Balta1701

If I were the Rays, there's 0 chance I do that deal. Look at what they got for Archer - 2 guys who were former top 20 prospects who had lost some luster but had way more talent than that. That's for a guy who was not as good as Snell and far closer to FA, and under a situation where the pitching FA market was more under control - Snell's value as a cost controlled guy has gone up as well. If you want Snell, and you're not willing to talk about Robert, it's Madrigal, Vaughn, and 2 other good pieces from your list - I'd probably ask for Collins and Dunning. You could also probably get me to do Vaughn and Cease with a couple of lower pieces.

Other teams may give you a slight premium if they really really like the player but they're not going to go vastly past what the market says a player is worth, at least most of the time. If they do that, then they can't trade or flip the player to restore the value they traded away. Robbie Ray is only under control for 1 more year, that's too little to give up Vaughn. Matthew Boyd from the Tigers or Caleb Smith from the Marlins have multiple years of control, but they're not all that great. Syndergaard with 2 years of control might be possible but the Mets have 0 need for a 1b. I'm open to other options. I don't see anything more fitting likely available right now - mid rotation guys with mutliple years of control.

Fine, give me a name that makes sense. That's no where near Blake Snell. Who else is on the trading block that we think this would be a sensible return for?

What level of pitcher do people think we get for 1 top 50 prospect and nothing else on the top 100 list? That's what the Yankees sent us for Kahnle.

All right, so a couple pitching additions other than Ryu/Bum/Price leaves them at a $110 million payroll this year. Looks even cheaper.

Add $5.7 million for Mazara and then just under $10 million for the minimum-salary guys (Moncada, Giolito, Lopez, Bummer, Fry, etc).

Scott Podsednik was 2nd in the rookie of the year award voting in 2003 with a 43/53 in stolen bases and an .379 OBP/.822 OPS.

But this deal sets up the perfect Mazara and Engel platoon, shouldn't your defense of this trade carry over to excitement about the platoon? Against lefties Engel is a better hitter than Mazara and he's a defensive upgrade.

If they don't make a move for Ryu or Bumgarner, or take on a big deal like Pricce, they're on a path to it being about $120 million, give or take a reliever. They're around $100 million with Mazara, a couple back of the rotation signings would push that near $120.

I don't even count him as an OF from the minors. He's a big leaguer already in my mind - just down for service time reasons.

I would call that a strong possibility.

My issue is...unless they make moves they don't want to make, they are not going to ever be a championship level team. Remember this - in Theo Epstein's 4th season as Cubs GM, his team won 96 games and was in an NLCS game 7. In Jeff Luhnow's 4th season, the Astros won 85 games and lost in the Wild Card round. Neither of them had the advantage of the Sale, Eaton, and Quintana trade hauls to help them start off. This is the 4th season after the rebuild. If they aren't a wild card team, then they are vastly underperforming the Cubs and Astros. Are they making the kind of moves right now that will turn them into a wild card contender? No, this is a rebuilding team move. It could work out great, but it's definitely a rebuilding team move - save money, get a little upside.

Thank you for telling me about this.

"This doesn't preclude a run at Lindor next year" - this fanbase next offseason.

The White Sox are not adding $50 million in payroll and the Red Sox aren't adding $25 million per year. Plus, any money going with JDM becomes a mess for planning because you don't know if and when the guy might opt out. The White Sox aren't going to risk taking on the full amount in 2021 if JDM doesn't opt out. The Red Sox aren't going to send you $10 million to cover the contract of a guy who might opt out.

I would have no problem with Price. I don't see the White Sox finding a way to make that work now. The Red Sox wouldn't have liked any of their moves, but packaging Benintendi with Price is the only way I could really see them pulling it off - clearing 2 contracts at once. They aren't going to want to send along money to the White Sox when they're trying to save money, and they're not going to be thrilled about including the limited prospects they have to make that deal. Benintendi + Price together was the only way I could see that work for the White Sox - both are pricey, but both satisfy things the White Sox needed. Now with no need for Benintendi, I will be surprised if there's any way to make it work now.

The White Sox got a .636 OPS out of RF last year. Somehow we were also #2 in the league in baserunning performance out of RF. I'll leave it to others to figure that out.

Signing Ozuna/Castellanos is about 2020 and 2021 - in 2021, Moncada, Giolito, and Lopez all start hitting arbitration, meaning that just keeping those 3 guys around adds $20 million to the payroll each year. By 2022, with Abreu and Grandal also on the roster, the White Sox will have $110 million committed to their payroll just for their current players unless they are trading guys away to save money. If they do not make the playoffs in either 2020 or 2021 such that they don't see attendance growth, they will be hitting their payroll limits just holding onto people.

The White Sox were -1.3 WAR in RF last year, Mazara with better health would have been 1. So no, it's a 2 WAR improvement if he stays below replacement level.

Ironically, he didn't improve from 2018 to 2019 at all - if you account for the increase in offense around the league. His OPS+, league-adjusted, was 96 both years. And it went down from 2016 to 2017. So he's been treading water, with his head and nose below the water line.

Well they're not technically in that hall, but that's what it looks like in the museum.

Put it on the board.

Bauer has a good chance of being the best pitcher on the free agent market next season. That's why he's on that list.

2020 should have been a year where this team is competitive for the AL Central based on a rebuild that started 3 full offseasons ago with a huge load of talent brought in. This is season 4 after the tear down. In season 4 after Theo Epstein was hired with the Cubs, his team won 96 games and was a game away from the World Series, and that's without the advantage of the guys who we got in trades. If we aren't a 90+ win team this year, we're well behind the Cubs' pace.

And when they pass on Betts, Springer, and Bauer next offseason, people will say the same thing about 2022-2025. Just as they said the same thing last offseason about 2020-2022 when we missed on Harper and Machado. Just think of the flexibility we'll get when we move Moncada and Giolito. They have a literal ticking clock. You've got 4 seasons.