ChiSox59

Machado will be playing 3rd with his next team. I guarantee it.

Yikes. Gotta admit that is pretty damn ugly when reading through it.

I was being generous.

Have you watched him back there? He's visibly bad. Terrible at blocking pitches in the dirt (tries to backhand everything), literally frequently just misses bad pitches that are in the air, he's a bad framer (he frequently catches balls right down the pipe with so much arm movement they're called balls) and he's below average in caught stealing %.

The Sox are 6th in MLB in catcher fWAR this season.

7 of the Sox top 15 prospects are OF. They also have several fringe OF in the bigs and AAA (Engel, Delmonico, Tilson, Cordell, Palka). I see absolutely no reason why trading from an area of organizational strength (OF prospect depth) for an area of weakness is a bad idea. You can hate it all you want, along with all the other things you hate. Hahn specifically mentioned these types of deals less than a week ago. It merits discussion.

The Yankees and Cubs are the only two teams that have a long term catcher. Not sure how you can define that as "most" with any qualifier.

That's right, forgot they get the 2 week period.

How many teams in the the league would be able to tell you who their 2020 catcher is going to be with any confidence? The position is generally terrible league wide. The Sox are fairly well positioned with options there with Narvaez, Collins, Zavala and Smith.

True, but I would think a Rutherford for India swap may be a little easier to pull off. These trades don't happen often, and the Hahn even noted as such in the Garfien podcast, but the Sox do have a glut of OF and it makes a ton of sense to try to flip one for a 3B. Easier said than done though, no doubt.

80 games and was busted May 24th. So he should be off his suspension and able to go on a rehab assignment late August. Minor league season ends in August, so they may have to send him to a team going to the playoffs. Or just throw him on the September big league roster and give him minimal at bats. Doubt its of much concern to the Sox.

As others have said, his defensive shortcoming leave him nothing more than a backup catcher. He's been great at the plate since a dreadful start to the season. If I were Rick, I wouldn't hesitate dealing him if the right offer came along this offseason. But I doubt it will, because other teams will know this guy isn't a big league catcher. If you can't get anything of value with him, keep riding him as a backup catcher for now. He's just so bad back there that it really kills any value he has.

THE SKY IS FALLING!!!

You sound like Hawk.

Surprised we haven't heard that he's cleared waivers. He most certainly has at this point.

LOLZ

Guessing it was that. He probably felt 33rd round was a slap in the face, especially since he appears to have been more signable than everyone thought.

He's a glorified beer league player. But he can rake.

Gonzalez has been great and I am super excited about him. But to say Rutherford should be closer to 20 than 10 is a bit harsh IMO. He's been very good this year and is still just 21.

For real. Rutherford has been pretty damn good this year.

If they were gonna call these guys up, they should have done it 4-6 weeks ago. It makes zero sense at this juncture.

Correct. My mistake. Point still stands.

Or teams actually trying to win games. I have no doubt that Eloy and Kopech would be up if the Sox were within spitting distance of a playoff berth. But they aren't (even close). In fact, winning games at this point is somewhat counterproductive unless its due to fantastic games from long term future pieces.

I keep seeing people say why does 2025 matter when Gio, Lopez and Moncada will all be FA in 2024. Especially that Patrick Nolan guy on Twitter (man has that dude been a blowhard the past few months). The whole idea of a rebuild is to have waves of talent. Avoiding having all your elite talent becoming a FA the same year is important. 2024: Moncada, Anderson, Gio, Lopez 2025: Eloy and Kopech 2026: Cease, Dunning, Collins, Madrigal 2027: Robert, Rutherford, Basabe, Hansen, Adolfo, Burger, Gonzalez The whole idea is that your whole roster doesn't just go away in one season like what happened with the Royals right after they got good.

I have a feeling it won't be an issue we'll need to worry about.