Chicago White Sox

100% agree. At his age, he shouldn’t be catching 140 games.

I don’t recall the source, I just remember there were rumors that Abreu didn’t like Puig back to their Cuba days.

It was a rumor, there won’t be an actual article stating Abreu hates Puig and anything he says to the media will be played up in a positive manner.

I’m not sure there is even one person on this board who thinks we’ll sign Cole...

Based on what exactly?

Stone is now part of the front office?

Is this just related to Fry?

Why are you so obsessed with Puig? He’s not even that good of a player...

Come on Caulfield, that trade was not about this year for the Indians no matter much you love and hype up Puig.

It’s a mutual option and seriously doubt Moustakas won’t want to try for a multi-year deal.

Exactly. I’m shocked at the amount of people who ignore our vast history of supporting a league average payroll or better under Reinsdorf and suddenly think he’s going cheap (despite quickly approaching death’s door) to suck in those sweet, sweet rebuild profits. It’s absolutely mind-boggling, conspiracy theory type bullshit and it really needs to die. Just because we missed out on Manny Machado in epic fashion does NOT mean we’ll never sign a halfway decent free agent again. There is a wide, wide gap between the Machado’s & Harper’s of the world and guys like Wheeler, Castellanos, & Grandal. We can and will most definitely sign guys of that latter quality in the coming years.

Again, that’s going to be a roster with a $75M payroll. What is the point of financial flexibility if we’re afraid to use it? I will say this with absolute certainty: not landing at least one of Cole, Strasburg, Wheeler, Bumgarner, or Ryu would be a complete & utter failure and would likely be a precursor to the rebuild failing. Filling in holes with quality free agents is an essential part of finishing this thing off. We don’t necessarily need to sign Cole, but if our biggest additions are huge question marks like Wacha & Wood then god help us all.

You know I like optimistic Parkman! Look what you did with Giolito! If you believe in Cole, I’m certain you can will his way into our rotation!

Lol...I honestly made that up or thought I had at least, but apparently not!

He literally thinks we’ll sign Matt Moore and rock a $75M payroll instead of signing any of Cole, Strasburg, Wheeler, Bumgarner, Ryu, Hamels, Kuechel, Ororizzi, Gibson, Roark, Pineda, Miley, Wood, Porcello, & Gio Gonzalez. That’s 15 guys that are leagues better than Moore and he actually thinks we won’t sign any of any them. It may have been the most pessimistic post I have ever seen on this board other than that one time Parkman predicted the team plane would go down because of bad storms.

Wait...what?

Gonzalez would be fine if he came dirt cheap (say a guy like Rutherford as the centerpiece), but I’m guessing that’s an unrealistic assumption and there are way too many quality starters in free agency that can be had just for money.

Well the free agent market is incredibly deep with starting pitching, so that’s one area. I fully expect us to sign one high end starter (even if it’s not Cole) and wouldn’t surprised if we added a second lesser one. No idea why we’d ever trade that much prospect currency for Marco Gonzalez (your proposal is a gross overpay), let alone so we can rock a $75M payroll next year. That simply doesn’t make a lick of sense whatsoever and you honestly can’t actually believe that’s a plausible scenario.

3/$60M max, maybe even a little less. If you believe he’s a five or even a four win player, that’s a bargain IMO.

The problem is McCann’s 116 wRC+ is not sustainable. He’s running a very high BABIP and his xWOBA is nearly 20 points lower than his actual WOBA. And for reference, Grandal’s xWOBA is nearly 30 points higher than McCann’s. Grandal is without question an elite hitting catcher, if McCann’s power is for real he’s an above average hitting catcher but on a completely different tier. The other major difference is framing, where there is a clear night & day difference in ability. Admittedly, I love how McCann handles the young staff and that’s an area impossible to quantify but where he probably has an edge on Grandal (based on reports). Also, I’m not suggesting getting rid of McCann (at least not next year), it’s more of this three headed monster idea of Grandal, McCann, & Collins sharing DH & C. Honestly, J just don’t see a lot of free agent bats that can rapidly improve our lineup and Grandal is one of those few options that could theoretically work.

