Will the Sox Eat Salary to Bring More Talent

[CaliSoxFanViaSWside]

If this doesn't belong in Trade Winds feel free to move it.

 

Under the KW regime the Sox didn't trade many veterans and never really had to eat any salary. It's obvious the Sox are going to looking for young inexpensive talent and in order to get that talent Hahn may have to bite the bullet and pay a part of the remaining contracts of our high priced vets. Salary dumping is all well and good but you can't remake a team through free agency alone since those guys are the very definition of veteran over priced talent.

 

I know the contracts of Rios and Peavy are reasonable and Dunn's is not based on his limited tool set. I think it's imperative ,when faced with the reality of eating salary ,Hahn does not hesitate if it makes the difference in getting the types of players he wants.

[Jake]

Rios and Peavy should not need money sent with them, though I'd be happy to send some if it really is necessary. If I were him, I wouldn't bring that up until negotiations reach breaking point, though.

 

I think the best route to take with Dunn is to keep him going into next season and you'll find that everyone will come calling for him in the expiration year of his contract.

[GreatScott82]

I agree. I dont think the Sox will have to throw money into a Rios or Peavy deal. However, they definitely would have to for Dunn. You just dont see teams lining up to pay $12 million for a guy hitting .190. Maybe next year a desperate team will snag him at the deadline. At least we can hope. ..

[jjbabins]

Rios and Peavy should not need money sent with them, though I'd be happy to send some if it really is necessary. If I were him, I wouldn't bring that up until negotiations reach breaking point, though.

 

I think the best route to take with Dunn is to keep him going into next season and you'll find that everyone will come calling for him in the expiration year of his contract.

 

I think Dunn's too streaky of a hitter to take that gamble. If he keeps hitting the way he's been for the next couple weeks, his value might never be higher. I think if a GM calls with good deal, you pull the trigger immediately.

[caulfield12]

I think Dunn's too streaky of a hitter to take that gamble. If he keeps hitting the way he's been for the next couple weeks, his value might never be higher. I think if a GM calls with good deal, you pull the trigger immediately.

 

 

Except it's a Catch-22 because we have no way of replacing yet more power in the middle of the line-up for 2014.

 

And that pretty much ends up ANY hope of competing.

 

You can see Rios, Peavy and Ramirez going (and most would argue that's the end of 2014 unless we go crazy on the free agent market), but Dunn probably stays just because they need to maintain the illusion of everything breaks right they could still be competitive.

 

What are they going to sell to season ticket holders....?

 

Now some would argue that the majority of the fanbase would be overjoyed to dump him, and that he's hurting season ticket sales...and morale of the fans, but his play the last 6 weeks has complicated things.

 

 

 

IMO, you hold onto him until the summer of 2014, then you try to make any possible trade. Trading him now makes it that much harder to field a respectable team next year because the odds of the money that we save on Dunn being reinvested completely into veteran free agents isn't very high.

 

 

 

 

[Jake]

I've talked about this elsewhere, but my feeling is that the savings are so great just by letting this year's contracts expire plus any other trades that dumping Dunn for purely monetary reasons doesn't make sense. You take the gamble that he becomes worth real baseball talent next year and in the worst case, the White Sox have spent money that they weren't going to spend on another player.

[Y2Jimmy0]

I agree. I dont think the Sox will have to throw money into a Rios or Peavy deal. However, they definitely would have to for Dunn. You just dont see teams lining up to pay $12 million for a guy hitting .190. Maybe next year a desperate team will snag him at the deadline. At least we can hope. ..

 

 

I am sick of hearing about how teams would not want Dunn because of a poor batting average. If you are trading for the man because of his batting average then you are an idiot. Any team trading for Dunn would do it looking for power and that's what he'd be paid to do. Stick Dunn in the lineup in Texas, Pittsburgh, or somewhere else and they would have an asset. He wouldn't be depended on to be the best player on the team in those places. Dunn as an extra guy is a scary proposition. The guy is going to hit 40+ homers, walks 100 times, and drive in more than 100 runs. But people on this site specifically reference his strikeouts and his batting average instead.

[iamshack]

Dunn just had a hell of a June....991 OPS and is on pace to hit 44 home runs and knock in 111.

 

f***ing eating any money. He'll, I'd just keep him if I didn't get a nice piece or two for him.

[Balta1701]

Dunn just had a hell of a June....991 OPS and is on pace to hit 44 home runs and knock in 111.

 

f***ing eating any money. He'll, I'd just keep him if I didn't get a nice piece or two for him.

I'd still be happy to save 1/2 of his contract for next year.

[caulfield12]

I'd still be happy to save 1/2 of his contract for next year.

 

 

Unless they pay 3/4th's of it, I would hesitate to pull the trigger.

 

What was the split on the Thome deal again?

 

The difference is we don't HAVE to trade him, the Phillies did, with Howard coming behind him...or Middlebrooks last year.

[iamshack]

I'd still be happy to save 1/2 of his contract for next year.

Obviously it's all relative to the package you're getting...but I'm not moving him just to save $6-8 million. He may be worth well more as a trade piece next year in the last year of his deal.

[caulfield12]

Obviously it's all relative to the package you're getting...but I'm not moving him just to save $6-8 million. He may be worth well more as a trade piece next year in the last year of his deal.

 

 

1) If he has a great second half, it will help maintain some of the season ticket base, as opposed to completely starting over (once again, assuming they're not spending on 3-4 premier free agents to inject life into the marketing for 2014).

