5 minutes ago, Good Guys said:

I agree with you, but there's just not a lot teams looking to pay a DH the 3/63 remaining on JDM's contract, moreless any more money.  Besides the White Sox, the Rangers maybe or the Astros if they don't resign Cole?  Are there any other possible teams?  The Blue Jay's maybe?

Subtract Astros add Mariners and yeah that's about it.

Just now, Balta1701 said:

The Astros have Yordan Alvarez, they are set at DH for the forseeable future. 

Correct.  Thank you.  If you try to think of potential suitors there are not many.

4 minutes ago, Good Guys said:

Correct.  Thank you.  If you try to think of potential suitors there are not many.

Personally that's why if I were in his spot I wouldn't opt out, I'd hold onto the guaranteed money for the next year (and I believe he could still opt out next season as well). It's a fairly high risk in exchange for a moderate reward; there's enough other options out there and fairly few teams, where you could see demand drying up. Castellanos, Moustakas sign with those 2 teams and now he's still on the market at the end of February again. 

But then, ballplayers do like to be aggressive and bet on themselves. 

1 minute ago, BackDoorBreach said:

Subtract Astros add Mariners and yeah that's about it.

To me the Mariners look to be somewhat rebuilding.  Heck, a few months they were desperate to get rid of their pricey DH in Encarnacion and practically paid the Yankees to take him off their hands.  I can't see them 6 months later wanting again to pay a DH a lot of money.

3 minutes ago, Balta1701 said:

Personally that's why if I were in his spot I wouldn't opt out, I'd hold onto the guaranteed money for the next year (and I believe he could still opt out next season as well). It's a fairly high risk in exchange for a moderate reward; there's enough other options out there and fairly few teams, where you could see demand drying up. Castellanos, Moustakas sign with those 2 teams and now he's still on the market at the end of February again. 

But then, ballplayers do like to be aggressive and bet on themselves. 

Correct.  I would be surprised he does opt out.  And if he does I would suspect that he already has a potential suitor lined up.  

6 minutes ago, Balta1701 said:

Personally that's why if I were in his spot I wouldn't opt out, I'd hold onto the guaranteed money for the next year (and I believe he could still opt out next season as well). It's a fairly high risk in exchange for a moderate reward; there's enough other options out there and fairly few teams, where you could see demand drying up. Castellanos, Moustakas sign with those 2 teams and now he's still on the market at the end of February again. 

But then, ballplayers do like to be aggressive and bet on themselves. 

Yah, I mean 4/$75-80M is better than 3/$63. I think he’ll opt out. At least he gets to choose where he plays then. If he doesn’t opt out the Red Sox are likely to trade him. 

I get that his market is pretty much only half the league, but I still don't understand how there aren't more teams that make a lot of sense other than Texas, Seattle and the Sox. Wasn't this like one of the worst years for DHs in the history of the league?

3 minutes ago, ChiSox59 said:

Yah, I mean 4/$75-80M is better than 3/$63. I think he’ll opt out. At least he gets to choose where he plays then. If he doesn’t opt out the Red Sox are likely to trade him. 

If he does opt out I don't think it's guaranteed that he gets 3/63 especially with a second round pick attached to that cost.

Just now, ScooterMcGee said:

I get that his market is pretty much only half the league, but I still don't understand how there aren't more teams that make a lot of sense other than Texas, Seattle and the Sox. Wasn't this like one of the worst years for DHs in the history of the league?

A quick check shows that this year had the highest OPS out of the DH spot, league-wide, in the last 5 years. 

3 minutes ago, ScooterMcGee said:

I get that his market is pretty much only half the league, but I still don't understand how there aren't more teams that make a lot of sense other than Texas, Seattle and the Sox. Wasn't this like one of the worst years for DHs in the history of the league?

Remove rebuilding teams and teams that have enough depth to not need a DH.

3 minutes ago, Balta1701 said:

A quick check shows that this year had the highest OPS out of the DH spot, league-wide, in the last 5 years. 

I probably should have checked myself. I remember hearing it on a podcast. 

Just now, ScooterMcGee said:

I probably should have checked myself. I remember hearing it on a podcast. 

it might be an OPS+/wRC+ thing, slugging did go up throughout the league this year, so maybe it was just every other position went up more? Not sure how to quickly find that stat league-wide. 

6 minutes ago, ScooterMcGee said:

I get that his market is pretty much only half the league, but I still don't understand how there aren't more teams that make a lot of sense other than Texas, Seattle and the Sox. Wasn't this like one of the worst years for DHs in the history of the league?

