ChiSox59

Ummm....the difference would still be over $40M in AAV, which is still just under a 50% increase. Not sure how anyone can describe that as insignificant. The Sox have boatloads of money to spend and a great young, cheap controllable core. Will they spend the money correctly and wisely? Who knows. History is on the naysayers side. But they're in a measurably more flexible and desirable situation than the Padres. The Sox highest AAV guy next season is paid less than a dude the Padres are paying who is out of baseball, and quite possibly in prison.

LOL. The Padres have $101 million committed to 2020 payroll before arb. The White Sox have $15 million committed to 2020 before arb. Important facts.

The other Calhoun...

I was replying to SCWCS or whatever (Boston guy) who said Grandal's 2nd half wasn't much better than McCanns. McCann: .226/.281/.413 Grandal: .229/.388/.398

I don't disagree that they won't trade him. But if they do, they aren't going to get comparable value to what the Sox got for Sale.

First of all, LOL at .107 points in OBP being "not that much better". Grandal is elite at getting on base, one of the Sox biggest weaknesses. Also, bWAR is garbage. Grandal was the 2nd best catcher in baseball behind Realmuto this season with 5.2 fWAR. McCann was 9th at 2.3 fWAR, less than half of Grandal. There aren't really any RF that make sense that are going to cost a ton of money. Sox are either going to trade for a controllable RF or sign a stop gappy guy like Dickerson, Calhoun, Gordon or Gardner at $10M max. So its not like saving money on Grandal can be used to plug RF with an elite FA RF, because there aren't any.

Rangers wouldn't get that for Gallo. That is at a minimum comparable to what the Sox got for Sale.

Gotcha. Generally the / means or. Cease + Dunning seems like a poor decision for the Sox unless it comes with an extension. Even so, I'd rather keep Cease and Dunning and just sign Mookie to that contract 14 months from now without giving up 2 legitimate cheap and controllable rotation options, one with legitimate top of the rotation upside. But I think I will just see my way out of this conversation and agree to disagree. The Sox aren't going to acquire Mookie Betts this offseason, so its all for naught.

Cease and Dunning aren't exactly comparable. I would probably trade Dunning and Dunning alone for a year of Mookie. No chance in hell I'd trade Cease of 1 year of Mookie. I also don't think Dunning alone even gets you in the top 5 offers, and Cease alone isn't going to win that bidding. We're conveniently ignoring the fact that there are handful of teams are ready to compete or already competing that will and should put more value on Mookie Betts than the Sox will and should. Therefore, in order to actually win the bidding, you're probably giving up something like Madrigal/Cease + Walker/Dunning + another top 15 prospect in the org. Hard pass for 1 year.

Grandal solves DH, catcher and 1B. Between Grandal, Abreu, McCann and Collins, DH, 1B and C are all covered. McCann hit .226/.281/.413 in the second half with 72 Ks and 12 walks. He was amazing in the 1st half and a deserving All Star, but signing Grandal to catch 50% of the time, DH 20% of the time and play 1B 20% of the time will really allow the Sox to not overexpose both McCann and Collins. Grandal really is a fantastic fit, and he's also not going to be outrageously expensive. He also showed a ton of improvement behind the plate in 2019.

Lol, ok dude. Clearly you have your mind made up. That would be an absolutely awful trade for the White Sox right now. But winning 83 games and losing a TOR pitcher controlled for 6 more seasons was sure worth than 3rd place AL Central crown in 2020!

Mookie Betts is going to test FA. Trading away a top 50 prospect for 1 year of him when the Sox are a coinflip to be over .500 even with him is pure lunacy,

I don't really plan on signing him next year. But that makes a hell of a lot more sense than giving up legitimate assets to acquire 1 year of an impending free agent. The Sox are going to take a huge step forward next year. But they still likely aren't ready for primetime. Trading for Mookie Betts in the hopes that we can attract him to sign an extension is a ridiculous concept. Let a team like Atlanta overpay for 1 year of a player before he walks into the free agency he has earned. At a minimum, Betts is costing one of Madrigal/Vaughn/Cease + at a minimum another nice piece like Walker/Stiever/Dunning. Hard pass from me, and I highly the doubt the Sox are even considering anything so stupid.

Meh. Id try to hold onto as many of them as I can until their spots are needed. Order of first guy I'd DFA to last guy would be as follows: Covey, Yolmer, Zavala, Vieira, Fulmer, Ruiz, Engel, Cordell, Medeiros, Frare, and Basabe. I think Engel, Cordell, Frare and Basabe should all be pretty safe this offseason. I think Sox like Ruiz arm and so I'd be surprised to see him trimmed from the 40 man as well.

So if the Sox sign a player who rejected a QO - say Zack Wheeler - they'd forfeit their 2nd round pick. Somewhere in the high 40s overall. Correct?

Someone who is closer to contention than the Sox are going to give up more than "a few mid level prospects" for Mookie Betts. This whole conversation is insane. The sox are not a fit for Mookie. Revisit after 2020 and sign him for nothing but money if it makes sense at that point.

Moncada is without a doubt soft. Love the dude. But he acts like he’s seriously hurt 2-3 times a month. Doesn’t mean he can’t be a star - he can and already is in my mind. But I don’t think he’s going to be a guy that plays 155+ games more than a couple times in his career.

All things considered, the Sox hold it 100% in their own hands to make up for last offseason. Sox can thrive without Machado, but it’s going to require attracting some premium free agents.

I want Grandal. Such a great fit. Should be affordable. Plugs so many holes. Yesssss please.

I'd bet a healthy sum on the under.

My bench right now (post Robert and Madrigal promotions) would be Leury, Yolmer, Engel and Collins. With the 26 man roster, much easier to carry a 4 man bench. But that bench assumes we add a DH, RF and re-sign Abreu. So we'll see. And I do agree that having a bench bat with pop would be great. Ideal world that could be Moustakas (wouldn't really call him a bench bat, but a guy we move around) or a guy like Derek Deitrich, but we'll just have so see how the roster plays out. Ultimately I'd be fine with Leury, Yolmer, Engel and Collins if that means we added Grandal, at least a decent RF stop gap and at least 1 mid to top of the rotation SP.

I'd be very surprised to see Leury not on the squad next season.

We agree...I was just being nitpicky. Yolmer is fine. I won't lose a tad of sleep if they keep him around so long as Madrigal is at 2B come mid April. But I'd also be fine replacing him with someone outside of the org.

I am not much of Yolmer guy and I would be totally OK with the Sox non-tendering him, but he's averaged 1.67 fWAR the past three seasons. He basically is just short of a "2 WAR talent", so kind of a weird comment.

I endorse this plan.