I do not care for this rebuild. Especially the losing on purpose part. Thankfully that part should be over with. While the White Sox might not be contenders in late September in 2019, I believe it is time to start to put some veterans in place at positions that are obviously not going to be filled by a quality prospect anytime soon.
ARBITRATION-ELIGIBLE PLAYERS
- Jose Abreu, $16M Tender
- Avisail Garcia, $8M Tender
- Yolmer Sanchez, $4.7M Tender
- Carlos Rodon, $3.7M Tender
- Matt Davidson, $2.4M Non-tender
- Leury Garcia, $1.9M Non-tender
- Danny Farquhar, $1.4M Non-tender
I decided against tendering Matt Davidson and Leury Garcia. I found someone better to take Davidson’s role as a righty DH/first baseman and as much as I wanted to keep Leury, I want to do him a solid and let him explore free agency as he will be the odd man out once Eloy comes up in late April.
CLUB OPTIONS
- Nate Jones, $4.65 million/$1.25M buyout- pick up.
- James Shields, $16 million/$2M buyout- decline.
The Sox already made these moves. I’m not comfortable with the Jones move but whatever. If he’s healthy he’d be better than anyone else at that price.
OTHER IMPENDING FREE AGENTS
- Miguel Gonzalez (made $4.75 million in 2018): Gone
- Hector Santiago (made $2 million in 2018 — added): Resigned to same deal.
FREE AGENTS
Manny Machado (10/300 mil) I am going to follow the Brewers plan. They acquired a superstar through trade in Christian Yelich. We will acquire ours in free agency. Machado is a remarkable third baseman and he fits right in with our supposed window. You want people to take you seriously? You find a way to get it done. I believe Machado will go to the highest bidder. So be the highest bidder.
Andrew McCutchen (3 years/51 million) In that Brewers plan, they acquired an over 30 outfielder in Lo Cain. The White Sox will do that as well, bringing in one of my favorites, The Cutch. The man gets on base at a rate that will make the rest of the team blush. Maybe his approach will rub off, maybe it won’t, but in any case it would be spectacular to have the former MVP and fan favorite in our lineup doing big things.
Adam Ottavino (4/44 million) The Brewers have a reliever that can dominate for multiple innings. The White Sox need one of those, too. So I am inking Ottavino. He’s got nasty stuff. 112 strikeouts in 77 innings in 2018. Hoping he can do more of that for our ball club.
Dayan Viciedo (2/8 million) The Brewers brought in a guy from a foreign league that used to play in the states but struggled in Eric Thames. So will the White Sox with our old pal Dayan Viciedo! He will be the Robin to Palka’s Batman in the DH platoon. The Tank dominated the Japanese League in 2018 and is still only 29 years old. He hit .349/.421/.557 and walked 51 times with only 61 strikeouts. Oh man the ropes that will be hung out from our DH platoon!
Ervin Santana (1/8 million) He had an awful 2018 with a hurt middle finger. Assuming that is recovered in time for spring training, I think Santana can be a nice pick up on a short deal. He was 16-8 in 2017.
TRADES
I’m going to stay away from the trade market at this point in time and will attack it at the deadline if possible. Even if we are not in it, a nice trade for a starter at the deadline will be like when the great Kenny Williams went out and acquired Freddy Garcia in 2004.
SUMMARY
C: Welington Castillo, Omar Narvaez
INF: Jose Abreu, Yoan Moncada, Tim Anderson, Manny Machado, Yolmer Sanchez, Dayan Viciedo, Jose Rondon
OF: Adam Engel, Andrew McCutchen, Avisail Garcia, Daniel Palka
SP: Carlos Rodon, Reynaldo Lopez, Lucas Giolito, Ervin Santana, Dylan Covey (Or someone from the minor leagues that wins the job).
RP: Adam Ottavino, Nate Jones, Ian Hamilton, Jace Fry, Hector Santiago, Juan Minaya, Jose Ruiz
My payroll is sitting at 125 mil or so dollars. I went over. I always do. I wish the cheapo White Sox would do that once in a while. Abreu, Santana, Castillo, Garcia, Santiago are all on one year deals though. So money can come off the books next year if need be. However, this is a team that needs to make some noise quickly and I think my moves put us back on the map and get us closer to October baseball. It’s time to step up. A lineup that looks like this once Jimenez comes up is dangerous:
- Andrew McCutchen
- Yoan Moncada
- Manny Machado
- Jose Abreu
- Eloy Jimenez
- Daniel Palka
- Avi Garcia
- Tim Anderson
- Welington Castillo
Love the Viciedo signing…..would like for Rick Hahn to apply just a tiny bit of outside the box thinking to putting together a roster.
