Chicago White Sox

Yeah, Rick Hahn is conducting fake negotiations in hopes of Soxtalk posters like myself citing it years later as proof they aren’t cheap ???

The Machado stuff I won’t defend because their offer wasn’t very serious IMO, at least once the Padres entered the mix. But when it comes to Wheeler, they had the highest offer on the table and lost out because of his wife’s geographical preferences. Perhaps they could of continued outbidding themselves until they reached a price point he couldn’t say no to, but I can’t fault them for that. Generally speaking it sets a bad negotiating precedent with agents you constantly work with.

I’m hoping this is sarcasm because they 100% made the offer with hopes of him accepting it

The Sox set the market for Wheeler, who plays a position that gets 9 figure contracts, with a 9 figure contract.

The Sox signed Grandal 10 days after the World Series ended. Tomorrow would be 10 days from this year’s World Series ending. Could the Sox land a free agent in the next week or so? With the CBA expiring Dec 1st you got to think some guys will push for deals ASAP and Hahn basically stated the Sox like to be aggressive in free agency. Not sure how Boras plays into all this, but if Conforto is truly a top target (like he should be) perhaps we find a way to get a deal done soon. It would be amazing to get one need addressed before what will almost certainly be a long negotiating period.

@Balta1701 - Let’s see your offseason plan! Would drive some much needed conversation!

Guys, Boras wasn’t going to come out after the Sox didn’t offer the QO and say “thank god the Sox didn’t offer one or we would have accepted”. And the best way for him to spin this is by saying the Sox are stupid, that they would have never accepted the QO, and that they want a multi-year deal because Carlos is 100% healthy (?). It’s totally fine if you want to argue not extending a QO was stupid, but this certainly isn’t proof of anything.

That puts a ton of pressure on the OF defense.

So interesting article coming out of the GM meetings. Hahn says they have financial flexibility right now, but have to to decide whether they want to blow most or all of it on one impact player or spread it across address multiple needs. If you assume an impact player would eat up roughly $25M or so and that to the $157M we’re already sitting on, that could theoretically put a payroll target just north of $180M which does feel like the high end of a realistic payroll range. If you move Kimbrel for prospects or a cheap reliever, you could potentially have to $40M or so to work. Still requires some creativity to address all our needs appropriately, but it seems like there are reasons for optimism here. https://www.nbcsports.com/chicago/white-sox/white-sox-can-spend-offseason-question-will-be-how-spend

Out of curiosity, but how does Vaughn fit in Seattle? Seems like they’re loaded in the OF (even without Haniger) and have White locked up through 2025. Just don’t really see them being all that excited to trade Gilbert+ for him.

Which ones?

I think the marginal difference between Leury & Romy isn’t all that much as I don’t believe Leury is a 2 win player going forward. As such, I’d rather sign a $4M reliever and not hand someone like Ryan Burr a major league job.

We shouldn’t prioritize positional depth over pitching and starting nine spots IMO when we play in the weakest division in baseball. The salary difference between Leury & Romy could be used to reinforce the pitching staff in some way and injuries to our staff is the number one thing that could derail us during the regular season next year. And rental positional guys are relatively affordable at the deadline (see Braves 2021), so just worth not allocating excess resources to the utility spot right now when we have a kid that led AA South League in OPS and is deserving of an opportunity. If we faced stiffer competition I’d feel differently, but we aren’t in the AL East or NL West and should take that into consideration when building out our roster this offseason.

Seems like an obvious move to give Leury’s job to Romy and allocate funds elsewhere.

Your last sentence isn’t even remotely true. We had the 13th highest OD payroll in 2005, but then rocked top 5 payrolls for three straight years from 2006 to 2008 and payrolls in the 7 to 11 range in the three years thereafter. KW had massive payrolls to work with during this seven year period and ultimately got us two playoff appearances and one title. Hahn’s best payroll was 11th overall in 2013 and has never been higher than 15th since then, including the 2020 & 2021 seasons that both ended in playoff appearances. It’s very clear you’re choosing to ignore inflation and changes in league wide spending as Hahn has yet to benefit from an above average payroll since the rebuild finished. The reality is we made the playoffs twice under KW over 12 years and twice under Hahn over nine years (which included multiple rebuilding years). Citing playoff outcomes in samples this small and attributing it to the GM is ridiculous. I get you have a beef to solve with Hahn, but you’re better than providing false narratives to accomplish said task.

I don’t think they’d elevate him straight to the major league roster, but he’s probably going to be the 3rd or 4th catcher on the depth chart next year.

You never devalue your players by ripping them in the media. What else is he supposed to say? I’d wager large sums of money that Collins and/or Zavala is traded and a veteran catcher is brought in.

Fully agree…there was absolutely no downside in trying when we had a double digit lead.

I think Kimbrel’s problems went beyond just how he was used, but we should have given him more closer opportunities to find out at a bare minimum.

Having the 6th highest payroll on like day seven of the offseason is a meaningless stat and not sure why you keep referencing it. And last year’s payroll was significantly impacted by COVID and would have been way higher without restricted attendance to start the year. Also, I’m not sure what you think our payroll was last year, but I believe it ended around $135M to $140M. $170M is a 100% realistic target for us and candidly speaking the Sox could probably rock a $200M payroll with ease as long as attendance is forecasted to be strong. Again, you are crazy if you think we’ll have a $150M to $155M payroll next year.

*Awaits mass panic that we’re keeping him and moving Hendriks to a setup role*

Yogurt looks pretty slim in that photo

I pray this is sarcasm

Wheeler was two years ago and Hahn made it sound like they’re looking for a long-term addition to the rotation. Given the connection with Gausman and less of a track record that other guys, I could definitely see him being the target. Again, Wheeler set a precedent that this is a price point we’re willing to play at.