ChiSox59

If Tim got hurt, the top minor league SS is Laz Rivera who hit .248/.287/.318 in AA last season. Then maybe Yolbert Sanchez who hasn't even played stateside yet. So yah, I'd say he's SS insurance in Charlotte.

Well I guess thats some SS insurance.

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2020/01/angels-hire-dylan-axelrod-as-pitching-coordinator.html Yes, that Dylan Axelrod.

They tried last offseason. He wasn't interested.

No doubt. Sox rotation is no for sure thing (to be clear, I didn't say it was, and wasn't really comparing the Twins to the Sox at all in that post). But at least we have a stable of young MLB ready SP. Obviously losing Gio would most likely kill the Sox 2020 chances as well....but to my knowledge he didn't struggle with elbow issues last year. Twins also don't really have anything similar to Kopech and Cease. Graterol is interesting and will likely pitch some for the Twins in 2020, but he is more than likely a pen arm.

I mean, if they lose Berrios, their pitching is really bad. That may be big if, but he had elbow issues last year and lost a ton of velo. I wouldn't be shocked if his misses time this year, and there is some internal concern about his arm. I don't think "all hell needs to break lose" for the Twins to be a .500ish team. Father time finally catches Cruz. Berrios gets hurt. Polanco, Kepler and Garver regress to the mean. They get close to nothing out of Dick Mountain and Homer Bailey. Luis Arraez was a flash in the pan one year wonder. Buxton is unable to stay on the field for more than 80 games. Obviously all of those things aren't going to happen, but its not too much of stretch to believe half of them will. Basically everything went right for the Twins last season - chances are lightning doesn't strike twice.

Donaldson is good. He makes the Twins better in 2020. He is also 34 years old, and the Twins will most likely be paying him $29M in 2023 in his age 37 season. The backend of this deal is going to hurt them - likely quite a bit. Its a strange allocation of resources for the Twins, but frankly, at this juncture in the offseason he was the guy that made the most sense to the spend the money on. There is no SP left worth paying. The Twins allowing it to get to this point is what is strange. This may be a bit of a kick in the balls to the Sox 2020 ALC chances, but this offseason was never about building a WS contender for 2020. Its about the beginning of a 6-7 year window, and this Donaldson move really does very little to negatively impact the White Sox long term outlook. And if Donaldson is unable to stay healthy the next two seasons - the only two in which you can reasonably expect him to earn his money - this deal is really going to hurt the Twins. Twins fan are excited. And they should be. Their previous forays into expensive free agents have pretty much all failed. The most expensive position player free agent in franchise history prior to Donaldson was a 3/$24M deal to Jason fuckin' Castro. So of course they're going to be excited. This move also improves their IF defense quite a bit by getting Sano off 3B, but I remain unconvinced that Donaldson is anything more than an average 3B at this point, though is 2019 defensive metrics were fairly strong. Everything will be OK Sox fans. Twins weren't just going to standby and make no moves in what is the tailend of their window. 85 wins isn't going to win this division, so let's go out and get 90 wins and see where the chips fall.

Give me Moncada over Donaldson and Madrigal over Arraez.

If he can stay healthy, this definitely hurts for 2020. But paying 35-37 YO Donaldson over $20M could be ugly. As others have said, let’s battle. Twins will score a lot of runs, but they’ll give up a lot too.

Obdel Herrera DFA'd. Quite a fall for that guy. With his contract, he'll definitely clear waivers and get released. Domestic violence charges are going to make it tough for other teams to give him a chance, but perhaps at the MLB minimum someone will roll the dic.e

Yah, looks like one of the early articles I read had bad info. My bad for passing it along. Good for Hinch. He should be able to get another job. The way it sounded early on, it was effectively a lifetime ban. Who is going to hire a guy just to have him be suspended for a year? With him seemingly allowing this to go on, but not the mastermind behind it, that seems fair.

