ChiSox59

There is no DH in the NL.

Also worth noting that they are now calling Castillo's injury an oblique strain, instead of lower back tightness. Not uncommon for oblique strains to take some time to heal, so he is unlikely to return after his 10 days is up. That also means the Sox aren't going to be able to DH Collins and/or McCann frequently, unless they are willing to roll the dice. So we may not get a good feel for how the Sox truly intend to use Collins until Welington returns.

Official per Sox twitter. Vieira was optioned on Sunday.

To be honest, its really only a few people. Abreu is a very talented hitter, but he is the type of player that has been losing value around the league for some time now. He's just not a guy you need to pay $15M+ a year to on the open market. I do think the Sox eventually pay him a little more than they need to, and he gets extended or resigns for a 2 year $24-26M deal to stay with the Sox. I honestly think 2/$18M should get it done, though.

I do not see the Sox spending their money by “loading up on bad contracts”, presumably via trade, like you said. I do think they’ve shown a willingness to do things differently this time, and I suspect that will include being more fiscally responsible via trade, and instead acquiring higher paid players via signing a premier FA or two. They don’t necessarily need to be the the 2 greatest FAs in a decade plus like Machado and/or Harper. I understand that history is on your side. But as I’ve said a few times in this thread, Sox have been making a habit of breaking their track records in recent seasons, and I expect that to continue.

My entire life. I’m 29.

Lol, I haven’t once mentioned Bumgarner, Rendon, Cole and Ozuna all being signed. In fact, I’ve clearly stated that Rendon doesn’t make much sense for the Sox as theyre not going to move Moncada again, Ozuna is awful defensively and doesn’t really work with Eloy in LF so I’d pass and I haven’t suggested Bumgarner once all offseason, so you must have me confused with someone else.

Lol “they will load up on bad contracts” but won’t sign premier talent. Classic Sox fan mentality.

Agree to disagree on pretty much everything, especially the Sox never being serious. They were very serious, but they weren’t just going to hand the guys empty checkbooks. In hindsight, I don’t blame them. Some still do. I get it. The good news is, the Sox still have the ultimate financial flexibility and outside of some shitty injuries, they have seen some serious positive regression from some very key members of this future core. Missing on MM and Harper sucks, but its not the end of the rebuild. Brighter days are ahead, and I am hopeful that the Sox will eventually be aggressive on the FA market. I certainly don’t think the Sox FA moves in 2019 are any going to be any indication of a new trend.

Even if Collins isn't really a catcher, just being an early career version of Evan Gattis / Mike Napoli would provide a fair amount of value.

Tht would suck for him - go from one team loaded with OF, to another team just as loaded with OF.

There was a report that come out a few weeks ago (definitely since the season starter) that was posted here that said the Sox were very aggressive on Harper asfter Machado, despite it not really getting into the media. I spent a couple minutes trying to find it, but this board's search capability isn't the strongest. I believe it came from a notable writer - Heyman maybe?

You didn't blatantly say it, but if you don't think they're going to sign anyone but "low cost veterans", then they're going to be in the bottom tier of payrolls moving forward. The Sox need pitching help bad. Gio, Kopech and Cease isn't going to be enough to actually be a good.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=brenna001bra Don't see people complaining about this one any longer...

If you fail to see the difference between last offseason and this coming, well....you clearly don't pay much attention.

The White Sox offered more than 28 other clubs for Machado. We don't know what the final offer for Harper was, but there were reports a few weeks ago that the Sox were super aggressive after missing out on Machado, even though the offer was never publicized. It seems safe to assume they were at least in the top 3-4 in bidding on Harper. I am not giving them brownie points, but the Sox were pretty damn close to getting Machado at $250M. The man had purchased custom Sox gloves FFS. Obviously it doesn't matter because they didn't get either of them, but the fact that they were that they offered a quarter billion+ dollars to those guys is certainly something they haven't done in the past. I am willing to believe Hahn when he says that when the Sox are ready, they will spent on marquee free agents. They're definitely closer to ready this coming offseason as opposed to last. I also understand why some Sox fans are reluctant to believe that the Sox will sign a marquee free agent. We all had our hearts ripped out last winter. I just find the folks that don't seem to grasp the fact that the Sox have under $20M committed to 2020 payroll, and if the go bargain hunting again, they could legitimately be sub $50M in payroll. I see a higher likelihood of being north of $100M as opposed to sub $50M next season. The Sox aren't suddenly going to operate as one the lowest payroll teams in the league from now on. They have ALOT of money to spend.

So you too are of the opinion the Sox are now going to operate as one of the 3-4 lowest payrolls in the game moving forward. K, got it. I think a lot of people are going to be surprised when the Sox open up the pocketbook the next two years. Will they beat everyone out for Cole? Maybe not. But they're not going to fill in the gaps off the clearance aisle any longer, IMO. That's not to say they won't make minor signings, but I think they days of being a bottom 5 teams in payroll won't last very long.

The Sox have broken several of their previous norms in recent seasons. I don't doubt that they'd prefer not to go over 4 years on a SP; I would assume most teams are in that school of thought. I am far from convinced that they're going to refuse to go over 4 years on SP in the next couple seasons, because if they don't they're just going to burn the cheap years from the young core. The Sox just offered 2 players over a quarter billion dollars to play for them mere months ago. When is the last time that happened? I will answer it for you: NEVER.

So your thought is that the Sox are going to have a payroll below $60M?

Encarnacion, while a better bat, was due a decent amount more than Abreu. $5M opt out alone is significant on Encarnacion.

1/14 seems unnecessarily rich, honestly. May be harsh, but Sox have all the leverage and frankly could probably get Abreu as cheap as 2/$18M.

Yah just a typo. Moncada in the 2nd Anderson spot.

Now with Collins and probably Jay not too far behind, I'd say: vs. RHP: Leury CF, Moncada 3B, Abreu 1B, McCann C/DH, Eloy LF, Collins DH/C, Anderson SS, Jay RF, Yolmer 2B vs. LHP: Leury CF, Anderson SS, Abreu 1B, Eloy LF, McCann C/DH, Moncada 3B, Castillo DH/C, Yolmer 2B, Cordell RF I could also see Jay and Leury flipped against RHP.

He would likely be the Twins best reliever, so yah. Red Sox bullpen could use some work.

He's definitely more than just "a guy".