Chicago White Sox

I agree, I would have preferred a SS addition to one at 3B / 2B. Perhaps he just saw too much value in Rajos at $3.5M. I just hope we don’t put Montgomery on the OD roster as a result. We need to extend out service time windows where possible and a strong AFL should not override a not great AAA season.

Baldwin primarily played SS last year at Birmingham, Meidroth made the most starts at SS last year for Worcester, and Sosa has tons of experience at SS in the minors. I think we can get by for a month or two with those three covering SS.

I’ve been assuming Baldwin at SS and Sosa at 2B with Amaya the main backup IF and Meidroth starting off at AAA. With Amaya gone, that obviously opens up the door for Chase for an OD role. I agree, I think we need to see what we have in Sosa and I’d like to see him get a real look to open the year. A month or two in AAA makes all the sense in the world for multiple reasons..

And they are all guys with options who can be sent to AAA. The issue with Perez is he automatically eats up a 26 man roster spot and doesn’t offer much flip potential. I’m not losing sleep over signing him, but he’s definitely not the guy I would spend my limited budget dollars on.

Prelander Berrora was the main piece we got back in the Gregory Santos traded…he’s a legitimate prospect with tremendous stuff.

I’m with you. I get the “you can never have enough pitching” mantra but we have a ton of young arms on the cusp and aren’t really trying to win next year. As such, you can always find some AAAA arms to give innings to if guys aren’t ready or in the event of lots of injuries.

I have my pitchfork ready to go if Getz tries this s%*#…hopefully that isn’t the case, but keeping Amaya around was making me feel more confident about that. Baldwin is still the dude I pegged to be OD SS, but Amaya’s lack of options was helpful as a 26 man roster blocker.

Why are we burning a year of service time when we can wait a few weeks and gain an extra year of control?

Yes

There were others too. Kyle Kane (1st round flop), Josh Fogg (part of Todd Ritchie trade), Rob Purvis (1st round flop), Josh Stewart (made starts with the Sox), Matt Guerrier (part of Damaso Marte trade), Corwin Malone (eventual #3 prospect in the system), etc. So many of these games ended up flopping, but at the time it was the most insane amount of pitching depth in all of baseball.

Fulmer was another guy who was cracking top 100 lists early on. Honestly, it’s impossible for me to say that Schultz/Smith/Thorpe/Taylor/Iriarte/Cannon is a better group than Rodon/Giolito/Cease/Kopech/Lopez/Dunning/Fulmer were at the time. However, I think the next few tiers of pitchers in the system today blows the old rebuild group out of the water. The pitching depth is the best I can remember since the 2000 system under Kenny as Farm Director.

The fastest way to improve quickly is to identify a bunch of cheap 1.5 to 2.0 win players vs. the replacement level and below guys that we trotted out there last season. As such, we should try to give as many of our young players with some potential an actual opportunity to become legit regulars. Unless you’re getting a potential impact player at a steal, there is zero reason block guys right now.

You really can’t wrap your head around the idea that paying market value for free agents when you are multiple years from competing is a bad idea as they will likely be bad when the rest of the team is good.

Giving a nine year deal to a good not great 30 year old 1B is the definition of inanity.

You can debate he could have used more time, but saying he was rushed after hitting as well as he did in AA doesn’t seem right to me. Not all prospects need extensive AAA stints IMO.

I will never complain about a minor league signing so fine by me

To be fair, guys have to want to come here. I don’t see why Scott would unless you did something so stupid it negates a lot of his value. Maybe there is a better chance with Hoffman because you tell him you’ll commit three to four months of starting without any risk of moving to the bullpen, but again, a better team might offer him the same.

Profar is really tough. If we didn’t have Benintendi, then he’s maybe a guy you’d consider, but even then he’s a terrible defender. And I think there is too much concern with his bat to make a three year commitment to him as DH. Hoffman you don’t need to sell me on. I’d give him something similar to the Clay Holmes contract in a heartbeat.

Regarding the first group of guys, Ramos was the only one who was clearly not ready. You could argue some of them could have benefited from more time in AAA, but I can’t really say Baldwin was rushed for example. Guys being bad in the majors does not mean they were rushed necessarily..there is a certain level of development that must occur in the majors. Thorpe is a great example of that…sending him to AAA wasn’t go to improve his game in the long run. I also don’t agree with your second part, at least on true being prepared to rush guys “ready or not”. I actually agree that Montgomery is a big test and if he gets the Opening Day nod that is a bad sign. But having a tentative roadmap in place for Schultz & Smith doesn’t mean they will automatically stay on it. If they perform poorly in the minors, that could push their debut time to the following season.

Rick Hahn rushed top draft selections to the majors if they could fill holes on the parent club (Vaughn, Crochet, etc). I’m not sure Chris Getz was that aggressive with the rest of his prospects, but please provide some examples.

Are you wrong that Fletcher & DeLoach deserve playing time on the major league roster at their advanced ages despite not even hitting in AAA? Yes, I think you are very wrong there. I think saying that we won’t be able to afford anyone but Cedric Mullins is completely ridiculous and doesn’t warrant further comment. We’ve seen Reinsdorf eat contracts in the past, see Dallas Keuchel’s contract as the most recent example. So again, you’re likely wrong there. As for rushing Montgomery, we’re debating a future event so impossible to say right now, but Getz’s track record both as GM and Player Development director don’t suggest he’s one to regularly rush prospects.

Vrabel being interviewed tomorrow.

Ok buddy…

You need to take a breather from White Sox baseball my friend. Like nothing wrong with being pessimistic given how shitty things have gotten, but we also need to avoid going full Parkman and assume Murphy’s Law at all turns. Robert could get hurt and we end up with nothing, but the rest of these are all absurd. There is no reason to believe Montgomery will be rushed at this time, but it’s very possible he moves pretty fast is ready for a shot by the 2H of the 2026 season. If that changes, then by all means call them out. My guess is that Jerry would be willing to eat 1.5 years of Benintendi’s contract, which would be sometime in the 2H of 2026. I think there’s almost zero chance he is here by 2027. Fletcher & DeLoach don’t project as major league players right now, so I’m not sure what there is to gain giving them more reps in the corners to them over other young players (although I can see an argument against Vargas FWIW). The Sox will have an insane amount of financial flexibility ahead of the 2027 season if they don’t blow their load this offseason on Santander & the gang and there will multiple quality free agent OFs available that offseason in our price range.