a year who people are hoping gets extended with Lynn, which is rather pitiful hoping they extend him at his age til his age 36 season. Keuchel is 33 and are hoping he is good enough to last through his age 35 season so we can pick up his option for his age 36 season ? Cease and Kopech both have to prove themselves and right now Crochet isn't even a glimmer in the eye of the starting rotation. Let's not overestimate the options we currently have. It's why the Sox are seeking a trade for a cost controlled starter more than anything else right now. It's not the options we currently have keeping the Sox from taking a shot at Bauer its money. We are still looking for our Wheeler only now the Sox can't afford him.

If Lopez is DFA'd because they couldn't settle and the estimated arb. cost of $2.2M is deemed too expensive to keep for his current role then either Katz doesn't like what he sees or Sox have run out of money and we will see trades and dumpster diving for anything else added to the 25/26.

Then I see a trade coming rather than signing a free agent for starting pitching. As I said earlier in the Bauer thread, signing Hendriks is an excuse for not signing Bauer and now it appears it will be an excuse for not signing any SP and maybe not another LH bat too . The good news is I've very rarely, if ever, had one of those posts where upon further review didn't age well and am hoping this becomes one.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. I think the Sox are seeking a trade but a trade on their terms. I think they will have a hard time doing that and ultimately end up signing a starting pitcher. You like Q and I don't really really understand why and I like Taijuan Walker.

It truly is a joke. It's hard to pinpoint what's going on besides making the obvious assumption that the owners are trying to make a point on how much Covid hurt the bottom line. To that end they must be really hoping the long wait drives FA prices into the ground. You could probably make 4 decent 5 man SP rotations with all the SP left.

That makes you right around TLR's age.

Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind ?

Winning Ugly Team

I think he could get a $35M AAV in a shorter 3 yr. contract just not in a 7 or 8 year contract. It's what he could get in those 4th , 5th and 6th years that might be holding things up.

I think the Sox got creative with Hendriks because his salary for 2021 , 2022 and 2023 was $11M, $13M and $14M with the 4th year either $15M if they keep him or spread out over 10 years if they didn't. Not sure how creative you can get with Bauer at easily double+ those amounts when if he wanted to take a 3 year deal he could probably get $125M guaranteed with no creativity needed from someone. There's just no way the Sox would pay anyone $40M not to pitch no matter how many years they spread it out and not a chance Bauer accepts that.

I think you meant accept not expect.

Encouraging. I think we see 2 pitches here. The 4 seamer on the inside half and the SL on the outside half. 20 inches of break is a lot but he has to sustain it when he ramps up and throws off a mound.

Unlike you, I thought the Encarnacion decision last year was the wrong approach and I am on record as saying so before and after they brought him in. I understood the move to Encarnacion but I liked the 3 catcher approach which the Sox started with then abandoned because Collins wasn't getting AB's. But that's what I wanted to see last year. If Collin's didn't hit I wanted Mercedes to get his shot. That was based on Encarnacion's age , the Sox contention window squeeking open and the need to see if either Collins or Mercedes bats could play . This year is much different and if Collins and Mercedes didn't get a chance in the last 2 years , I can't reasonably expect to see them getting shots now with the window gaping open. I don't see DH or backup catcher taking priority over another SP so I'm holding off on what happens there until then.

Many are assuming it will be 26 just like the DH in the NL. The problem is MLB hasn't announced either yet. If I am wrong someone please tell me so I can stop saying 25.

Unfortunately you mention 2 guys who may never get a chance with the Sox , Yermin and Collins. LaRussa probably wants a defense 1st backup catcher and 25 man spots are too precious right now to go to guys who can't play defense. If you see one of them moved in a trade I'd expect someone not on the roster now to be acquired and we may see that regardless.

By Shredder or one of the guys hosting the segment ? Grandal was #2 with the Shredder.

https://www.mlb.com/whitesox/video/source-hendriks-white-sox-agree https://www.mlb.com/whitesox/video/mlb-now-on-liam-hendriks-signing https://www.mlb.com/whitesox/video/white-sox-hendriks-agree-to-deal https://www.mlb.com/whitesox/video/garfien-on-hendriks-white-sox https://www.mlb.com/whitesox/video/top-10-rp-right-now-hendriks-x8181 The videos above are about Hendriks that have been on MLB Network since January 12th Below are videos on Grandal in the MLB Top 10 catchers, interview with Crochet , Menechino and and 8 minute segment from Mad Dog Russo on the Hendricks signing and how the Sox aren't the Yankees of course, all in the last couple days. The Sox are a big deal nationally since the Hendricks signing. https://www.mlb.com/whitesox/video/top-10-c-right-now-grandal-x4779 https://www.mlb.com/whitesox/video/garrett-crochet-on-rookie-program https://www.mlb.com/whitesox/video/menechino-on-white-sox-potential https://www.mlb.com/whitesox/video/looking-at-hendriks-to-white-sox You only actually need to click on one of the links and you will see them all listed.

I think it could happen. I've been mentioning a lot of guys in the last few weeks knowing this was coming. Zavala, Sheets, Rutherford, Gonzalez, Adolpho, Cordero, Bernardo Flores,Tyler Johnson,Jimmy Lambert, Burger, Mercedes, Mendick, Burdi and don't forget the Sox picked up Emilio Vargas in November and he appears to be on the 40. That's 14 guys I named and didn't include some obvious trade bait like Collins and Reynaldo Lopez.

There's also the possibility he takes less years , more AAV. He's a different kind of guy so he could do something unexpected. Think along the lines of 3/$100+M