Chicago White Sox

Personally, I think it might make Yoán more inclined to sign an extension and in that case it’s probably worth the cost (assuming it happens).

Jesus fucking Christ, the $4M in deferrals aren’t worth zero so please stop presenting it that way.

The luxury tax is simply their payroll ceiling and they were handcuffed because of all the dead weight on their books. That logic applies to all teams, the difference is our payroll ceiling is much lower so any dead weight will have a far greater impacts on us.

What I’m saying is if Jose falls off a cliff we have a massive hole at DH and $14M less to fill it. If we’re forced to play him despite underperformance, that’s an even bigger problem.

I’m not suggesting he will be worthless either, but given his age and recent performance it doesn’t that take that much fall-off in order for him to be replacement level. Again, I’m not up in arms about this because I can appreciate rewarding a good soldier to a certain extent, but I truly feel extending him through 2021 at $36M total would have done just that. Going three years guaranteed just seems over the top to me and reflects way too emotional decision making.

Perfect summary raBBit!

How do we have one less roster spot to fill though? Also, I know $14M seems trivial right now, but look at how a guy like Brandon Morrow hand-cuffed the Cubs. At some point we’ll have far less financial flexibility and every dollar will count.

I’m ok with you saying he’s not a tier 1 guy if Trout & Yelich are types of guys you are limited it to, but calling Grandal a “solid catcher” is absolute insanity, opinions be damned. He is without question one of the best catchers in baseball full stop.

Please no. Grandal gave me reasons for optimism, a Puig signing would be the definition of same old White Sox.

I wish you were my analyst and would go to bat for me as much as you do for every employee of the White Sox.

Nothing about Grandal is a tier 2 player. He’s been most one of the most valuable guys in baseball over the past five years.

What does Steamer project his wRC+ to be in 2022?

Sure, the whole roster configuration changes, but now we have $14M less to work with.

Has Jerry ever allowed us to release one of his favorites when they fell off a cliff?

Unfortunately we live in a financially constrained world, so $14M can be the difference between a legit free agent closer and Carson Fulmer.

Lol...your spin knows no bounds!

Exactly...I’m not asking anyone to be enraged over this, but let’s call a spade a spade. This is a JR special and $14M two years from now could prevent us from adding a key missing piece. Unless JR isn’t including this contract in our payroll forecasts, money will remain a limited resource and this could potentially take away much needed flexibility. I’m not going to lose sleep over this, but it’s more than fair to be critical of a loyalty overpay.

I’m sorry bro, but what are the terms of these deferred dollars that has caused you to discount them to zero.

I hope @ron883 is ok, haven’t seen him in this thread this the press release went out.

I’ll be honest Ray, this is a completely lame defense and you come off as a company man when you can’t be critical of anything this front office does. I don’t even think this is a Hahn / KW thing, but there is real risk a 34 / 35 year old 115 wRC+ DH falls off a cliff and becomes a real problem for us both from a roster & financial standpoint. Saying otherwise is quite frankly ridiculous.

And if Abreu falls off a cliff, now we’re looking at two dead years (2021 & 2022) instead of just one. Given our track record, there is almost zero chance they take Jose out of the DH spot no matter his performance, so if Collins or even Sheets were to break out, there is simply no spot for him. And personally, I don’t believe the Sox view Collins as a catcher or he would have given more starts down the stretch over Castillo.

100% and hopefully this is coming from Jerry’s personal checkbook. Would be really annoying if this ends up hand-cuffing in the coming years.

I was saying I could see him being trade bait before and now that seems more plausible. As for this deal, I could have lived with two years at $18M/per but damn does that third year really fuck up potential roster flexibility.

Thanks for sharing @Look at Ray Ray Run, that’s exactly what I used. @Balta1701 - I’m not saying he’s suddenly a wRC+ 130 guy based on 50 plate appearances. But I saw enough from him post-adjustments and he put up good enough numbers (both in the Majors & AAA) to suggest he may be a useful platoon bat as soon as next year with plenty of room for growth. I fundamentally disagree with the idea that if we spend some money that we need to go all in right out of the gate. I want to give prospects with enough ceiling a chance to prove themselves at the major league level. Collins doesn’t deserve a long leash, but I’d like to see how he does against RHP in April & May before I write him off. And if we could land a RF with a bat like Castellanos, I think we can afford that luxury. If we end up with a weaker hitting RF, that may change the calculus a bit.

100% a troll job. He’s basically a homo-phobic version of Greg.