Chicago White Sox

They’re not accepting those deals, not unless they come with another 5 to 6 years (with opt-outs) to serve as an insurance policy. Now is not the time to be afraid to pay market (or above) for a star.

Who do you have in mind?

Go big or go home. I just don’t see the value of spreading money around to fill a lot of holes. At some point, you’ll just be blocking your young guys. Now, I’m all for adding “bridge” guys in the near term, but those contracts would ideally be one or two years in length. Personally, I think adding a Harper or Machado is critical to the rebuild. We need a star that can anchor this thing without costing us a big chunk of our prospect capital. Failure to land one of these guys puts us in a tough spot, as we’ll be forced to settle for expensive secondary free agents that are unlikely to move the needle as much as a Bryce or Manny and puts a ton of pressure on Moncada, Eloy, & Robert all needing to develop into legit stars.

I think he was drafted as a catcher. Not sure how long that lasted though.

Holy shit is someone reporting that something is close!?!

Your wish is my command:

I think people have a right to know the truth here.

Under no circumstance was that taken out of context.

You hearing anything raBBit on who might be his replacement?

Lol...how in the world do you expect either of those teams to add $60M in payroll commitments?

Yup, these signings are all related to landing a way.

I just don’t see the point of spending big on Marwin Gonzalez. He’s young enough that he’ll probably get a four year deal and versatile enough that he’ll probably get a +$10M AAV. He makes way more sense in the NL IMO.

RF: Harper 3B: Arenado 1B: Donaldson Gone: Abreu Like I side in my previous post, Donaldson’s bat is good enough to move to 1B if we’d like to add an Arenado type.

2/$40M would be ideal, but I could convince myself to go three years. The nice thing about Donaldson is the bat should be playable at 1B/DH if a young, controllable 3B suddenly becomes available and/or Madrigal forces his way into the picture fairy quickly.

Daniel Murphy would be a nice bridge to Madrigal and could shift to 1B/DH if Nick ends up coming fast. He’s another value free agent I’d be open to adding.

I have a feeling Donladon will end up being the steal of this year’s class. I wouldn’t want to go more than 2 or 3 years max, but adding him & Harper alongside Jimenez completely changes the complexion of the offense. With some development from Moncada & a more consistent season from Abreu, we could actually have one of the better offenses in the league. Obviously the pitching would be a problem, but gamble on some higher variance guys to fill the remaining two holesand hope that the Rodon, Lopez, & Giolito trio takes a big step forward next year.

Donaldson for sure. Steamer still thinks he’s a 5 WAR player. Getting him for 2/$40M could be an absolute steal IMO.

Where are you getting this +55 WAR figure from for 2018?

Us. JFS us...lol.

It did not take a $60M overpayment, the Rangers simply negotiated against themselves. You are absolutely nuts if you honestly think it would take $100 to $125M above the next offer to land one of these guys. Like do you even think through what you say anymore??

I refuse to accept that. If we don’t land a whale today, there may be no whale to land tomorrow. It’s really that simple. And knowing that fact and having a top farm system & practically zero payroll commitments, there is really no excuse not to make a baller offer to both these guys and make it as hard as possible for them to say no.

I’m going to add this right now, but signing one of Harper & Machado should be viewed as a must. I get there is truth to the “we can’t force these guys to sign with us” idea, but there are offers that can be made that would be very difficult to turn down. I really truly hope our front office & ownership will look to be aggressive with these guys from the get-go. Don’t slow play shit and let a team like the Yankees go “fuck it, I’ll play ball at that price”. We should come out to Bryce with a 10/$400M offer and say there it is bro. Let Boras know we’ll be making a similar offer to Machado in a couple weeks and if he bites then we are the fuck out. If this shit ain’t wrapped up by the Winter Meetings, we better be all-in on Machado by that point.

I doubt that’s nearly enough. They’ll definitely want one blue chipper to headline any deal.

Collins is ranked the 67th best prospect in baseball as a 1B by Fangraphs. They certainly believe his offensive game will provide enough value to be a major league 1B despite a lackluster hit tool. I really think you’re underestimating just how elite his batter’s eye is and how real his power is. And don’t ignore the fact that minor league catchers spend so much time on the defensive side of things that their bats can often lag behind a bit.

It doesn’t seem unreasonable per se, but still not something we should do. Collins still has an elite batters eye & 70 grade raw power. Even if he doesn’t pan out at catcher, his offensive seems like it should play at 1B/DH with the juiced ball. And Dunning is one of the higher floor pitching prospects in the game, health permitting. Just doesn’t make sense for us to move them for a guy under control for two years.