Dick Allen

One thing that needs to be learned from White Sox leaking, and from the Machado experience. The White Sox have no idea one of these big guys is close to signed until they take a physical an/or have totally signed off on the deal.

Good thing Jack didn’t grow up an Athletics fan. A’s might have put him in a rubber room.

You have the info. Why is it imperative the Sox make an announcement right away? It isn't going to change anything.

What difference does it make? It's Ryan Burr.

Depends on the price. This guy could be Jake Arietta II.

Almost 10:30 am and no news. Ominous.

If that works, you are going to have to sport that shirt every day.

So he is speaking from experience. His logic is Cole and Strasburg price tags are inflating his, and signing him at that level is very risky. Myself, he has put up 4÷ WAR seasons the last 2 years. The only worry I would have is health.

Is it wrong to give someone several blows at a cockfight?

Waiver period is 3 days this time of year.

Dan O'Dowd is not a big fan of giving Wheeler $100 million.

Sox had to protect Burdi. You actually get some sort of allowance with an injured guy. As bad as the rule 5 pool has become, rehabbing an injury is probably your best bet.

38 after Yolmer Frare, Hamilton, Medieros, Viera, Zavala...who cares if they lose them trying to outright 2nd tuier Covey, Fulmer, Ruiz...probably all suck so bad, but could probably get a guy who walks 12 per 9 in A ball for them, but again, who cares? Maybe a little more than the first group. 3rd tier Foster, Flores............probably will not be much but should be safe.

They are going to need spots anyway. Like eminor wrote, now is a good time for an outright as teams aren't really looking for junk and have their 40s set.

That opens two spots. Hopefully Wheeler's friends are better at baseball than Machado's.

Then when is the announcement? Wheeler's name has been connected to the White Sox for the better part of a week when he wrote it. Considering how RH and KW don't want any leaks, I doubt they fed him some info, and one thing you do know, if he got the info on his own and it somehow cost the Sox signing the player, he would need to find a new job. I don't know if it was for clicks, but I do think it wasn't based on anything solid. I can't believe I agree with Ray Ray.

What does Kinander think?

I think it's just doing him a favor. They were going to non tender him and couldn't trade him. Someone may claim him and try to work something out, or if he goes unclaimed, he gets a head start on any other non tender by a few days. I hope they did it yesterday to fill a roster spot today, but I still think they have several guys queued up for needed roster spots.

Yolmer isn’t going to accept the outright if he cleared.

He played too much. He would be pretty popular if he had been a utility guy all the time. I think the Sox have to move on, but he will be a major leaguer for several more seasons even with his bat.

I think you are correct, but I would be shocked if no one claimed him and tried to work something out before the tender deadline. Mike Zunino got $4,5 million. Yolmer might get close to that.

Maybe but It would be a miracle if a guy like Viera made it to spring training still on the 40 any way. There are several in the same boat.

Once he finds out there isn’t $5 million or so out there for him, he might be of a different thought. He was a 1.0 WAR player hitting as bad as he has for years even with a juiced ball I am as sick of him as anyone, but if you go by WAR at all to pay guys, he isn’t going to take $2 or $3 million until he has no other choice. And if that’s all that is out there, coming back might be his choice.

Maybe this is to do Yolmer a solid. I would imagine someone is going to claim him and probably try to work something out before they have to tender him. There are several ways they could go if a roster spot is immediately needed. It also wouldn’t surprise me if Yolmer eventually found his way back at a lower figure.

We had an insider saying the Sox would sign BOTH Machado and Harper. They both signed for less than he projected and the Sox were $50 million short on Machado, and didn't even engage with Harper when they found out Boras doesn't play the discount game. Even for the opportunity to have Yolmer Sanchez dump a cooler of Gatorade on your head. There was a lot of BS going on, and anyone who questioned it was villified as someone who was pretty clueless.