Balta1701

Lol no they didn't. The only wake up call is attendance dropping back below 1.3 million, in post-strike/white flag trade territory. Their only wakeup call will be when this specific day hits their pocketbooks.

And they proved another point today.

Fair enough.

Didn't you hear? The White Sox don't believe in opt-outs.

In the 1990s JR paid top dollar for Belle.

"We don't believe in opt outs." "Will you pay more to make it worth it for us to give one up?" "No, you sign at a discount to play with your friends. That's the White Sox way."

I don't blame anyone who checks out after today. The Nashville part's a little creepy 'cause even if you were moving there anyway it's hard to get the sarcasm out of that part.

It would still be laughable that they thought they could sneak a $50 million discount out of Machado by employing his friends for 1 year, but yeah that's the choice they have today. Spend more to make up for their idiocy, or just let the fan base wither more.

Just remember this - the Padres have more salary commitments than we do, worse salary commitments than we do, but their actual professional General Manager was able to convince ownership this was a quality move and the right move. If JR was unwilling to commit this money, then part of the blame goes back to the general manager for failing to have the trust of ownership, or for figuring out a way to clear whatever other salary was needed to do it. And on top of that, ownership was ok with our unprofessional general manager presenting himself as though the team wouldn't lose the player, and thus costing ownership money directly because people will cancel tickets today. And ownership was ok with them spending $13 million on players who will now be hated by the fan base. And ownership was ok with the other $25 million in wasted spending this offseason. Do not give the general manager a pass just because ownership is part of the problem. This general manager is a disaster. Ownership's biggest mistake is continuing to employ him.

yeah the phillies would not match this, but we will see what they do next. The White Sox, they wouldn't match it because they're clowns.

Terrible owner and front office. Don't let them off the hook just because ownership employs them. JR might be in the background, but the one in the dunce cap today is Rick Hahn and Rick Hahn alone.

I mighta cautiously guessed $325 thinking that he's so likely to be worth it that a smart GM would just get it done rather than play it out to the end.

And yet, his final contract came in pretty much right in the range people would have guessed at the start of the offseason. Maybe at the lower end, but the Yankees also weren't involved. No need to take anything from the fact that the White Sox wouldn't go that high. They're clowns.

Machado didn't tour and meet with them but it does sound like the Padres were at least in contact all offseason. This is probably the first time that Machado's side dropped their ask down to $300 million all offseason. The Padres professional general manager just got his ownership to act on a good contract offer when the real proposal came, unlike our clowns.

I do not blame you one bit.

There's a quote in the Athletic from the Phillies yesterday saying that the agent gave the Phillies a chance to say they would do $300 guaranteed and the Phillies said they would not do that. The White Sox basically got the same call and stuck with a $250 million guarantee with 2 vesting options. The Padres said they would do the $300 guarantee. 2 teams said no and 1 team said yes.

Good. Now can we change your screenname?

They are who we thought they were. Las fall I argued Rick Hahn was solidly the worst GM in baseball and probably the worst White Sox GM of the Reinsdorf era (including Harrelson). I wish I wasn't right.

He absolutely checked in, he probably asked all 3 franchises yesterday if they would go to $300 million guaranteed, 2 of them said no - as we saw with the Phillies quote earlier. One did and that made it an easy decision.

We're not sure. The most recent version someone posted - the 8 year, $250 million one, with 2 team option years - that would not have had an opt out because the team vesting option wouldn't have fit with that. The other one, the one I think they talked about with a Swell-opt - that might have gotten to an opt out, but only if the White Sox declined the Swell. So I think the best "opt out" offer he received was the San Diego one. That's the only one that appears to have a straight player opt-out.

Lol, so the Kings are at the top and they're fighting for a playoff spot, #2 is the Padres, and Cleveland with Baker is on the list. At least we haven't lost 4 straight super bowls.

It also wouldn't have to be the White Sox as they could readily have hit a point in 5 or 6 years where they trade him.

Yeah...where would the Padres come up with any talent to put around him. I mean, how on Earth will they ever fill that shortstop position, no organization could be dumb enough to give them a top flight shortstop for the garbage that they have to sell.

I don't think this happened, I think they found out when it hit the press.