Chicago White Sox

I’m guessing this was all Getz, but Ishbia pushing for more smart baseball minds would be a good thing as well.

La Russa?

Who besides Getz would hire an Assistant GM? Are you suggesting Jerry or Ishbia might have played a role in pushing this?

Will be interesting to see how they split areas of responsibility between Rodriguez and Barfield. It seems likely to me that our international operations will go under Rodriguez. Keller has always had a weird title and I feel like that might change now with Rodriguez in place and likely sitting in between him and Getz. Both Rodriguez and Barfield have backgrounds in player development so not sure what happens there. No idea on ops, acquisitions, pro scouting, amateur scouting, strategy, sports performance, etc. R&D / systems infrastructure probably needs it own senior leader that isn’t one of the Assistant GMs given the technical knowledge there. Jin Wong should continue to have his own area of responsibilities focus on budgeting, payroll planning, contract negotiations, etc.

The foundational changes he has made should not be understated. He basically wiped out the previous group of international scouts and has built a brand new team under David Keller. He has modernized what was a terribly broken Analytics department and has integrated it throughout all major functional areas of the org. He has built a new, beefed up Acquistions group under Matt Grabowski to bring a more data-centric element to player evaluation alongside traditional pro scouting under Gene Watson in new position in that area. He’s invested in key technologies like Hawk-Eye and iPitch machines to enhance both our biomechanics and player development functions. He’s added designated leaders to oversee pitching and hitting across the org. He’s greatly expanded the size of the front office by hiring three Assistant GMs with specific responsibilities and has added other new roles including a Director of Major League Strategy and Director of Leadship, Culture, & Education. I’m sure there are many other changes & hires I’m not outlining above, but his efforts have been substantial and should warrant some praise from fans.

Do we know who is leading the analytics department at the moment? They fired Matt Koenig last year and it’s hard to tell on the website who replaced him. I know they have made changes to better engrain analytics throughout the org. I’m assuming the new “Acquisitions” department led by Matt Grabowski reflects an analytics driven counterpart to Gene Watson’s old school pro scouting function. Regardless, I think both of your ideas make a ton of sense for us.

?

This is a home run fucking hire. I’m actually shocked the Rays did not promote him to GM after Bendix left, but their loss is our gain. And candidly speaking, our front office size was still light compared to others prior to this addition. Glad that Getz didn’t rush to add muscle and instead waited for the right guy to come along.

You think Barfield should be canned because of one bad trade that you were a massive fan of when it first went down?

He’s definitely done great in that regard.

Kind of confirms they are landing Murakami. You don’t add an Assistant GM with lots of international scouting experience unless you’re planning a whopper of an addition in that area.

Get that s%*# out of here and head back to the minor league board where you positive folk belong!!

I also think it will be smaller, but I also think comparing in zone contact rates between the MLB and the NPB is probably a bit of a reach given major differences in stuff and repertoires of pitchers in each league.

If we’re treating Forbes as gospel, they lost $41M in Operating Profit in 2024 with $185M of player expenses. My understanding is that ~$30M is tied to benefits & bonuses that are mostly fixed in nature. With $277M in revenue, that would imply a break-even point for salaries of ~$114M. Attendance increased by 5% last year but was paired with a 10% price cut for season ticket holders. TV ratings reached an all time low in 2024 which would have hurt them on the Comcast Sports Net side of things. They may be healthier on the back end now with the middle man cut out, but have almost certainly taken a hit with the distributors with that being passed onto the team directly. We don’t know what the old deal was worth, but Fangraphs has a random article where they estimated it at $120M (seems high to me, but let’s go with it). Let’s assume that this new deal results in a 20% loss in revenue for the Sox. Without further improvements in attendance and TV ratings, we’re looking at a break-even salary point of ~$90M. And that’s with extremely low attendance and TV ratings, which should both go up as the team gets better next year and even further into the future. TLDR - The Sox have plenty of financial room to take on Murakami’s salary next year and beyond.

The idea the Sox couldn’t afford any of these guys is absolutely absurd.

You have their financials back to 2009?

What’s radically different between now and the 2013 season? I’m really not following here.

What financial situations are you referring to?

We signed a 27 year old, international 1B coming off a 99 loss season back in 2013 despite concerns over his “slider bat speed”. With a solid young core starting to form, some bigger prospects on the cusp, and the 1.01 pick in place next year with a rare elite college SS at the top, now is the time to take a swing on a 26 year old, international 1B with “contact issues” despite coming off a 102 loss season.

It’s risky no doubt, but also one of the cheaper ways to acquire a potential star and that probably excites Jerry. I also think the big name Japanese guys generate a lot of revenue, which I’m certain is factored into the contract offer.

I think he’s going to get way less than projected, but still a fuckton of money for an unproven player with legit question marks with the bat. But ultimately, I think Pete Alonso getting 5/$150M sets a ceiling here as he has a much higher floor than Murakami does and should receive the higher AAV.

I’m thinking around 6/$110M with a $34M posting fee. Ends up being a $24M AAV which feels right to me in this market.

I think Sosa can be a very valuable piece, but they should try to get him some time in LF at Benintendi’s expense.

The Ishbia have cleared out the debt and a clean balance sheet means we can afford a $90M payroll and Murakami by default.

That’s a tough one, although I think Meidroth at 2B makes more sense with the addition of Murakami’s power.