ChiSoxFanMike

I have a feeling that nothing will happen soon.

He is a perfect platoon partner for several players currently on the roster. He could play RF against lefties instead of Palka/Jay, as well as getting some at-bats at DH/1B against lefties too in place of Alonso. Valencia essentially a better version of Matt Davidson. The guy has always mashed left handed pitching.

I honestly had no idea Danny Valencia was still in the league. But he actually is a perfect fit for this team and adding another one of Machado's friends can't hurt. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I think he could still be that guy. Let him go back to his old mechanics and see what happens. Nothing to lose at this point.

Any updates you can share with us in regards to Machado?

How is taking on Rich Hill's contract not doing the Dodgers a favor? That frees up enough money for them to sign Pollock.

Here is what I think the Sox should do. First, sign Machado. This is a no-brainer. Secondly, trade for Pederson and Hill in a package deal. This kills two birds with one stone. Pederson is a massive upgrade in CF and Hill immediately becomes one of the best starting pitchers on the team. While he is injury prone, he is a one year rental and taking on his salary for this season would most likely reduce what the Sox would have to give up for him. Sending Fulmer/Bummer to LA would most likely be enough in this scenario. I would avoid trading Bryce Bush if at all possible. Looking forward, the contracts of Nova, Castillo, Hill, Abreu, etc will all be off the books after 2019, which frees up even more money for the Sox to sign a top of the rotation pitcher (Sale, Cole, Bumgarner, etc) to be the leader of a young pitching staff. Lots of possibilities here. Even with Machado in the fold, the Sox have tons of payroll flexibility moving forward. They need to take advantage of it.

Lmao. I would be bitter too if my team could only afford to sign Daniel Descalso because of all the horrible contracts they have now.

At this point in their careers, I think Palka is the better player. Jay is superior in terms of baserunning and defense, but Palka is a much better hitter and significantly younger. He definitely needs to improve with the glove but that can happen with time. Jay wouldn't even be on this team if it wasn't for Machado.

True. Pederson is worth acquiring on his own merits unlike Jay and to an extent, Alonso. It's unfortunate that he only has 2 years of team control left but hopefully someone will be ready to take his place by then, whether that's Luis Robert or someone else.

I wonder how big of an influence Machado has on this potential deal. Obviously Pederson is an upgrade regardless, but his connection with Machado is worth noting IMO.

Manny, Joc, and Eloy would make this lineup actually somewhat good.

Pederson obviously isn't perfect, but he's significantly better than Engel. And if the Sox take on Hill's salary, Fulmer and Bummer might be enough to get it done. I hate giving up on Fulmer because he was such a high pick, but it seems unlikely that he'll ever figure it our with the Sox. A change of scenery might do him good. Bummer is alright but the Sox already have Fry and a couple other lefties in the system. I wouldn't give up Bryce Bush under any circumstances though.

This deal seems like it would make a lot of sense for both sides. Sox get a quality outfielder and a guy they can slot into the #5 spot in the starting rotation, while the Dodgers clear some salary and get two potential bullpen pieces who are young and under team control for awhile.

What about Jon Jay?

Or defense...lol.

If this were to happen, would Pederson play CF or RF for the Sox?

Does anyone know if Pederson and Machado are friends? I would assume there is some sort of relationship between them seeing as they were teammates for part of last season.

He's rapidly approaching Dan Clark territory...

Who knows. But it would make the fans happy and the event would probably be more exciting than it has been in years if he was there.

I don't think SoxFest is any kind of deadline as the Sox can afford to wait as long as they have to, I just thought they would want to have Machado there if at all possible.

"Mystery team" is code for "trying to increase the offers"

So the Sox first spring training game is February 23rd. Guesses on whether or not Manny will be signed by then?

People on Twitter are speculating that the Sox are going to announce the signing at SoxFest. I don't really know what the point of that would be, if anything I'd think they would want to announce it beforehand to build up hype for the event and sell as many ticket packages as possible.

I see no reason why the Sox would opt out after 3 years unless the rebuild fails miserably or Machado's performance suddenly falls off a cliff. There's essentially no risk for the Sox in that scenario which is good for us, but puzzling as to why Machado's side would accept a deal like that.