I've got the current 26 man at $126M before filling the remaining 3 holes (SP, C, & DH).  My preference would be to use the remaining $14M budget to select the best remaining FA SP.  You then use Collins as backup C as we still need to find out what he can be.  The DH would preferably be a LH and be capable of playing LF.  That's your full active roster at ~$140M.

 

We’re talking about Tanaka, Quintana, Odorizzi, Richards while the Yankees are talking about Luis Castillo... I understand the Yankees may be a little bit more desperate because after Cole it’s really hard to get a read on the rest of their rotation (you don’t know with Kluber yet). But the Sox can’t sit on their hands here, if the Yankees get Castillo for a haul of prospects then that makes them the favorites in the AL, Sox need to pounce and get a bigger name than the free agent number 4-5 starters. It’ll cost a lot but the Sox aren’t in a position to hoard prospects especially considering Lynn is on a 1 year deal, Abreu and Grandal are a year older - it’s time to go all in. Let’s stop talking about the mediocre number 4s

11 minutes ago, roto said:

I've got the current 26 man at $126M before filling the remaining 3 holes (SP, C, & DH).  My preference would be to use the remaining $14M budget to select the best remaining FA SP.  You then use Collins as backup C as we still need to find out what he can be.  The DH would preferably be a LH and be capable of playing LF.  That's your full active roster at ~$140M.

 

Roster Resource has it @ $131M

11 minutes ago, Rey21 said:

We’re talking about Tanaka, Quintana, Odorizzi, Richards while the Yankees are talking about Luis Castillo... I understand the Yankees may be a little bit more desperate because after Cole it’s really hard to get a read on the rest of their rotation (you don’t know with Kluber yet). But the Sox can’t sit on their hands here, if the Yankees get Castillo for a haul of prospects then that makes them the favorites in the AL, Sox need to pounce and get a bigger name than the free agent number 4-5 starters. It’ll cost a lot but the Sox aren’t in a position to hoard prospects especially considering Lynn is on a 1 year deal, Abreu and Grandal are a year older - it’s time to go all in. Let’s stop talking about the mediocre number 4s

If the Yankees get Castillo their rotation *could* be better than ours. 

51 minutes ago, fathom said:

You know who I would rather have than most of these mediocre starters if we’re taking a chance on a rebound season?  Carlos Rodon 

Especially since he will be a large discount to the rest.

3 minutes ago, southsider2k5 said:

Especially since he will be a large discount to the rest.

If he is willing to take a minor league deal, I'm good signing him as depth. But I have a feeling this bridge is burned.

Just now, manbearpuig said:

If he is willing to take a minor league deal, I'm good signing him as depth. But I have a feeling this bridge is burned.

I think he will find a better opportunity for sure.

13 minutes ago, CaliSoxFanViaSWside said:

Roster Resource has it @ $131M

Nice site. But they have the pre arb est (TBD) for the 5 guys at $9.1m.  That's got to be too high.  Half that maybe?

14 minutes ago, Rey21 said:

We’re talking about Tanaka, Quintana, Odorizzi, Richards while the Yankees are talking about Luis Castillo... I understand the Yankees may be a little bit more desperate because after Cole it’s really hard to get a read on the rest of their rotation (you don’t know with Kluber yet). But the Sox can’t sit on their hands here, if the Yankees get Castillo for a haul of prospects then that makes them the favorites in the AL, Sox need to pounce and get a bigger name than the free agent number 4-5 starters. It’ll cost a lot but the Sox aren’t in a position to hoard prospects especially considering Lynn is on a 1 year deal, Abreu and Grandal are a year older - it’s time to go all in. Let’s stop talking about the mediocre number 4s

It’s definitely not time to go all-in.  If there’s a trade out there that makes sense then do it, but sacrificing the entire future for a couple of years is crazy.  And being the AL favorite in January doesn’t guarantee you a World Series.  Right now, we simply need to make sure we have enough depth to make it to July.  I’ll maintain my position that adding Richards & La Stella does that.  We can then hope some of our younger prospects take steps forward that allow us to add at the deadline without having to move core pieces like Kopech or Vaughn.

