bmags

That cost is a good way of thinking about it, I always worry most about how easy it will be to trade. Each extra year of dead money seems harder to shed than sharing one last year or two with exchanging bad contracts. Regardless, both easy to swallow if it means getting to watch Machado for his age 26-32 seasons.

But the answer was with us all along, Leury Garcia, king of kings, is also projected to have .1 in 275 ABs. Combine the two together like a megazord and you got yourself a stew going.

To not have those two last years even with it more expensive upfront is such an advantage.

I would be so impressed if sox got this bid with anything 8/280 or less. That actually feels like a good contract, not even an overpay.

engel wrc+ - 70 Jay wrc+ - 83 fWar - .1 fWar -.1 I personally don't think Hahn for a second is just doing this signing to actually improve the club through adding Jon Jay, I think he learned his lesson. I think many on this site are buying into the old logic that replacing a player they don't like with a veteran marginal signing will be an improvement, and just don't sell me that. Jay is a piece of a puzzle, if he's by himself it's not something to cheerlead.

Thank you. Literally the reason we can go after Manny was because the team is supposed to be able to easily recreate a Jon Jay And Alonso production internally. If we are actually arguing that signing 1 year 30+ yo vets is this objective good independent of it helping acquire Machado I just need to point you to 2 years ago. Hahn does not get the benefit of the doubt that signing several 1 year old position player vets is a good thing. This better darn well be only due to Machado and nothing else.

yeah well the cardinals haven't signed anyone big for a while despite making money hand over fist and the entire city claiming it's greatest in the world so maybe they screwed up then.

Uh, yeah I'd rather just go with the "pay him more money" option then. There is a baseline assumption that sox are being aggressive in obviously matching and exceeding the dollar amounts required and I don't assume that. Very much is a concern they are doing this as a "creative" workaround to paying the dollars required to land him.

Only if it fails but the players union is probably thrilled.

Second half 2018 OBP: Engel .287 / Jay .292

But if that's in lieu of offering the most money it's naive. I'm very optimistic that Machado is indeed going to find his way here and these will be incredibly creative and interesting ways to lure a free agent. BUT, there is indeed a scenario that sox made these out of desperation and as a substitute for a bid that would lure him on its own, and that to me is not a "well we tried, what more could we have done" reaction, it's a "look at the fools being fools again".

Yeah, I have to say if white sox are acquiring these guys without any signal that it will benefit them in negotiations I will be disappointed.

I don't know, one thing I wanted to see when we started trying to sign productive free agents again is that the front office had a better eye. If we miss out on machado and these players are bad then I will once again be wondering if we have a front office capable of using every avenue to build a winning roster.

We were entering a year, though, where with the exception of Palka and Jose Rondon I felt like all of our "give them mlb time" players had hit their ceiling and I was not sad to see time be reallocated prior to the next wave. If these players truly support more longterm players, great. However, these may also be some bones thrown to Renteria. If he sucks with some vets added and bullpen pieces, then it gives more rational for judgment time. Rondon I'm actually feeling a bit of a pinch that they may have something there and he may not get a healthy opportunity unless he adds outfield versatility to his INF versatility.

Also possible sox were concerned with losing Avi and Eloy coming up that all of our arms in the outfield would be negative and cause additional stress on the pitching.

I am open to certain developmental benefits to this that are more in the abstract/theoretical vein: - I think there can be a blackhole issue when so much of your roster is all struggling with the same things (walks with pitching/lack of walks and high ks on hitting). When everyone is struggling with it, perhaps it makes it harder either for coaches to help turn it around for everyone and makes players less pressed to improve it when all of your neighbors suck too. - I do think the sox are starting to narrow down around their core and may think buoying that talent (anderson/moncada/eloy) with well-liked vets can help them in the mental aspects of the game, and have started to finalize their opinions on the wave of older, AAA pick-offs they've acquired and moved on. Can this be proven? No, it's more feely stuff, but they did have a bad year in development last year, and I suppose it's possible this is an added track to help.

Sure, but it would have been much better for his profile if he showed he was a cf. His offense doesn't scream that he can make a corner of role from it.

I think it obviously has a better shot to stabilize some things. However, it does essentially pull the cord on a few players, some who had a chance (delmonico, engel), some who didn't (cordell). Gun to head, I'd still have rolled with Leury and then gave one last shot to Cordell/Engel. But obviously we did not have anyone compelling knocking on door, and if someone (hopefully) does, we have no issues.

This is my favorite subplot, the possibility the Sox are doing this without discussing with Manny at all.

Palka got a lot better. And it’s not going to add a run or two, that’s ridiculous.

This was referring to signing Adam Jones.

You really don’t know that and I’d rather let Palka play now to see if his bat plays enough to find time for.

I really don’t want Jones. You’d have a really bad look demoting him and I don’t want players that can’t be pushed aside for prospects.

That writing was on the wall for a while. Not even sure Sox believe in palka.

Ha ohhh man if the Sox don’t get him it’s going to be darker than baltas body disposal day dreaming in here.