JUSTgottaBELIEVE

I expect Alonso to be highly productive over the next 5-6 years. Does that not align with the young Sox mlb players (Thorpe, Cannon, Vargas, Baldwin, etc) as well as 6 of the current top 7 prospects that are likely to be promoted to mlb this year?

But 35 PAs is a cup of coffee and he ended the 2023 season in A+ so it’s not like he already had extensive experience in AA either. Call it whatever you want but that seems rushed to me.

Or next offseason…or the one after that…

Cool, so he’d be part of the Sox contention window with even more team control than guys like Thorpe, Cannon, Montgomery, Teel, etc. Paulie was productive into his mid 30s. Don’t see why Alonso wouldn’t be.

Baldwin had 35 PAs in AAA. That’s good enough for a fringe prospect?

I acknowledged the counter arguments but strongly disagree with them. You’re not changing my mind either.

You brought up Sasaki, not me.

Why is wanting to sign quality free agents considered negative? Feel like I’m living in bizarro world here.

No thanks

I never once brought up Sasaki in any of these threads so no idea where that’s coming from. The top Japanese players aren’t even a factor for the Sox now or in the future. They’ll never sign guys like Ohtani, Yamamoto, or Sasaki. Not even worth discussing.

Not just that but they’re viable flip candidates for the endless rebuilding cycle. They don’t cost anything other than money and are only “blocking” Justin Anderson from closing.

Fixed it for you

It’s ruining multiple threads because you don’t even know the players that are in discussion but forming hard fast opinions about them lol

Keep on what? You don’t even know what you’re debating at this point.

Ha-Seong Kim is a posted foreign player? He was a 10.4 fWAR player over the past 3 seasons for the Padres so no clue what you’re talking about.

Why does it have to be one or the other and not both? The last rebuild clearly failed because the prospects didn’t develop properly for the most part AND they were terrible in their free agent signings. You act like I’m advocating trading top prospects for veterans. Signing free agents only costs money for a roster set to open this season at ~$60M. You want to keep the precious 2nd round pick and sign from the next tier of FAs? Fine but what’s the excuse for not signing Kim, Hoffman, and Profar? And, no, I don’t buy that those guys would block top prospects.

Chris Getz has been GM for ~17 months. The farm was pretty much barren when he took over. But he still did promote the few prospects they did have that were remotely close to mlb - Baldwin, Ramos, Thorpe, Cannon, Nastrini, Leasure, Berroa, Bush, Eder, Iriarte. You think all of those guys were MLB ready? And…it sure sounds like they intend to promote 6 of their top 7 prospects in 2025 ready or not. Rumblings of Montgomery opening day SS? Schultz and Smith seeing mlb innings when neither has pitched more than 61 innings in AA. What’s the rush?

We already saw a similar career arc with Moncada as to what we’ve been seeing with Robert. Guess we will see what 2025 holds. The Sox have consistently rushed position player prospects to mlb before they’re ready. I don’t need to name all the guys, you know who they are. When’s the last time the Sox ate $20M to cut bait on a vet? When’s the last time the Sox successfully moved someone from the infield with no prior OF experience to become a plus outfielder? Mullins is exactly the type of FA I would expect the Sox to sign to fill an OF void in 2026.

Am I wrong?

There is nothing absurd about what I outlined. These things have already happened to this organization in recent years (just swap the current names with past names) so there’s no reason they can’t/won’t happen again.

Because it’s the White Sox, here’s the more likely scenario. -Robert gets hurt this season and his last couple years with the Sox end similarly to Moncada’s. Sox get nothing in return for him before he walks. -Montgomery is rushed to the majors in 2026 and he struggles mightily because the development process was incomplete. -Benintendi is stuck with the Sox until August 2027 before they finally cut bait and DFA him the last two months of the season. -Sox give outfield reps to Vargas and Ramos before realizing they’re better off just leaving those reps to Fletcher and Deloach. -Sox sign 31 yo Cedric Mullins because it’s all they can afford and he falls off precipitously because the bulk of his value lies in his speed and defense that doesn’t age well in his 30s.

Another cherished white sox tradition. Putting guys in defensive positions they haven’t played in college or the minors but thinking they can capably handle the assignment for the first time in mlb. Gotta love it.

Wanna bet they rush Montgomery to fill RF for at least a good portion of the 2026 season?

Welp, I guess they better keep Robert after all and I’m sure Braden Montgomery will be rushed up so he can fill the RF black hole in 2026. It’s the White Sox way.

Thats certainly one way of telling me you have no better way of measuring the fanbase or popularity of the franchise well, here’s another way of measuring it. It’s an oldie but a goodie. Couldn’t find anything on 2024 numbers but have to imagine they were even worse. https://www.soxon35th.com/white-sox-see-largest-television-ratings-drop-in-mlb/