Chicago White Sox

The thing we need to remember is we are sitting on a minuscule payroll with no long term commitments. No matter what we do at the deadline this year, we should go out and sign a legit TOR starter this offseason. In such a scenario, even after giving up Hagen & McDougal in my two hypothetical trades, we’d be looking at something like this for our rotation next year: Free Agent Burke Detmers* Martin Schultz* Thorpe Sandlin Adams S. Smith That’s potentially a very good and deep rotation. You’d have a strong bullpen led by the best 1-2 punch in baseball in Miller & Taylor. You’d also have a pretty compete lineup with Roch & Bonemer waiting in the wings. I think we can be move aggressive than many here realize. You don’t waste a positional group this good IMO.

Ugly second inning for Thorpe. Walked first two batters and then just gave up a massive bomb (112 MPH EV). Looked like he was having some issues with the mound and his footing. Didn’t see the 1st inning though, so unsure if new issue then or not.

It’s weird you don’t think we’re a “real contender” when we have the third best run differential in the AL and literally one less than the 2nd best team. Even if we want to go the cheaper route, we need to strive better than a guy with a 5+ FIP and whose velocity continues to trend down. I’d just give Mason Adams a look if that’s the best we can do.

I don’t think Singer is good enough for what we need.

I agree…but the thought of Miller & Taylor available for the 8th & 9th is beyond interest AF.

His command was noticeably better pre injury. Again, no guarantee he works out as minor league relievers are highly risky, but I think he’s got some value and could be used via trade to help improve the major league roster. I obviously put him last because he has far & away the lowest value of the guys listed.

That’s what got me to come up with that proposal. Ideally you hold Edgar into next year and hope he can rebuild some value, but a lot of our potential chips will require trading them low and Edgar as short side platoon backup catcher is fairly replaceable. I’m definitely open to moving him.

Who would you trade for a SP? Mason Miller is a luxury that we probably can’t afford without giving up Bonemer. But we have to add a SP…you prefer going the rental route?

Just a thought exercise, but if you could pull these two trades off would you: Trade #1: CWS get: RHP Mason Miller SDP get: SS Billy Carlson, RHP Tanner McDougal, IF William Bergolla, OF George Wolkow Trade #2: CWS get: LHP Reid Detmers LAA get: LHP Hagen Smith, C Edgar Quero, 2B Javier Mogollon

What’s only 1 or 2 at this point? Adams hasn’t proven anything in the majors because he’s a “prospect”. Are you suggesting Bonemer doesn’t have value either then?

Because he was awesome before his injury (2.33 ERA | 12.86 K/9 | 3.21 BB/9 | 1.00 WHIP), has big time stuff, and has a 73rd percentile xwOBA in AAA despite playing half his games at Truist Field. Him having a couple of bad appearances while coming back from injury doesn’t change my evaluation of him.

Of the 24 guys listed above, here are the main ones with real trade value: Hagen Smtih, LHP David Sandlin, RHP Drew Thorpe, RHP William Bergolla, IF Mason Adams, RHP Shane Smith, RHP Wikelman Gonzalez, RHP I fully expect one or two of these guys being dealt at the deadline.

Alright, the post above was just aligning on who the bubble guys might be. The question is whether losing 10 of them would be an actual problem. From my perspective, there are a handful of easy cuts. For the RHPs, Cannon & Davitt could go right now and I wouldn’t care now that Adams & Shane are back as AAA depth. Tyler Davis was solid at times, but is pretty expendable IMO. Iriarte has pitched well and was a former big name, but he’s not K’ing a ton of guys in AAA and only has one option left. I’d take my chances he does not get selected in the Rule 5. That’s four cuts right there. On the LHP front, Gilbert was ok last year, but is old and lacks stuff. Schweitzer has jumped him on the depth chart and a healthy Ky Bush seals his fate. Rock is expendable as well, so that’s two more cuts and six total. It’s the positional side that is challenging. You got to have at least one minor league catcher, infielder, and outfielder on your 40 man. So while neither Perez or Rikuu are key prospects to me, someone has to serve that OF role. I also like all three of the infielders, so at max there is only one easy cut here. After those seven, you start tapping into guys with value. And it’s going to get worse when Bonemer, Roch, & others start pushing their way into the roster mix. The crunch is definitely real and it feels like we will need to trade a few of the guys within the aforementioned group of 24 this deadline to ease the pressures.

