Chicago White Sox

What did he say?

I’d like to hear something from Getz which highlights the high-level plan for this off-season, because I’m still expecting a big payroll reduction. Historically, Jerry has always over-indexed to prior year attendance. A big cut would the already slim of competing next year damn near impossible IMO.

Call me crazy, but I don’t get the Kim Ng infatuation. More qualified than Getz to be our head baseball decision maker? Sure, but I wouldn’t be rushing out to scoop her up right now if the GM job was open.

He was so bad. I remember how excited I was the winter of Harper / Machado. I really thought we’d land one of them and things were going to finally change. The failure to not land either broke me, but I recovered the following winter when they signed Grandal and offered a big contract for Wheeler. Despite not being a huge fan of the Keuchel signing, I saw signs the money was being spent. It’s amazing how quickly it went downhill from there. I love Liam the player (and didn’t hate the signing) and was a huge fan of the Lancer trade (and following extension), but almost everything after that was terrible. Despite huge holes in RF and 2B, Rick refused to fill those roles with actual impact players and instead loaded on relievers and role players. He showed no killer instinct outside of trading players off the major league roster for a second closer. And then as a final parting gift, the dude goes out and hands out the largest contract franchise history to a no power, mediocre defensive LF. While it’s a complete joke that a 5/$75M contract is the largest in franchise history, it’s still a really bad deal for a very ordinary (possibly bad) player. I feel bad my children will have to watch him for the next four years.

He has like 2 +0.500% winning seasons in like 11 years as GM. Anyone that incompetent would have been fired a long time before failing that badly.

There is absolutely nothing impressive about Rick Hahn’s resume. On paper it’s an absolute embarrassment. And failures have nothing to do with the fact there are more qualified people for the White Sox GM job than Chris Getz.

Jerry didn’t go to all the trouble to include a crazy deferred buyout to ultimately not use it when the opportunity presents itself. The old man hasn’t been this excited since Albert Belle opted out of his contract due to us not honoring the “top three highest paid player” clause.

I haven’t read the article, but if you really want to establish a culture, you don’t stick with a loser, brown-nosing manager like Grifol. It’s amazing to me that Hahn said he wanted to hire a guy with experience in a competitive org and then goes out and hires some rookie chump from the Royals. You reap what you sow I guess.

What you thinking

He was ~0.7 fWAR worse than his previous two seasons, so not sure I’d call it “such a terrible season” or believe he’s lost significant trade value.

Imagine this whopper of a lineup (wRC+): Benintendi, LF* (87) Anderson, SS (60) Robert, CF (128) Jimenez, DH (105) Moncada, 3B# (98) Vaughn, 1B (103) Colas, RF* (53) Perez, CA (86) Merrifield, 2B (93) Absolutely wild how badly they fucked this up and how hilarious it is they think that Perez or Merrifield are the answers for anything.

I envision us signing Luis Severino & Frankie Montas and praying for healthy rebound seasons. The problem is even if those guys deliver, an offense where the big additions are two mid 30’s guys with ~90 wRC+ will suck a massive you know what.

I was at the airport for a few hours on Monday and thought about mocking something up, but damn is trying to build a team that is remotely competitive next year daunting. Hell, not even fun to run a “blow it up” scenario because there isn’t much to trade. Getz will have his work cut out for him.

I wanted to like this post until I got to that second sentence…lol. Unfortunately with how desperate Grifol is for a clubhouse enforcer, I feel like the price will be a bit higher than expected (especially if money is coming back).

AJ Pollock was a bad contract? He was coming off a 3.1 win season when we traded for him and came at a really reasonable cost. Obviously thinking he could play RF was a huge gaffe, but no one thought he was going to fall off a cliff with the bat so quickly. Not totally giving them a free pass there, but he would got a higher guarantee in free agency given Michael Brantley had gotten 2/$32M the off-season before at a similar age and with a similar profile. There was definitely some expected surplus value at the time of the trade. You can’t evaluate a move entirely with the benefit of hindsight.

Who is saying we will get a haul for him? I’m not even fully convinced they pick up the option, but they should have some sense of his value based on deadline discussions.

Not Steve Cishek is suggesting many core players are likely to be moved. I just struggle with what that actually looks like. Cease can still be moved for a haul, but the positional guys all have warts that limit or negate all value (outside of Robert of course). I think Eloy still has some value, but our best opportunity to get a decent piece was at the trade deadline last year. Regardless, I think it’s all but guaranteed he gets moved this off-season. I also think that Moncada & Tim could get traded, but the former will require taking on bad money to move and the latter won’t get you much in return. That being said, I think there is a real desire to nuke this clubhouse and they find a way to remove the bad apples.

I can’t stomach to read the article, but the one thing Chris must acknowledge when he goes into this offseason is there is no path to winning in 2024. None whatsoever. That point is key because it should impact what he does in free agency and the trade market. All potential moves must take 2025 & 2026 into consideration. Don’t trade any prospects for win-now pieces. Don’t go out and sign a C tier free agent to the largest contract in franchise history. When adding stop-gap/transitional pieces, focus on guys that have a profile that might warrant something at the deadline if they actually pan out. Try to avoid multi-year commitments as much as you can and push for team options where possible. Most importantly are two specific things: Seriously listen on a Cease trade this off-season. No reason to keep him around for what will still be a long shot chance of competing in 2025. He needs to be moved between now and the next deadline. If the offers are there in the winter, don’t hold and risk an injury. Do not rush the key prospects. The farm is still in bad shape despite an infusion of talent at the deadline and we need to take our time with these kids. Approach the off-season as if the minors will be providing little help in 2024 and stick to that plan until one of these kids forces the issue.

You realize by taking a “pass” on Conforto, we are now stuck with an ever worse player on a 4/$64M deal. I wish an $18M option was the only headwind left.

We have 1 1/2 SPs and only a couple relievers…$1.7M for Touki is probably a no-brainer.

I don’t follow, please elaborate

The reality is this org really loves Andrew Vaughn. Short, slow, unathletic, underachieving, and right-handed. What’s not to like from a 1B? The reality is they aren’t going to give up on him and will force him down our throats as one of the “leaders” of the team. He will be here next year, so we should just hope for the best. On the other hand, I feel pretty confident Eloy gets traded. My guess is he gets moved for a plus defensive RF with a questionable bat so that Getz can claim we’re getting “more athletic” despite adding old ass Salvy behind the plate.

Especially when Salvy eats up 27% of that amount.

Wow, I was totally wrong. Can’t wait to see what losers Grifol brings in to fix the offense.