caulfield12

Hard to pencil Santos in for ANYTHING at this point... Who the heck is Speas??? And what does that all up to? No Bush/Mena? Leasure is being counted on by quite a few to get a shot at closing if Santos can't go.

Look at his offensive numbers after mid May last year. He might be cooked. Obviously he still seems to have that 2ish fWAR floor due to his defense...but he's asking for $20-25 million if not $30 and he's likely to be worth half of that, roughly.

Hoskins and/or Bellinger. Bullpen help, especially at the back end. Not a huge number of closers circulating, which is why I mentioned it as a possible landing spot for Hendriks. Brandon Woodruff is going to turn out to be another huge bust/reward guy, of course the White Sox will never be creative enough to come up with a deal for him.

https://www.mlb.com/news/front-office-executives-poll-for-best-prospects-2024 Good reference point since so many of these prospect names are showing up ALL OVER this thread. Five Padres listed at various places, and that's not counting Merrill. They definitely have the pieces to get Cease...should they choose to go that route.

Chapman AGAIN? That would be a good example of a team that could end up signing Liam Hendriks to a 2 year rehab/incentive-laden deal. Jordan Hicks still out there hovering, too.

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/10103619-mlb-rumors-shota-imanaga-contract-not-eyed-by-yankees-due-to-flyball-concerns Let's revisit the Yankees' considerable fly ball concerns after the season... We know he has great strikeout stuff and gets away with some pitches up in the zone, at least in Japan. And of course you already have Suzuki there. So the Cubs will go on to sign Hoskins and/or Bellinger to finish things out...and perhaps trade Morel if they can't figure out what to do with him.

Also wasted a not insignificant amount of money on Yasmani Tomas as well. That's one of the biggest factors with the White Sox talent pipeline drying up in Cuba recently. Nothing out of Yogurt Sanchez, Norge Vera, Cespedes, Colas, etc. You simply need that constant infusion of young Latin American talent, especially when the DR has been a dry well for almost fifteen years now. Marco Paddy hit a very dry spell at the worst possible time. Wouldn't be totally shocked to see him move on as well in the next year or so. (But we have Yosimar Cousin now, haha.) Same happened with Rusney Castillo and the Red Sox...and the Dodgers blew a wad on that Cuban 2B who went down with assault/DV charges but it didn't faze them one bit in the overall scheme of things. When you're missing out on Latin America and totally outgunned in Asia, you're bound to suffer the consequences eventually.

The biggest problem is turning all those prospects/suspects into quality players who are better than average major League starters. And it's already looking quite possible that they don't get much out of their 2024 first rounder... Sox might currently have 4-6 on the entire 40 man roster who will still be around in the final year of Robert's deal. Getz will have to be as good on his evaluations as Hahn was bad with FAs.

This feels more like the 2007 bullpen fiasco. We have a TON of names, but how many of them are actually going to turn out well? Time will tell...but surely the majority of scouts are quite skeptical at the moment because Benintendi of all players is already being used as the excuse for not being able to do much financially. Moncada obviously, as well. But it was always SOMEONE used as the excuse for not spending. John Danks for a long time...and here we are a generation later still limited to 3-4 year deals while Rodon and Cease (maybe) end up with the Yankees at $300-400 million total...and yet it will likely be that cautionary tale that JR loves to spin to defend his not spending instead of "what might have been" with Harper/Machado/Wheeler. (More than anything...copying the 2014-15 Royals won't work nearly as well at GRF. Not unless they just went back to play in 1980's Old Comiskey, the way that parked played in CF. And they aren't going to have an aggressive stolen base and contact/advancing runners oriented attack with this mix of players, either.)

Feels like the Blue Jays are going to be the next team falling into the Thucydides Trap of spending too much without meaningful results. They were the other franchise (along with SD) rebuilding at precisely the same time as the White Sox. Looks like they can't finish off their moves to get to 90+ wins but they certainly have blown through a significant amount.

Or they just end up with Michael Taylor and their "super defense" vision coming closer if his asking price falls far enough. Of course yet another former Royal, too.

https://awaybackgone.com/posts/revisiting-the-cleveland-guardians-trade-of-junior-caminero-is-a-painful-experience-01h8kta9zvvd It's just the TB way that their replacement for him could end up being a much better financial/savings value for the team...all things considered. (And eventually Eloy will find a home at DH with these guys, the Brewers/Reds/Pirates/Marlins. Just watch.)

Also a $1 million "trade assignment bonus" for what it's worth. https://www.spotrac.com/mlb/seattle-mariners/mitch-haniger-18487/

The biggest problem is Haniger is now terrible...or SF made him look that way. They used to have too have (seeningly) many outfielders....Kyle Lewis, Trammell, Kelenic, Haniger, Winker, crazy how many of them completely blew up or wore out their welcomes after looking viable for stretches. As you said...White Sox-Esque.

I'm assuming you were referring to Bumgarner?

Better off turning him into Andrew Miller...

Orioles’ fans won’t be happy… The Yankees are going to end up pulling the trigger eventually if Elias continues to hoard all three of his position prospects behind Holliday. Even then, none of those guys are better than Jones or Dominguez…and it seems highly unlikely Elias will offer up 2/3 or that Getz would accept just one and a bunch of Tier B’s aggregated together. In the end, Snell’s numbers outside the two Cy years, his high pitch counts being quite similar to Cease and almost never pitching beyond the 6th not to mention those walks and unsustainably low numbers with RISP against him. Thankfully NYY seem to have permanently pushed Montgomery away by benching him from the 2022 playoff rotation.

Or Ravens/Bears…

https://sports.yahoo.com/nfl-power-rankings-final-edition-more-than-a-dozen-teams-could-be-on-qb-carousel-043546696.html

Haber went to Stanford...? Getz and Hahn? Doubt they would attend together, but who knows...wouldn't be a total shocker, but it would be a bit awkward if they were photographed together in any type of official way.

Plus you're always going to be the second team in that city...but maybe Harbaugh's ego revels in the challenge of attempting to unseat the Rams. Surely his brother has the perfect opportunity picked out already from all of his sources and connections around the sport.

After what they went through with LaRussa and then Clevinger, it would be the most tone deaf hire possible.

Once again, the Cubs (after doing nothing so far this off season, at least not yet) and Cardinals (#12-13) were/are both favorites over the entire AL Central field...and Milwaukee and the Reds are currently considered right there too with Minnesota/Cleveland/Detroit. With the Brewers, depends on whether they keep Burnes or not.

Williams coming off LAST season might have attracted those offers, but some of his warts/concerns/issues have now been exposed. That said, the Riley brand is still healthy with Baker Mayfield returning to viability and Murray showing his flashes at the end of the season. Hurts is another issue with the collapse across the board of Philly. It's just that Caleb Williams was head and shoulders #1 coming out of high school and now Maye and Daniels have almost caught up with him on draft boards. Zero discussion who would have been #1 in 2023...well, maybe the biggest concern was how Utah was able to contain him (relatively speaking) twice last year with inferior talent. Part of that was obviously on the atrocious USC defense, as well.

Now where does Harbaugh go? Would be shocking to see him stay at this point. Just turn the team over to Wright.