Balta1701

Personally I do think Vaughn should be up this season, but if Abreu was signed to a 1 year deal and Martinez to a multi year deal this does work as you can bury Vaughn in the minors for a year even if he's hitting great. However, an assurance that a player will "Always be a member of the White Sox" would make that not work because if Abreu wanted to play multiple years, Martinez and Abreu occupy 1b and DH until Abreu retires, and that's the title of the Abreu thread.

The other option for that position continues to be Abreu to DH and Vaughn to 1b in short order. Signing JDM and Abreu both to multi-year deals could turn Vaughn into a likely trade candidate.

Yes, replace Hamels in that lineup with Bumgarner or one of the better ones and now you've got a deal. But let's be equally honest, you'll rip me either way because you can't help but make it personal, as you just did while replying to that post.

No I wouldn't be. If you're going to sign JD Martinez and Corey Dickerson you can't leave me with that weak and inexperienced of a rotation on paper.

The Cubs may be motivated to clear a moderate amount of additional payroll to find space for Cole. It's the same reason the Angels might trade Kole Calhoun - if you move the guy making $10-15 million for a small but nonzero return, and you have $10 million in tax space available, now you can offer a $25 million payroll in year 1 more easily.

I'd like to believe the White Sox would be in play for Cole, but Steve Stone, who I consider to be speaking for the organization as he's in a position to know and share the thinking of the front office, is already out saying on the record he believes it to be a move they won't make.

I haven't thought about this at all...how do people think he will age?

Hypothetically speaking...if we don't over-spend on the RF spot this offseason, how would people think about Betts as a free agent target?

however, since you labeled a 5 year period as falling inside his prime years, and 3 of those years fall into his contract, 60% of his prime years, or "Much of his prime" is encompassed by that 10 year contract.

So a guy who is 27 still has "much of his prime years remaining" based on 27 being less than 29/30.

Age 22-27 is not "much of his prime years".

JDM is a little down this season but I see no reason why he shouldn't opt out. Mookie...I just can't imagine Boston letting him go. If you're the Red Sox you don't lose players like that, tax or no tax.

While he's had down seasons before, he's been worth 24.3 fWAR over the last 5 years. I'll take the over.

if Dunning recovers and is trade bait prior to 2021 that's a really good place to be because that means he recovered, had a good year in the minors, and we're no longer desperate for starting pitching so the guys we have stayed healthy and showed promise. Given that he's now missed 2 years, I think his trade value will be a little depressed, so he might be a good candidate to be a 2021 6th starter guy for us as well. I also know it won't happen, but yeah I would be all in on Cole as well. We know that those handful of truly elite pitchers can still be traded years down the line, it's happened repeatedly over the last couple years. If we will not get Cole, then any of the other options are acceptable if they're also teamed with a Nova-quality 6th starter. Wheeler, Bumgarner, whoever - fine, give up the 2nd round pick, its the appropriate time to do so. Someone has to be brought in. In RF, given our lack of lineup balance, I'm not enthused about the FA options either. Ozuna would be ok but he doesn't hit lefty. I'm totally ok in RF with going for a stop-gap to fill that spot and wait to see whether other options become available. Kole Calhoun isn't particularly great, he's average or slightly below average, and he has a $14 million team option for next year. I think there's a very good chance the Angels would move him for a limited return to free up money to go after Cole or Strasburg. He'd be a little overpaid, but as long as we don't give up anything top 30 quality I'd take him on a 1 year deal. Hits left handed, is not awful defensively, is not great with the bats but at least is a substantial upgrade from what we currently have, buys us time to let the OF prospects and the trade options play out.

Still have the 10th fewest days spent on the IL out of major league baseball this year. If your team needs to be healthier than this to compete then you will never compete. In our division - Cleveland gets to complain about how banged up they were this year, and every time someone else says they need to be healthier to compete Cleveland gets to laugh at them.

And if you actually watched him, his velocity was down from the season before, he was surviving because he was throwing a ton of sliders that no one can hit but that he also can't control. His walk rate was up and he wasn't particularly unlucky on hits or home runs over that stretch. Even with a k-rate near 12, which he couldn't sustain that 2.89 ERA.

He had a brief stretch this season of a K rate over 11 in his 35 innings, but his career K-rate is 8.83/9. His career ERA is over 4. He'll be 27 when he comes back from surgery and 28 when he's in his "fully recovered" time. Maybe if he goes to the Astros they could put together that career K-rate for him, but no, I don't think he's ever going to break out as a vastly better pitcher than what we've seen. At the very least, it won't happen with the Chicago White Sox.

Carlos Rodon is never going to be a top of the rotation pitcher with the Chicago White Sox. He will be going 3.5 years without even being a decent pitcher for the Chicago White Sox by the time he comes back from this, his second major surgery in 3 years. You can't expect a guy to be that good coming back from TJS 12 months later if he comes back in June or so of next season as many guys need 18 months to recover fully. If he's even decent in 2021, 4 full seasons removed from the last time he was tolerable, he immediately hits free agency. Carlos Rodon is a backup plan for this franchise at best and should not currently be counted on for anything more than that.

I know. But I say the same thing about the free agent I want to sign, we know we're not going to sign him because they won't make him the highest paid pitcher.

Really...you're unveiling a championship banner and you go with House of Pain's Jump Around as the soundtrack?

Make him one of the highest paid managers in baseball again and outbid other teams.

They gave him what was at the time the biggest WR contract in history all the way back in February of 2017, and historically they had a pattern of adding to his deal in the offseason when other people got bigger salaries including before 2016.

Then don't compliment him on getting more money because he lost money to leave.

Had he just kept his mouth shut in Pittsburgh he'd have gone into this season with 1 year left on his guarantee, Pittsburgh probably would have wanted to extend him this offseason for comparable money to Jones if he put up another 100 catch season.

So you keep naming guys that will cost $50 million, giving prices for them that total $30 million, and you're wondering why I have a problem with your budget?