Chicago White Sox

While just Stone’s opinion, those are the names to pursue if the big three are off the table.

I fully expect a payroll in the $130M to $140M range if they’re able to land their primary targets. With that assumption, my realistic offseason would be adding Grandal, Wheeler, a quality reliever, a swing-man, and then trading for a RF. If money permits, I’d love to add a bench piece, but I’d prioritize the other needs. I’d play Grandal 100 games at catcher and another 60 at 1B/DH. McCann would get the other 60 starts at catcher, primarily playing against LHP (which he dominates) and when Giolito starts. Collins would primarily be a 1B/DH and get 100 or so starts, mostly against RHP (which I believe he can hit at the major league level). I think it’s important to see what we have in Zack as his combo of plate discipline & raw power is very intriguing to me and he flashed enough down the stretch IMO to warrant an extended look. Encarnacion would be an interesting, fairly affordable alternative at DH, but I’d prefer to use my money elsewhere given the above scenario (such as a Kendrick or Gennett for the bench). I really don’t like the RF options in free agency and think we’ll have to go down the trade route. I’ve made my case for Nimmo many times, but am open to a wide variety of options as long as the price is right.

I think OBP is without question our #1 priority on the offensive side of things. Baseball is often viewed in silos where we say things like “this guy is worth x wins” when in reality context matters. IMO, adding high OBP guys will provide far greater synergies than simply adding more power. That’s why I’d love to add Grandal, because he solves that need in addition to lineup balance. And don’t get me wrong, adding more power will no doubt be important for us this offseason, but that should be relatively easy to find at DH & RF in the juiced ball era. Hell, if we don’t want to spend $20M+ on JDM, I’d rather go with Encarnacion for a year and invest my savings elsewhere. Depth is important, but so is filling all our massive holes with the most impactful players possible. I’m just not overly excited about adding a guy who’s been roughly ~10% above league average as our primary DH on a multi-year deal, especially when he won’t address the team’s OBP problem.

All fair points, just think he’ll require a multi-year deal and I’d rather not make that commitment to player I don’t view as an ideal fit. On a one year deal, I’d be far more open to it because at least this year he could play a month at 2B, but even then guys like Kendrick & Gennett may be able to fill a similar role for even cheeper.

You don’t think he’s a good framer?

That’s correct.

I’ve looked into Moose a lot and just don’t like the fit. First & foremost, he’s a low OBP player and doesn’t address our #1 priority. Second, he’s simply not a good enough hitter to be our primary DH. Yes, the defensive flexibility is nice, but ultimately I’d rather roll the dice on Scooter Gennett as a bench piece than commit to a multi-year deal with Moose.

Fulmer has no options left, so odds are it won’t be with us.

The White Sox aren’t a luxury tax paying team and would only give up their 2nd rounder (plus international bonus pool money we won’t spend!!) if they sign a free agent with a QO.

As I’ve said before, use your money to add one of Wheeler / Bumgarner, one of JDM / Grandal, one quality reliever, and a swing-man. Use your trade assets to acquire a RF. There are a ton of guys who might be available and I think we should be able to land someone at a decent price. Not sure I love Marte given he’s a 31 year old righty who doesn’t walk a lot (although he does get hit by a ton of pitches which helps).

He always declines as the year progresses as he’s a catcher who gets overplayed. That’s not the sign of a downward age-related trend. Also, I’d wager him starting 100 games at catcher and another 60 at DH would keep him more productive over the course of the season.

