Balta1701

World Series suck. Anyway, compared to The team that faced the Astros they have strengthened the top of their order so they can move Schwarber down. They’ve replaced Syndergaard with Walker, better chance at health and a middle of the rotation arm. They lost Eflin though, and seems unlikely that either of their top 2 prospects can contribute much this year as most teams don’t rush guys up into the bullpen. So maybe 1 more reliever on tap for Philly?

A move the White Sox wouldn’t make? Obviously they’re going to take on someone else’s small bad contract in exchange for additional international signing space.

No. The logical move was to fire Rick Hahn after 2013. And then again after 2015. And then again at the 2016 trade deadline.

Bump

You're pretending like a new front office wouldn't have improved the rebuilds too. Unfortunately that's not a valid path. The two paths are: Continue to do what they are doing and trust that Rick Hahn can turn a 75 win team with a barren minor league system and a high (for them) payroll into a winner through his skill at acquiring veterans. Trust that Rick Hahn can complete a rebuild. The second option actually got them into the playoffs 1 and a half times! The former led to such wonderful moves as trading away Semien, Bassitt, and some other SS while having James Shields's contract become the worst contract on two different teams.

Dude always has the talent. But boy what a commentary on an unnamed manager that would be.

And yet you expect the White Sox to perfectly scout veterans to the point that they know exactly when Ervin Santana will turn to dust.

He did just play with Soto in San Diego.

Cleveland has actually spent money on a 1b three times since 2015. The last two wound up with the White Sox and were awful.

Ervin Santana had an ERA of 8 in 2018. You are paying him $13.5 million.

800-ish OPS the last 2 seasons, guy probably faced the shift a lot, gives them a lot more weight in the middle of that order. Had a bad 2020 and an excellent 2019. Just puts them in a better position to compete with us.

So your payroll is $50 million higher, so a $160-$170 million payroll? $12 million for Turner, $14 million for Cruz, $13.5 million for Santana, and $8 million for Morton, and that's probably a wild card team and Cleveland still outguns them? Yup.

So your starting rotation is Chris Sale, Jose Quintana, James Shields, and um...yeah? That'll put the fear of god into that 100 win Cleveland team.

There are only 4 GMs in all of baseball who have been in their jobs since before 2014. 3 of them have world series titles. 87% of GMs last 8 years or less on average. The only ones who have lasted longer have been really good or...well. https://www.mlb.com/news/longest-tenured-mlb-general-managers

And forgot to look at the "BABIP" line on baseball-reference before doing so, but eh.

Yeah, Rick Hahn making deadline trades for closers is a great idea...

Dylan Cease is the most valuable player on the White Sox according to that page. He is so valuable that it is difficult for most teams to afford him. Here is an approved trade for the #8 and #26 prospects on the MLB.com rankings.

If you're using Hendriks and Giolito as valuable pieces to get someone to absorb the negative contracts of Moncada and Kelly, you are getting 0 big league pieces back. Frankly, Kelly and Moncada are negative enough and expensive enough that I could certainly see the White Sox having to include more value to move them, either some cash or an additional player. Now at the very least they need 3 pieces in addition to the outfield, because they don't have enough bullpen depth, Jake Burger is not a 3b, and they need a starting pitcher. You have $50 million to play with, but you have 4 or 5 position needs. Especially now that bad relievers are up to $7-$8 million, you've cleared space for Quintana, Gallo, maybe a Brandon Drury or an old Evan Longoria at 3b, and some unnamed reliever for depth there. I don't think we've made this roster better.

Here's the 2017 free agent market sorted by price. Assume the Sox have something like $20 million to spend, which is probably on the high side. Can anyone make them 20 games better? https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2017-mlb-free-agent-tracker/sort_column-amount__sort_direction-1 I had to scroll through to Charlie Morton going to the Astros before I found a spot where I said "ooh there's a guy who was a huge value addition", and even then that was because the Astros had him focus on adding velocity rather than movement, which was the exact opposite technique of what was taught in Pittsburgh (and on the south side). I guess Daniel Hudson was a good addition too. My word this market sucked.

That strategy clears you money for Nimmo.

I was actually thinking the opposite. If Rick Hahn had reason to think a payroll cut was possible, it is outright criminal mismanagement that he didn’t sell off last deadline. Abreu, Cueto, Lopez, Graveman were all absolutely moveable. They needed to move McGuire, but they didn’t need to take on money in the process. If they had traded away all those guys, they would have saved roughly $10 million last season and have a payroll $15 million lower right now. On top of that, those trades should have brought back like 6 players. Presumably some of them would be in the lower minors, but if you got back a Pilkington level starter, a guy who could slot into the bullpen along with Lambert with an option remaining, or a rotation player in the outfield, the funds could be targeted way more effectively. No Clevinger, one more swingman in the pen, and a backup OF somewhere and now I have $25 million free to spend on a starting LF.

Yes. Because they left the same GM in place.

That was literally 100% what they did in 2015 and 2016. Veteran trades - Samardzija, Frazier, Shields. Short term contracts to fill around the edges: Bonifacio, Cabreroids, Beckham, Lawrie, LaRoche, Rollins, Jackson, Latos, Avila and whoever else they had catching in 2016. That strategy stank. Frankly it made things way worse.