Chicago White Sox

Seems very unlikely IMO. He had a .377 OBP in the minors last year, driven by a .311 BA, 8.3% BB rate, & nine HBPs. Steamer has him posting a .337 OBP next year, which ~20 points higher than they project for Robert. Throw in other semi-low OBP guys like Abreu, Mazara, Eloy, & Anderson and I seriously doubt he finishes last.

Medeiros is another guy I could see them doing that with. I find it hard to believe they will carry five catchers on their 40 man roster when two of them are Grandal & McCann though, which does support Zavala as guy to try and sneak through.

I do think Harris will get a two year deal as well and I would definitely not do that given his age and higher AAV. McHugh at 2/$12M I would consider if my staff felt his elbow was fine, but definitely wouldn’t go higher than that.

So who gets knocked off the 40 man roster with the addition of Keuchel & Encarnación? I believe these two additions would push us to 41 once final.

At the right price I’m not against it, although I’d prefer to go one year with any bullpen additions if at all possible. Given the volatility of relievers, I would like as much flexibility with the bullpen as we head into next offseason.

So start Collins in AAA then? I don’t see both him & McCann on the 25 man roster as being a viable option. I also worry Grandal will be sitting on the bench way too much with McCann as his backup, but that’s more of a manager issue than anything.

I really don’t think McHugh gets two years. Already 32 years old with some elbow concerns. I think he’s a one year guy.

Is he doing on the app or through Twitter? I did not see anything on the Athletic.

Sure, but guys like Keuchel & Gonzalez who pitch around the edges of the zone are going to benefit more from framing than someone like Giolito who often will challenge hitters with pure stuff.

Seems you care more about good TV & brand name players than a winning team & a positive clubhouse. Puig is a total selfish douchebag and not the type of influence we want around our young players. He’s simply not good enough to take a gamble on.

There’s still plenty of room to improve the bench.

Ten years ago. Keuchel is also someone who benefits more from framing than most other pitchers and McCann is a terrible framer. If Grandal is only going to handle three of our starters then we’re throwing away a ton of value.

The #1 priority should be getting a RH reliever that can actually strike people out and push Herrera for a setup role. Right now, the ideal guy would be Will Harris if he’d accept a one year deal. If not, I’d go after McHugh given his versatility.

Puig sucks...I do not understand your infatuation with him.

It’s more common because there are more good defensive but poor hitting catchers in baseball and teams don’t typically want to spend a lot of money on their backup catcher spot. And why are we making plans now to address a scenario that’s unlikely to exist? 2020 is going to be a high variance season to begin with and we will need a lot to go right to be legit playoff contented. And under that assumption, I want the extra left-handed bat in the lineup as much as possible and not bank on a 5% outcome coming to fruition. Plus, to my original point, getting Collins some time behind the plate this year let’s us better grasp if he can handle the role in a very critical 2021 season. I can’t believe you’d be ok with going with an untested Collins as our backup backstop in 2021 but are totally against it in 2020.

He clearly has done no research to support his statements and is just shooting from the hip.

Zavala, Mercedes, free agent veteran, etc. Like @Dick Allen said, if Grandal goes down we’re in trouble anyways. Assuming Yasmani’s health (which should be the assumption given his track record), getting Collins 40 starts at catcher next year is the right way to balance risk & reward. And let me be clear, I’m not suggesting we just give McCann away. I’m saying I’d rather extract value from him if possible and give Collins a limited opportunity next year. Also, McCann getting 40 or 50 starts next year means he’s facing quite a bit of RHP or one of EE, Grandal, or Abreu is on the bench against LHP. Either one of those options aren’t very good. All else being equal, I’d rather get Collins’ bat in the lineup against RHP ~80 times as the backup catcher and part-time 1B / DH than have a stronger instance policy in the small chance Grandal goes down for an extended period of time.

They aren’t going to carry McCann on the 25 man roster and not play him. Either he’s here and the primary backup or he’s getting moved. Also, if McCann is so critical to our 2020 success, how will we survive without him in 2021?

How will we know if Collins is ready for 2021 if we don’t give him a chance in 2020? We know he can hit AAA pitching with a juiced ball in a bandbox. We need to see if he can hit major league pitching and more importantly whether he can handle our major league staff behind the plate. If we don’t take that risk now and find out what we have in Collins, then we’re taking an even bigger risk come 2021 as that’s a season we should definitely be serious contenders.

100% agree. I think they try to find a team desperate for catching and float McCann as an option. I don’t think they just give him away though.

A huge reason the Twins should regress quite a bit next year with a de-juiced ball.

You forget EE as your DH, which would give you 14 position players. I just don’t see how Collins and McCann both fit on this roster, as one of them will be vastly underused. Let’s be conservative and say that Abreu gets 140 starts next year & Encarnación gets 125. That opens up 59 starts at DH / 1B for our catching trio or 221 total starts altogether. I want Grandal getting at least 140 starts next year, so at best we’re talking 81 total games available to McCann & Collins. One of these guys will come out a big loser and it would be a poor use of Collins’ development time to to split those games with McCann. Either trade McCann if you can extract value or send Collins to AAA to start the season. Carrying three catchers doesn’t make sense when one of them is a guy who should play a fuckton in Grandal and you have an everyday DH.

Lol...Puig sucks, has a cancerous attitude, and is a worse than both Abreu & EE. As for Castellanos, his AAV will be higher than EE’s and he should get four years rather than one, so no idea what you’re talking about there. Abreu may ultimately have a similar AAV to Nick, but that’s called a Jerry Special and not really an implication of Hahn if I had to guess.

EE should never rest against LHP. And Grandal should be getting at least 140 starts next year whether at C or 1B / DH. From an offense only perspective, Collins is a much better fit for a backup role now that we’ve signed EE.

Where did Heyman say this? This is all I can find about Puig on his twitter feed: