Balta1701

A very minor option salary increase for a guy who has been hurt several times and is likely part of a platoon? That seems unexpected to you?

Turn it the other way. Hahn just spent $5.5 million to show you how little confidence he has in Burger at 2b.

Yes, it would be ideal if everyone on the team got better and stayed healthy. Universal improvement and health would definitely make up fit the loss of Rodon.

I don't disagree with the need for extra pitching. I can even see it fitting into the bullpen as long relief and then being stretched out to start when needed. But...3 or 4 long relievers in an 8 man bullpen means none of them are actually long relievers, because they won't be used enough to be stretched out.

A quick look at his B-R page and he's been way more consistent than I thought before looking. WAR: 2017: 8 2018: 5.9 2019: 5.6 2020: 1.2 2021: 6

Spotrac has it at $5.5. https://www.spotrac.com/mlb/chicago-white-sox/josh-harrison-8707/

$5.5 million if he’s retained, the contract is either $5.5 million total or $9.5 million total.

I like how you bleeped the one in his name and then went with the full cursing out of the Tigers.

Was this the same chat as earlier or has he done like 6 interviews already today?

I would say that the White Sox should absolutely be offering a contract that has an opt-out clause in it, but if they were refusing to - then they need to offer a higher guarantee if they're actually serious. We saw these deals just get hammered out one after another in November because everyone wanted to get it done. Now we're back into that "teams aren't bidding at the level these guys are actually going to get" level, and things are holding again.

If the White Sox started with that and were serious, they likely could have gotten something done. If they started with 4/$80 it would have at least gotten the ball rolling, Boras would have done what he did with all his other clients - put calls in to say that there's a good chance he'll sign, see how much interest there is, then come back to the White Sox with a number to see if the White Sox start moving to an acceptable middle ground. (Passan spelled this all out in an article just after the start of the pandemic by the way, that's basically how it went with all of them - early offers to show that they were interested, a reply from Boras, and then when they were ready to get a real deal done they added the last year or increased the money a little bit to finish it off).

From April 17 to June 19 last year, Abreu hit 4th in all but 5 games.

Grandal got a contract that was basically right in line with what was expected. There's virtually no chance in my eyes that the White Sox went to Boras with a 5/$100 million deal in November and got nothing done.

It's not just having more pitchers on their staff. It's that so many of them would be buried in the bullpen, and none can be sent down to Charlotte to stretch out. Remember how Kopech spent July and August throwing an inning every 3 or 4 days? And threw basically 10 innings in each month, so he was totally not stretched out every time there was a double header? So despite a guy who should have been a good guy to start a double header game and throw a couple innings being on the roster, they still had to turn to Lambert? That's basically the setup they have right now. Throw in an extra long man, and the end result is going to be a lot of guys who either throw 1 inning outings and aren't stretched out, or throw 2-3 innings once a week.

If Kimbrel is traded but a starter is added, then there's still a guaranteed 8 man bullpen the entire year - unless Crochet is sent down. Adding anyone else (including keeping Kimbrel) would create a 9 man bullpen (probably would happen a few times for double headers and stuff). That would leave the bench as Collins, Engel, and Leury. There is incredibly little roster flexibility in any of these situations - unless they have a way to dump Keuchel. If you have 2 or 3 players with minor injuries where you're trying to rest them for just a couple days, literally the only guy in the bullpen that could be sent down to clear a roster spot is Crochet. There are ways to make it work, but it's so messy that I'd be surprised if they didn't think about this before adding Velasquez.

I seriously think the ship on "Getting another starter" sailed when they signed Velasquez to a big league deal. Even assuming that Kimbrel is moved, if they were to add Manea, their bullpen becomes this weird 8 person mess with the 4 big names, Crochet, Keuchel, Lopez, and Velasquez. That's 4 guys who are possible long-men, but only 1 of whom can actually be sent to Charlotte to be stretched out, and that's Crochet - who happens to be the one least likely to be sent down to be stretched out (all the others are on big league deals or have no options). So you've got this weird setup with 3/4 long men, none of whom seems likely to be used often enough to be stretched out for more than 2-3 innings, and none of whom can be moved off the roster without a buyout or injury? This just makes no sense. If there's a double-header, they'll either be having Keuchel go 3 innings as a start or they'll be calling someone up anyway from the pool of guys we already don't trust? I think they checked on these guys a couple days ago, found the prices to be too high, knew they needed someone who could potentially cover additional innings, and that's where Velasquez came from.

What if that RF is of the Pederson/Rosario level?

I don't mind him as an addition, but people can now see the writing on the wall that this team is coming together without any major additions anywhere, right when they're at their peak.

The owners would not go for that. They tried to make "$100k annually for meals for the team" count against the luxury tax. They're not going to allow anything where you can get paid money without it counting, other than the draft. The players also are very insistent that contracts are guaranteed. Once you sign a contract, someone is paying that money - there is no negotiating them downwards for a buyout.

No, if they buy him out, every cent of his contract counts towards the White Sox's luxury tax. The only way to create tax space is to trade him to another team and have the other team paying that money. If, for example, the White Sox traded him and picked up $4 million, with the other team picking up $12, that $4 million would count against the White Sox's CBT level.

Merkin's job is not scoops. It's literally PR. Merkin should quite literally be viewed as the guy saying "no Russian forces have invaded Ukraine" or whatever their PR guy is saying. It's not bad work, it's required - someone has to type up and release the official statements from the organization and make sure statements are handled properly.

Because they're only $18 million under the tax line.

I don't. While the Rays are their own thing...bad teams are bad because they don't have starters who can give them 2 quality times through the order. Bad teams rely on their bullpens to fill more innings because their starters get shelled too early. You need quality relief up to a certain point...but beyond that, you're overspending on low-leverage innings.

If you count the Rays as an outlier, there's actually a noticeable relationship between bullpens pitching fewer innings and teams winning more games. The Rays were the only playoff team in the top 10 of bullpen innings. Unless you're running a roster like the Rays, this implies that playoff teams have a need for some bullpen help but extra guys will start becoming overkill.