Chicago White Sox

I can’t see him going down when this season is a complete lost cause and he’s letting Getz go out and sign cheap veterans to plug holes when there are even cheaper minor league options available if money were an issue. I’d expect a payroll somewhere in the $130M to $150M range next year since I believe Jerry wants to win as quickly as possible and ideally by 2026 at the latest.

Yeah, Jerry isn’t going spend LaRussa money right off the bat, but zero reason this team can’t push to ~$150M pretty quickly. I believe we’re around $120M or so this year with dead money & deferrals. I don’t see it going lower than that at a minimum, which would result in substantial payroll space next offseason. The hope in my mind is with a young cheap rotation built around Nastrini, Thorpe, Eder, Cannon, Iriarte and possibly Crochet we can spend some pretty large dollars on the offense. There are some interesting free agents that I think would be within the reach of Jerry’s wallet. It would require unprecedented commitments from him, but nothing overly crazy that seems impossible.

Have you actually looked at his Statcast figures? Or will you simply continue with lazy takes in your endless quest to save face by crapping on this trade.

Yup, a bet a lot of teams would love to nut up for that slutter come July

For me, I’d grade it a solid B right now. Again, I wouldn’t use the word “steep” to describe it, but getting three top 150 prospects (include one of best 15 to 20 SP prospects in all of baseball) plus an interesting reliever is reasonable. It’s very possible we could have gotten more by waiting until the deadline, but it would have been super risky given where the org stands currently. I think Getz made the right call here.

And the source of the “88-89” was none other than A.J. Pierzynski watching a steam with absolutely no context, so not surprising it’s a whole lot of nothing.

Upon further review, Steven Wilson is a very interesting 4th piece. I wrote him off pretty much immediately due to his age, but the dude has put up pretty solid traditional stats, has posted +80th percentile xwOBA’s the past two years, and has really good stuff (ranked 18th in Stuff+ last year amongst relievers). His pitch mix is basically just a plus 4-seamer (FG graded it a 70 back in 2022 despite just avg velocity) & his bread & butter “slutter” that he’s been enhancing through technology. The sweeper all but confirms this is a Bannister guy. If it were me, I’d hand the closer role to Wilson and see how he responds. If he does well, we could be looking at a very valuable trade asset at the deadline as Wilson still has four years of control left. It’s still somewhat bizarre Getz went down this route vs. just getting an extra prospect, but I appreciate the creativity if they truly believe Wilson has real flip potential come July.

Don’t let Balta see this!

Lol…he’s a fucking 18 year old in A ball. His 14 HRs tied for 5th in the league.

Do you trust Bannister though?

I 100% prefer this trade.

People are underestimating the Bannister angle here. They scouted this farm extensively and chose these guys. People look at Thorpe and worry about his subpar fastball instead of seeing it as an obvious area of opportunity. His floor is already high, but with even a little improvement with the fastball and the kid could be special. Iriarte is a high ceiling arm with helium and at 22 years of age there is plenty of time for Bannister to help him harness his stuff a bit. If that doesn’t ultimately happen, he probably ends up a valuable back-end reliever. As for Zavala, Law had him as a top 100 prospect a year ago and he just put up a 140 wRC+ offensive season in A ball as an 18 year old. Law said he dropped him off the list due to some unfavorable reports and it sounds like there are some work ethic questions at play. But Law also doesn’t deny the talent (or the quality of the results) and there is a pretty high ceiling, even if a corner profile.

We got a SP ranked in the 60’s, another SP ranked in the 90 to 120 range, and a kid that is likely in the 100 to 150 range. That’s way more than those two were expecting no matter how much they want to spin this. I wouldn’t use the word “steep” to describe it, but I think it’s a roughly fair return and much more than what we would have gotten if opposing GMs valued him as the 2023 version.

People are legit sleeping on Thorpe. We’re talking about a SP with 70 grade command. Steamer & ZiPS both project him as a 2 win pitcher this year. I’d normally say he’s more of a middle of the rotation profile, but with Bannister just never know where he can rise him.

It’s a four for one so we know all the pieces. I am very much good with this return now that Zavala is a part of it.

We got your savage bro! Kid also just put a .420 OBP in A ball last year as an 18 year old. To be honest, I wanted Zavala more than Head so this is a huge win!

Savage!?!?!!

Why??

Thorpe is currently BA’s 58th overall prospect or the 15th highest ranked pitching prospect. I get wanting one of their even higher regarded arms (I really wanted Snelling), but let’s not pretend like he’s some fringe top 100 type. Iriarte was #92 overall on the 2023 list and is a consensus top 10 prospect in a really strong system. Need to see the rest of the package though.

Early favorite for POTY!!

I’m hoping Morosi breaks it to end his god awful streak of providing zero inside info that comes to fruition

Before opening day bro. I’m even more confident about this one than I was about Gioito commanding a top 100 prospect at the deadline and Santos being tradable despite coming off a season-ending injury. It will happen soon.