11 minutes ago, Chicago White Sox said:

It’s definitely not time to go all-in.  If there’s a trade out there that makes sense then do it, but sacrificing the entire future for a couple of years is crazy.  And being the AL favorite in January doesn’t guarantee you a World Series.  Right now, we simply need to make sure we have enough depth to make it to July.  I’ll maintain my position that adding Richards & La Stella does that.  We can then hope some of our younger prospects take steps forward that allow us to add at the deadline without having to move core pieces like Kopech or Vaughn.

Richards scares the crap out of me.  He hasn't thrown 100 innings since 2015.  At ~$10m, his cost/risk factor seems awfully high.  I'm afraid he'd be DL'ed by June. 

I’m beginning to like the idea of Taijuan Walker, more so than Richards for sure.

10 minutes ago, Rounding_Third said:

Nice site. But they have the pre arb est (TBD) for the 5 guys at $9.1m.  That's got to be too high.  Half that maybe?

I think what you see is before they settled  which was salary from 2020 + est. arb raise = est. 2021 salary .

It actually came out higher in 2021 salary:

 

Evan Marshall	30.8	4.090	1 yr, $2M (2021)
Lucas Giolito	26.5	3.080	1 yr, $4.15M (2021)
Reynaldo López	27.0	3.091	1 yr, $2.1M (2021)
Adam Engel	29.1	3.058	1 yr, $1.375M (2021)
Jace Fry	27.5	3.005	1 yr, $862.5k (2021)    =$10.4875 M

38 minutes ago, Rey21 said:

We’re talking about Tanaka, Quintana, Odorizzi, Richards while the Yankees are talking about Luis Castillo... I understand the Yankees may be a little bit more desperate because after Cole it’s really hard to get a read on the rest of their rotation (you don’t know with Kluber yet). But the Sox can’t sit on their hands here, if the Yankees get Castillo for a haul of prospects then that makes them the favorites in the AL, Sox need to pounce and get a bigger name than the free agent number 4-5 starters. It’ll cost a lot but the Sox aren’t in a position to hoard prospects especially considering Lynn is on a 1 year deal, Abreu and Grandal are a year older - it’s time to go all in. Let’s stop talking about the mediocre number 4s

Who would be your 'all in' name and what do you think the prospect cost would be?

17 minutes ago, Chicago White Sox said:

It’s definitely not time to go all-in.  If there’s a trade out there that makes sense then do it, but sacrificing the entire future for a couple of years is crazy.  And being the AL favorite in January doesn’t guarantee you a World Series.  Right now, we simply need to make sure we have enough depth to make it to July.  I’ll maintain my position that adding Richards & La Stella does that.  We can then hope some of our younger prospects take steps forward that allow us to add at the deadline without having to move core pieces like Kopech or Vaughn.

We’re not sacrificing the entire future here guys! Castillo isn’t a 38 year old SP with one year left on his contract. Yes Vaughn, Kopech, Madrigal could be great for years but are unknown - you know damn well what you’re getting with Castillo and again Abreu, Grandal, and Kuechel’s age matter right now.  The Sox can still build up their farm trading for Castillo doesn’t stop you from doing this. You gotta make this deal 

2 minutes ago, Flash said:

Who would be your 'all in' name and what do you think the prospect cost would be?

Luis Castillo would be one of them 

Cincinnati should sign Rodon. Or San Fran.

1 minute ago, Rey21 said:

We’re not sacrificing the entire future here guys! Castillo isn’t a 38 year old SP with one year left on his contract. Yes Vaughn, Kopech, Madrigal could be great for years but are unknown - you know damn well what you’re getting with Castillo and again Abreu, Grandal, and Kuechel’s age matter right now.  The Sox can still build up their farm trading for Castillo doesn’t stop you from doing this. You gotta make this deal 

What would the deal look like?

