Non-White Sox Off-Season Hot Stove

[WhiteSox2023]

2 minutes ago, JUSTgottaBELIEVE said:

That price is exactly what I expected. I said 2/$20M.

It’s not bad but it doesn’t make sense for the Sox IMO.

[JUSTgottaBELIEVE]

49 minutes ago, Chicago White Sox said:

Price is probably fine if you are trying to compete and need a CF, but the fit makes no sense for us.  I could honestly see Acuna providing as much fWAR as Bader next year if Luisangel can tap into his power some.  Bader’s bat is going to regress a lot next year and there is no simply no reason to block Acuna in 2026.

I’d prefer not to lock guys like Acuna and Meidroth down to one position just yet. I think they have much more value with defensive versatility. The nice thing about Bader is he can give you plus defense from all 3 OF spots.

[JUSTgottaBELIEVE]

3 minutes ago, WhiteSox2023 said:

It’s not bad but it doesn’t make sense for the Sox IMO.

When you have no reliable/proven mlb outfielders at the moment of course it makes sense.

[WhiteSox2023]

23 minutes ago, JUSTgottaBELIEVE said:

When you have no reliable/proven mlb outfielders at the moment of course it makes sense.

The Sox have unproven outfielders that they want to give a chance to with playing time and at bats.  Not to mention Montgomery that will be arriving soon.

[Chicago White Sox]

19 minutes ago, JUSTgottaBELIEVE said:

I’d prefer not to lock guys like Acuna and Meidroth down to one position just yet. I think they have much more value with defensive versatility. The nice thing about Bader is he can give you plus defense from all 3 OF spots.

IMO, we need to understand what Acuna & Baldwin are capable of defensively in the outfield.  If Acuna can be a plus (or better) defensive CF, there is some actual path for him to be an everyday guy out there without crazy improvement with the bat.  As for Baldwin, he was objectively bad in the OF defensively last year, but the reasons for that seem addressable for him with more reps.  Given the infield is already pretty full and will likely be stacked in the near future, I think the best play for both Acuna & Baldwin is to be used primarily in the outfield this year.  They may (or even likely) end up UT guys but now is the time to see what we have.  If these guys can’t be OF fixtures, then we’ll need to find one or two long-term solutions.  Bader isn’t a bad player, but he’s not a long term solution and is an expensive band-aid that I don’t think we need given current roster construction.

[Look at Ray Ray Run]

3 minutes ago, Chicago White Sox said:

IMO, we need to understand what Acuna & Baldwin are capable of defensively in the outfield.  If Acuna can be a plus (or better) defensive CF, there is some actual path for him to be an everyday guy out there without crazy improvement with the bat.  As for Baldwin, he was objectively bad in the OF defensively last year, but the reasons for that seem addressable for him with more reps.  Given the infield is already pretty full and will likely be stacked in the near future, I think the best play for both Acuna & Baldwin is to be used primarily in the outfield this year.  They may (or even likely) end up UT guys but now is the time to see what we have.  If these guys can’t be OF fixtures, then we’ll need to find one or two long-term solutions.  Bader isn’t a bad player, but he’s not a long term solution and is an expensive band-aid that I don’t think we need given current roster construction.

He's running a 73 OPS+ in the big leagues. He needs to imrpove a LOT to be an everday guy out there.

Bader is a MLB quality player. 

Really no reason not to add an actual outfielder to the group of zero outfielders.

[Chicago White Sox]

47 minutes ago, Look at Ray Ray Run said:

He's running a 73 OPS+ in the big leagues. He needs to imrpove a LOT to be an everday guy out there.

Bader is a MLB quality player. 

Really no reason not to add an actual outfielder to the group of zero outfielders.