And that’s a completely fair take and I love how McCann handles the staff. I’m just saying it should be obvious why people would want Grandal as he’s an elite catcher and plus left-handed bat. Debating the fit or best use of our resources is totally up for debate, I just feel like some posters are under valuing Yasmani as a player. Here’s the challenge we face this offseason. There are very few quality bats in free agency and even fewer left-handed ones. The list of free agents who fit our major needs (RF & DH) is tiny. It remains debatable if Ozuna can even play RF and after him it’s stop-gap types for the OF unless you want to overpay for a fairly ordinary bat in Castellanos. As for DH, if JD Martinez doesn’t opt-out your best DH options are probably Dickerson (if he’s even willing to), a 37 year old Encarnacion, or Smoak. Not the prettiest of options, but perhaps enough to buy you time until Vaughn is ready. If you add Grandal however, you can go with a three headed monster at C & DH and improve both spots one swoop. For this exercise, let’s say that isn’t happening. Regardless, we’ll likely have to trade for a RF and that’s going to cost prospect capital that’s in limited supply for us. If we prioritize adding a left-hander, there are three guys who are semi-interesting that would not require an untouchable prospect: Brandon Nimmo, Gregory Polanco, & Nomar Mazara. I personally like Nimmo the best out of that group, but he may be the hardest to acquire and has a back issue that at least warrants some caution. Mazara really hasn’t ever been good offensively and only has two years of control left, but is the youngest of the trio. That leaves Polanco as the best mix of attainable & interesting. He’s not perfect by any means, but he’s a guy with upside who could probably be had for reasonable price. So let’s say we trade for Polanco for RF and sign Smoak to a cheap one year deal to fill in at 1B/DH. Here’s what our lineup would potentially look like next year with my incredibly early & completely subjective WAR forecasts: 1: Madrigal, 2B (2.5) 2: Moncada#, 3B (5.0) 3: Jimenez, LF (2.5) 4: Abreu, DH/1B (1.0) 5: Smoak#, 1B/DH (1.0) 6: Robert, CF (3.5) 7: Anderson, SS (3.0) 8: Polanco*, RF (2.0) 9: McCann, C (1.5) IF: Goins*/Mendick* OF/IF: Garcia# BC/1B/DH: Collins* BC/DH: Mercedes I’m projecting ~22 WAR from that lineup (assuming any value the bench guys provide is offset by injuries to the starting nine) for a total cost of likely $45M to $50M. That’s a good not great lineup with some potential upside, but definitely limited by the 1B/DH pairing (although platooning with Collins and/or Mercedes could lead to better production there). Assuming a replacement level team wins 48 games and that you need 88 to be in the playoff mix, we’d need ~18 WAR from our pitching staff with a budget of say $75M. Can that be done this offseason? If you add Cole (or to a lesser extent Strasburg) and a high-end reliever, it’s more than possible. If you move from Cole down to one of Wheeler/Bumgarner, it suddenly becomes more challenging. The problem is Cole may pull a Harper/Machado and not sign until Feb/Mar. Cole is without question my dream addition, but I’m skeptical we’ll offer him the necessary years or put all our eggs in his court and potentially miss out on other quality starters. It’s why a Grandal addition makes so much sense to me because he’s an upgrade at both the C & DH spots and makes up for some of the gap between Cole and those lesser starting pitching options. That being said, I’m not optimistic the Sox will actually pursue him, especially if they believe Collins’ recent improvements are for real. Just don’t see a lot of other greats opportunities to improve the lineup substantially that only cost money.

I’d question my White Sox fandom if that was our offseason. That being said, there is zero chance something so pathetic like what you mapped out here happens. The Sox will not be rocking a $75M payroll next year, which is exactly what you’re suggesting.

For the millionth time, front loading contracts does not create value, especially when we’ll never be a luxury tax team.

People are obsessed with Grandal because he’s one of the best catchers in baseball and is probably the best left-handed bat on the market. I don’t understand why that’s hard to understand.

Literally none of those guys hit arbitration next year.