Lol...you are so wrong about Dunn. Dude’s “big fall-off” in the second half of 2010 was primarily BABIP related. And one bad half (and it wasn’t even bad at a 114 wRC+) does NOT make a trend no matter how badly you want it to. Also, from 2007 to 2010 on a full season basis he was one of the most consistent players in baseball history. There were no warning signs of imminent decline with him. Maybe you’re thinking of Todd Frazier or someone else. As for LaRoche, maybe go check out his stats from 2010 to 2014. He had 2 1/4 bad years and had two good years. Add those together and he was not a “good player” and most definitely inconsistent. And his 2015 season may have been age related, but honestly we’ll never know because Drake LaRoche happened. But hey, that’s not going to stop you from drawing all sorts of conclusions as all you need is two periods to make a trend! And what in the world was I wrong about with Alonso? All I said he wasn’t very good, but was more talented than how played for us. And for the millionth time, Yonder was not a baseball move, he was an incentive to try & lure Manny to the south-side. No one thought he was the answer to anything, but keep fighting the good fight my man!

Grandal put up a wRC+ of 121 last year, which is slightly down from 2018 and exactly the same as 2017. Those are the three best years of his career so no idea where this idea he’s declining is coming from. Very few true DHs were better than him last year offensively.

They had to add three guys from the 60 day DL and they’ll have to protect a half dozen prospects in the coming month or so.

But there is nothing about the White Sox that caused these guys to decline. Dunn had an appendix issue as well as a family issue that caused him to bottom out and then age just caught up with him. LaRoche was just a wildly inconsistent, not very good player who had a bad year and then Drake happened. As for Yondor, I have no doubt the whole Machado fiasco caused him to press after a bad start. He wasn’t very good anymore, but obviously better than he showed with us. Point is these guys underperformed because of them and not the White Sox.

I think the Cubs could trade him, but probably not to the Sox all else being equal. As for your proposed price, there is no reason to trade a top 10 prospect for one year of Quintana when we’re sitting on significant financial flexibility and there is a deep pitching market. We should be leveraging free agency to fill our pitching needs and saving our trade chips for RF.

It’s definitely plausible and far more believable than the Sox scouting kids for two years while in the penalty box and simply not liking anyone.

Good post.

Weren’t the bulk of our signings prior to Robert 16 years of age? Why was he ok with signing them for a good five years, even hitting on a superstar, and then deciding it was a bad investment. I have no doubt Jerry hates signing these young kids for the reasons you stated, but he didn’t interfere with such a plan in years past. I could see him saying “we’re not recruiting 13 year olds full stop” and forcing us to sign older Cuban prospects like Yogurt or fringier 16 year olds not tied yet tied any clubs like Tatis’ brother. In all honesty, our 2020 signing just doesn’t make sense and something is most definitely afoul. To me, it reaks of Reinsdorf meddling than Hahn being a total idiot.

I think this is just like his refusal to go over slot in the past. A ton of teams were doing it and those that did were able to come out with bounties of talent. But since it was technically against the rules and Jerry was BFF with Selig, he refused to allow such practice and put at a huge disadvantage. Jerry has a history of doing things his way all else be damned and I think we’re seeing it here. Honestly, I can’t come up with another rationale explanation other Paddy missing the boat on the recruitment process being earlier than years past and coming out empty-handed. A fuck up like that should have consequences though, even in this organization. I’ve seen the front office make really dumb excuses for Jerry for years and saying “we didn’t like anyone else” fits that to a T.

They’ve signed 16 year olds before, but maybe the fact that recruitment now requires locking up these guys at 13 / 14 is what bothers Reinsdorf. Let’s be honest here, this wouldn’t be the first time Jerry that he did something based on his moral convictions (refusing to go over slot because it was technically against the rules) that put the team at a disadvantage. Again, while Hahn’s resume as a GM is poor, he simply can’t be stupid enough to not want to spend all his bonus allotment because there are no players they like. I’m certain there is more to this story. Your theory makes the most sense to me, especially with an international likely right around the corner.

See, this seems far more likely than Hahn not realizing how dumb it is to not spend your entire bonus allotment.

Who is Grandal similar that came to the AL and face-planted? And why slope coming to AL cause a batter to face-plant in the first place?

Gross.

He has to wait until Tuesday of next week. Pretty sure almost every single potential free agent files day one.