Chicago White Sox

Baldwin played RF in college. And some of the others can get some test run in LF next year given it will be a lost season. But given the amount of stipulations you have in place on what moves are allowed, I see why Santander is your only option to solve our OF needs.

Also, trades are very much possible. If all goes well, we should have some SP to trade. Had we chosen McCarthy over Fletcher, we’d already have spot solved for. Just need to get it right the next time.

But if we’re being realistic about 2026 & 2027: Trade Robert for a near ready CF prospect at this year’s deadline Use Baldwin as your primary RF until Montgomery is ready by 2027 Benintendi is probably your LF for one last half season in 2026 Start giving some LF reps to some of your IF guys to add versatility Add reinforcements in the offseason ahead of the 2027 season

Nope, this sounds like the @JUSTgottaBELIEVE way of trying maximize wins during the early years of a rebuild instead of making good long-term decisions.

It’s wild that we don’t know the terms yet and what the corresponding roster move will be, especially given Merk is the who broke this signing.

Yeah, the rumor is Getz would need one meaningful piece to move Robert and DePaula would certainly qualify IMO. My guess is that was never on the table or else Getz would have jumped on that.

That all makes sense. The challenge with Kim is he’s going to want some long-term security but also the ability to opt-out. My guess is a signing like that just be a value for a team like us, but there is certainly some theoretical math that could possibly work for us if the market is really worried about his shoulder. The other issue is I think 3B / 2B is one of the deeper positions we have in our system. Sosa, Baldwin, Meidroth, Vargas, & Ramos are all more or less ready. Then you have another wave in Gonzalez & Bergolla at AA plus a variety of semi interesting guys in the low minors in Perez, Albertus, & Antonacci. And that’s just the guys likely to be in full season ball and excludes some of the younger SS prospects who could eventually shift over. Forcing Montgomery over to 3B or 2B for that matter blocks opportunity for a lot of these guys.

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.