Chicago White Sox

The Sox need to make a call if they are in or they are out. If they are in, then Hahn needs to be willing to tap into the farm system in a way that will hurt to make up for Jerry being a cheap asshole. If they are out, then they need to start trading away pieces this off-season, with Anderson, Cease, Hendriks, & Giolito the first four guys who should be moved. Under an “in” scenario, I think you got to go get Bryan Reynolds. I absolutely despise the notion of giving up Montgomery, but there is no other realistic way to get there. You’d probably also have to give up Crochet and a third lesser piece to get to the finishing line, but it’s in the realm of possibility. After that, I’d go out and sign Syndrrgaard to a 2/$28M deal. I get the stuff wasn’t really there last year and probably never returns to what it once was, but he was also coming off two seasons without basically pitching. Despite that, he was a still an effective back of the rotation starter, is still relatively young, and offers more upside than guys in this range. Give him a chance to work with Katz and hope you can get #3 type production out of him. The two moves above result in $21M in additional payroll. I’m assuming that will cap us out financially, which means the last couple of moves need to be salary neutral. The first thing I’d do is swap Leury for Brad Miller. Both are coming off really bad seasons, but Leury is younger and probably offers more upside given. Might need to throw them $2M to $3M million to bridge part of the salary gap, but I’d be more than ok with that (anything above $1.5M would go towards 2024). With Pollock gone, we now need a 4th OF and preferably a RH one to take some pressure off of Colas. The guy I would target is Kyle Lewis who is coming off a very rough season and has lost a ton of luster. Not sure what he would cost at this point, but I’d throw out Mendick plus a C tier prospect. I’m not expecting his rookie year performance, but he’s an interesting buy low guy to provide some much needed OF depth. Finally, I’d look to move Jake Burger for the best SP depth or swingman option that I could find. David Martin is fine as our #6 starter, but there is not much else behind him. Not expecting a stud but anything is better than the garbage sitting at the bottom of 40 man roster. Ultimately, here is how the roster would shake out: Moncada, 3B# Anderson, SS Jimenez, DH Reynolds, LF* Vaughn, 1B Robert, CF Grandal, C# Colas, RF* Sosa, 2B IF: Miller* OF: Lewis UT: Gonzalez BC: Zavala Cease Lynn Kopech Thor Giolito CL: Hendricks SU: Graveman SU: Bummer* SU: Lopez MR: Kelly MR: Diekman* MR: Lambert LR: (Burger Trade) I think that team can compete if enough guys return to form.

Seems like someone on Twitter came up with a White Sox interested in Segura rumor and all the foodies are jumping all over it. Also on Twitter, good ole Portillo’s is saying the Sox will “reengage” on Burnes (after being close last winter) but that Woodruff is a more likely outcome. Oh, and FootlongComiskeydog continues to embarrass himself with the worst attempt at playing fake insider I have ever seen.

I’m sure plenty of teams would love to buy cheap on him. The problem is we have zero ability to give up a SP when we already have a hole in the rotation.

Might be an option, but really sucks to keep trading from the major league to fill needs. Seems counterproductive, although in this case it make some sense given our constraints and incredibly expensive bullpen.

Thank god we didn’t sign Machado because we would have been tapped out in 2028 in addition to 2023. KW always thinking about the big picture saved us though.

The point is Fegan’s new $180M payroll comment along with all the posturing Hahn has done this off-season suggest very little to work with. I’d wager we have $15M or less to work with. Unfortunately none of us will never know how they actually account for things like buy-outs, signing bonuses, etc so it’s really hard to reverse engineer this.

All while signing more and more expensive relievers despite drafting and trading for numerous relief prospects in the proceeding years.

Honestly, I think I’m back at the trade Cease & Anderson for hauls scenarios. I just don’t see how Hahn can address our holes via trade. Montgomery is the only minor leaguer who can headline a deal for a controllable impact player. Even if you could move him, Ramos, etc. for Bryan Reynolds, how the f*** do you address the rotation when you’re tapped financially and prospect wise? I’d rather do a semi rebuild leveraging our couple assets that are worth something substantial than do the traditional half ass “go for it” thing this organization loves to do. Between being cheap and continuously rewarding incompetence, Reinsdorf really is the worst. Can’t wait until we’re finally free of his tyranny.

Glad we’re maxed out at the end of our contention window and can’t fill our couple major holes with legit talent because Hahn is spending $40M+ on a bullpen and $5.5M on a shitty UT guy. That takes a special kind of bad.

Ben Gamel for OF and trade for whoever the modern day of equivalent of Ivan Nova is. That’s your Rick Hahn special this off-season.

Bump

I thought you knew me better than this

Yes

The good news is Hahn has proven to be excellent shopping in the bargain bin.

Here is the quote for reference:

Jerry sure loves waiting until the deadline to address off-season needs

Fegan posted 40 minutes ago that the payroll will be closer to $180M. Cheap ass Jerry apparently wants to close the window even earlier than expected.

I must admit I enjoy watching you turn full heal on this organization after years & years of unwarranted optimism. That being said, I still don’t agree with your outlook. I think there is reason for hope even if a turnaround is far from certain.

I’m pretty sure we were closer to $196M give or take.

Why are we trading from an already weak system if we have $30M+ to spend on a handful of needs? Hopefully this is simple 4D chess that Rick is playing, but Trader Hahn trying to fix the roster is a scary proposition.

Where did we end up at? Pretty close to $200M when it was all said & done right?

Sosa was really good in AAA down the stretch. What makes you think he’s not ready for a shot?

I keep seeing this, but if Spanky could get 1/$8M from us after a rough season so could Pollock. Dude was legit good in 2021 and still crushed LHP last year.

Adam Maloney = ComiskeyFootlongDog confirmed

We wasted a year of potential service time with Vaughn for like 12 total plate appearances. I get a new manager will play the young guys more right out of the gate, but I’m not losing a year of control of Colas for what will be less than 15 games with days off. How many more games do the Sox win with Oscar starting over Pollock during this stretch?