Chicago White Sox

Seems a bad trade for the Mariners.

Oh gotcha

That’s exactly what I’m saying. Again, SS’s can move anywhere, we all know this, but our OF talent in the system is atrocious. An elite CF or RF to headline a deal would be just as good IMO as a legit SS prospect given where we stand today.

Merkin keeps suggesting that Getz is targeting a SS in a Crochet return. While you can never have too many SS prospects, I do think it lends some credence to the Montgomery is a 3B talk.

He will once we trade Robert and prospects for him.

The only challenge there is we already a bounce-back guy we need to give a look in Vargas and another near major league prospect in Ramos. I’d rather target a post hype RF type or someone that can slot in at DH.

A curse?

This is old news and no longer relevant. The Sox have taken high schoolers with five of their last seven 2nd round picks. The other two picks were two higher ceiling SPs coming off TJS (one of which is Taylor). There is plenty to rip the White Sox for, an outdated draft strategy isn’t one of them.

Well yeah, I’d look to extend him if I were the acquiring team’s GM, but Getz doesn’t need to make a trade that’s conditional on an extension. There’s a ton of unnecessary risk in doing that. The reality is Crochet is a premium asset and he should be marketed like one. If I were Getz, I go into the Winter Meetings and tell everyone he will be dealt for the best package by the end of the event. I wouldn’t give the opposing GMs time to f*** around and play the slow game. Tell them they can either have a truly elite SP on the cheap for the next two years who is open to an extension or they can overpay for mid tier SP in free agency. The former will come at a high cost, but is far more likely to make a difference in October than other any pitcher available. You want the unicorn, you got to pay unicorn prices. It’s really that simple and Getz doesn’t need to over complicate things. This trade should be done on our timeline & terms. The only exception is maybe waiting for Burnes to sign, but honestly, I would take advantage of the Winter Meetings setting regardless. Having every GM in one spot and being able to commit 24 hours a day to negotiation is a huge plus as a seller and increases the chances of one GM doing something stupid as result of FOMO.

So was thinking about this further. The lack of bats in the system is highly problematic. Obviously BA hasn’t posted their full top 30 list yet, but if I had to guess there will be somewhere between 13 to 15 guys in there. The problem is isn’t necessarily the sheer number, but rather the limited upside they provide. I’m not sure that we end up with one single positional star out of the entire farm system as it stands. If Colson doesn’t return to form to some extent, then the odds are truly stacked against us. Our best hopes are Wolkow & Bonemer and both guys have a long road ahead before I’d give it even a 10% chance. It’s why Getz can’t afford to f*** up this Crochet trade and must target quality over quantity.

They also need a LatAm program that contributes anything. I asked the BA writer if there were any recent signings in the top 30 and he said no. It’s very possible the only one is Wilfred Veras who we signed in 2019. Thank god Paddy is finally gone because an org can’t survive long-term with one of its two key pipelines being completely devoid of talent.

I doubt Getz would do this as it underscores the crazy value Crochet provides these next two years alone plus the draft pick a team would get if he were to exit via free agency.

@Y2Jimmy0 - Are you hearing something else?

If you think he’s going to rebound, you keep him and trade at the deadline. If you think this is what he is, then you take the best offer now. Well find out how the Sox feel about him based on what they do between now and March.

I get your being sarcastic, but clearly we’d be trading him or any starter that we deem expendable for positional prospects.

Why?

Fully agree. Sox can’t afford to pass on the best offer they receive just because it’s the Cubs. We are well past that point unfortunately.

Thanks god! What did he say? Unfortunately he blocked me on Twitter for questioning his credibility.

The first step coming off a historically bad season is not to rush things. We are starting from a massive disadvantage vs. every other team in baseball outside of maybe the A’s & Rockies. This is going to take a ton of time to fix and we need to acknowledge that in our near-term strategy. As such, the best thing we can do right now is slow things down, avoid calling up our key prospects before we know they are ready, and give playing time to all the fringe talent we already have on the roster. If we can turn any of these fringe types into assets, we can accelerate the timing of the rebuild. Additionally, there is little value is burning control of high end prospect on 100 loss clubs. Obviously it’s uncontrollable to some extent, but we should do our best to minimize those impacts. And we should certainly avoid trading our best assets to acquire a bunch of 2 win players that won’t materially change our competitiveness before they hit free agency. I think starting in Y26 we can start making some moves that are focused on near-term winning, preferably using financial resources, but without question we are least a year away from being in that position.

That’s Campbell’s projection for Y25 as a rookie. Guys who perform that good as rookies typically build upon their success as they physically mature and gain experience.

Yes, unfortunate typo there. Was surprised when Fathom called it a “hell no” because it seemed like a no brainer for me.

It also means that turning Davis Martin into a cheap, controllable SP could pay dividends at the deadline or next offseason.

Which guys don’t you think will be ready? Fry, Adams, & Nastrini? The other four guys I mentioned were in the rotation already and performing well outside of Thorpe due to injury.

I guess I disagree on the lack of talent. Thorpe was a top 100 prospect heading into last season and peaked around 60th overall. Burke is a former 3rd round pick who just popped up as a top 25 pitching prospect in a Fangraphs based projection model. Cannon is a former 3rd pick who lacks ceiling, but offers a very high floor and has already performed well in the majors as a BOR innings eater. Martin was a guy with some helium before getting injured and looked pretty good last year and flashed two plus secondaries. These guys don’t have TOR potential but they could potentially solve the #3 to #5 of a decent rotation to varying degrees. And coming off a 120 loss season and needing to buy some time before the high ceiling guys hit (Schultz, Smith, & Taylor), these are exactly the type of pitchers you give starts to. Also, not sure what your comment about “built in excuses is referring to”. Steamer thinks we should get 6.5 fWAR out of them next year if they each pitch 1,000 innings total. That many innings won’t happen obviously, but I’d 100% be willing to hold Katz accountable for achieving that level of production on a per rate basis.