ChiSox59

I don't really see the need to just dump Benintendi. Sox could certainly do worse than a league average bat at DH, as we've proven plenty over the past decade. When healthy, Benintendi is fine, and all things considered, his salary is high for the Sox, but not among his peers. Could the Sox do better? Yah, of course. Will they do better if they dump him for a shitty overpaid pitcher? Almost certainly not.

One thing I really love about this is it means they are committing to Vargas at 3B, hopefully, where he is a far more valuable player.

Is he a straight free agent in 2 years or controllable via arb?

He does hit left handed.

I am all for signing this guy (it's just Jerry's $) and admit I know next to nothing about him or really any NPB or KBO players. But after a quick glance at his NPB stats, I can't help but worry about his game translating to the bigs.

Obviously. I think the biggest signing of the offseason has already occurred.

While I can only assuming you're mostly joking (haven't been following closely enough this offseason to know), if you're going to sign Bellinger (or really any player of note), you may as well hold Robert and hope he's healthy and good. It's just money at this point and I'd be surprised if Sox got any notable prospects for him right now. But he's as high an upside $20M flyer as you could find in the league, so I'm holding (yet again).

Hate to see it.

Glad to hear it!

Is Sizemore no longer on the staff? Bummer if so. I like him.

It's literally impossible for the Sox to find a better player on the FA market with anywhere close to this upside on a 1 year $20M deal (really $18M because $2M was sunk cost), with an additional 1 year team option at the same rate. Absolute no brainer move imo. I get why a chunk of Sox fans want to move on, but this was an easy decision.

Sox were so due for some good fortune and it's suddenly showing up in spades.

That sense of believing sure is a welcome feeling.

He was not selected this am, fwiw. Maybe they let Bryce Wilson eat 5 innings today, then DFA and select Clevinger? Feel like Fegan probably didn't get bad info.

Really happy the Sox gave Lenyn a real shot this year rather than signing over him. Can't say he necessarily deserved it, but this is what happens when you let guys get comfy. Now we suddenly have a 2-2.5 war infielder with 4 more years of control.

My twins fan buddies are in shambles today with the Pohalds announcing they are not selling. Sweet sweet twin tears.

Good for AV. Happy for him. Sox have been much more interesting since he's been gone.

I am a big Kyle Teel guy. Kinda the epitome of what we haven't had for so long.

There is no reason to abandon Teel as a catcher at this point. But Lee should absolutely be on the roster and I have no issue letting Teel get reps in LF and 1B.

Return TBA.

There really is no point in debating it with Lip. Whatever the Sox do, it was the wrong decision.

I doubt that. They preferred giving away a collection of non-exciting prospects and Mullins vs. whatever Getz was demanding for Robert.

Anthony Santander has been a significantly less valuable baseball player over his career than Luis Robert. Those are just facts. Santander's 2024 season would be Robert's third best. We can agree to disagree on this. I hope the Sox can move Robert for a really nice player. But if it doesn't work out, retaining him for 1/$20M is far from a disaster.

Again, you're failing to include the prospect return in your analysis. 1/20 + meaningful prospects Sox are asking for is much different than $20M AAV on the FA market. Anthony Santander - for example - who has accumulated 5 fWAR LESS than Robert in his career in over 300 more games than Robert just got 5/$94M last offseason. Santander is a poor defender, a poor baserunner and 3 years older than Robert.

You're way undershooting it. Robert does a lot of things really well even if he doesn't hit any better than he has last couple years. And he's 27.