I’m not sure whether I love the Viciedo signing or not. I’d have to know more about putting Japanese hitting numbers in context.
That said, reading the suggestion in KenWo’s plan did make me laugh enough that pop came out my nose.
Hey i support my boys. i think he got a raw deal baby. now hes gunna come back like cecil!!
Any plan that includes Machado in it has my approval. Plues I love McCutchen. So this is fantastic.
Holy shit, you batted Moncada second!
Yes. this lineup is against right handers. against lefties he’s down towards the bottom.
Cutch
Timmy
Machado
Abreu
Eloy
Viciedo
Avi
Moncada
Castillo
I also think we’d absolutely murder lefties.
I think in your world there is no need to have Moncada/Timmy in the 2 hole, get Cutch on base and go straigth to the run scorers:
Cutch
Machado
Abreu
Eloy/Palka
Eloy/Palka
makes a solid 1-5 against any Starter, you can flip Eloy/Palka depending on Righty/Lefty.
Not awful.
i love the signings, especially Ottavino. I think you need another starting pitcher. Something about “go for it” and “give Dylan Covey a rotation spot” doesn’t click for me.
It’s not really that I’m going for it all. But I want the people in place to go for it. That might take a couple of off seasons. I’m not a big fan of the starting pitchers that are available this winter. I like Eovaldi but I think his stock has risen up higher than I would want to go with him. I would be willing to trade for a starter maybe at the deadline… see who’s out there as long as they are still under contract another year or two or wait til next offseason to try and fill that spot (Cole, Porcello, Sale, Wheeler to name a few… I like them better)! I also would not hesitate to call up Cease if he’s looking good. I’m not into waiting around the bush with pitchers. Look at Kopech, if they called him up earlier he would have had a bigger handful of starts under his belt.
I like the idea of using the last spot for open competition. Covey’s hardly a disaster as a #5, and Jordan Stephens isn’t getting any younger at AAA.
Adams will probably be in the mix. Cease at some point. Some include Guerrero although I do not
KLAW disagree: per his Klaw chat the other day:
I’ve watched a lot of Charlotte and Birmingham baseball last year. I’m not sure why so many want to pencil in Stephens/Adams/Guerrero to a future Sox rotation. They are not good. Maybe handy out of the bullpen, perhaps a spot start, but nothing more. Which is sad because I had high hopes for these three not that long ago.
That’s too bad. I had thought that maybe one could fill in the last spot in the rotation until Cease is ready.
They might, but I don’t think the outcome will be good.
I had to double-take once you got to The Tank. Agree on the rest though; they need to put some pep in our collective step.
It feels reductive to say they have to get Machado or Harper, but they kinda do.
I mean if i had to put odds on it id say less than 5 percent chance they get either (machado a bit higher than harper) so everyone should be ready to be disappointed. I would be happy if they made a serious run at one. Be a finalist. Play with the big boys. If they don’t land him…well that is to be expected but I’d like to see them throw their hat in the ring with more than a 3 year offer or something stupid that they will never take.
I’d be amazed if they did get either one of them, but I’d be so excited, and that is something that has been missing from this team for a long, long time.
A shit-hot prospect is one thing, but an actual, proper real-life major league stud would be amazing. It’d be nice to be over the Chris Sale hangover.
And the Tank is ready to be a major stud baby. I looked it up he’s a free agent. Two years ago he was signed to a 2 year deal making about 1.7 million bucks. With his year last year you’d think hes due for a bit of a raise. Look at the stats craig. The guy is arguably the best hitter in japan!
http://npb.jp/bis/eng/2018/stats/bat_c.html
Those certainly are impressive stats. Avi and the Tank on the same team? Some of the fans would not be able to take that!
i know and thats why id love it! haha
I’m going go out on a limb and say the teams who sign Machado and Harper (whoever they are) are going to look at those contracts as albatrosses within a couple of years. I think Harper is going to have an injury-riddled career, and Machado looks like a guy whose going to get overweight and lazy as he approaches 30.
Of course, those teams might win the World Series in the 1-2 years before then, so it may be worth it.
Those two are potential Hall of Famers. They will both be very productive into their 30s. I think whoever signs them will get at least 5-7 years of All-Star play.
Like I said, it’s a limb. Just in case I’m right, I can gloat or whatever.
Well, if the Sox don’t sign either, I hope you’re right!