Depends on how good Acuna’s defense is.  From what I have read, it seems like he could be pretty damn good out there.  Look at Bader, he really isn’t all that great of a hitter (last year looks like an aberration), but is a solid player due to plus defense.   Acuna certainly wasn’t good in the majors last year, but I think his tools are being slept on a bit.  He actually had really good contact rates in AAA last year and was league average in terms of chase rate.  His bat speed has been above average up until last year when he made purposeful decisions to slow down his swing to help make better contact.  By no means do I have a ton of confidence that he’ll take a massive leap, but I certainly view him getting up to say an 85 wRC+ being within reason.

Edited 6 hours ago by Chicago White Sox

[southsider2k5]

38 minutes ago, Look at Ray Ray Run said:

He's running a 73 OPS+ in the big leagues. He needs to imrpove a LOT to be an everday guy out there.

Bader is a MLB quality player. 

Really no reason not to add an actual outfielder to the group of zero outfielders.

If this team was even a long toss within .500 I would care more about the actual make up of the roster.  With three straight 100 loss seasons, and the predictions looking really damned close to a 4th, these years are all about finding who will be on your next decent team.  Bader, will not.

[Snopek]

1 hour ago, JUSTgottaBELIEVE said:

When you have no reliable/proven mlb outfielders at the moment of course it makes sense.

As tempting as it is to see an actual major leaguer in the outfield, signing a guy to take at bats from unproven outfielders on a rebuilding team feels a little counterintuitive. 

[Buehrle>Wood]

13 minutes ago, Snopek said:

As tempting as it is to see an actual major leaguer in the outfield, signing a guy to take at bats from unproven outfielders on a rebuilding team feels a little counterintuitive. 

Not when hes not actually blocking anyone.

[southsider2k5]

18 minutes ago, Snopek said:

As tempting as it is to see an actual major leaguer in the outfield, signing a guy to take at bats from unproven outfielders on a rebuilding team feels a little counterintuitive. 

Literally the only good reason to grab a guy like this is with the hope of flipping him at the deadline, and well to be honest, we have all seen what the price of flawed OFs at the deadline looks like the past few years.

[Look at Ray Ray Run]

39 minutes ago, southsider2k5 said:

If this team was even a long toss within .500 I would care more about the actual make up of the roster.  With three straight 100 loss seasons, and the predictions looking really damned close to a 4th, these years are all about finding who will be on your next decent team.  Bader, will not.

This would make sense if the other guys were going to be on the next decent team.

[WhiteSox2023]

Well, Bader has been signed so who do you want now?  Hays?  Tauchman?  It’s just a pile of junk left after Bader.

[Chicago White Sox]

5 minutes ago, WhiteSox2023 said:

Well, Bader has been signed so who do you want now?  Hays?  Tauchman?  It’s just a pile of junk left after Bader.

Tauchman is who I’d grab.  He’s going to be dirt cheap because of the injury risk, which is totally fine because as some point you hope Braden forces his way onto to the roster.

[JUSTgottaBELIEVE]

54 minutes ago, Snopek said:

As tempting as it is to see an actual major leaguer in the outfield, signing a guy to take at bats from unproven outfielders on a rebuilding team feels a little counterintuitive. 

People have been saying that for several years and it’s never an issue. This roster still has a ton of holes. I’d rather have the veteran providing some sort of stability around the young position player group. If the young guys are good enough it won’t be a problem finding them playing time.

[WestEddy]

10 minutes ago, Chicago White Sox said:

Tauchman is who I’d grab.  He’s going to be dirt cheap because of the injury risk, which is totally fine because as some point you hope Braden forces his way onto to the roster.

I wouldn't think Braden Montgomery is up any time before September, at the earliest. Tauchman would probably be the best option for this team; the devil you know, and all. He's also nice insurance against an extended Jarrod Kelenic run if Kelenic can't turn it around. I would really think the most energy should be put towards getting Baldwin, Acuña, and Pereira as much time in the lineup as possible. If Kelenic hits, he may be gone in July. If Acuña and Pereira hit, you have your outfield. 

BTW, from 8/2 on, Baldwin OPSed .803. 

