Jose Abreu

As a hitter yes, so far he's Schwarber with a higher walk rate. Contractually no, since Schwarber got his big deal at age 33 and Mune will reach free agency at 28. (And his prior contract was after only 1 year of his now typical production)

I wrote about this in more detail recently. I don't love the Olson and Alonso comps because of the age difference, although there aren't many great comps out there in fairness. Vlad Jr. is on the other extreme since he was younger than Murakami will be when he reaches free agency. I don't know why everyone conveniently ignores that one during these conversations — maybe because Guerrero didn't end up reaching free agency himself, but at this (very early) point he is a much better hitter comparison for Murakami than any of these other guys. A 170 wRC+ is MVP-level good. Again, very early. It will ultimately come down to just how good he is. If he's the hitter we've seen through the first 23 games, he'll be closer to Vlad Jr. and will be long gone. If he's closer to that Naylor tier then he can reasonably be kept even with contract inflation + his off-field value. If he's a Pete Alonso-level hitter, I would be skeptical since he's younger and more valuable off the field. I know Alonso just got his deal, but if he were three years younger this free agency and had an outsized off-field revenue impact, he probably would've gotten more like 8/280

On the flip side of this, if he's really this good (meaning OPS near 1.000, wRC+ around 170, etc.) then his contract is going to be less Pete Alonso and more Vlad Guerrero Jr

The patience has been more impressive to me than the power. I knew he had high walk rates in Japan but I wasn't expecting 21.5% in his first 93 PAs

I know he didn't deserve the job in the first place, but I really don't think it's unfair to say that Acuña needs to at least be a real major leaguer for Getz to deserve to keep his job The "switch hitter" debacle is so embarrassing. To say that not once, not twice, not thrice, but four times makes it clear that he truly didn't know a pretty significant detail about the player he acquired. And that player has been nothing short of awful to boot

He has a lot more power than people think (i.e., enough to keep outfields honest). He isn't Madrigal. I think we'll see it this year

If that were the case, I think the report would've come from Heyman. Reports from an international free agent's own country are usually more accurate than what we get from even the best reporters in the US If Boras was indeed able to leverage the Japanese media in that way and didn't have to use the usual cronies, then more power to him

Thanks for reading 😄

https://www.soxon35th.com/why-the-justin-ishbia-news-is-even-better-than-you-think-for-the-white-sox/

FWIW, in his 100 PAs with the Pirates, Alexander Canario has a .353 xwOBA. Only Tauchman and Slater (in even smaller samples) have higher figures with the White Sox. I've seen his numbers being used as a punchline in here, but he has been very unlucky and has actually had well above-average metrics, just with some particularly bad luck so far (.297 actual wOBA)

It's sad to see how normalized this is. 3 consecutive 100+ loss seasons (assuming 2025 continues to be poor), potentially back-to-back seasons of having the most losses in MLB history, very little progress in the minors from position players, and there's an extremely vocal (albeit small) group here that is just... ok with it. This isn't "just how rebuilds go"

He's having the career I thought Moncada would have