Chicago White Sox

He’s trying to not convey a position of weakness. Telling the media that fans will be devastated if we don’t land Machado creates leverage for Lozano.

I truly believe he wants to play for the Sox (assuming the Yankees are out), but the money has to be right. Just got to hope we’re prepared to match any other bids that come in.

Bummer for Joc confirmed.

Glad to hear these guys aren’t a bunch of Derrick Rose’s.

I still think Machado is ours to lose at this point, but San Diego would be the absolute worst team to beat us out for his services, at least for our front office. Manny playing next to #hewhoshallnotbenamed would be a constant reminder of their failures.

I don’t see how we have leverage. Joc is a good player and damn cheap, which means plenty of teams will happily take him.

Thanks...will be interesting to see how his rankings shake out.

I swear he had Adolfo as an honorable mention in his mid-season top 50, but maybe I’m wrong there. But if he has Madrigal in there, I’ll say Robert is in over Micker. Hard to ignore Robert’s AFL performance (and insane tools) and not at least have him in the back half of the top 100. That being said, Law has some pretty polarizing takes so anything is possible.

Then I’ll guess Eloy, Cease, Robert, & Adolfo (assuming he doesn’t like Madrigal).

I think spring training will cause things to accelerate. That doesn’t mean this will end by the time players are supposed to report, but my guess is Machado will not want to miss a big chunk of camp. If nothing else, it will force things to get a bit more serious.

If Robert stays healthy dude is going to be a fucking stud. The kid might have top 5 tools in all of baseball. He really appears to be that physically gifted.

Move on to what? Not like Harper is going to budge either right now.

They have no chance of winning in 2020?

I’m going to wager incomplete info. I’m still convinced Joc will be a White Sox, but something probably delayed the timing of an announcement. That could be the Dodgers fan fest this weekend, a pending Realmuto trade, etc. Too much smoke & too much Hahn cockiness for something not to be happening soon.

That would make sense. Somewhat surprised Adolfo wouldn’t make his top 100 list when I believe he was an honorable mention for top 50 mid-season list.

Who do you think didn’t make it out of Eloy, Kopech, Cease, Robert, & Madrigal?

The good news is it’s only 2 1/2 weeks until spring training starts, so this nonsense can’t last much longer

I will say Hahn seems unusually cocky this SoxFest and has hinted at more moves being in the pipeline, which gives me hope that he’s optimistic about landing Machado (or Harper).

Ok, this is creepy as fuck. I’m literally watching the “Rick & Rick” session off my DVR and hear Hahn say “it’s binary” as I’m reading this post. But I 100% agree. Either you land Machado/Harper or you failed. Second place doesn’t matter.

For the average taxpayer sure, but California’s maximum state income tax is 8+ points higher than ours. That’s what will kill Manny signing with the Padres.

Then he can die with yet another half-assed product on the field. I believe this time is different though and he’s finally willing to spend.

Sure, but Hahn is the GM and has acted like we’re a serious threat to land Machado. If all he had to work with was a 7/$210M budget, then he should of had a different strategy this offseason and not wasted everyone’s time on some Hail Mary attempt. And the addition of Yonder will look ridiculous if the Sox thought that would be anything more than a tie-breaker. Again, I still believe we’re in the driver’s seat here, just stating how I’ll feel if we were to somehow lose this to the fucking Padres.

Exactly. And if we can’t beat out the Padres, we’d never be able to land a superstar free agent when competing against the Yankees, Red Sox, etc.

Not buying this. That being said, if Hahn let the fucking Padres beat him out for Machado then Hahn should be fired on the spot.

Assuming we add Joc, who is going to platoon with him and Yonder? Rondon could maybe DH against lefties. What about in the OF? Is that Engel...maybe I guess.