Find me some other teams?  And I don't think Seattle should be on that list.

3 minutes ago, soxfan2014 said:

Remove rebuilding teams and teams that have enough depth to not need a DH.

And then remove any teams that can't afford a $20 million contract.

7 minutes ago, ScooterMcGee said:

I get that his market is pretty much only half the league, but I still don't understand how there aren't more teams that make a lot of sense other than Texas, Seattle and the Sox. Wasn't this like one of the worst years for DHs in the history of the league?

Yankees don't need him, Twins don't need him, Rays and A's would never sign him, Cleveland probably wouldn't either, Boston want's to cut payroll, Astros payroll is about to get silly, Angels probably don't want to take ABs from Ohtani. Everybody else dgaf about who takes the DH ABs

Just now, mqr said:

Yankees don't need him, Twins don't need him, Rays and A's would never sign him, Cleveland probably wouldn't either, Boston want's to cut payroll, Astros payroll is about to get silly, Angels probably don't want to take ABs from Ohtani. Everybody else dgaf about who takes the DH ABs

Astros also have that one rookie at the DH spot, right? Alvarez?

1 minute ago, mqr said:

Yankees don't need him, Twins don't need him, Rays and A's would never sign him, Cleveland probably wouldn't either, Boston want's to cut payroll, Astros payroll is about to get silly, Angels probably don't want to take ABs from Ohtani. Everybody else dgaf about who takes the DH ABs

Angel's still have the Pujols guy as well.

We've basically just listed a bunch of reasons as to why he shouldn't opt-out.

8 minutes ago, soxfan2014 said:

We've basically just listed a bunch of reasons as to why he shouldn't opt-out.

Very well aware of that

4 hours ago, Balta1701 said:

The other things that make me think they are really, really bad at player valuation are: leaking the 8/$175 deal and thinking that they had a strong offer, thinking that upping that offer slightly at Soxfest would make everything come together even while Machado's side had said $300 million was his asking price, Boras not even bothering to leak that they were a player for Harper late in the process/never bothering to call them back after they met at the Winter meetings, and thinking early in the year that they had a chance at both Harper and Machado to the point where that was in the stuff we heard. I think they went into last year expecting that $350 million total would by both of those players, with no ability to process that a $300 million deal was a fair asking price for Machado. 

Them leaking an 8/$175M offer was to get other teams to believe the Sox weren’t serious threats and to prevent other parties from doing something drastic.  They definitely weren’t leaking it because they thought it was a badass offer.

3 hours ago, JUSTgottaBELIEVE said:

You were the same guy saying last winter the Sox shouldn’t spend money on signing a Free agent to DH because Daniel Palka could provide “cheap production.” How’d that work out?

$45M to fill those two positions in 2020 and 2021 isn’t a problem if those two produce like they did in 2019.

It’s also not a problem when we have cheap young solutions at most other spots.

1 hour ago, Good Guys said:

Correct.  I would be surprised he does opt out.  And if he does I would suspect that he already has a potential suitor lined up.  

I’m fairly confident he opts-out and that Boras has had some under the table talks with us and/or the Rangers on theoretical parameters.  My guess is us or Texas sign him to a 4/$85M deal fairly early in the offseason.

1 minute ago, Chicago White Sox said:

I’m fairly confident he opts-out and that Boras has had some under the table talks with us and/or the Rangers on theoretical parameters.  My guess is us or Texas sign him to a 4/$85M deal fairly early in the offseason.

Are there rules against under the table talks like that in MLB? 

If so, do we really think that the White Sox would break rules to chat with Scott Boras to get an advantage in free agency? This doesn't sound like them at all.

Texas? Maybe, I don't know their ownership as well. 

3 minutes ago, Balta1701 said:

Are there rules against under the table talks like that in MLB? 

If so, do we really think that the White Sox would break rules to chat with Scott Boras to get an advantage in free agency? This doesn't sound like them at all.

Texas? Maybe, I don't know their ownership as well. 

I think almost most teams have some talks with agents that borderline on tampering.  And honestly, if JDM opts-out it’s because Boras knows he can get him more than 3/$63M.

6 minutes ago, Balta1701 said:

Are there rules against under the table talks like that in MLB? 

If so, do we really think that the White Sox would break rules to chat with Scott Boras to get an advantage in free agency? This doesn't sound like them at all.

Texas? Maybe, I don't know their ownership as well. 

I would think so.