caulfield12

$2-3 million surcharge for LH hitters. https://southsideshowdown.com/should-the-white-sox-target-or-avoid-these-veteran-outfielders-in-free-agency Target 35 year old Rob Refsnyder and 33 year old Max Kepler, avoid Michael Conforto. Brilliant. OF: Mike Yastrzemski (signed), Max Kepler, Rob Refsnyder, Cedric Mullins (signed), Lane Thomas (signed), Michael Conforto, Starling Marte, Andrew McCutchen, Randal Grichuk, Miguel Andujar, Tommy Pham (not happening, to Schiffren’s chagrin), Ryan Ward, Austin Slater (not happening), Michael A. Taylor (retired), Dustin Harris, Daz Cameron, Billy McKinney

For the Dodgers it's just a write off like Conforto last year by the end of the season. Cost of doing business. For the White Sox, it's life and death to wring the last possible drop of value out of Benintendi and Robert. Which is absolutely crazy having watched Rodon Abreu Anderson Jimenez Moncada Lynn Keuchel Kelly Graveman and Hendriks all leave with almost nothing to show in return or still owing money. The ill-advised Kimbrel QO, in fact, led directly to Pollock and then to Benintendi's ghastly crippling contract. Same with Burger and Vaughn in the end. Well there was Giolito/Quero and Crochet out of that entire 2021 cycle of players. (And no comment on the Cease deal is necessary.)

You could probably come up with only 2-3 examples over 40+ years where JR willingly ate more money to get top flight talent back. Just dumping contracts for negligible paper returns in prospects, sure. That has happened. Erik Johnson and roughly 35-40% of Shields' salary subsidized should have been enough to consummate an escape for a player whose ownership had decided he must be traded...but JR nevertheless wanted to get even more money back and therefore lost HUNDREDS of million in value as a result of that deal. Talk about wasting leverage for a team already facing from contention.

No that's just the front page and opinion columns. They're really relatively fair and balanced about sports. How could they sell papers if they constantly defended the likes of Cohen and Hank Steinbrenner? They would be eaten alive. And there's already the Wall Street Journal and Forbes that trend in that big picture/pro ownership and corporations way already.

They want to legitimately compete...stop pretending Mead Vargas Sosa and Quero are 1B men!!!

Cornering the market...niche advantage.

Dumb dumb dumb. Getz must have convinced JR he could reasonably be traded without a subsidy. God knows what they're saying internally about Benintendi. Sink cost fallacy.

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…