Jake

We'll see if this breaks the logjam.

I have a conflict of interest in that I watch nearly every game the White Sox play and I still prefer to see Luis Robert over Brooks Baldwin and co.

I was never under the impression that the Sox would have a very exciting deadline this year unless LouBob had returned to all-star+ form. Slater is already gone, Rojas busted (and was never going to have the upside of providing much), Tauchman has played well enough that the Sox don't want to trade him. Sox never acquired a reliever with enough talent to potentially pull much in a deadline deal. Houser should bring something, we shall see, but that's playing with house money as far as where the Sox were to start the season. They're sending a very young team out there every day.

Would be funny to get something of value from the Rangers for the guy they cut loose a couple months ago

Kind of a weird move given how aggressively they usually attack their weak spots

Owen White is technically a prospect!

There's been a serious "missing middle class" in MLB free agency so I find it hard to price in guys, like Robert, who would fit into that middle class. Especially since he would be unlikely to seek a long-term contract (IMO), there's only a small number of teams who would likely be interested in paying top dollar for a 1-year deal since there's no upside if your team misses the playoffs

Sign him up

I got the impression that Sox management probably had the plan to change some things physically but ultimately decided it wasn't necessary or not the best way forward.

the who

I don't think LouBob would get a 5-year offer as a free agent but I also don't think he'd accept an offer with a team option attached so it's a little tricky to play out all the hypotheticals. My best guess is he'd take a contract in the 1 year, $10-15M range in the offseason if Sox didn't pick up his option. Michael Conforto got $17M for 1 year this offseason so it's possible I'm undershooting it.

Yeah I mean #1 doesn't make sense other than it is at least theoretically possible that a team's general manager is incompetent and blunders an obvious decision

If Houser isn't traded it would almost certainly mean either 1. Getz is delusional on asking price 2. There is some kind of undisclosed problem with Houser — injury, PEDs, misconduct, etc.

Definitely makes sense to evaluate whether the player is worth it or not, regardless of existing payroll obligations. That said, it's hardly an albatross contract. It's "do you want to pay this player $20M for one year with the option to keep him the next season at the same price." One year deals are never an albatross even if they can be a waste of money

It has been claimed that there is a lot of interest, but certainly not much in the way of concrete rumors

Yeah I won't be crying if the Sox have a player with the talent level of LouBob on the squad next year with a contract that has no negative impact on the team's future

I don't know how teams can or should factor this in, but LouBob's option decision is a little more complicated than most because it's still a decision that has to consider the next year as well. The upside of LouBob recreating his production from just two years ago is that you can have that below market value for two additional seasons (without being committed to the second one).

I don't think LouBob would have much interest in restructuring. He's made a ton of money already which gives him every reason to gamble on himself going forward

He did say during this broadcast that he's been in a situation in which he told ownership there was only about a 10% chance of contending in his estimation, thus he recommended selling, but ownership demanded going for it

I think this is a worthwhile consideration for both Tauchman and LouBob

Very surprised that all the Twins got back for Brock Stewart was James Outman

Houser has to go, but it's not exactly shocking that no relief pitcher has been traded. They're all bad and mostly rather short on talent. Few if any are pending FA. No urgency, no value. Grant Taylor obviously an exception on the value/talent part, but would be a weird time to trade him as well.

Return for Mullins seems quite light

The always-bad Luis Robert Jr.

Idle thought: seems that the Getz administration does not do much leaking