Buehrlesque

You must have crazily high expectations for what it takes to compete if they don't think the White Sox will even be "close to contending" in 2020. Yes, 2020 matters.

It sure feels like it. But he did get 46 games in at Birmingham with a line of .245/.313/.337 and 15 SBs before missing the last two months.

Nice list! Especially happy to see Eddy Alvarez get a mention — I hope he gets a cup of coffee this Sept. Looking forward to the full list over the next couple of days. So barring any surprises, I extrapolate that Fisher, Polo, Yurchak, Zangari, Skoug, Trey M. are waaay off the radar at this point!

Moncada is the best fit at 3B. I hope he is accepts that role in the future because, barring an unexpected acquisition, that's where he'll be if Madrigal arrives as planned.

This all screams Josh Donaldson to me. Machado and Harper are total pipe dreams and will not happen. Donaldson will (most likely) be coming off a down year and could be looking for a shorter-term bounce-back contract. He fits a position of need with the Sox, won't be blocking literally anyone and has big time upside (or, worst-case scenario, flipability). Only thing that gives me pause is he may require losing a draft pick to sign.

Not that he's an elite prospect or anything, but what happened to Tito Polo? Is he significantly hurt?

I understand what you're saying here, though I don't agree. If you think the Sox so-called "competitive window" isn't going to open until 2021 or something, then yeah, that's another point in favor of waiting to bring him up. I think the Sox want to and can compete earlier, an effort which is boosted by getting Eloy and Kopech in the fold now. To me, it would suck to miss out on a potential contender in 2019 or 2020 because we were worrying about the unknown of 2025, though I can understand why people would see things differently.

This is worth repeating. No one is saying that if Eloy is deemed "major-league ready" mid September to call him up for a week or two. He's ready now. Two plus months to end this season plus two weeks in April plus the mindset of going into next year on the OD roster is significant. However, that means he needs to come up in the next week or so. If the Sox wait any later than that, the benefit is no longer significant enough, IMO.

I agree the Sox suck right now, and that Eloy won't change that or "save" 2018. But getting two plus months of development now will make him better in 2019 and 2020, when the Sox may not suck.

Law can be crass, but I agree with the general premise here. The near-term future is more certain/predictable than 2025, when there will be tons of unforeseen developments, possibilities and priorities.

Nice article by raBBit. While I get the point of obtaining that extra year of service time in 2025, I am still of the opinion both Eloy and Kopech should be in the big leagues today. That they are both major league ready is essentially a given. A lot of the arguments either way have been hashed and rehashed ad nauseum. Yes, you risk losing them a year earlier to FA (though that can be mitigated with early contract extensions that are hardly unprecedented). Yes, you set a bad, adversarial precedent for your other minor leaguers and risk angering these players, etc. But to me another angle that isn't explored as much is how bringing up Eloy and Kopech today, with a full two months of ball in 2018 left, makes the team better in 2019 and 2020. Everybody talks about prioritizing 2025, but that season is a huge unknown. With a few FAs and some other prospect graduations, this team is going to compete soon in a wide open AL Central. Having Eloy and Kopech get acclimated and begin making adjustment now will make them better contributors to the 2019 and 2020 teams. To me, that is important. That is why these guys need to be brought up literally in the next week or so. If you wait any longer, the benefit is minimized and the pendulum does swing back to holding them down for the extra year.

Well, the simple answer is their stock has fallen since then. But yeah, the Sox definitely came out ahead in the whole process!

Exactly! If the excuses seem ridiculous and tortured now, just imagine how asinine they would be through all of spring training up until Opening Day next year!

This is what I think too. I understand why people want to see him down until mid-April next year, but I just don't see that happening.

Yeah, it's all BS. It won't matter in a week or two when he's called up, but for now, I'd say better to just not say anything than come up with this farcical lines.

Clearly wasn't in the plans anymore, but I liked Jacob May. I hope he catches on somewhere. Even if he doesn't, hey, at least he made it to the show, which is something guys Keenyn Walker, Courtney Hawkins and Jared Mitchell won't get to say.

Just have to laugh at the defense comment, from a team that brought up Nicky Delmonico and Daniel Palka to play the OF. We're really grasping at straws here!

Peter, meanwhile, for those who are wondering, is hitting .230/.296/.352 in AAA for the Dodgers in the hitter-friendly PCL. I was a fan of his last year, but no doubt the Sox made out well here.

I believe in Moncada's potential too. That doesn't automatically disqualify this trade. It's possible Moncada lives up to a large portion of his potential but Arenado still ends up better.

For the purposes of this hypothetical, we are assuming they agree to an extension. If they don't, the trade is never completed.

In the proposed scenario, it's not a one-year rental. That would obviously be a bad idea.

That'd be great, but the scenario in this thread is that he is going to be traded somewhere and sign an extension in-season before ever hitting the market. So the FA road is off the table.

While it's not a no-brainer, I think I would make the trade. To me, it's about asset allocation instead of pure asset accumulation. With good options already in place at SS and 2B, I'll cash in Moncada's value and take the elite 3B, which I don't think the Sox will be able to find through other avenues. Of course, the whole thing could backfire if Madrigal flops or Arenado craters in the AL, so it's still risky. But I think it would be worth the risk.

Correct. And yeah, it's much more likely Arenado goes all the way to FA, but I thought this would be an interesting hypothetical scenario.

The premise of this thread is that you are in fact able to extend Arenado at the time of the trade. I agree that trading Moncada for a semi-rental with no guarantee of an extension doesn't make any sense.