White Sox sign Martin Maldonado 1 year/4 million, vesting option for 2025

[Lip Man 1]

https://chicago.suntimes.com/white-sox/2023/12/26/24015892/white-sox-sign-catcher-martin-maldonado

[CaliSoxFanViaSWside]

28 minutes ago, Chicago White Sox said:

Agree…not a ton of guys like that is the problem though.  However, if we are going to dumpster dive, I would target guys with additional control.  Kyle Lewis is controllable through 2026 and makes complete as part of a RF solution (not sure how his defense is nowadays, but has to better than Sheets).  Code Heuer is controllable through 2025 and his pitch mix still makes a ton of sense in our park.  I’m sure there are others like that who will come dirt cheap and can offer theoretical value beyond 2024 if they somehow pan out.

Apparently you should be asking yourself in regards to future acquisitions "What is his Culture Index Quotient" ?

This is the ability to inspire your team mates by your work ethic,  leadership , TWTW and buying drinks for your teammates at the hotel bar and telling them how you all pulled together to cheat your way to more wins.

[ChiSox59]

1 minute ago, Tnetennba said:

It's just very Reinsdorfian and all too familiar. Yes, it has a minimal impact to the total payroll number in a lost season, but it still seems like a waste to me.

 

I am with you.  I kind of wonder if the Sox feel Stassi might be more of a gamble than even we thought.  For league min, its a worthy gamble, but maybe they aren't even sure they're going to keep him.

I had no problem with a Lee/Stassi catching situation in 2023, so it does feel a bit superfluous. 

[pcq]

THE MONEY WILL BE SPENT!!!

[Squirmin' for Yermin]

This is what the Sox have always done.  Spend 15 million spread out over 5 guys instead of one guy at 15 million.

[fathom]

6 minutes ago, ChiSox59 said:

I am with you.  I kind of wonder if the Sox feel Stassi might be more of a gamble than even we thought.  For league min, its a worthy gamble, but maybe they aren't even sure they're going to keep him.

I had no problem with a Lee/Stassi catching situation in 2023, so it does feel a bit superfluous. 

I think Lee blew his audition so badly, they felt they had to get someone else

[CaliSoxFanViaSWside]

1 hour ago, South Side Hit Men said:

You still need to field some type of roster, and $4M per guy over six isn’t a big outley. They hopefully will add a few more players.

Still an improvement depth wise vs. Hahn spending $55M on Welington Castillo ($16M), Kelvin Herrera ($18M), Yonder Alonso ($17M) and John Jay ($4M) during tanking in 2017-2019.

Hahn spent too much to make the Sox too good when they were supposed to be tanking so they never got the ultra high draft choices Houston did while they were tanking.

Getz might be doing a better job at securing more losses when you can't even get rewarded for being good at losing any more.

This is tragically hilarious. Only the White Sox could be preaching culture and have people actually falling for that new age , Disney line of BS.

Are they trying to win baseball games or build future leaders of the free world ?

They created that losing culture. It's the new regime throwing the old regime under the bus without somehow indicting the ring leader of that culture.

[Dick Allen]

16 minutes ago, CaliSoxFanViaSWside said:

Hahn spent too much to make the Sox too good when they were supposed to be tanking so they never got the ultra high draft choices Houston did while they were tanking.

Getz might be doing a better job at securing more losses when you can't even get rewarded for being good at losing any more.

This is tragically hilarious. Only the White Sox could be preaching culture and have people actually falling for that new age , Disney line of BS.

Are they trying to win baseball games or build future leaders of the free world ?

They created that losing culture. It's the new regime throwing the old regime under the bus without somehow indicting the ring leader of that culture.

I agree. You want to improve the culture? Develop, sign and trade for better players, and hire a manager that can handle the job. Not a guy who is afraid of veterans but will make strange examples out of rookies.

Edited December 27, 2023 by Dick Allen

[WestEddy]

2 hours ago, Balta1701 said:

This move is the one that has us annoyed, because now the young catcher gets buried in the minors, now there are two crappy veteran catchers who will eat up all of the available big league innings, none of the young catchers get any big league experience where they might even be able to learn enough to be backups, and we drop $5 million on top of that.

I think Maldonado will come to spring training, and will take all the catchers in the organization out to a steak dinner at some fine Scottsdale steak house. Maldonado will wear his world series ring, and over some prime ribs, he will teach those young catchers the secret of how to win. 

Michael Soroka will do the same thing with pitchers. These are two great acquisitions that will pay dividends over and over. Pedro Grifol will disguise himself as a waiter so that he can eavesdrop and check his own notes on winning. He will make the proper corrections, and will then know how to win. 

