Chicago White Sox

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.

I believe he’s under control for five more seasons. He also has an option left, which is incredibly valuable. Personally, when it comes to the bullpen next year, I think we have four guys that are pretty much guaranteed spots in Colome, Herrera, Bummer, & Fry. Given Herrera’s struggles this year, I think they add one high-end RH setup man in the offseason. After that, I think you just let Cordero, Marshall (who has an option), Hamilton, Fulmer (who will be out of options), Frare, Ruiz and whoever else compete for the last spot or two. With the way he’s pitched so far, Cordero may in fact be the favorite unless there is someone who shows will in spring training that needs to be protected.

@CaliSoxFanViaSWside this is exactly what I’m talking about. I wish the on-field product was better too, but I’m definitely not calling them up right now for short-term entertainment purposes. Nothing personal @Roofshot, but this is just a crazy line of thinking and the value you get out of watching a slightly better team miss the playoffs in 2019 in worth absolutely nothing.

FIFY

Your view isn’t whiny. From what I can gather, you simply believe the 40 or so games they could get by calling them soon is important for their development and puts them in a better position to be contributors in 2020. That’s a fair point of view, just one I don’t personally agree with. As for the whining, I’m talking about the SoxMachine guys (Pnoles & Josh Nelson in particular) who constantly complain about service time manipulation and rip the front office for not calling these guys up. Like I said, a very strong argument can be made for calling them up now to better your odds of being competitive in 2020, but demanding they be promoted due to ethical considerations (sorry, but all teams play the service time game) or simply because they’re bored (which I think is the actual culprit) is both stupid & short-sighted.

IMO, the drop dead date to call up Robert & Madrigal was August 1st. After that, I just don’t believe the benefit outweighs the cost of an extra year of team control. Both guys will likely be fatigued come September and would face a ton of garbage pitching due to rosters expanding. I just don’t view that as vital development experience. As for 2020, the Sox have 13 games in their first 16 days. I wouldn’t be shocked if there are few rain-outs in the mix, so we’re talking about missing 11 to 12 games most likely. While it would definitely suck not having them to start the season, I still don’t think it’s worth losing a year of team control in 2026.

I really hope they aren’t planning to call up Robert & Madrigal. Please don’t listen to those whiny SoxMachine b****es like Pnoles and stay the course.

? Saying his strikeout rate has increased by 10% is not suggesting 10% of his ABs have been impacted. And no, I’m not evaluating the outcome of his at-bats, but the change in the underlying driver.

Lol...I’m dying right now.

Increasing the contextual impact? He’s striking out 10% more of the time than last year. I could turn this around and say you’re looking at just the absolute change in his K rate to minimize the YoY impact. I wouldn’t because you’re trying to measure the effective impact on an outcome basis whereas I’m looking at the relative change in the underlying driver. Maybe people will interpret it wrong, but there was nothing inherently disingenuous about my comment.

I’m suggesting his strikeouts are up 10% vs prior year, which is a factual statement. What in the fuck am I trying to represent other than implying it may be reflect the initials sign of a slowing bat and/or aging player? This is where citing a relevant stat makes total sense. You saying otherwise is disingenuous or you simply not wanting acknowledge being wrong.

Don’t hate, he’s just building up his dataset so he can make an objective decision.

If there are enough suitors, that’s what he’ll get. He’s a top three pitcher in baseball and has shown to be pretty durable. Also, he’ll be 29 next year for the vast majority of the season, not that makes a huge difference.

Lol...you said your background is finance and/or analytics and you’re somehow ignorant of relative change? Something ain’t jiving here guy.

Which is why I said he’s selling other parts of his game for power.

I don’t follow. He’s striking out about 10% more frequently than last year, which represents a two point increase in his actual K rate. One reflects absolute change, the other relative. To say only one matters doesn’t make a lick of sense to me.

He spent a chunk of his winter in Arizona working on changing his approach at the plate. Just because he doesn’t play with a lot of emotion, doesn’t necessarily mean he’s not a high effort guy.

Yup, doesn’t really make a ton of sense.

His K rate is 22% this year vs 20% last year...that’s a 10% increase in the rate. If his K rate was up 10 actual points, his rate would be up 50% vs prior year.

He’s not wrong, Cole would be a perfect addition for this team. Just make him the Manny offer (without the options) and he would be ours.

His K rate has improved in August, so it’s not as bad as it was. But a 10% increase is still a red flag and something that shouldn’t be ignored when projecting out his age curve.