Sambuca

Grichuk kind of sucks (RH, low OBP, high SO), and the Sox would be taking on a decent chunk of salary in 2023 as well. I really hope they didn’t exercise Kimbrel’s option for that.

If they end up keeping Kimbrel, signing another reliever with their “last” 7mil doesn’t seem like the best usage of limited resources. I honestly would have rather used that money to sign Cesar than rely on internal 2B options while pulling Leury out of the super-sub role. However, I am on board with bringing back Rodon.

Very upset. There’s a lot of things the Sox do that I can fool myself into rationalizing, but this is not one of them. Leury is needed in a backup role for just about every position on the field. Starting Leury exclusively at one position, not only limits his value, but more importantly severely weakens the roster. It does not allow the Sox to maximize talent on the roster and it hinders flexibility of the roster. Mendick’s bat is pretty much non-existent, and I have very little confidence in Romy as a major league contributor. There is also no guarantee we can acquire a better 2B at the deadline if we cannot acquire one now. We are supposed to be a World Series contender next season, in a massive market. We need to start the season with a real 2B, not a collection of bench players. That is embarrassing.

Yes!!!

What else can we discuss about Leury?

This makes a lot of sense, especially in a vacuum, but both sides need to factor in the damage an extended lockout, including loss of games, will do the sport overall. And they have no idea how to predict how long those damages will last, and if they can recover.

This thread is really making me depressed.

Judging by their bullshit “meetings” they were only having days before CBA expired, it appears the owners were only willing to “negotiate” after the players were locked out.

So what’s the end game here? Are the owners just hoping to lock the players out until they stop asking for stuff, or is any substantial progress expected to be made?

With the White Sox lack of power and elite pitching for the majority of the season, can we speculate they were mostly playing with the “dead” ball?

They need to get it done before then. There are a ton of free agents out, teams are not nearly complete, and most players start reporting to ST by mid February. Looks like the first ST games are scheduled for 2/25.

1/16 has a lot less risk to compared to something like 3/40, which is probably on the lower end. Above average closers are looking for multi year deals with fairly high AAVs. Teams might not want to deal with that on the open market to acquire one for next season. Not even sure what closers are still available as FA, but I don’t believe there’s many which means teams will probably have to overspend in a bidding war.

Stroman won’t play for La Russa, but he will accept money/create revenue from/for the Rickett’s family. Cool.

He might be in a market where Avi Garica is getting 4 years, and Leury is getting 3 years. I really believe there is value in his contract only being one year.

I have also been obsessed with making sure I am the one who sees a trade/signing announcement firsthand after having a Cubs fan walk up to me at work and casually dropping, “bro, I can’t believe the Sox traded Chris Sale.” Of course, this was during the first time I worked for ten minutes straight that month. I will never make that mistake again. The last two weeks, I won’t open a text message from any of my friends without checking here first. That Jon Heyman tweet announcing Leury Legend for three years just hits different.

They really screwed over the pitchers midseason by bringing back the bouncy balls while simultaneously heavily enforcing a “sticky” substance ban. Who knows how different the grip was on the “new” baseballs as well.

Hopefully it provides some entertainment during this impending dark, directionless time in our lives.

Good point.

From what I’ve read, they can discuss trades and probably “handshake” agree to them, but they cannot actually complete any trades officially.

Sure thing, George Washington.

I just posted something similar before I made it to yours. This whole thread is baffling.

Being mad about this is strange.

Something fishy is going on here, guys.