Balta1701

That's the kind of package it would take. That's also the kind of package the White Sox can't offer because of the lack of depth in their system.

Well yeah, contracts end. The Dodgers had Rich Hill on a $20 million deal and Ryu on a $17.5 million deal - that's enough to pay some of their arb bonuses and still have $30 million under the competitive balance tax. If they have a couple younger pitchers to replace those guys, and they do - that's money they can move elsewhere.

At the low end. The Machado Range was $300-$350, the Harper range was $350-$400. This year, top players are blowing through the upper end of their projected range. Last year, they came in at the bottom end. That's a big difference in value.

$300 M was at the low end of the early-season projections.

Once Cole is gone and you have the Angels, Twins, White Sox, and others all sitting there needing pitching, I'd be surprised if the next tier (Bumgarner, Ryu) don't move quickly. The last guys on the list I don't know, but there are still going to be teams that miss out and need pitching. Honestly, if I were in this spot, I might go out and sightly overspend on a Nova-quality pitcher sometime in the next week or so just to ensure I have a warm body to cover some innings, and then worry about better options later.

yeah the latter is my worry. There's lots of garbage like Covey as always (bring shields out of retirement!), but there's a nonzero chance that even guys like Nova start getting sucked up here in a couple weeks.

Are we really certain of this?

That's one way to get the contract value up while spreading the risk out, it makes sense to me.

Ours might grow into things but we still absolutely, without any question, need innings help this year. Our rotation to start the year is Giolito opening day, Cease, Lopez, and ??? followed by ????? Kopech and Rodon can take some innings once we're a couple months in, and they might be major pieces in 2021, but like it or not there's like 200+ innings in our rotation that right now are going to Covey.

So against righties, Joc is in the OF, Castellanos is at DH, Grandal is behind the plate. Against lefties, Joc is on the bench, McCann is behind the plate, Grandal to DH, Castellanos to the OF? I guess, a lot of movement there?

I never said you were against the Price Acquisition either, you said you wouldn't do it without a good amount of money attached. Here's the posts.

You are not going to sign Castellanos to a multi-year deal to be a platoon player.

Like 2 weeks ago LARR here said that he wouldn't want Price + Benintendi unless they attached $30 million - now that pitching prices have caught up with inflation, it really does seem like a sensible deal to take those 2 on for limited return.

LOL I hope a lot of people lost sleep because of some twitter rumor around the country last night.

And payrolls around the league go up even farther now that the stagnation is over, there's a stronger pitching market this offseason, Giolito and Moncada (+ Lopez) hit arbitration so there's another $20 million in payroll. And that's before anyone gets hurt or struggles - which has already decimated much of our system's former supposed depth.

I am not a fan at all of this thinking. They already won't pay market prices for top guys and the market is correcting upward. And if anything else goes wrong...

This Astronomical Pitching Market is a correction after the last 3 years. Teams have been making more money but salaries have been depressed by the number of teams that were uncompetitive. Now more teams are making moves, and the fact that teams are money-loaded is enabling them to spend big.

I spent much of that season using the line "Rick Hahn's decisions aren't Rick Hahn's Fault®". I trademarked like 7 versions because it fit everywhere.

Hahn became GM in late 2012, he supposedly had the 2013 and 2014 offseasons. Pre-2015 was his 3rd offseason.

That was his 3rd offseason as GM. Frankie Montas for Todd Frazier isn't looking all that great either, although who knows about the steroids part.

Yes. (Narrator: they did not).

Serious question: would you prefer the Rays model or the Marlins model?

How many playoff appearances do they have in the last decade?

Is that an "Impact trade? I mean, maybe? Congratulations you've traded your 2 fWAR pitcher with 4 years of control for a 3 fWAR pitcher with 2 years of control, and now you still need the same number of additional pitchers?

No one can figure out any other surprise big trade that the white sox can pull off with without it sounding like an incredibly stupid move, since all of their trade value is concentrated in only 3 or 4 assets.