Probably more likely that they don't really view Mercedes, and to a lesser extent Collins, anything more than emergency/occasional catchers at the MLB level. Without those two, its Zavala is really the only true catcher in AAA, tho he's certainly not great with the glove either. But I agree - I thought Zavala would be gone before Covey.

Right.

Because the White Sox are trying to win this year and weren't last year? This isn't that complicated. I agree $5.4M isn't alot of money for a team trying to win baseball games, which is why I think trading him for nothing makes no sense. I don't care to go back and look at my comments from over a year ago about McCann, but I would assume my issues at the time of signing had more to do with rolling the dice on a vet without much mlb success and with only 2 years fof control instead of just giving younger guys like Collins and Zavala opportunities in what was certainly going to be a lost season. I highly doubt my main criticism was the incremental cost difference between $2.5M and mlb minimum as you're seemingly suggesting.

Lol, really? Pointing out comments from over a year ago that were made shortly after McCann got non-tendered from one of the worst teams in baseball is pretty comical stuff. No, I was not a huge fan of McCann signing last year. But the guy was pretty dang good in 2020 and obviously the calculus has changed. Or is changing one's opinion based on the collection of additional information not allowed in the world of Dick Allen? No shit the Sox want Grandal to catch as much as possible. That doesn't mean you just trade McCann for scraps (which is likely all they'd get) because he doesn't appear to have a major role at the moment.

I would rather spend the $6M on Cishek AND keep McCann. The Sox aren't hurting for $, and don't need to punt McCann and his $5.4M salary to add another reliever. If they can trade McCann for a solid reliever, I won't complain. But I think that move would've been done if it was possible. I'd also rather have a real backup catcher. Collins may be a useful "gadgety" catcher, but I certainly don't want him as the only person capable of catching besides Grandal. JMO, but also appears to be the Sox.

There is a lot wrong with that with respect to Collins specifically.

So trading him (or McCann) for scraps accomplishes what exactly for the White Sox? Collins will get chances in 2020. He will be the first guy up if about 20% of the roster gets IL'd (Grandal, Mccann, Abreu, EE). Sox could move McCann mid season as well. No need to just punt Collins because he doesn't have an OD 2020 roster spot. What you're advocating for isn't good business.

He meant closer. As in, any time he spends on the MLB roster is that much time closer to FA. All of this is moot anyway. Collins is going to be in AAA. He'll get some chances with the Sox in 2020, but they're not going to give McCann away just so they can downgrade the major league team. Collins and McCann are both worth more to the Sox than they are in trade. Therefore, Collins will be in AAA.

"Trading the poor guy and let him have a decent shot somewher else" is a terrible way to run a baseball organization.

I don't think there is a bullpen in baseball that is filled with guys that don't give their fans anxiety. Sox pen isn't a major plus, but it should be average with upside.

At least we don't project to have any complete gas cans in the pen (assuming Herrera can bounce back some). With plenty of interesting arms in the upper minors in Hamilton, Burdi, Johnson, Heuer, Ruiz and Foster as back stops - not to mention SP like Dunning, Lambert, Steiver, Rodon, Lopez and Gonzalez who could be used in relief roles to ease into action or due to change of roles.

Opening Day Rotation: Giolito, Keuchel, Cease, Gonzalez, Lopez Pen: Colome, Bummer, Cishek, Fry, Herrera, Marshall, Cordero, Fulmer June 1 Rotation: Giolito, Keuchel, Kopech, Cease, Lopez Pen: Colome, Bummer, Cishek, Fry, Herrera, Cordero, Gonzalez, Hamilton August 1 Rotation: Giolito, Keuchel, Kopech, Cease, Lopez, Rodon Pen: Colome, Bummer, Cishek, Fry, Herrera, Cordero, Hamilton, Burdi

The Sox have basically trimmed ALLLLLLLLL of the 40 man fat and filler in a matter of 3 months. Its truly impressive.

Thanks!