Y2Jimmy0

100%. It doesn't matter where the stadium is. If Illinois really has no interest in discussing Bears situation in 2026, I honestly think they move to Indiana. Agreed. I'd actually prefer it living in the south burbs.

I'd be surprised if Quero moves. They'll need a ton in return to move him and I'm not sure the offers will match that yet. Pitchers don't love throwing to Korey Lee

Has to be in spring training though because he’s out of options along with Sosa, Mead and Ramos

Sox have like $800K unaccounted for. It could easily be spent though.

Yes. Just a typo.

I remember the overslot prep arms who never even made the majors. Cannon signed for like $900K I believe. Great value in round 3.

I wrote the international signing preview for FutureSox here: https://www.futuresox.net/2026/01/03/2026-white-sox-international-signing/

I’m just not sure what the answer is in a non salary cap league. QO’s really affect the marketplace though. If they got rid of one thing, it should be not penalizing teams for signing players.

They’ve done it with Bonemer and Fauske the last two years. Bonemer is a top 50 prospect in the sport. It’s how you get those guys. I just don’t look at the draft as slot amounts per round. I see it as, they have a certain total amount to spend and trying to get as much talent for that money as possible.

They haven’t really been “punting” but in order to go overslot without comp picks, the money has to come from somewhere. It doesn’t really but teams like having agreements in place so that they know how much they can spend throughout rest of draft.

I’ll have preview out this weekend for FutureSox. They have some monster classes coming if the rules stay the same.

They should’ve taken Konnor Griffin and I said it at the time too but this is what happens sometimes. Teams behind the Sox were offering Smith close to $8 million. They had to top it to reach a deal with him. I would’ve pivoted to Griffin or Wetherholt instead. They medical red flagged Wetherholt. Everyone missed on Griffin. Yikes

Barely any. They have a million picks. They could offer him like $11 million and just use the overage. They have two extra picks and $20 million to spend. The 5% overage gives them an extra $1 million. They could add that to the #2 pick and theoretically pay Cholowsky $11.5 million if they wanted (this is $2.2 million more than the record bonus) and they could still pay slot at every other pick.

For sure. He'll be a top 100 prospect this year.

Right around $18.6 million using the 5% overage.

I think moving guys like Aldrin Batista and Mathias LaCombe to relief roles in advance of R5 makes sense. Smith, Schultz and McDougal are basically their only hope for awhile at top of rotation arms. They must stay in rotation.

Right. It’s unlikely It’s not about losing the player. Sox slot will be around $11.3. Rays will be like $10.5. Rays have $20 million to spend. Nobody has ever gotten more than $9.3. The only issue is Rays theoretically offering full slot at 2 and Sox having to potentially pay more than they’d like to. They’ll take the player regardless. TB and Pittsburgh both could easily. TB has $20 million and Pirates have $19

Not worried yet. It’s not really their style. Sox can just take the player. He’ll sign. Only potential issue is not knowing how much you have throughout rest of draft.

Yeah I can’t see them adding more than that unless they got someone via trade

He’ll likely beat bonus record by quite a bit and still come in very underslot. Sox are in a great spot.

I wrote about Kelenic today: https://www.futuresox.net/2026/01/01/white-sox-add-jarred-kelenic-to-jumbl/

I don't know what happened last night. But Bob is legit. Harold was legit, etc. I sat this one out because I have an actual career and the nonsense isn't worth my time. I'm not sure Sox were ever even in this one. Jerry was never doing a deal with opt-outs.

All the Japanese sources are using that original Yahoo article which seemed like speculation anyway. This whole thing has been wild. We should have resolution today though.

I have lots of thoughts on this. I know who Harold was and they don't work for the team. He/She obviously knows people who do. Harold's info was always very, very solid. The stuff that was shared publicly and the stuff that wasn't was even more accurate. He was an asset to this board. Garrett Guest isn't posting on this board but if he's one of the ties, I wouldn't be totally surprised obviously based on some of the info that Harold shared at times. The whole thing was weird. On Jeremy Haber, he was running the draft at the end. The Sox were focused on Blake Mitchell who went #8 overall to Kansas City. Regardless of that, I'd heard all day that they wanted to take a prep hitter in the first round. In hindsight, they would've taken Teel had he fallen. From what I understand, Haber overruled the room to take Jacob Gonzalez at 15 and save $$ money for later. The Sox did turn around and draft Wolkow, Oppor, Lacombe etc but there were obviously better ideas at 15. The other thing that is hilarious about keyboard warriors defending Haber's honor is that his existence is what spawned the White Sox burner food accounts. Not Cishek always had pretty good info because the person running that account got information from someone very close to Haber from what I understand. Then the burner accounts would all share info with each other etc. Basically, I have some wild DM's but I'd need to go digging.

He doesn't usually broadcast when things will happen. He can check to verify something with a very, very good source though so he's generally right about finding out stuff that isn't true.