Chicago White Sox

I hate when people hype up overpaying Jose Abreu as proof the “money will be spent”.

Oh I 100% agree. I’m still hopeful we do the right things like land Wheeler, but this Abreu has me a little spooked. And Puig would most definitely fit in that category.

POTY

Thank you.

Comparing two contracts and ignoring 8% of the total commitment of one of them seems pretty disingenuous. Not sure why the timing of those matter, but if you’re going down that path present them in NPV instead of just discounting the deferrals to zero.

Trust me, I wanted him back for 2020 and maybe the protection angle helps. At this point it is what it is, just got to hope this doesn’t slow the rest of our offseason done.

Honestly, I’m far more annoyed by your ridiculous defense of the deal than by the deal itself. Saying there really is no risk is just plain dumb. We are talking about a poor fielding, 33 year old 1B who is currently about 15% better than a league average hitter. Refusing to acknowledge the very real possibility that he’s replacement level or worse by 2022 while eating up potentially 10% of our total payroll space is one of the most insane arguments I have ever seen on this site. You’re obviously a smart guy, but it’s hard to take you seriously at times when you will literally defend anything & everything this organization does.

But he got 3/$50M ?‍♂️

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.