[CWSpalehoseCWS]

There's really no reason to bring back a broken down Tauchman in any capacity. He was terrible in the field last year and his legs are shot. He also saw a huge drop-off at the plate the final 2 months of the season (.220 BA). At 35 yrs old, it isn't going to get any better for him. Bringing him back to just DFA him a month or two later doesn't make sense, especially when so many guys currently on the 40-man are way younger and out of options.

[GreenSox]

1 hour ago, WhiteSox2023 said:

Well, Bader has been signed so who do you want now?  Hays?  Tauchman?  It’s just a pile of junk left after Bader.

Just go with what we have.  Tauchman can hit ok but he’s not much of an OF.

[Chicago White Sox]

37 minutes ago, WestEddy said:

I wouldn't think Braden Montgomery is up any time before September, at the earliest. Tauchman would probably be the best option for this team; the devil you know, and all. He's also nice insurance against an extended Jarrod Kelenic run if Kelenic can't turn it around. I would really think the most energy should be put towards getting Baldwin, Acuña, and Pereira as much time in the lineup as possible. If Kelenic hits, he may be gone in July. If Acuña and Pereira hit, you have your outfield. 

BTW, from 8/2 on, Baldwin OPSed .803. 

I think Braden comes much sooner than that if all goes well (big caveat).  That being said, it’s part of the reason you add a cheap vet to hedge against any delay in his readiness.  And I fully agree those are the three guys who should get the focus heading into camp.  And given two of them are RH hitters, I think that vet we bring in being LH makes the most sense.  Tauchman just checks a lot of boxes.

As for Kelenic, I view him as a lottery ticket who needs to go absolute HAM in camp to make the OD roster. However, in the unlikely event he figures things out, he should still have two more seasons of club control and I doubt he gets traded.

[Chicago White Sox]

23 minutes ago, GreenSox said:

Just go with what we have.  Tauchman can hit ok but he’s not much of an OF.

He graded average or better in all major advanced metrics.  Obviously his speed is completely compromised at this point, but he gets good jumps and makes all the plays he can get to.  Now, if his health is currently worse than was it was for most of last year, I’d certainly pass.  But for $2M or about $1M over league minimum, I will happily see what I can get out of him next year.

[spiderman]

32 minutes ago, GreenSox said:

Just go with what we have.  Tauchman can hit ok but he’s not much of an OF.

I would also prefer to not add a cast-off. If they bring back Tauchman, I won't lose any sleep, but I think the OF will Bendi, Baldwin, Acuna, but all of these guys probably won't play more than 120 games in a season even if they played ok so maybe I am ok with having a cast-off to rotate with these three. I guess Montgomery will also probably be up my May/June if things go well so that would work itself out.

[GreenSox]

6 minutes ago, Chicago White Sox said:

He graded average or better in all major advanced metrics.  Obviously his speed is completely compromised at this point, but he gets good jumps and makes all the plays he can get to.  Now, if his health is currently worse than was it was for most of last year, I’d certainly pass.  But for $2M or about $1M over league minimum, I will happily see what I can get out of him next year.

He has a negative defense fWAR. He's an okay player, but they really need to look at Baldwin, Acuna, Pereira and hopefully Sosa.  While Hill and Peters are hopefully earmarked for Charlotte, they are clogging the 40-man, presumably for insurance purposes.

[PaleAleSox]

At this point just give Sosa an OF glove and sign a starter that can at least give you a little something every 5 days.

[ChiSoxFanMike]

13 minutes ago, PaleAleSox said:

At this point just give Sosa an OF glove and sign a starter that can at least give you a little something every 5 days.

Nothing to lose by putting Sosa in LF. Hopefully they experiment with that in spring training. It could be the Vaughn/Sheets thing all over again, but it’s by far the easiest way to get his bat in the lineup. 

[PaleAleSox]

3 minutes ago, ChiSoxFanMike said:

Nothing to lose by putting Sosa in LF. Hopefully they experiment with that in spring training. It could be the Vaughn/Sheets thing all over again, but it’s by far the easiest way to get his bat in the lineup. 

He is at least far more athletic than both of them.