PREAMBLE
The Sox have some major holes in their roster, but most glaring are starting pitching, 3B, and CF. So let's plug some holes. Oh, get your mind out of the gutter. I mean sign and trade for some actual professional baseball players.
ARBITRATION-ELIGIBLE PLAYERS
- Jose Abreu, $16M tender
- I plan to trade away this contract to help with spending at SP. I know, I know, who will mentor Yoan now?!
- Avisail Garcia, $8M non-tender
- I cannot possibly spend $8M on Avi with a payroll of $105M. It's simply irresponsible (I'm singing that like Robert Palmer)
- Yolmer Sanchez, $4.7M tender
- Yolmer is a very good utility player and this is not a crazy contract for a utility guy/gatorade drenched maniac. Wait til you see what Marwin Gonzalez gets this offseason.
- Carlos Rodon, $3.7M tender
- His wife's twitter account is worth this price tag.
- Matt Davidson, $2.4M tender
- Matty D will probably see a lot of 1b in my plan and it'll be pretty cheap for that position. Also, 80 grade stache potential here.
- Leury Garcia, $1.9M non-tender
- I'm just doing this to break Jonnie Nonnie's heart.
- Danny Farquhar, $1.4M non-tender
- This sucks, but it is a business and there is always a chance for a minor league deal as he rehabs.
CLUB OPTIONS
- Nate Jones, $4.65 million/$1.25M buyout decline
- I'd spend this money on a new bullpen cart. That will see the field far more than Jones.
- James Shields, $16 million/$2M buyout decline
- I cried writing this. Farewell sweet prince.
OTHER IMPENDING FREE AGENTS
- Miguel Gonzalez (made $4.75 million in 2018) let go
- He was part of my Telemundo TV deal pitch, but he's not gonna be healthy enough to eat the innings we need.
- Hector Santiago (made $2 million in 2018 — added) let go
- This will shorten games incredibly as it takes him 42 mins to walk from the bullpen to the mound.
FREE AGENTS
No. 1: Nathan Eovaldi (3 years, $42M). The White Sox do not have any starting pitching and I think, with the extra innings of the playoffs and a history of not staying on the field, Eovaldi will be a discounted guy. If you're anything like me, you like a good bargain, especially those specials they have over at the Jewels.
No. 2: Yusei Kikuchi (5 years, $60M). This is definitely a gamble. It's possible this guy's shoulder is not gonna hold up. But that thought is exactly why he might fall into an affordable range. He may be John Danks, shoulder-wise, not throwing people off his roof.
No. 3: Bartolo Colon (1 year, $2M). You know you want this to happen. That big voluptuous pitcher out there forcing the White Sox to put Lucas Giolito in Charlotte to figure himself out.
No. 4: Gio Gonzalez (3 years, $36M). I think you may have noticed that I am delving into 6 pitcher rotation territory. And yes, I am. With Carlos at the top of the rotation and the other injury questions we're signing, let's minimize the innings. And to make up for the bullpen innings, we can use Davidson and Palka to eat up some or all of those.
No. 5: Drew Storen and AJ Ramos (Minor League Deals). Both of these guys were once back end of the bullpen mainstays. They have fallen from that due to injury, but are still reasonably young and could be able to bounce back and be solid 7th/8th inning guys. If not, Crash Davis can crush some dingers off them when they visit Durham.
TRADES
No. 1: Trade Jose Abreu to NY Mets for Michael Conforto. For some reason, the Mets don't seem to like this guy, at least not as much as they like Ponzi schemes. But if the Mets are serious about contending with the pitchers they have now, it would make sense to get a legit first basemen and move Jay Bruce back to RF. Nimmo moves to CF and Cespedes comes back to play LF. Conforto most likely takes over for the Sox in CF unless we can make this next move happen.
No. 2: Trade Alec Hansen, Jose Rondon, Jordan Stephens, and Kodi Medeiros to the Dodgers for Justin Turner and Joc Pederson. This really only happens if the Dodgers sign Manny Machado, which I believe will happen. When that happens, Turner becomes less valuable right as his salary increases from $11M to $18M. Pederson is also expendable since Bellinger has shown he is the CF of the future for LA. Had to throw Rondon in there since, very surprisingly, Jake Peter didn't work out for the Dodgers.
SUMMARY
If these things happen, you end up with something like this:
RF - Michael Conforto
CF - Joc Pederson
3B - Justin Turner
LF - Eloy Jimenez
1B - Matt Davidson
DH - Daniel Palka
2B - Yoan Moncada
SS - Tim Anderson
C - Wellington Castillo
Rotation:
SP - Carlos Rodon
SP - Nathan Eovaldi
SP - Reynaldo Lopez
SP - Gio Gonzalez
SP - Yusei Kikuchi
SP - Bartolo Colon
Now, I know what you're gonna ask: Chorizy are you drunk? To which I can only answer, yes, pretty much always.