1 minute ago, Rounding_Third said:

Richards scares the crap out of me.  He hasn't thrown 100 innings since 2015.  At ~$10m, his cost/risk factor seems awfully high.  I'm afraid he'd be DL'ed by June. 

He had a partially torn UCL in 2016 and avoided getting TJS.  Sounds like that was a poor decision that ultimately blew up on him and resulted in more lost time than necessary.  I know there were other injuries mixed in there, but the dude was basically fully healthy last year.  No doubt he is a risk, but if you believe the UCL is finally good to go, I’ll happily take him on a 1/$8M deal and hope I can get at least 100 quality innings out of him during the regular season and then for him to play a role on our postseason pitching staff.

1 minute ago, YouCanPutItOnTheBoardYES! said:

I’m beginning to like the idea of Taijuan Walker, more so than Richards for sure.

I've been mentioning him since the end of the season when the thread titled ,Who do you think is the 1st free agent the Sox sign. I said Walker then and he's still around. Just figured they would end up looking for a 4/5 at some point and not be willing to pay much. Maybe Walker has put himself in the $10M/yr category with his showing last year but I doubt it. He only made $2M last year and was traded to the Jays at trade deadline for a PTBNL who wasn't even on the 60 of Seattle.

I think anyone who offers him a 2 year deal or a $7M plus  team option for $9M in with a $1M buyout for 2022 gets him.

7 minutes ago, Rey21 said:

We’re not sacrificing the entire future here guys! Castillo isn’t a 38 year old SP with one year left on his contract. Yes Vaughn, Kopech, Madrigal could be great for years but are unknown - you know damn well what you’re getting with Castillo and again Abreu, Grandal, and Kuechel’s age matter right now.  The Sox can still build up their farm trading for Castillo doesn’t stop you from doing this. You gotta make this deal 

What is your proposed deal?

5 minutes ago, bmags said:

Cincinnati should sign Rodon. Or San Fran.

I think he should sign with a rebuilding club that won’t quickly move in another direction if he gets injured.

1 hour ago, fathom said:

You know who I would rather have than most of these mediocre starters if we’re taking a chance on a rebound season?  Carlos Rodon 

Me too.  I'd offer some kind of base plus incentives that if maxed out could get him near last year's arb number.  Would have to be a minors contract with invite sort of deal.  Or maybe a split contract.

Here we go again with people wanting to trade away the farm. 

51 minutes ago, CaliSoxFanViaSWside said:

Roster Resource has it @ $131M

Yeah.  They lump all pre-arbs at $9.1.  I was only counting the 26 guys I anticipate making the "active" roster.

Current payroll: $125.8M (14th in MLB).

Affordable (Projected $8M or less) Free Agents with 1.0 + projected 2021 fWAR.

• 2.4 Tommy La Stella ($7M)
• 1.8 Chris Archer ($8M)
• 1.6 Jurickson Profar ($7.5M)
• 1.5 Garrett Richards ($8M)
• 1.5 Matt Shoemaker ($5M)
• 1.4 Eddie Rosario ($?)
• 1.3 Brett Anderson ($5M)
• 1.2 Adam Wainwright ($7M) 
• 1.1 Kike Hernandez ($6M)
• 1.1 Carlos Rodon ($?)
• 1.1 Maikel Franco ($?)
• 1.0 Brett Gardner ($8M)
• 1.0 Mike Leake ($?) 
• 1.0 Rich Hill ($8M) 
• 1.0 Jason Castro ($?)
• 1.0 Tyler Flowers ($4M)

Should be able to sign a hitter, backup catcher and perhaps a starter at $12M-$15M. Of the above options, I like Richards, Rodario and Flowers. Would also like Bradley Jr. if the Sox can work out a 1-2 year deal.

Not convinced the Sox will sign anyone else, beyond perhaps a couple of $1M-$3M deals for a backup catcher, bullpen arm and or perhaps a lottery ticket pitcher or bullpen depth.