So thinking through this roster crunch and what it means for the upcoming trade deadline. The Sox currently have 38 people on their active 40 man roster and another eight guys on the 60 day IL. There are also several players who will need to be placed on the 40 man roster this coming offseason or be subject to the Rule 5 draft. So we’re currently at 46 guys plus possibly a few more to come. For this exercise, I will assume that we add a catcher, a SP, and a RP at the trade deadline. Let’s assume Romo & Schweitzer are sent down and Fedde is moved out of the rotation and into the bullpen forcing us to trade/DFA Richards. That’s three guys in and one guy out, which maxes out the 40 man roster without an offsetting move being needed. Let’s also assume Pereira ultimately replaces Perez and that Hays is traded. That puts the roster at 47 guys total. Let’s also note that Grichuk, Newcomb, & Fedde are free agents after the year. For this exercise, let’s assume that the catcher & RP we add are rentals but the SP is controllable. Teel replaces the catcher on the 26 man roster. We don’t have an obvious RH outfielder to replace Randall, so assume that’s a FA. I’d also just assume we add two FA arms and leverage McDougal to fill the other spot. That is net attrition of two spots and would bring the roster down to 45. That is before you have to make calls on adding Mason Adams, Bergolla, Iriarte, & Pallette. Hagen Smith also needs to factor into the mix here. Add these five and you’re now up to 50 guys into the equation for 40 roster spots. Ignoring the guys on the 26 man roster, you need to trade, release, or leave unprotected 10 of the following 24 dudes: Infielders (3): Bergolla, Baldwin, Murray Outfielders (2): Nishida, Perez Catchers (1): Romo RH Pitchers (13): Sandlin, Thorpe, Adams, S. Smith, Vasil, Gonzalez, Berrora, Leasure, Davis, Pallette, Iriarte, Cannon, Davitt LH Pitchers (5): H. Smith, Schweizter, Bush, Rock, Gilbert

I’d keep Pereira and trade Hays.

It’s amazing how many times we’ve been through this and how many times you pound your fists and refuse to listen. We lacked critical player development infrastructure when Hahn was GM both in terms equipment & technology and data & analytics. The moment Getz became GM he invested and fixed those areas. Not very hard to connect the dots here and realize that KW & Hahn were a major hindrance to be successful as the PD Director under that regime.

That trade sucked…no doubt it

I don’t see Sandlin going for a rental SP of that caliber and definitely not with two other decent prospects.

If you think he can be a mid rotation guy, you don’t trade him for two months of an ok rental catcher. If his ceiling is just a back of the rotation type, then the calculus changes. To me, it just comes down to his newfound velocity and how that changes things for him.

Just Baseball threw out Robbie Ray for Sandlin, Lodise, & Mogollon.

I could see Mason getting traded, but moreso for a SP with control.

Offensively Stephenson makes a lot of sense since he doesn’t have huge splits either way and can pair with what we have currently or Teel if he comes back.

I would really hate trading a velocity-bumped Mason Adams for a rental catcher

What would be an expensive price to pay? Quero has been terrible this year and hasn’t shown any signs of breaking out of his funk. Seems like that will need to be an offseason project.

Fixing Carlson’s swing is a massive question mark. Bonemer is going to be a stud hitter in the majors. Carlson may have a higher theoretical ceiling simply due to how good his defense, but the odds of him achieving it are significantly less than Caleb doing so. I also don’t think “infield defense” is a massive need when you have Roch at SS, Colson at 3B, Chase at 2B, & Vargas at 1B. That’s a damn good defensive infield.