Chicago White Sox

I believe we’re at $61M with a full 26 man roster of pre arb guys. However, let’s say we plan to add four more players (1B, OF, RP, SP), we’d also shave off $3M of salary out of that $61M. As such, I think you could say we have $32M to work with if you assume an exact $90M payroll. Theoretically this would be possible with that space: 1B: O’Hearn = $13.5M (2/$27M) OF: Bleday = $2.5M (1/$2.5M) RP: Fairbanks = $10M (2/$20M) SP: TBD FA = $6M

Interesting that Paez cracked Longhagen’s Top 100 list prior to the 2025 season but he fell off after a change in release point and injury.

I’d say ~$90M is what I’d expect.

Depends on the additions. A legit closer would provide far more value than their projected WAR given who they’re replacing. Regardless, the bulk of improvement needs to come from the young guys. I’m happy with smaller scale additions in FA this offseason to improve the floor and take some pressure off the kids.

Last year led to losses?

Getz listed off a pretty big laundry list of items including high leverage relief help, more SP depth, a LH bat at a corner IF spot, and possibly another corner OF. Throw in Kay and two Rule 5 picks and that would be quite a bit of activity. Likely small stakes financially, but could / should make the team better and more fun to watch.

They didn’t have a TV deal for a large chunk of last year, hard tot believe the payroll wouldn’t go up.

The org acquired and developed Crochet into a starter but decided to trade him for three positional prospects. The org acquired and developed Cease and then decided to trade him for a top 100 prospect in Thorpe who would have been part of our rotation if not for TJS. The org acquired and developed Lucas Giolito and then decided to trade him for top 3 org prospect in Ky Bush (and Quero) who would have likely been in the rotation mix if not for TJS. The org selected Mason Adams in the 13th round and turned him into a legitimate SP option for last year if not for TJS surgery. If you look at the data, the amount of TJS’s that impacted our org last year is a major outlier. If self-inflicted, then our front office has done something truly unprecedented and we should see another wave of injuries this year. Candidly, I think it was just bad luck just as the years & years of good fortune under Herm Schneider was partially good luck driven. I also don’t blame Getz for not having the budget to go out and sign veteran FAs better than Martin Perez (who also got injured, but admittedly also is old). At the end of the day, there is plenty to rip Getz for, but just don’t believe Shane Smith being our best SP last year is one of them. He is the dude whose front office went out and actually identified Smith as the best talent available in the Rule 5 draft and successfully turned him into a quality SP. If anything, the Brewers should be ridiculed for not protecting one of their best 26 players.

Unfortunately many here refuse to accept that Getz has made some structural improvements to the organization and that the fruits of those labors will not be seen overnight. As such, it’s easy to blame Getz for a lot of the shortcomings he inherited with the major league roster and focus on the bad. And don’t get me wrong, he’s certainly partly to blame for our PD failures but he also didn’t get to set the budgets and make the investments in data & technology needed to modernize his function. The reality is Smith & Vasil should be viewed as huge wins and early signs that the foundational work is starting to pay off.

I mean, they had a SP in Crochet that is leagues better than Smith, but we are rebuilding and traded him in the offseason to add multiple positional pieces. We also had three major league ready SP’s go down with TJS in spring training, which is super fluky and certainly hurt our SP depth to start the season.

Who are the undeniable options at 1B & DH?

Fully agree.

Which I find bizarre, but the point is Taylor isn’t going to go much beyond 100 innings this upcoming season and there is a way to do that in a primarily bullpen role.

Ryan O’Hearn at 2/$26M and Peter Fairbanks at 2/$20M aren’t “big money additions”…they are affordable short term stop gaps. Not one single poster here thinks they are going to sign a big free agent.

I don’t disagree with any of your main points, but I assume they plan to treat him like they did Vasil last year and he was able to throw 101 innings and only had 7 appearances beyond 3 innings. Again, the only hope I can cling to is the fact they don’t want to make him closer right now and want to build him up a a multi inning reliever instead.