ChiSox59

I am far from a "Reinsdorf apologist" and nothing in my post would indicate as such. But I am not about to throw myself off a cliff because the Sox hired a guy with the 3rd most wins in MLB history because he got a DUI and he is old. Its a bad hire - I didn't like it then and I don't like it now. But its not going to be the beginning of the end for the Sox. As i've told you several times, the organization will be just fine and the Sox will still be very good in 21 no matter who manages them.

It doesn't have any effect on FA, despite lots of naysayers wanting to believe it will.

Yeah, I disagree. The Sox are going to be fine. Doesn't make it not frustrating. Doesn't make it not embarrassing. But TLR isn't going to tank the White Sox franchise or cause TA, Abreu, Moncada, Robert, Eloy, Grandal, Gioltio and Keuchel to forgot how to play baseball. 99/100 players are still going to go to the team that offers the most money. So JR may not offer what is necessary to get the FAs we all want, but they aren't not signing with the Sox directly because of TLR. Except for Stroman, who according to people that apparently have sources, the Sox weren't interested anyway. This isn't an ideal scenario and I get why some fans are up in arms. But this isn't the beginning of the end. People get DUIs. I don't support it, but it happens thousands of times everyday to people in high and low places.

Sure, until the Sox offer real American dollars that surpass the real American dollars another team offers. Things change real quickly then for the vast majority of players. But in summary, I agree. They should can him and hire someone else. But they won’t. And the Sox will be just fine.

We've seen one player turned off about coming here due to TLR. No one else other than Stroman to my knowledge. 99/100 guys are going to go to the team that offers the most money. Obviously we've seen that it isn't 100% with Wheeler, but a guy can much easier swallow a couple million less when were talking about $118M over 5 years, especially if its to keep the wife happy. Realistically, its very unlikely that another guy spurns the Sox if they're the top after tax bidder this offseason, just due to TLR. Look, TLR is an asshat and this was a poor hire and its looking worse by the day. But TLR should be competent enough to manage the team (he is third all time in MLB wins after all), and JR isn't going to pull a full 180 and fire the guy when by all reports the Sox already knew about this prior to the hire. Its embarrassing and really hard to understand their (his) logic. But it is what it is, and kicking and streaming about it is incredibly unlikely to change anything. Only way I see something happening is TLR gets sick of all the questions and just says fuck it. Short of that, he's going to be the manager, and the Sox are going to be just fine.

I haven't read every post in this 20 page thread, but maybe the Sox knew about it prior to yesterday, but didn't know about it prior to hiring him. I don't think Reifert's comments would be inaccurate based on that timeline. Perhaps if that is the case, the Sox may actually decide to move on. But realistically, they knew about it beforehand and didn't care.

I'd happily eat Blackmon's contract to get Marquez assuming the return would be substantially lower than just Marquez by himself. Blackmon, while not a fantastic defensive OF, would be a really solid fit. He has one year and $21.5M guaranteed left. He has two player options for 22 and 23. 22 is $21M so pretty much guaranteed he takes that. So you're looking at 2 years and $42.5M and he has another $10M player option in 2023 which is probably a coin flip if he takes at this point. Its a lot more than he'd get on the open market (obviously), but if you can get Marquez with him without giving up any of the marquee young players, it'd be worth looking into IMO.

I’m in this boat. I’m fine rolling the dice on Joc on a deal similar to Edwins, but I would hope that means a marquee SP is added and frankly really only a couple options that fit that bill.

If the Twins non tender Rosario, it’s to make room for Kirilloff. Not to sign JBJ.

Honestly, Robbie Ray getting $8M guaranteed after his 2020 and the current state of the world was very surprising to me.

Robbie Ray signed for $8M. Maybe we aren’t going to get the bargain basement deals expected. That’s a pretty solid payday coming off his 2020.

And I would be tickled to get Stroman at 3/$40M. As should everyone else on this board. Which means he’s likely to get quite a bit more.

Stroman? I think his floor is like 3/$40M with the QO. I’d take the over. I don’t really think he’s making a mistake if declines it.

I could get very behind that.

Really happy for Eloy. He's going to be a really good stick for a long time. Just need two more years out of him in LF - he can improve.

No, he's still due 3/$54.75. He signed a 4 year $73M deal.

I mean that's a different angle than I was going, but yeah, I suppose that too. But reall, what do you think Grandal gets if he were a FA this offseason? I'd maybe take the under on 3/$55M he has left, but its not going to be THAT much lower. Maybe 3/$45M. I really don't think his contract is as bad as you make it out to be. He doesn't have any surplus value, but his contract isn't' an anchor.

Trading a consensus top 2-3 catcher in the game r signed to a fair contract for 3 more years and just to replace him with a FA that is meaningfully worse at baseball and a meaningfully worse fit for the roster is not a decision any GM is going to make. Not to mention the simple fact that the Sox are SOOOOOOOOOO righty heavy as is. So lets remove 50% of the guys who can hit left handed in the everyday lineup, and replace them with yet another right handed hitter who is much worse offensively. Theres also that whole OBP thing, which is fairly important, and Grandal one of the few guys on the team that takes walks consistently. McCann doesn't do that. It makes zero sense. Grandal is good. Grandal is better than McCann, and always has been. Grandal is signed for three years. McCann is a free agent. The obsession with this whole situation on this board is dumbfounding. I will admit Grandal was disappointing with the glove in 2020. But he wasn't awful, and he's still above average defensively. Maybe the FA market craters enough that the Sox are the high bid on McCann and he returns as backup. But I highly doubt that scenario is going to play out, and I will literally eat a shoe live on twitter if the Sox trade Grandal. There is no chance it is happening.

Trading Grandal still makes zero sense peeps.

June? Far far far more likely we see him in late April once they get the extra year.

Blocking Vaughn when he is MLB-ready isn't a particularly great move. More good players is better than less good players. We have gapping hole in RF. Let's fix that before worrying about adding more DH/1B types. If Vaughn isn't good fesnively at 1B, good thing we have the defending AL MLB signed for two more years and he plays 1B.

Vaughn, barring trade, injury or extension, will be up in late April. Thats a damn near 100% lock. He's not going to open the year on the roster, though.

Just because Ozuna was much better than what the Sox ended up with in 2020, it doesn't change the fact that he wasn't a good fit for the roster in 2020, and still isn't a good fit moving forward. Would I have taken him on the 1 year deal he eventually signed? Absolutely. But he still isn't a good long term fit.

Lamahieu makes a ton of sense if Sox make a big trade splash and move Madrigal. I certainly am not campaigning to trade Madrigal as I think he is a wonderful fit for this roster, but it certainly would be alot easier to stomach if he's moved in package for a TOR starter or very good RF and we turn around and sign Lamahieu. Seems very unlikely, though.

Yeah, that was definitely a head scratcher.