Chicago White Sox

Of course his illness was the reason for his dreadful season, but he was never good before then and there is no absolutely reason to give him another look when he’s in his last season of team control. And RF is mostly definite a critical need, even if we ultimately accept a lesser option there in order to prioritize pitching.

If Bauer only gets 5/$150M we should be all over him.

Options are only burned when sent to the minors while on the 40 man, so we haven’t burnt any of Crochet’s options yet and wouldn’t burn one next year under the hypothetical situation. And let me be clear, I’m suggesting that I would or wouldn’t use Crochet as a reliever, just saying I think that’s ultimately what Hahn does based entirely on his comments so far. I do want him as a starter long term, but can see why they may be concerned with ramping up his innings too quickly, but candidly I’m no expert in this area. As for our starting pitching depth, I think Hahn ultimately adds two starters and goes with Dane in the 5th spot. That means Kopech, Cease, & Stiever all start the season at Charlotte (which is I think is the right approach for Dylan who has so much untapped potential but needs to figure out how to throw strikes and get more movement on his fastball). From my perspective, that’s plenty of rotation depth that it would allow you to leverage Crochet in the bullpen for a year. But ultimately I want to do what’s best for Garrett’s development as a starter more than anything. Regarding the guaranteed contracts piece, I was assuming you meant free agents. If you meant depth pieces that don’t require 25 man spots then I’m in full agreement. We can always use a few wild card arms in Charlotte that can help out in the event of injuries.

It will be really interesting to see how this all shakes out as the last one to sign could get squeezed pretty badly or forced to wait until the next period which obviously isn’t ideal of them. Thanks for the information as always.

Any sense of how many teams have slot room for a $1M+ addition at this point? I know no one has technically, but I’d assume most money is more or less accounted for.

If I were GM and had ownership’s backing I’d go all out for Bauer. Unfortunately I really don’t see Jerry agreeing to a contract with a pitcher for much more than we offered Wheeler, which means we probably don’t have a shot. All of Trevor’s tough talk of going year to year is the only thing that thing that made us seem like a possibility and it appears he’s willing to be shot in the nuts with a paintball gun in exchange for a major payday. I think we’ll have to look at other solutions to address our starting pitching needs.

They didn’t their 2nd round pick for him expecting to be the same replacement level guy he had been with the Rangers. They thought they were getting a guy with untapped potential. That didn’t materialize last season, Mazara is now in the last year of team control, and the team is ready to win. The time to take a chance on a project like Nomar was last year or honestly two seasons ago. There really is no logic in bringing him back as things stand.

No way Hahn takes the risk. Two years in a row he got worst in league performance out of RF. He isn’t going to risk a third straight by running with the same guy.

Harvesting Latin America better than anyone around? Excellent drafting? What team are you following because it isn’t the White Sox.

He’s got an option left and would be next man up for me. Good problem to have.

I’d say there has been more bad than good under Hahn, but I’m willing to believe our organization was in need of change and that Hahn has sort of overhauled things. If true, that will help going forward as a decision-maker is only as good as the data he has and the voices underneath him. And obviously his three major rebuild trades and the Robert signing look like massive winners. I’m hopeful that Hahn is better than his resume suggests, but this offseason will be the ultimate test. He’s simply got to deliver and make this team a legit championship contender.

You can’t sign guys to guaranteed contracted and have them sit in Charlotte. So adding these extra arms means some other guys who have proven themselves won’t be with the major league club. IMO, Bummer, Marshall, Heuer, Foster, & Fry are 100% locks for bullpen spots. Given his lack of innings, I really think that Hahn is going to have Crochet pitch out of the bullpen next year and then stretch him out in 2022. That’s six spots already accounted for. To me you add one back-end guy and then just let López battle whoever for the long-man role. I’m all for adding some guys via trade or waiver pick-up that can sit in AAA and serve as depth, but I don’t think it’s realistic to expect a lot of additions to the major league pen.

The fact he spent $188M on players not named Jose Abreu and got -0.8 WAR for it? And whether we were tanking or not (which we weren’t that entire period), we should have gotten more bang for our buck and potentially turned something into a tradable asset. For example, I pushed hard for signing Lance Lynn during the 2019 offseason and that would have been a much better use of resources than signing Kelvin Herrera. Hell, we might have beaten the A’s in October had we used our free agent dollars more effectively. As I said previously, Hahn has made changes to our front office and scouting department and hopefully a more modernized approach leads to better results in free agency. So far so good with the Grandal & Keuchel signings and hopefully it’s a sign of things to come. But Hahn doesn’t get a free pass for a bad stretch of free agent signings.

Look, I’m no Hahn hater, but you’re basically siting the signing of Abreu as proof that Hahn has been good in free agency. That was an excellent signing that he should get credit for, but it was also a broader organizational decision. And besides that move, his track record was horrific before this past offseason. I know they’ve made some changes in pro scouting department and have obviously increased their usage of analytics, so there is reason to believe the old Rick Hahn is not necessarily the same one today. All that being said, his track record in free agency for the most part sucks and saying that doesn’t make one a hater, it makes them objective.

They definitely don’t need three relievers signed to major league contracts. I’d wager they add just one reliever and go with Bummer, Marshall, Crochet, Heuer, Foster, Fry, and probably have López compete against Lambert for the long reliever role. That’s all assuming they add two legit starters. If they add just one, I think they go sign a veteran swingman to provide some protection for Cease or whoever gets the final rotation spot.

Where are these numbers coming from?

Not trying to be a Hahn hater, but have you seen his free agent record prior to this past offseason? It’s epically bad outside of the original Abreu signing.

There is zero chance Mazara gets tendered. I’d say there is a tiny chance he’s brought back at like $3M to be a depth piece, but no way they pay him $6M after the year he just had. Also, the comparison to Moncada is laughable as Yoan has a well above-average track record while Nomar has been replacement level over his career.

Reddick put up a 87 wRC+ against RHP last year and is a poor defender. He is also 33 years old so it may only get worse from here. We can do better than Reddick IMO. Hell, call up the Dbacks and see if they’d give Calhoun away for a lottery ticket. I think there will be interesting older players available for basically just money if we’re willing to absorb contracts.

Wow, to be honest he was the one name that really surprised me on that list.

The McStann’s won’t be pleased that’s for sure

Dude, what a fantastic fucking article. Hands down the best piece on the manager hunt that I’ve come across and that’s saying something given how many beat writers follow the team. Well done and definitely keep it up! It’s nice to see SSS restore some of its past glory!

How do Hinch & Luhnow getting suspended affect the players who got off scot free?

You’ve literally spent more time ripping this dude than said dude spent ripping the cheating Astros.

Espada