 

2) Like the idea of Thome and Dunn being around each other, just like Paulie/Thome/Dye, etc.

 

3) He very easily could fetch better prospects at the trade deadline in 2014.

 

4) There's nobody in the majors or minors who could come close to replicating his homers and RBI's that wouldn't cost us Chris Sale or a another potential "albatross" contract...unless Hahn has another Quentin or Carter stowed away somewhere.

[Chicago White Sox]

I'd still be happy to save 1/2 of his contract for next year.

Completely agree. Hopefully his hot month fools a GM or two and someone takes him off our hands for a decent amount of salary relief.

[GreatScott82]

I am sick of hearing about how teams would not want Dunn because of a poor batting average. If you are trading for the man because of his batting average then you are an idiot. Any team trading for Dunn would do it looking for power and that's what he'd be paid to do. Stick Dunn in the lineup in Texas, Pittsburgh, or somewhere else and they would have an asset. He wouldn't be depended on to be the best player on the team in those places. Dunn as an extra guy is a scary proposition. The guy is going to hit 40+ homers, walks 100 times, and drive in more than 100 runs. But people on this site specifically reference his strikeouts and his batting average instead.

And I am sick of fans defending him based on his potential for 40+ homers. He has a .190 average and strikes out waaayyyyyy too much. How can you defend that? He isn't a real ball player. We also had a guy at DH who hit 40 home runs a year but also had a +.300 average and hit 80+ RBIs consistently. You may also know him as the Big Hurt. At least Jim Thome hit in the .250s while we had him. That is much more respectable than hitting below .200. Would Dunn be an asset to another team in the league? Perhaps as a late inning pinch hitter for a team looking for late inning power... but is that worth $12 million?

 

I am tired of the Adam Dunn experiment and will be more than happy to argue numbers with anyone who thinks he is worth the money. Because simply, he is not. He has hurt this team more than helped it over the past 3 seasons and that my friend is enough of a reason to want to trade him.

Edited July 4, 2013 by GreatScott82

[GreatScott82]

Obviously it's all relative to the package you're getting...but I'm not moving him just to save $6-8 million. He may be worth well more as a trade piece next year in the last year of his deal.

I agree. We would get next to nothing if we traded him this year. Not to mention, would likely have to eat most of his contract. The only thing we can hope for is if he gets off to a similar start next year as he did in 2012 before he started tanking again.

[Jake]

I'd like someone to explain to me why we are going to need salary relief.

[Balta1701]

I'd like someone to explain to me why we are going to need salary relief.

I'd rather have an extra $7 million to throw at extensions for Quintana, Santiago, and Reed than not have it.

[Jake]

I'd rather have an extra $7 million to throw at extensions for Quintana, Santiago, and Reed than not have it.

 

You've seen the salary numbers for next year, I'm sure of it. Do you think Dunn's presence has any bearing on our ability to extend/sign whoever we target?

 

To me, it's worth every penny to gamble on getting nice prospects/players at the deadline next season (or, gasp, even be a winning team at the deadline!)

Edited July 4, 2013 by Jake

[2nd_city_saint787]

I agree. We would get next to nothing if we traded him this year. Not to mention, would likely have to eat most of his contract. The only thing we can hope for is if he gets off to a similar start next year as he did in 2012 before he started tanking again.

 

Or we can hope that he continues to be a .270 hitter with a .900+ OPS for the next month leading up to the trade deadline. 2 months of playing at this level isn't a small sample size and it should be enough to show another team that he can help their ball club.

 

Like it or not Dunn has been one of the best players in baseball the last month.

[Balta1701]

You've seen the salary numbers for next year, I'm sure of it. Do you think Dunn's presence has any bearing on our ability to extend/sign whoever we target?

 

To me, it's worth every penny to gamble on getting nice prospects/players at the deadline next season (or, gasp, even be a winning team at the deadline!)

Yes, I think Dunn's presence or absence has an impact on what we'll be spending money on. After the way he's performed over the last 3 years, including this month, I'd rather have $7 million than him next year. I wouldn't move him if we had to pick up more than that, but I'd call 1/2 of next year's salary enough.

[iamshack]

I don't care guys...40 homers and 100+ RBI is still solid production, regardless of what he hits or how many times he k's...

[kitekrazy]

Maybe a NL GM would be interested. I think he would have more success there.

[GreatScott82]

I don't care guys...40 homers and 100+ RBI is still solid production, regardless of what he hits or how many times he k's...

Those numbers are great. Unfortunately his poor strike out rate (strikes out once in every three at bats), not impressive .303 OBP and terrible batting average .207 cancels out any type of production he brings to the table. If another team can overlook his flaws and focuses primarily on his RBI and Home run production, than make that deal ASAP!

[witesoxfan]

Those numbers are great. Unfortunately his poor strike out rate (strikes out once in every three at bats), not impressive .303 OBP and terrible batting average .207 cancels out any type of production he brings to the table. If another team can overlook his flaws and focuses primarily on his RBI and Home run production, than make that deal ASAP!

 

No it doesn't. He's a flawed player, surely, but he's a valuable player.

 

 

[GreatScott82]

No it doesn't. He's a flawed player, surely, but he's a valuable player.

If teams can overlook his flaws and just look primarily at his power numbers, lets trade him to that team Asap!

Edited July 5, 2013 by GreatScott82