ChiSox59

Trading the 24 year old cost controlled future franchise cornerstone who's value is depressed due to playing out of position, and turning around and investing $15M+ for 2023 into a comparable 36 year old bat on the decline is.......very bad business. I lose Jose Abreu. Build him a statue. But this is not the route forward unless Miami wants to hand us Jazz Chisholm for AV, AND Jose will take a nice discount. Signing Jose also means we aren't getting an OF. Its just terrible asset allocation.

They need more than a "warm body, and I don't think they need to fill "several OF spots". Pollock is a perfectly fine stop gap in LF to Colas, and is actually a great platoon partner for him as he does still hit lefties well. The price point isn't ideal, but it is what it is. You have to assume he's on the roster until he's not, and if he's not, Sox suddenly have a few more million to play with. You know I want Nimmo. I doubt the Sox actually get him. But they need to at least get someone from the next tier of LH hitters - Benintendi, Conforto, Gallo, maybe Brantley though his defense would scare me.

I am hopeful that Sox plan is for a Colas / Pollock platoon and to make him earn his spot. Sign or acquire an OF. If Colas pushes his way into the mix by May, Pollock goes to bench. There will be plenty of playing time for all these guys.

If the White Sox don't acquire a starting caliber OF that complements the teams weaknesses (LH; good vs RHP; at least an average defender) they may as well trade everyone of value.

Perhaps. But it seems this Tovar guy is really respected for what he's done with their young hitters.

Royals fans seem legitimately disappointed by this. I’d say that’s a pretty good sign.

Agreed. To me, Gavin is a placeholder for 3-4 weeks until Colas arrives and then is in AAA purely as an injury insurance. Gavin is a fine depth piece to have around to fill in for a couple weeks when needed, but he's close to worthless as bench piece. He has an option; hope to Sox abuse it this year. Same goes for Burger, btw.

That's....not happening. He keeps saying it, but it continues to not be very likely at all. However, Grifol being a catching guy may want the FO to find a catcher that is a much better receiver than our options. Or maybe he can just make Seby into a better one. So perhaps the chances of Sox just cutting bait with Grandal went from 1% to 5%. Still think you just gotta hope Yaz legs are healthy this spring and he can be useful as a part time catcher and pinch hitter. The shift ban will help him a bit. Its unlikely he just completely forgot how to hit; he was playing on one leg all season. The other angle is here is Grandal may factor into the 1B rotation a bit more this year. Assuming Pito is gone, when you pinch run for AV late in the game, someone has to play 1B. Gavin may be around early in the year, but its going to be hard to keep him on the roster if its fully healthy once Colas arrives. Now this roster staying fully healthy is very unlikely, but point being, Yaz is probably going to play more 1B than he has the last 2 seasons. Not like 1B is a hard position and you can stick Leury or some s%*# there if needed, but not a lot options after AV/Sheets/Grandal, unless you want Eloy to try to learn how to do it occasionally.

Charlie Montoyo for bench coach has been rumored, if you missed that.

Love to hear it

Any official word on Menechino?

And he's a guy that cares deeply about his performance, his future earning and is absolutely digusted with his 2022. He's back in the lab figuring it out. Not a guy I am betting against in a year heading into FA, especially not at his lowest value.

Just went and found this itnerview. Here is the link: This interview is Exhibit A why I would never trade Gio this offseason. Dude is on a mission. He's going to have a huge season.

Could be. They're just an echo chamber between the two and I take their stuff with a giant grain of salt, so could have the exact story backwards.

Northbrook Bob. Some twitter guy with like 400 followers that is quite confident he has all the sources. He's definitely been right on some stuff, but also stays generic enough that he could be full of s%*#. He also claims he's a CPA somehow affiliated with the Sox, and how the Sox allow that guy to spill the beans on twitter just seems....unlikely. Definitely a take it for what its wroth situation. Seems he at least hears some things, but he wasn't saying Grifol was the guy before it broke. He did however keep saying Espada was out and Ozzie wasn't the guy.

Yeah, that seems even more unlikely lol.

I thought the same thing, but then was like.....why? Would be awfully neat, but have a hard time understanding how that is possible unless he just hates Philly.

What is Grifol's opinion on outfield defense?

I like Cairo. Wouldn’t hate to see him get the 1B/3B job. Guess it does leave a tie to TLR tho, so also okay if he moves on.

Anyone have these pictures that keep getting mentioned handy? Would love to see.

I am pretty meh on this. Glad they didn't make a bonehead move, but I preferred at least 5 candidates to Grifol.

I take it you don't frequent Sox Twitter. But yes, I think the last dozen or so pages of Sox are hiring Ozzie comments could definitely be presented as freakouts. Not sure discussing our definitions of a figure of speech is material though.

I get it; still think the daily freak-outs when legitimately nothing has happened and grasping for every possible worst case scenario as if its a done deal is very par for the course for this fan base.

Of course it is!!!!

Orrrrrr.....like.....they're interviewing a ton of different options like they said they wanted to do and most fans said they SHOULD do, and they haven't been updating the media on every step of the process. To this point, the Sox have done absolutely nothing worth getting upset about. They certainly have it within them to f*** this up, but to this point, they haven't. I continue to not understand how some people think this process has been some sort of disaster. Sox cannot control what blowhards say on the radio, nor should they directly have to address it.