[Tony]

2 hours ago, T R U said:

Not specific to this season, just in general it seems like the MO is to sign a handful of guys that total up 15-20 million instead of signing that one guy for 15-20 million who will make a difference.

For 2024, guys like Stassi, Maldonado, DeJong, Lopez are pretty much sunk costs. The odds of any of them performing well enough to be able to be flipped at the deadline for something have to be incredibly low.

Why not spend some of that money on a potential flip candidate instead of a handful of guys who are more likely to be DFA'd than dealt. Especially with the season that's coming.

I get what you’re saying, and you’re not wrong. And it’s a symptom of them not shelling out big money for FA’s so they spend on lower tier guys, but for the reasons I stated above, I don’t have a problem with it this offseason given where the team is and the tremendous amount of work Getz has to do to totally re-do this team (and the chances are incredibly high he can’t pull it off)

[CaliSoxFanViaSWside]

12 hours ago, Tony said:

Actually a little surprised at the response here. 

The Sox are going to be terrible this year, obviously. Signing Ohtani wouldn’t have changed that. 

We heard rumblings the last 4 years the pitching staff hated Grandal, there wasn’t trust, etc. As someone else mentioned, good chance Cease is moved for young pitching, some of which may see ML time in 2024. Additionally, a lack of any sort of leadership or preparation was cited by numerous players who departed the Sox organization over the last year.

Maldonado seems incredibly well liked by teammates and is by all accounts is very well-prepared and can comfort a pitching staff. Hate sounding like a meatball, but those are traits not measured by FanGraphs and do hold value in MLB. 
 

If this was stopping another signing or blocking a key prospect who was ready, I’d light a pitchfork. But I don’t think this is a terrible use of resources from Getz, after understanding what has gone on the last few years. 

🤮

[T R U]

48 minutes ago, fathom said:

I think Lee blew his audition so badly, they felt they had to get someone else

70 plate appearances. How can anyone possibly make a determination on a player with that sample.

[TheBooneLoganEra]

1 minute ago, T R U said:

70 plate appearances. How can anyone possibly make a determination on a player with that sample.

Determination? No. But clear as day the kid is not ready and I think throwing him in the fire will only further erode his confidence. Give him abs in the minors and allow him to be around a few seasoned vets in spring training. 

[dohnut]

Kenny always gets his man!

Wait... are we still doing that? 😅

[South Side Hit Men]

38 minutes ago, CaliSoxFanViaSWside said:

This is tragically hilarious. Only the White Sox could be preaching culture and have people actually falling for that new age , Disney line of BS.

Sox fans would be far more happy if they ignore every single word Chuck Garfein says or thinks. Nobody else here or in the real world is discussing that.

And tanking in the other two sports means losing on purpose for a top pick. When most people talk about tanking in MLB, they mean pulling the plug on spending, not trying to get a higher draft pick. The other two sports have a somewhat tight league minimum spend floor so it’s not as relevant.

[Quin]

1 hour ago, Chicago White Sox said:

Agree…not a ton of guys like that is the problem though.  However, if we are going to dumpster dive, I would target guys with additional control.  Kyle Lewis is controllable through 2026 and makes complete as part of a RF solution (not sure how his defense is nowadays, but has to better than Sheets).  Code Heuer is controllable through 2025 and his pitch mix still makes a ton of sense in our park.  I’m sure there are others like that who will come dirt cheap and can offer theoretical value beyond 2024 if they somehow pan out.

According to Mariners and D-Backs fans, his legs are gone.

[chitownsportsfan]

10 minutes ago, Quin said:

According to Mariners and D-Backs fans, his legs are gone.

They probably are, but Trayce's back was "gone" too and he managed to put up a few productive half seasons. Lewis is a guy we'd hope to flip and otherwise just DFA if he stinks.

He's the type of guy you sign to this deal, not Maldonado.

[Balta1701]

41 minutes ago, TheBooneLoganEra said:

Determination? No. But clear as day the kid is not ready and I think throwing him in the fire will only further erode his confidence. Give him abs in the minors and allow him to be around a few seasoned vets in spring training. 

Lee first got to AAA in 2021, spent all of 2022 and 2023 in AAA aside from short stints in the big leagues, has played nearly 200 games at AAA and has 841 plate appearances there. Maybe if he gets 1200 PAs and 300 games at AAA he might be ready then?

