I am in the minority here. I still have hopes that the Sox make the playoffs this year. Meanwhile, I have been enjoying the hell out of games like the 3 wins in Detroit, the 2 wins over Houston and the Cueto win at Cleveland. We got cheated today by having the Cease start against Cleveland rained out.Very disappointed by that. 

30 minutes ago, tray said:

I am in the minority here. I still have hopes that the Sox make the playoffs this year. Meanwhile, I have been enjoying the hell out of games like the 3 wins in Detroit, the 2 wins over Houston and the Cueto win at Cleveland. We got cheated today by having the Cease start against Cleveland rained out.Very disappointed by that. 

I offer no judgment against you for enjoying baseball and looking for the bright side. And I also agree that they still have a shot at the playoffs.

Regardless of whether they make the playoffs or not, some things however remain true. They are in a rough spot this offseason. They played this season as a mid 80s win team at best, dramatically underperforming. It is unclear how they can fix this, and the financials leave them very little room to maneuver. They likely have nearly $170 million committed next year counting contracts and arbitration for guys who they don’t have replacements for, and that’s without Abreu. If they want to keep Abreu, they wind up with very little to spend to match this year’s payroll, and a lot of their high priced guys are difficult to move. And oh yeah, they’d have lost Cueto too if they did that.

None of these things change if they win the division with 88 wins or if they fall behind and finish with 83. The exact payroll limit might depend some on a playoff birth, but that doesn’t change the large amount already committed. And that’s one we can point at right now.

You can still get the Dodgers to eat a bad contract or two if you also give them something they want.

Just don’t trust Hahn making a smart move since he’s created the bad contracts and roster in the first place.

On 8/21/2022 at 4:35 PM, Balta1701 said:

Just remember, if you keep Abreu at his current salary, you basically have no more money to play with. Effectively, re-signing Abreu to his current salary leaves the White Sox a couple million dollars below their ‘22 payroll. To add anything other than scraps, they would need to subtract someone if they can’t massively increase payroll. 

With how their expensive guys have performed this year making their salaries almost unmovable, basically adding Abreu means you’re very close to “the team is on the field”, except you also lose Harrison and Cueto. This may be the right decision, but it’s one we should be conscious of.

Fair enough. I do expect the White Sox to be active, but some of that will be via trades. I haven't thought about who they may be willing to move, but it's pretty obvious that this team needs more than some tinkering. I really hope they don't feel the need to continue adding to the bullpen - if anything, move someone from there if possible. 

Also hoping that this team will be willing to spend more to add talent, but that may be stretch.

On 8/20/2022 at 6:44 AM, Jnooch said:

Do we sign Abreu with Vaughn, Eloy, Sheets and Burger all bat first guys? Not signing Abreu would free up 20 million in addition 

to 24 million coming off the books with Keickel, Harrison and Velazques contracts. Could use that money to sign Giolitto and sign a good everyday 2nd baseman.

I will only address two names on your list. Yes let Abreu go and keep Vaughn. Abreu has had an amazing career for the Sox. Yes he has been productive, but his power numbers have gone down the last few years and maybe that's a trend to pay attention to. The fact is, Abreu will be 36 and Vaughn 25 next season. We need to quit playing Vaughn in the OF and let him be our regular first baseman.