caulfield12

https://southsideshowdown.com/what-white-sox-fans-learned-about-the-team-s-offseason-plan-after-winter-meetings Dustin May provides a lot more versatility fwiw. Just depends on the medicals. Would go May and Bleday and let 2026 at least play out until the deadline. (Unless they can trade Robert before the beginning of the season.) Twins also in on O'Hearn when they already have eight LH hitting options among their OF 1B DH core. That's a bit weird.

Last year there was a massive debate on Brewers' boards about leaving Smith unprotected. No such buzz this year. Petit such a big guy...hard to expect his control to hold up without some massive mechanical adjustments. And Colorado is death to fly ball pitchers. We'll see I guess.

Fairbanks’ asking price is unclear, but closers of similar caliber have been landing $10-15 million a season on the open market. In a competitive market with contending teams involved, the White Sox are unlikely to be the team to overpay to sign the player and may even have to add extra to convince Fairbanks to come to a rebuilding team. Instead, look for the White Sox to ultimately pivot to a cheaper option, albeit a less-reliable one, and use the money elsewhere. southsideshowdown.com

With Vargas Mead Sosa backup catcher…for that 1B spot? I know you’re going to argue O’Hearn, but theres just no way two separate guys in the $8-12 million range can/will be added. Look what Yastremski just got at his age.

Going from $70 million to roughly $10-12 million in tv revenues…has also absolutely killed CLE and MN. Then you had that loss when they offered access for free…relying on advertising. Teams getting broadcasts taken over by MLB were getting paid roughly $13-17 million depending on market size/ratings.

Why does this come off like the Sopranos or DeNiro vs. Costner in The Untouchables? Only missing the menacing baseball bat hovering over the table...

Try NY Boston Philly boards lol. Cardinals and Twins boards recently. I remember living in Georgia in the 90s and fans didn't go to Braves' games because they believed they weren't good enough to win in their seemingly inevitable post seasons or because of a downtown stadium located in a reputed "dangerous" area. It's all relative to expectations.

Kyler Murray could return to A's lol.

In JR's mind...instead of spending into more debt, he's attempting just to get back to even from significant debt. 2020/2023-2025 led to losses, and they're quite fortunate if they're creating another $10-12 million this year. Low viewership is likely making it challenging to sell advertising/sponsorships without heavily discounting or promising free placement in future seasons, when the team is theoretically more competitive.

Who gets the blame for Vaughn, Sheets, Burger (proposed move to 2B) at the corners...for the last twenty years, it's a repeating litany of guys playing out of position due to lack of minor league replacements/budgetary restraints. For example, no viable CFer behind Luis Robert the last two seasons. Think of all the "castaway" outfielders from other organizations thrown haphazardly into the outfield. Now they can't find a legit 1B/DH. Im guessing you will respond with the five bottom players on the Yankees.

More pointing fingers at minor league depth/talent and obviously a litany of injuries. One of those is certainly a more controllable factor. A castaway in the sense that Milwaukee mistakenly left him unprotected. Not too much to apologize for when they advanced to the NLCS.

Only TB and CLE pretty sure have even made the playoffs with Bottom 5 payroll...bottom 2, would have to look it up. Self-fulfilling prophecy to claim woe is me/we can't compete under those hamstringing conditions. Ofc 6 years ago every expert in the game was predicting Sox dominance for a half decade. Virtually nobody is saying that now/yet about 2028-30.

Lincoln Riley now another name with UM search...QB whisperer to Underwood but seems a bit if a strange fit in Ann Arbor.

Fairbanks now the #1 closing option on the market for anywhere from 6-10 teams. Was supposed to be the next to sign after Finnegan, according to Winter Meeting rumors.

Padres were unwilling to give him a QO, for what it's worth. Weird they (ATL) also have Iglesias at $16 million.

That's at least $20-30 million in new spending (just for 2026 alone) coming out of nowhere...and at least two deals overlapping into 2027.

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/articles/kalen-deboer-michigan-lane-kiffin-024735066.html The Kalen DeBoer-to-Michigan, Lane Kiffin-to-Alabama scenario that would screw LSU and break college football

The White Sox bullpen had the fifth-worst SIERA and the third-worst xFIP last season. The closer role was a moving target, with nine different relievers recording a save. Jordan Leasure led the way with seven saves and would likely be Chicago’s closer if the season started today, though he would likely be supplanted by Fairbanks or any other notable free agent acquisition. No White Sox reliever has recorded double-digit saves since 2022 (Liam Hendriks with 37). Chicago shelled out $24MM for Kendall Graveman and $17MM for Joe Kellyahead of the 2022 season. Since then, the club has been hesitant to spend on relievers (or any other position). The most expensive bullpen addition over the past three seasons was John Brebbia on a one-year, $5.5MM deal in 2024. The White Sox’s only reliever signing last offseason was Bryse Wilson, who got a one-year, $1.05MM pact. mlbtraderumors.com No mention of Grant Taylor…

Friedman already acknowledged on MLB Network that he was being brought on board to work with their four Top 100 outfield prospects on both defense and baserunning. And for his baseball mind.

Emerson could very easily turn into the better pro…or Justin LeBron. A college pitcher could easily rise to the forefront. Right now the highest is somewhere in the 8-12 range. The current best prospect in the game, Konnor Griffin, didn’t go Top 3, either.

I’m not surprised, personally. That message has been pretty consistent, and quite often reiterated. But a handful of posters are much more optimistic…well, another long offseason just watching other teams like the Tigers improve isn’t easy to take.

https://dodgerblue.com/dodgers-news-dustin-may-receives-votes-for-best-future-closer-in-mlb-pipeline-executive-poll/2020/01/20/ What is the status of Dustin May’s elbow as of today? His Red Sox season was ended by another elbow injury. https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2025/11/dustin-may-fully-back-to-normal-after-elbow-injury.html Claims to be fully back to normal…but would have to through a rigorous investigation as injury-riddled as his career has been until now. Also had that quite unusual torn esophagus injury. With May, failure as a closer would at least leave the door back open to a starting rotation return.

It’s not Braden. Still too many questions with Baldwin that are unanswered. Need Witt, Jr. or de la Cruz, not Tulo Lite. Just worry they will take Roch and have him up as quickly as Vaughn and Madrigal…instead of having the time and patience to invest 2-3 years of development into Emerson. Even the expedited timeline for a fast rising prep would be a 2029 arrival in Chicago. Roch represents instant gratification for a long-suffering fanbase. Doubtful Ishbia will have much of a say. Roch returns the franchise to .500 much more quickly, increasing the share value, tv ratings, etc.

So far there have been zero indications of that big money injection happening this offseason. The true Tier A impact hitters remaining are Tucker Bellinger and Bregman. Yankees or Mets will likely take the first two. That basically just leaves Bregman, Murakami and Okamoto.

What’s the point of NOT letting him get at least 2-3 innings, ramping up to four innings at a time as an opener then??? Kay and Cannon are definitely not long-term pieces for the competitive window. Doubtful that Davitt and Paez are, either. If it doesn’t take or he gets hurt, then go to Plan B and make him a high leverage, multiple innings guy like Joel Zumaya used to do for the Tigers…or Andrew Miller for StL. Plus they’ve already decided to keep Vasil in the pen, who seems to have as much upside as those four names and at least has borne a starter’s workload in the minors.