Chicago White Sox

Oh I didn’t realize that.

DePaula is worth considerably more than Sirota. And honestly, we took Nick McClain like nine picks before Sirota (despite what I’d argue a lesser pedigree) and paid him mostly similar money. I’m just not sure that our front office likes Sirota all that much. The pick could definitely be of interest though and had the Dodgers not brought back Teoscar I think you could have been on something here. I think this is simply the Dodgers selling high on Lux’s big second half and adding additional assets they can cash in at a later date.

I’m not sure what he’s referring to. The only thing I can recall people saying on here is that Robert is worth a lot more than Lux. Possible I’m missing some references though.

How so? Would you take this deal for Robert?

And for the record, I could see some rationalize for Kim if you’re certain that Montgomery can’t handle SS and that you are getting Kim at a big discount. And there are other free agents I would sign. I mentioned in a different thread, I’d happily sign Hoffman to a three year deal and try him as a SP because if he clicks you have an asset with significant value and if not he’s still tradable as a reliever. And there other rentals I’d look at, especially relievers and possibly a 1B type had we not brought Vaughn back. But full stop, I’m not giving up draft picks coming off a 41 win season…that would be legit negligence on the front office’s behalf.

I didn’t say it wouldn’t be worse, but I think we came close to bottoming out last year. You just said we’d be lucky to crack 1M which would be like a 30% decrease. I don’t see that happing. There will still be a subset of season ticket holders and enough dumb promotions to keep us above that threshold.

But our major league roster is starting with zero. Again, even last rebuild we had some pieces in place like Abreu, Timmy, & Rodon and we also had an even stronger farm system. And guess what? It failed because we couldn’t develop a second wave of prospects to come in and fill in the eventual gaps. And right now, you want to do the same thing despite being at a weaker starting point.

2024 was the worst season in baseball history…it should have been the lowest attendance in like forever. The team should only get better from this point forward so I don’t envision attendance dropping too much more, but obviously they need to fix this mess and fix it soon. I think fundamental disagreement you and several of us have is that “soon” is relative. You want to spend money to build a slightly better but still bad team whereas we think we should use 2025 as an opportunity to play a bunch of young players and see who sticks. I don’t want to be bad for five years though…the anti-tanking rule won’t reward us. However, we can still tank this year and try to get one very high pick while hopefully building out some subset of the core. If that latter part works out as hoped, then we can start spending some money next offseason. But even then, any goal of semi-competitiveness before 2027 is likely unrealistic.

Baltimore is also a dying city

You’re trying to pin this on the past rebuild when the reality is attendance has gradually fallen since 2005. The issue isn’t rebuilding…it’s the fanbase losing faith with Jerry as owner. Unfortunately, he needs to pass to right that issue. I don’t disagree that losing creates a bigger hole to dig out of, but a consistently competitive can help offset those headwinds. The problem is we can never build anything sustainable because have broken infrastructure and constantly try to rush things.

They just won 91games. What aren’t they getting away with?

And your plan is to build a consistent 70 win team and really improve fan engagement.

Is this a real post? Like now you’re whining about a team that won 91 games in the AL East because their attendance isn’t good enough. Make it make sense.

But that’s what your plan likely gets us…

These are different ownership groups…the money the Sox make doesn’t just transfer to the Bulls because Jerry wants to invest in real estate around the UC.

They can’t cut payroll below $60M fathom. Agree with the rest though.

These posts are getting absolutely ridiculous. Rebuilding “the right way” isn’t some Reinsdorf trope. Paying market value for good, not great players when you are multiple years away from competing is plain dumb, especially when it’s going to cost you draft picks and international slot dollars. You can continue to plug your ears and scream “I demand we win 65 games next year at all costs”, but it doesn’t change the fact it’s a legit stupid long-term strategy given the current state of the team.

I feel you brother…I am in the same boat. But giving Santander 5/$100M is not the answer. Three years from now people will likely be bitching about him being an albatross that prevents us from upgrading an OF spot.

You’re still not getting this…we have no core whatsoever. Your math is take a 41 win team add three B tier free agents worth like 10 wins if healthy and hope that gets us to the promise land. To act like Anthony Santander is the dude we should be proactive on and lose valuable draft and LatAm slot dollars when there will be similar free agents available in a couple years when we actually need him is wild to me. I get it…watching s%*# baseball sucks. But for millionth time, paying market value for free agents in or entering their 30’s is a recipe for disaster if your team isn’t built to win right now. If you lack the patience to endure what needs to be done, then I’d recommend a different hobby in the interim as this next season is going to be ugly no matter what we do. Trying to rush things for a token amount of entertainment value is simply not the answer.

Again, you seem more concerned about wining 60 games next year than ever winning a World Series again.

I can’t answer that question yet because I don’t know which spots are going to look our main holes and how many there will. If we get lucky this year and can feel confident in our 3B, SS, 2B, & C options moving forward then it’s easier to dream big on going after more impactful free agents. I’d feel even better if we could get a legit CF prospect we believe in for Robert at the deadline. But as a hypothetical, instead of Alonso, I’d pencil in Munetaka Murakami as a potential addition to fill 1B for us. And there are actually quite a few decent OF options in that pre 2027 offseason class that will be older and will 100% be in our price range. Let’s just say Seiya Suzuki to fit with the Japanese theme. And that would leave money for a quality SP, bullpen help, and other needs. How does this potential 2027 lineup work? TBD, CF - Robert trade Montgomery, SS* Suzuki, LF Murakami, 1B* Montgomery, RF# Ramos, 3B Quero, DH# Teel, CA* Meidroth, 2B (or Baldwin#)

Tucker is going to be looking for much more than $300M (my guess $500M+), so I think we can officially cross him off the list. Vlad Guerrero will likely be over $300M too, but is much more in the realm of possibility. Like theoretically should be possible to sign if we offered $250M to Machado a half decade ago, but Jerry likely going to Jerry as we all now. A cheaper corner infield alternative would be Munetaka Murakami from Japan. Your list didn’t include any Japanese free agents, but there are usually a couple bigger names posted each cycle. Ultimately, that free agent list should show you we need to do most of the heavy lifting ourselves and so far we done exactly zero reps.

How are three B tier free agents, one who will miss a chunk of the season, turn a 41 win team into a .500 team? Again, the current talent level is atrocious and we aren’t lucking into anything next regardless of who we sign. I totally agree a $60M payroll is absurd, but spending it on guys who will likely begin regressing on day 1 and will cost on picks and slot dollars on top of it isn’t the right strategy. There are long-term consequences to these type of signings and now is not the time to incur them.

I honestly believe a big driver of it was ethical (not liking the idea of negotiating with kids and their handlers) and Jerry is to blame for that. But the hope is that Getz has somehow convinced Jerry that it’s the price of doing business and we will continue to be at a massive disadvantage if we don’t get serious about the DR. I mean, all Getz would have to do is show him our top prospect list and do an ROI analysis on LatAm signings to prove how much value we’ve left on the table with this Cuban & Venezuela heavy strategy. And so far under Getz, it does seem like we are attempting to make progress there…it’s just going to take a long ass time to confirm and bare any fruit.

To be fair, the PBO, GM, and LatAm Director are all gone and those are the guys who arranged the deals in that signing class. We shouldn’t punish the current regime for something outside of their control. It’s clear that they value the DR more than their predecessors, so hopefully we’ll finally address our shortcomings there. Regardless, you should never make future decisions based on past mistakes. Not using your full slot value is unacceptable and if that trend continues we know who to blame.