Jose Abreu

I agree, and to clarify, I'm not trying to argue that Engel is the #11 defensive CFer. Just that his arm negates some of his defensive value.

Fangraphs has Engel at #11, partially because his arm is so bad. I think he's better than #11 but it's still something to consider. Engel's biggest strengths defensively are his range and instincts. Given Robert's speed, I'd assume that his range is the same or better. Instincts are where my argument falls apart since I haven't seen Robert play personally, but his (likely) better arm and similar range are pretty important to me.

Isn't Bowden the one who was adamant that we had traded Sale to Washington?

I agree with you on Gonzalez being safe. With respect to Robert, I'll emphasize that I think he'll be a "competent major leaguer" at worst, if healthy. I firmly believe that you could put Luis Robert in center field for us right now and he'd be better than Engel. He's faster, offers more range defensively, and has a better arm. He's raw offensively, so I'm sure his hitting wouldn't be very good, but a 67 wRC+ isn't very hard to match given his tools. He certainly held his own against more advanced pitching in the AFL last year. Even if strikeouts are always a part of his game, I'm confident that a healthy Robert's defense and speed alone will give him value, but that he will develop as a hitter and tap into his raw power so that he isn't just a slightly better Engel. Either way, health is the biggest question mark for him going forward.

I agree that they won’t all pan out, and I’m also not worried about the “problem” since these things usually work themselves out. But I’d be willing to bet that at least 3 of the outfielders I listed become competent major leaguers or better (Jimenez, Robert, and at least one more), if healthy. Having 7+ outfielders with that potential corresponds quite literally with the definition of a “logjam of talent in the outfield”, “talent” being the operative word. I suppose our disagreement is more or less about semantics.

What? Do the Sox not have 7+ quality outfield prospects in Jimenez, Robert, Adolfo, Gonzalez, Basabe, Rutherford, Walker, etc?

Different situation, as you noted, because we control our own destiny. The Rams taking him is something we have no control over. But someone swooping in and signing Machado is something we can avoid by simply topping their offer.

Nah, they actually came out almost immediately before it started, coincidentally

No, that was J. Michael Robertson. This Patriots guy is the one who has gotten Patriots news in the past but never anything White Sox related. I don't think anyone actually believes him, but he has a track record of breaking news so I'm at least intrigued

On all of Tom's reports over the years, he includes this guy's account name at the end. I think they might be the same person between two accounts, but either way, this guy was listed on the report, so he either is the Tom guy or they have the same source

This is the Patriots guy

no

Nah, this one actually has legs. It’s from the guy who got the Harper mystery team and Padres meeting before anyone else. I can’t find the link on mobile but it’s all in the Harper thread

The only reason I'm even giving this tweet the time of day is because of the guy's track record of breaking stuff and the report that Harper has decided on a team (which seemed like it wasn't the Phillies given their press conference today). I don't think he's right, as if it were "done" like he insists, it would likely have been announced by now. It's just interesting to me is all.

This is my guess as well.

I also said they should trade an OF prospect (Basabe/Adolfo/Gonzalez since Harper would be taking their spots) for a SP

This isn't even a J. Michael Robertson tweet

I think Jay could be a good 4th OF. Adding Joc would make the lineup extremely deep. Moncada Machado Harper Jimenez Abreu Pederson Castillo (to break up the lefties) Alonso Anderson

Trade an outfield prospect for a SP, trade for Joc

I used Twitter's advanced search features by keyword and date to verify that he was the first to tweet things

If you really wanna go down that road, he's far from the only random account to have tweeted something like that over the past few days

That random Patriots fan actually has broken Patriots stuff in the past concerning players' suspensions

Plus the report that Harper is signing today. It's all too much smoke for this to be untrue. yes I'm joking

The Padres are not one of those teams we need to significantly outbid, though.

If Harper is actually signing today (which I am skeptical about), I think it’s with us. It would be so White Sox in terms of the secrecy, misdirection, etc. My only other guess would be the Padres.