Jose Abreu

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.

If the money is exactly equal between us and San Diego, I have a really hard time seeing him choosing the Padres given his disdain for the west coast, his family and friends being on the Sox, the much easier AL Central, etc.

With state taxes, a Sox offer of 260 would be about equal to a Padres offer of 285

The only chance is if the rumors of Harper signing somewhere today are true. In that case I could see Lozano wanting to wait a bit

Yesterday he said that the announcement is on hold because we're trying to sign Harper too. Which is part of why all the #both chatter occurred here yesterday afternoon

But especially today