Chicago White Sox

Wikelman Gonzalez takes Jacob Gonzalez’s spot post trade.

I don’t think this new guy cracks the 40 man roster this year…that’s what makes him somewhat attractive. Paul Janish has confirmed McDougal is coming, but not my guess is that will be post the All Star break. I could see Schweitzer get the call in the short term.

We just traded our number two prospect per Kiley to do so though and lost a trade chip that could have been used to augment the major league team at the deadline in the process. We have simply shifted a more advanced asset for a less advanced one and have lost some trade flexibility in the near term. Tomorrow will be a fuckton of fun though.

But why did we have to trade him now? Most teams are 100% focused on the draft and not looking to buy for or sell from their major league roster. Obviously the answer is they wanted the Comp A pick and this was the price to get it. That being said, we could have traded Jacob at the deadline or in the offseason and still dealt with the roster crunch then. And conceptually, there would have likely been a bigger market at those times.

Maybe some people don’t realize he’s not a 1B? The Pirates are going to play him on the left side of the infield which is where he spent most of his career. He can also play 2B and looked pretty good at 1B despite being new to the position. He doesn’t need to be Murakami for the bat to play up at other infield spots. Chase Meidroth is on pace for like a 2.8 win season by just being a league average hitter and providing quality 2B defense. Jacob may not be that level of defender at 2B, but he has almost hit as well as Chase despite adjusting to the majors and enduring a massive slump. If he can just be a slightly better hitter than Chase, he’s a very valuable player.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m super excited for what this means for the draft. I just think it feels like we overpaid a bit for this specific draft pick so we could have the highest bonus pool possible. And candidly, it’s hard for me to ignore the production history of guys taken in the Comp A round and just assume the best case scenario for us. I’m an optimistic guy by nature, but don’t like this trade on paper. I may feel differently tomorrow once I see what Shirley was able to accomplish though.

Just fully disagree with you on the evaluation of the player and certainly don’t agree we had to trade him now because he was blocked.

That’s the $200M+ question.

Is this a dig at my player projections? If so, please provide some examples of all these “rosy WAR guarantees” I have made. I’m happy to be humbled, but don’t appreciate digs that come without any specifics. And yes, he’s slow as f***. I fully disagree with you on his power though. In AAA, his 90th % EV was in the 80th percentile and his hard hit rate in the 76th. More importantly, his max EV was in the 95th percentile. Was his HR output inflated from playing half his home games at Truist? No doubt, but dude was hitting the s%*# out of the ball with his new stance. And he was doing this all with good swing decisions and solid in-zone contact to boot. I’m excited for an extra pick and the extra bonus dollars it comes with. I just feel like this is an overpay to get those luxuries.

The crappy reliever we got appears to be a bit more exciting than the one we gave up and doesn’t require a 40 man spot yet. He is Rule 5 eligible this fall, so if he’s any good it doesn’t really help with the roster crunch.

He also flashed a pretty good hitting profile in the majors that made believers out of previous skeptics like Keith Law & Kiley McDaniel.

Don’t agree with this guy on the batted ball data…looked pretty good to me over the last two weeks when he was our best hitter.

Because Gonzalez is far more redundant with Roch & Bonemer coming

How does this allow us to trade for more pitchers? We just gave up one of our top couple of prospects to get pick that can’t be traded for quite some time.

I don’t want to be that guy, but draft picks bust. I love Shirley and think he’s a legit star when it comes to talent evaluation, but he’s far from perfect. Look at the Hagen Smith pick (which was overslot) and what we could have taken as example (and yes, I know Getz is more so responsible for that). Do we really think a late 1st round college pitcher is a slam dunk? It’s why prospects are less valuable than proven commodities and draft picks are worth less than similarly talented prospects. That bust potential requires a discount from a valuation perspective and it just doesn’t seem to be baked into the equation here.

He’s a Japanese guy and the culture is very different there. I’d wager he like to sign with the Sox long-term if they come with a respectable offer.

Just feels likes an overpay and that we should have gotten an actual nice 2nd piece along with the draft pick. I mean, the rumor is Pittsburgh was looking for a quality reliever for then pick prior to this. I struggle to think that an everyday positional player is worth less than that.

He’s out number two prospect per Kiley and Law called him a potential star.

I just don’t agree with this take. You think market value of a comp pick is a major league ready LH hitting infielder with plus plate discipline & power who brings a solid glove at multiple spots and comes with 6+ years of control. The average career WAR for a comp A pick is ~4 I believe. Jacob is on pace for ~1.5 wins as a 1B and his bat is much better than his current season-to-date results. I think as a 2B his floor is a 2 win player and ceiling is much higher than that. Just playing the odds, he will be more valuable than the comp A pick. Jacob’s history isn’t all that relevant. He reinvented his swing this offseason and was finally able to tap into his natural raw power. He came up to the majors and quickly demonstrated he wasn’t just a product of Truist Field. And he isn’t a guy strictly relying on his new found power…he was always a very disciplined hitter. He doesn’t have to hit 30 HRs to be a very valuable player.

Trading a player who broke out and is major league ready for a pick that we hope one day is as good as the player we traded. If we traded Gonzalez, it should be toward a controllable SP and not a draft pick that won’t help us for years and will have a high chance of busting.

Also, this all but confirms Roch is the pick at 1.01.

I’d egg Chris Getz’s house right now if I had his address and wasn’t in Florida

I absolutely hate this trade. Absolutely shitty return on value here.

I love Tristin Peters. I was doing cartwheels when he got that triple. Getz deserves GM of the year for that move alone.

And the best part is he absolutely loved the trade at the time.