There is no reasonable contract we can offer to McCann to bring him back. He wants to be the clear #1 catcher for a team, which is fair, he is earning it. He was clearly miffed when the Sox brought Grandal in. 

Maybe moving Grandal to dh has been the plan all along, considering they signed EE to a one year deal and made no apparent attempt to trade McCann. Maybe not, but saying there is no way is clearly false. The way would be to guarantee him starts along with a competitive contract offer. Whether that happens is another story, but there is a definite way.

38 minutes ago, Vulture said:

If McCann were resigned I would consider him the primary catcher and Grandal the primary dh, however playing time is split. Throughout his career, pitchers have performed better with him behind the plate, I'm not convinced Grandal is a better receiver despite the framing stats. Small sample size, but that trend has carried over to this year. After today,  McCann's era is close to 3.00, Grandal 5.63. Grandal allows passed balls at somewhere around 4-5 times the rate of McCann as well. 

McCann won't be back. We will keep EE to DH and when Vaughn is brought up next July, EE will backup Abreu and Vaughn. Collins will probably just be the backup Catcher. 

I’d let McCann, EE, Cishek and Colomé all walk after the season.

McCann will probably be a team’s number one catcher. I think EE is on the decline and want no part of that. Cishek has been getting rocked all year and I’ll try to find a better closer than Colomé.

That clears $33M off the books. 

9 hours ago, WBWSF said:

No you can't wave  Grandal away but you could trade him. I don't see how the White Sox bettered themselves by signing Grandal. McCann was on the all star team last year, Hahn could have signed him to a long term contract this past off season. He probably would have been cheaper than what they gave Grandal. He is also younger than Grandal.

Grandal is one of the best catchers in all of baseball, arguably the best. MLB Network had him as the #1 catcher going into the season. The Sox got a lot better because they signed him.

I know the power hasn’t been there yet but the guy is a OBP machine. His OBP is at .354 right now, he’s been a victim of a lot of bad calls so it should be a lot higher. He’s also one of the best framers in the game.

McCann, who’s a major win for the Sox pro scouting and PD, has earned a shot to be someone’s everyday catcher but I don’t think that’s what he is. I think he is a really good number two catcher who can also play at 1B and DH to keep him in the lineup.

Yeah, he was an all star last year but look at his second half where he batted .226/.281/.413. He was certainly over extended in his role last year.

The Sox can find another quality backup catcher. 

18 hours ago, southsider2k5 said:

Only if you don't bring back EE and block Vaughn.

Grandal and McCann are a luxury that the White Sox can afford and cannot afford to lose going forward.  Don't go insane but go a little crazy retaining McCann.  Both are older guys and neither would be expected to catch more than 100 games year.

1 minute ago, Harry Chappas said:

Grandal and McCann are a luxury that the White Sox can afford and cannot afford to lose going forward.  Don't go insane but go a little crazy retaining McCann.  Both are older guys and neither would be expected to catch more than 100 games year.

Are you going to pay McCann $10 million a season?

4 minutes ago, southsider2k5 said:

Are you going to pay McCann $10 million a season?

I don't pay anyone anything but the White Sox may.  They don't seem to want to get Collins in there.  4/$40M seems like something they should be able to stomach. 

2 minutes ago, Harry Chappas said:

I don't pay anyone anything but the White Sox may.  They don't seem to want to get Collins in there.  4/$40M seems like something they should be able to stomach. 

For a guy that is going to play 100-110 games a season?  That seems kinda nuts

18 hours ago, Vulture said:

Maybe moving Grandal to dh has been the plan all along, considering they signed EE to a one year deal and made no apparent attempt to trade McCann. Maybe not, but saying there is no way is clearly false. The way would be to guarantee him starts along with a competitive contract offer. Whether that happens is another story, but there is a definite way.

So we paid 4/73 for just a DH when we have like 5 DHs already?

I can assure you that wasn't the plan...if it was someone should be fired.

27 minutes ago, Harry Chappas said:

I don't pay anyone anything but the White Sox may.  They don't seem to want to get Collins in there.  4/$40M seems like something they should be able to stomach. 

Jerry is going to ask the FO why would I sink another 40m into the catching position when last year you persuaded me to sink 73m into the catching position? 

Hahn is going to have to live with the choice he made. Theres no such thing as a "sunk cost"in a situation like this, especially to THIS ownership. Grandal is the guy. Period. The resources have been spent. He is going to be given every opportunity to prove the FO right.

Given that the FO is going to ask Jerry for more pitching, they wouldn't exactly have a ton of capital/trust in JRs eyes if they are also asking for another 40m at catcher.

I trust Hahn is savvy enough to realize that asking for 40m for mccann is not a great way to inspire ownerships confidence in your other requests.

Edited August 13, 20205 yr by SoCalChiSox

4 minutes ago, SoCalChiSox said:

Jerry is going to ask the FO why would I sink another 40m into the catching position when last year you persuaded me to sink 73m into the catching position? 

Hahn is going to have to live with the choice he made. Theres no such thing as a "sunk cost"in a situation like this, especially to THIS ownership. Grandal is the guy. Period. The resources have been spent. He is going to be given every opportunity to prove the FO right.

Given that the FO is going to ask Jerry for more pitching, they wouldn't exactly have a ton of capital/trust in JRs eyes if they are also asking for another 40m at catcher.

I trust Hahn is savvy enough to realize that asking for 40m for mccann is not a great way to inspire ownerships confidence in your other requests.

I am a believer in that if we spent big it will be in RF, SP, and maybe another pen arm, but most of that depends on how the season goes.  But realistically SP and RF are 1 and 2 on the list, and might be interchangeable based on this season.

9 minutes ago, SoCalChiSox said:

So we paid 4/73 for just a DH when we have like 5 DHs already?

I can assure you that wasn't the plan...if it was someone should be fired.

They signed EE to DH so they must not consider those other four in the same light. Grandal wouldn't just be DHing anyway under this scenario, and presumably they can sign McCann for less annually than they are paying Encarnacion. If the question is someone like Encarnacion or McCann at a little less, I'd prefer McCann. Its obvious at least some of the Sox starters prefer throwing to McCann, which is another consideration.

10 hours ago, Joshua Strong said:

 

Yeah, he was an all star last year but look at his second half where he batted .226/.281/.413. He was certainly over extended in his role last year.

He really just tanked hard in July. His august and September numbers were solid, albeit not as strong as his first half numbers. I guess it all comes down to whether you believe he turned a corner or not. To me he looks like a well above average catcher, and I think it is fair to say he excels at handling pitchers. I think he could be signed to something like a 3/25 deal. Paying something around 26 million a year to cover C and DH doesn't seem all that outlandish in this day and age. Right now Sox are paying considerably more than that between EE, Grandal and McCann. Insert Vaughn for EE, and that would actually reduce payroll by several million.