Chicago White Sox

I expected Snell to cost more than Darvish for obvious reasons, but I would have never guessed the cost would have been this different. This trade is absolutely bonkers and Preller / the Padres ownership group deserve a ton of credit for prioritizing talent / winning over money.

Lol if you think Giolito has a 2.9 win projection

Horrible return...my Cubs buddy might not survive the night.

He’s a free agent after the 2021 season.

Lol

Lol...I see Charles the Cat is still at it ?

To be fair, they said they couldn’t afford Brantley and achieve their other offseason objectives.

It’s a fair question but I’m pretty sure that Reinsdorf has absolute power as Chairman despite a lack of controlling interest.

Anyone else amazed that COVID doesn’t exist in San Diego?

If Hendriks in this market is too expensive then our contention window is already doomed.

I can’t wait to see what the Cubs end up getting here. Already had a Cubs buddy text me “last chance to offer Robert for Darvish”. Clearly he’s in for a world of disappointment, but just no idea what Yu would be worth after the Snell trade. He is a way better pitcher in theory, but also way older and 50% more expensive.

I really want Hendriks to finish off the bullpen and will really question what our plan was this offseason if we don’t end up with him at this point.

Fully agree.

I think Yates ends up back with the Padres. I really don’t buy them adding Hendriks after taking on nearly $40M for Snell, Darvish, & Kim when they can add guy like Yates at a fraction of the cost of what Liam will get.

What #3 starters do you have in mind?

100% agree. It was very telling they let him go and causally dropped that nugget during the Rick Renteria presser.

I’m a huge Lynn fan and mostly agree with you. I will say there is probably more risk with Lynn just due to his age and body type (and I know Snell doesn’t have the best track record), but I really like the guy I’ve seen over the past two years with Texas and think he will be a perfect fit in the #2 spot next year.

Because Joc can actually be a high-end hitter against RHP (wRC+ of like 135 from 2018 to 2019), which is a major need for us. He’s also substantially younger and less injury prone than Adam, which makes it far more likely he’s useful in 2021. I can’t wait until next year when Eloy & Eaton miss a stretch of time and we’re starting Leury & Engel in the corners. Maybe we get lucky and Eaton doesn’t get hurt or regress any further, but even in that case we’re likely looking at a 2 win OF given how much his defense has eroded in recent years. There is just no upside in Eaton and too much shit can go wrong with the core pieces of our lineup to bring in a floor type guy in our last major hole.

Surely you can’t be serious. Yes he sets the budget but he does way more than just that. He has to approve all major transactions and by default decides how much long-term risk we’re willing to take on in a deal. He is the reason Machado plays for the Padres and not our White Sox. He is the reason we will never sign a free agent pitcher beyond a five year contract. Jerry doesn’t want to risk any long-term dead money and therefore doesn’t allow us to realistically operate at the top levels of free agency. He also decides how resources will get allocated. Jerry doesn’t like investing huge dollars into high school kids at the top of the draft, so Shirley and staff must adjust accordingly (example: Madrigal over Kelenic). He also doesn’t like the dirtiness of recruiting 14 year old LatAm prospects, so instead of potentially landing a future star we spend $2.5M on a future backup infielder in Yogurt Sanchez. And for years, Jerry refused to go over-slot in the draft because of “morals”, while guys like Theo Epstein look advantage of a major market inefficiency to load up on talent. Beyond that, he is both old school in his ways and loyal to a fault to his “people” creating a culture with a clear lack of accountability and a decreased focus on innovation. That has slowed down our ability to modernize our scouting & player development functions and get on equal footing in terms of analytics. And to add further insult to injury, he just undermined his front office by forcing a manager on them they didn’t want all so he could make up for what he deems his biggest mistake as baseball owner. Jerry is a bad owner plain & simple and is no doubt an impediment to sustainable success.

We don’t know what they’d be giving up for Darvish yet do we?

I said it before, but if the Sox are trying to save in certain areas (like RF) so they can extent Giolito & Lynn then I’m ok with that. I’m not sure that excuses Eaton over Joc, but with the core quickly getting more & more expensive I can see the argument for not committing big, long-term dollars to RF and instead allocating elsewhere.

Imagine how much value Jerry could create for his ownership group by building a truly dominant team and taking over a weak Chicago sports scene? If there was ever a time to take-short losses for a long-term gains, now would be it, because this team is so god damn likable & exciting. With the Cubs’ curse being over and a retooling appearing to be in front of them, the causal fan could be won over in big numbers and the Sox could quickly become the city’s baseball team. But instead of investing in his product and building something special (and valuable), Jerry is going to operate as the conservative, risk adverse cheap fuck he’s always been. And unfortunately for us, that likely won’t change until the day he finally leaves this world. Sucks to be that grim, but it’s the reality of being a White Sox fan.

To be fair, Lynn has been a better pitcher than Snell the last two years. I think it should be as clear as day now that if Jerry was unwilling to sign Bauer, that Lynn was probably our best play at a TOR starter given the insane prices for younger guys with more control. Just sucks that we seem to have a very tight budget for 2021 and went with another reclamation project in RF as a result (this time with a minimal ceiling).

The fact that Adam Eaton is our RF truly sucks. I get maybe it would have been tough to convince Springer to play RF in Chicago vs. CF for the Mets near his hometown, but Joc Pederson provides a much higher ceiling than Adam and should have been very gettable at a reasonable price. But we got to pinch pennies to ensure Uncle Jerry takes on no financial risk whatsoever. He’s obviously not Jeffrey Loria bad, but he’s easily amongst the worst owners in baseball.