I have sat with this and am pretty happy with it. not much you can do as a fan with a bunch of rumored "bad clubhouse" stuff. He'll either be good on the field or bad on the field and if he's bad on the field we'll hear he's a terrible clubhouse guy during him being bad. If he's good, we won't hear it until after.

From mlbtraderumors chat:

 

2:08 Justin: Thoughts on Latos to WSox?

2:09 Steve Adams: Pretty stunned that the deal is $3MM without any sort of incentives. There are tons of reports of Latos' clubhouse persona being a negative, and I've heard from a couple execs who were very averse to the thought of adding him to their clubhouse, but I still expected a bigger guarantee. Love it for the Sox.

 

Aaaand he's a Twins fan.

Pretty good writeup from MLBTR as well: http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2016/02/whit...-mat-latos.html

Just to get it on the record, does this move seem more Hahn or KW?

 

Didn't Williams covet Latos at one point or another (in all fairness, everyone did about three years ago)?

Wasn't it Josh Fields who retired briefly due to how the players on our team behaved off the field (cheating etc) and it made him uncomfortable?

 

 

Not sure ... I will say I was out a Wrigleyville establishment the night before SoxFest a few years back and randomly a good 12-18 players showed up. Big names. Some, Paulie, were very behaved (there's the hero!), wouldn't even take pictures with women. Others? Well, I'd say most of that team left with a girl. And most of those guys were married.

 

Side note, Sale was at the bar that night, before he broke out. And nobody knew who he was. Everybody was hanging on Beckham and Danks, etc. But Sale was all alone. I just said hey Chris, good luck this year. He was so taken aback that anybody knew him. He literally stopped, came to our table and sat down to chat. Just excited somebody recognized him.

 

 

Moral of the story? I wanted to tell that story. Hahaha. But I did lose respect that night a bit, but realized its a business. I'm there to watch baseball. Not be TMZ.

Aaaand he's a Twins fan.

 

One of many teams like the Orioles that could use the starting pitching.

 

Fwiw, a lot of KC fans wanted him over Kennedy but Dayton Moore supposedly nixed it over the character issues and familiarity Dave "Fantasy" Eisland already had from time in NY.

Just to get it on the record, does this move seem more Hahn or KW?

 

Didn't Williams covet Latos at one point or another (in all fairness, everyone did about three years ago)?

 

The money screams Hahn and the player screams Williams. If this is an example of some FO synergy I will take it.

The money screams Hahn and the player screams Williams. If this is an example of some FO synergy I will take it.

I think that's the synergy we've seen for 2 offseasons - Williams picking the players, and Hahn executing the trade/signing.

 

Johnson could probably be good in the bullpen for 1 year. Another young arm there will help. Another year at AAA for him is pointless. We'll need him in the rotation in 2017.

 

If he's a jerk, that's okay. Maybe adding a jerk can help to modulate the clowning that's been going on.

 

 

If he works out, the signing is Hahn's genius. If he is terrible, it's KW's stupidity.

Haven't checked every page but has anyone said whether this is a major league or a minor league deal? I.e. if he's not on the 25 man out of ST/by some date does he get released?

Haven't checked every page but has anyone said whether this is a major league or a minor league deal? I.e. if he's not on the 25 man out of ST/by some date does he get released?

 

I'm assuming major, just says a $3 mil. guarantee for 1 year.

According to his Fangraphs page, he started using a split-fingered fastball in 2015 that he had never used before (11.4% usage). Seems like it worked well as a wipeout pitch last year. Problem pitches seem to have been his fastball and slider. Fastball can probably be explained by his velocity problems early on in the season (as he got the same movement on it as he always has), but though his slider has rated as a well above average pitch in the past it was rated well below average last year. I hope he can get that slider working again.

I LOVE this move. Even if he bombs, it's only $3 million lost.

http://www.minorleagueball.com/2015/9/23/9...ctive-mat-latos

 

Some very good info here.

 

Pay particular attention to the last four paragraphs.

On paper there is nothing wrong with this move. We'll see how it plays out.

 

Now go get an outfielder.

 

Mark

Love this move also. It's one year and only 3 million. Now let's add an OF bat.

Just makes you wonder what is really up with Latos when Fister, Arroyo, and Masterson all got deals with the possibility to make double what Latos got. As everyone here noted his peripherals were for the most part good and his velocity was even up a tick. Plus he's still under 30. The writing is on the wall for a very plausible bounce back and there was literally 0 market for him? Just doesn't make any sense. Either he's the world's biggest douche or there's something else up we don't know about.

Just makes you wonder what is really up with Latos when Fister, Arroyo, and Masterson all got deals with the possibility to make double what Latos got. As everyone here noted his peripherals were for the most part good and his velocity was even up a tick. Plus he's still under 30. The writing is on the wall for a very plausible bounce back and there was literally 0 market for him? Just doesn't make any sense. Either he's the world's biggest douche or there's something else up we don't know about.

 

Or he really wanted to go somewhere that would promise him a starting spot?

Or he really wanted to go somewhere that would promise him a starting spot?

 

Yep. To help out his next potential contract.

Or he really wanted to go somewhere that would promise him a starting spot?

if they "promised" him that already then they really don't have much confidence in Johnson at all.

Robin is known to have a slow hook. Latos was irked by the quick hook with the Dodgers. It doesn't at least appear Hahn is thinking about trading Johnson. From the email the White Sox sent out:

 

"Mat adds another quality veteran arm to our rotation and also increases our overall pitching depth, which always is essential to having a successful season," said Rick Hahn, White Sox senior vice president/general manager. "While we believe in the futures of several of our young starters, the chance to add a pitcher of Mat's caliber was too good of an opportunity for us to pass up. He has proven over his career that when healthy, he takes the baseball and logs quality innings."

Trade for Ethier. Sign Desmond. And let's put this offseason to bed.

Sox also signed Travis Ishikawa.

The ticket office must be busy.

Or he really wanted to go somewhere that would promise him a starting spot?

 

Yeah because clearly we are the only team he could possibly start on...it's very obvious that no one else wanted Latos on their team. The fact that he took $3M now tells you we were the only team to even sniff around him. If he had interest from other clubs he would have at least waited until ST to see if there was an injury.

I dont really care about personalities. You can tell me to f*** off to my face as long as you win games. This makes the Sox better, starting pitching depth was a serious concern and this goes a long way to address that problem. Get a Get this RFer situation solved and this has been a hell of an offseason.