Chicago White Sox

Let’s be honest, Vargas has two full seasons worst of plate appearances and was significantly better in his second set. There is still plenty room for improvement at his age and with his limited experience. We’ll see if he can ever live up to his past top 60 prospect status, but he’s far from a finished product (good or bad).

No idea, but Shaw isn’t going to be free while Vargas is. Ultimately, I don’t see us being interested in Shaw given our glut of infielders. Just a poor use of resource allocation unless he comes incredibly cheap, which I very much doubt. IMO, you need to see what you have in Vargas at 3B this year. If he can handle the position and show a bit more power, he can be a core piece from 2027 to 2029 or at worse a valuable trade chip. Vargas flashed enough last year to avoid blocking him with further outside additions.

Yeah, I’d assume Marsh is the primary CF but he would need a platoon partner. Regardless, that wouldn’t be Crawford due to handedness. I don’t believe that Castellanos ends up in their 2026 plans and will eventually be cut. He has negative surplus value and they appear to be done with him altogether.

To get this thread back on track, there has been some buzz that the Phillies are trying for Kyle Tucker. If they add Tucker, does that take them out of the Realmuto market and force them to look at cheaper options for catcher? I know it won’t be popular here, but I still like the idea of a Quero for Crawford trade and Justin will be hard pressed to get any meaningful playing time if Tucker is added.

Wow, the Sox have no one else in the top 100 outside of the two guys were already knew of. Can’t wait to these Keller classes start hitting because we are at such a disadvantage without a competent International program.

Let’s be honest here, he wasn’t allowed to make this decision on his own without risk of a consequence. He had to get approval from the Cubs front office to attend this “funeral”. If the rules don’t consider this an automatic reason to miss a game, I think it warrants open discussion. This isn’t tee-ball, this is professional sports and guys have sacrificed much more to play in games with stakes. And yes it matters because a poster is saying we should go out and acquire the dude. Unfortunately character does matter and this player has some baggage behind just skipping important baseball games to attend the “funeral” of an extremely polarizing right wing media personality he BFFed up within the last year. I guess that his decisions to resist Cubs coaching should also be ignored due to your full support of all people’s individual rights.

Canfield lost a ban bet and is now posting at SoxMachine

Sorry, he’s over posting on SoxMachine while he serves out his sentence

Buddy…just come out and say what this is all about. You’re entitled to whatever political views you desire, but trying to use a fluff piece from MLB.com that only cites the player is question and pretending that is somehow proof that everyone in that clubhouse was supportive is hilarious to me. These are professional athletes, some of these guys miss the birth of their own children if the games matter. There were certainly people in that clubhouse who were upset by Shaw’s decision. If you can’t admit that, then you are clearly biased in this matter.

To fair, he asked a total of 5 teammates and you have no idea what they said other than what Shaw is alluding to. Just weird you are trying to spin this thing into this big positive thing that everyone was behind. I assure you that’s not the case.

The front office gave him the ok…I haven’t seen anything to suggest the players supported it. Pretty sure I read or heard somewhere that many didn’t.

Leaving your teammates in the middle of a playoff run is typically frowned upon

Yeah, no idea why we’d waste trade resources on another infielder.

Vargas had a higher wRC+ than him last year and nearly the same fWAR. I get the prospect pedigree, but let’s not pretend this kid is some sure fire star because of his 2025 season. Given the players that we currently have, acquiring a RH hitting infielder with baggage who won’t come cheap seems like the worst move we could possibly make.

Why would we want Matt Shaw?

Let’s fucking go! f*** a Packer

Are we sure all three of those guys need to go on the 60 day DL?

With Cowles gone, there is a little less positional fat on the 40 man roster. Romo, Murray, & Peters look like planned AAA depth at their respective positions. I think all three of them stick through OD. However, we still have 5 guys without options who aren’t locks to make the roster in Lee, Pereira, Hill, Mead, & Ramos. Without further additions, I’d expect two or three of those guys to fill bench roles (with a NRI like Kelenic being a possibility for one of those spots). There should be a way to clear one or two roster spots here if we wanted to add an OF or a veteran arm. On the pitching side, there is very little fat IMO. Eisert & Hudson on the left side could be DFAed to open up a spot for an addition in free agency or trade. That being said, they may want as many of these LH guys in camp and have the best man win (Hudson is out of options FWIW). Then you have a post hype prospect in Iriarte coming off a disaster of a season and with no signs of his stuff coming back. Do you try to sneak him through waivers before camp? Would any team actually take him? Unless you’re getting positive off-season reports, he’s firmly in the mix of players you DFA to open up a roster spot.

A couple OF’s they are still interested in?

Many of the big name free agents don’t get signed until January nowadays

Do you have any idea how many free agents remain unsigned?

I certainly think some guys will regress vs. their 2H production, but a lot of that is already reflected in the Steamer projections I highlighted above. But generally speaking, I do expect talented young players to get better over time. And that very much holds true on the defensive side of the ball for catchers and guys that are still somewhat new to positions like Baldwin (and maybe Vargas). Overall, I’m very optimistic about the positional group, but would like to see one more OF addition to improve the floor of the team. The pitching doesn’t look good on paper right now, but there is a tremendous of young arms that could enter the mix at some point and change the calculus. I am also very high on Burke (I know you are not) and view Kay as a complete wild card who could perform better than most think. All that being said, I still think another SP and RP is needed. This bullpen could actually be decent with Newcomb and one more high leverage arm added to the pen. Ultimately, you think there is zero chance of competing next year while I think with a few more additions there is some theoretical chance of being a fringe playoff team. By no means do I think it’s likely, but W-L records are highly impacted by luck and if we have some good news go our way and have a few breakthrough performances next year it might just be possible.

And by cooking, I mean at two 1 or 2 more free agent additions and 2 or 3 more trades when all is said and done.

Gun to head, I think the Sox end up trading a catcher. Obviously Lee is most likely, but could see Quero get dealt as well. Theoretically you can carry four catchers on the 40 man roster and we have done so at times in the past, but Romo feels like he’s purposely being added to be the 3rd string / AAA guy who can be called up (and sent down) in event of injury. I really think Getz has some more things cooking.

Early favorite for POTY