This is how I feel. Puig is both terrifying and intriguing at the same time. I will say that Hahn has commented on our lack of depth claiming it keeps him up at night so I wouldn’t be totally surprised if we added him.
Here’s I’d see certain positions shaking out next year with the addition of Puig:
RF: Mazara = ~105; Puig =~55
LF: Eloy = ~140; Puig = ~20
1B: Abreu = ~130; EE = ~20; Grandal =~10
DH: EE = ~110; Abreu = ~20; Grandal =~20; Eloy = ~10
CA: Grandal = ~120; McCann = ~40
Even without a major injury, he could get close to 75 starts next year. That’s a huge amount of playing time to give to Engel or Luery (or Mazara against LHP).
He’s definitely the ideal platoon mate for Mazara, but he’s still better against LHP than Nomar and his reverse splits do help in the event of an injury.
If Eloy or Mazara goes down, we’re looking at replacement level production or worse in one of our OF spots. I think that would be the main reason to add another OF, whether that be Puig or someone with less baggage.
This question actually came up on the Sox Machine podcast this week and Jim Callis said he’d go with Micker or Basabe and ultimately chose Adolfo due to the higher ceiling. Also, his view was that LuGo is just a guy and wasn’t overly high on Rutherford given his complete lack of power (he cited Madrigal having more doubles last year than Blake had total XBHs).
Better not let Stone see this tweet!
But seriously, not sure how I’d feel about this, but we could definitely use a better insurance policy than Palka / Delmonico in the event Eloy or Nomar goes down.
You are lucky man, I can home from college for game 1 but watched game 2 on TV. As cool as it was being at the first White Sox World Series game in nearly 50 years, there is no question game 2 is the greatest game in franchise history.
That would be the dream. He has far & away the most upside of the four, but has lost so much development time. He needs a full season of at-bats to demonstrate continued improvement in his plate discipline. Plus seeing him in the field would be nice as his arm was plus plus before the TJS and it’s impossible to say where it stand today.