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Well, there's no way they are ever moving Benintendi. He cant hit, he can't field. He will be DFA'd before midseason in 2027 if I had to put money on it. Unless of course, some team just really needs that veteran leadership he can provide and has to have him 😉 Robert, as Tony has pointed out, has been the exact same player for 2 seasons now. Not a very good one. And certainly not worth $20M. No one is going to trade for him in the offseason, and like I said, Ill believe it when I see it in regards to them picking up this option.

You would hope if they pick up this option they would include cash in any deal, which makes no sense not to since you would be paying it if you kept him anyways. It would be interesting to know if that was on the table in previous discussions.

Well, the guy responsible for holding people accountable in regards to that was terrible at his job.

As they should, pick your guy and give him 100% of the starters workload and upgrade your roster where its weak (outfield).

I would be more stunned if the thought process was "Our payroll is low, f*** it its just $20M". Does that sound at all like something the owner of the White Sox is signing off on?

I don’t even know what you’re rambling about here unless you’re talking about something someone else said when replying to me.

Wasn't a big reason being floated around as to why they didn't offer the QO was due to..... his health..

If they could opt out of Benintendi that would have been done a while ago. Im sure they figured they could try to trade Robert again over the winter with a strong finish to the season. He is now hurt, again, and likely to not play again all year. I could definitely see them declining the option now due to this, or else they are risking paying him $20M for essentially nothing. Its called cutting your losses, and sometimes you just need to do it.

See SS2K post above, this is a 25 man roster with experienced baseball people throughout the staff. That's their job.

It's insane to me that a team coming off a 121 loss season is trading teenage pitching prospects for 30+ year old middle relievers. Wtf..

Because first base generally sees the least amount of balls hit to them and rarely has to make difficult throws.

Knowing what I know now that they would in fact not trade Mike Tauchman regardless of how well he performed, I would have rather seen the likes of DeLoach, Fletcher, Julks, etc. out in RF all year since that has more value to the long term goals of the franchise. I don't think there is anything more overrated in sports than a "veteran presence". These are professionals, not high school kids needing a mentor.

Im not doubting his athletic prowess, but that still doesn't mean he's a long term SS at the MLB level. He should be there until proven he can't though.

Not that I disagree with you, but how someone is going to age is probably taken into consideration when making statements like that. A 6'4 230 LB dude with back issues probably isn't destined to stay at SS long term.

lmao yeah I read that too and got a good chuckle out of it

Look I don’t buy Getz’s crap, I don’t think they ever had any intentions of keeping him what so ever. Is there really a difference between getting a couple organizational filler guys and just outright losing him for nothing? At least when you held onto him you had a chance to truly increase his value. By all accounts they weren’t offered anything worth a s%*#. What’s the difference? The true travesty here is they botched the situation with him long ago, this is just icing on the cake.

If he's out the rest of the year I don't see how you could blame them for declining the option in the offseason even after not trading him at the deadline. That would change things in my opinion.

Not exactly, there's something to be said for the team playing better and not wanting to ruin the chemistry by dumping Robert for nothing. The scenario also exists where he gets hurt (like right now) or he completely craters out the rest of the year and then picking up the option doesn't seem to make a whole lot of sense. If he finishes strong, then of course you pick up the option to either try to trade him again or you just want to keep him. You still face the possibility that he does not show very well the rest of the year and declining the option makes sense even if you didn't trade him at the deadline.

lmao, yes it was him.

Look at a team like the Angels, who just hang on to their superstar players or let them walk away getting nothing in return. Since 2012 the Angels have had the best player in baseball 38% of the time (5 MVP's in 13 seasons) and they have exactly 1 playoff appearance where as a 98 win team they were swept by the 89 win Royals. How entertained would you be if the Sox went 72-90 but Robert won the MVP? Like, yeah that's great, but that's a bad year to be a fan of the White Sox overall. 98-64: Trout MVP 74-88: Trout MVP 72-90: Trout MVP 77-85: Ohtani MVP 73-89: Ohtani MVP Outside of 1 year over a decade ago, the Angels had 4 MVP's on some pretty bad teams. They got nothing for Ohtani, they won't get anything for Trout. And 6 of those seasons they had BOTH Trout and Ohtani.. crazy.

I was speaking more in terms of a fully valuable Robert being traded last deadline or this past offseason for the 2025 and 2026 season. Honestly, he should have been traded after 2023 when they decided to rebuild everything. Getting several high end assets that not only line up with your next contention window but are controllable for 6 years once they arrive is just way more valuable to a rebuilding team than keeping them.

Aside from them playing in a domed stadium rending the weather pointless, I meant more why the flight across the country right off the bat.

Also, why the hell are we opening in Milwaukee and then have to turn around and fly to Miami.

Because it makes zero sense to pay a talented player $20M when you are going to be losing 100 games for those two years. Their value is greater being traded for assets than it is playing CF for the White Sox.

That's true, im sure they could still give him away if they wanted to if they pick up the option.