In terms of being around some seasoned vets in Spring Training, he was with the Astros the last 2 years. The Astros catcher the last 2 years, the seasoned vet he got to be around was..."Martin Maldonado". Gosh it's a shame he couldn't learn anything from that seasoned vet the last 2 offseasons, maybe 3rd time is a charm?

I literally can't come up with a better example of how dumb this concept is, "Gosh he needs to be around some vets to learn from them, maybe we should put him with exactly the same vet he was with the last two years and see if something magically different happens". 

Seriously, if you're not going to play Lee this year, just release him. You're better off with the open roster spot for a releiver somewhere. He has 1 option left, if he stays buried at AAA this year there's no way they're going to give him a big league roster spot next year. May as well churn the spot and see if someone else sticks. 

[WestEddy]

20 minutes ago, Balta1701 said:

In terms of being around some seasoned vets in Spring Training, he was with the Astros the last 2 years. The Astros catcher the last 2 years, the seasoned vet he got to be around was..."Martin Maldonado". Gosh it's a shame he couldn't learn anything from that seasoned vet the last 2 offseasons, maybe 3rd time is a charm?

Yeah, but now Max Stassi is there to tell the other part of the Astro story, the years of total suck. Once Korey Lee has the full narrative, he will then know how to win. 

[Chicago White Sox]

40 minutes ago, Quin said:

According to Mariners and D-Backs fans, his legs are gone.

Wouldn’t surprise me…but the price should be dirt cheap given the D-Backs non-tendered him vs. paying him $1.5M.  I’m not enamored by the other OF options in that price range though.

[TheBooneLoganEra]

1 hour ago, Balta1701 said:

Lee first got to AAA in 2021, spent all of 2022 and 2023 in AAA aside from short stints in the big leagues, has played nearly 200 games at AAA and has 841 plate appearances there. Maybe if he gets 1200 PAs and 300 games at AAA he might be ready then?

In terms of being around some seasoned vets in Spring Training, he was with the Astros the last 2 years. The Astros catcher the last 2 years, the seasoned vet he got to be around was..."Martin Maldonado". Gosh it's a shame he couldn't learn anything from that seasoned vet the last 2 offseasons, maybe 3rd time is a charm?

I literally can't come up with a better example of how dumb this concept is, "Gosh he needs to be around some vets to learn from them, maybe we should put him with exactly the same vet he was with the last two years and see if something magically different happens". 

Seriously, if you're not going to play Lee this year, just release him. You're better off with the open roster spot for a releiver somewhere. He has 1 option left, if he stays buried at AAA this year there's no way they're going to give him a big league roster spot next year. May as well churn the spot and see if someone else sticks. 

Yikes, then release him. Nobody should be losing sleep over Korey Lee being blocked, or losing mlb at bats. Breathe. 

[Dick Allen]

15 minutes ago, TheBooneLoganEra said:

Yikes, then release him. Nobody should be losing sleep over Korey Lee being blocked, or losing mlb at bats. Breathe. 

Korey Lee has the same skill sets as the others. Defense should be decent, power, doesn't get on base much, has a pitchers batting average. But he's at the age where you usually improve, these others are on the downslope. I think one would be fine, but 2 is strange to me.

[TheBooneLoganEra]

10 minutes ago, Dick Allen said:

Korey Lee has the same skill sets as the others. Defense should be decent, power, doesn't get on base much, has a pitchers batting average. But he's at the age where you usually improve, these others are on the downslope. I think one would be fine, but 2 is strange to me.

Makes sense. My thought is when Korey came up last year he wasn't exactly setting the world on fire in aaa. Momentum and confidence is important for young ballplayers. Perhaps you let him start at aaa and if he runs into a hot streak you give him another chance. People wanted depth, this is depth. Old depth sure better to have some options. 4 million and league minimum for 3 catchers seems fine to me. 

[Timmy U]

I think the Sox see Quero as their catcher of the future.  He's got a lot of work to do both offensively and defensively but he flashes in both areas. Plus, he really knows how to play the game. His intangibles are through the roof. Maybe he hits seventh in a decent line up and peaks as Omar Narvaez during his good years, but you can win with a player like that.

[Balta1701]

1 hour ago, TheBooneLoganEra said:

Yikes, then release him. Nobody should be losing sleep over Korey Lee being blocked, or losing mlb at bats. Breathe. 

"Nobody should be losing sleep over Omar Narvaez being blocked or losing MLB at bats." - the whole site in 2019.

3 years later - "How did we wind up with a $17 million a year -1 WAR 35 year old catcher", if only there was something we could have done to prevent this. It's a shame no one could have possibly avoided this."