Rebuild not done (Nick’s offseaon plan)

PREAMBLE

Establish where you see the White Sox at this point, and your mindset/philosophy/strategy in putting together the roster for the upcoming season.

ARBITRATION-ELIGIBLE PLAYERS

Write “tender” or “non-tender” after each player. Feel free to offer explanation afterward if necessary.

  • Jose Abreu, $16M – tender
  • Avisail Garcia, $8M – non tender
  • Yolmer Sanchez, $4.7M -tender
  • Carlos Rodon, $3.7M – tender
  • Matt Davidson, $2.4M – non tender
  • Leury Garcia, $1.9M – tender
  • Danny Farquhar, $1.4M – non tender

CLUB OPTIONS

Write “pick up” or “decline” after the option.

  • Nate Jones, $4.65 million/$1.25M buyout – pick up
  • James Shields, $16 million/$2M buyout – decline

OTHER IMPENDING FREE AGENTS

Try to retain, or let go?

  • Miguel Gonzalez (made $4.75 million in 2018) – let go
  • Hector Santiago (made $2 million in 2018 — added) – let go

FREE AGENTS

(1) Brian Dozer – 1 yr @ 10mil with option for 2nd yr at 8 mil. This does two things for the Sox. One moves Moncada to third and two gives Madrigal time before making it to the majors.

(2) James Shields – 1 year @ 2 million as a spring invite and makes the team. A crazy idea to some, this is a Sox move. A older guy they love and know. He can eat innings, help young guys and I don’t see him starting but playing in a Santiago role where he can do long relief and spot start if needed. Sox already gave him 2 mil why not another 2 mil. It would be dumb to not assume there isn’t an injury that comes out of spring training. So right now, shields is not listed below but I assume he makes the team in some way

(3) Gio Gonzalez – 1 yr @ 11 mil. Comes back to the Sox and finally sticks and makes the big league roster. Gives them a mid rotation arm

(4) Kurt Suzuki – 2 year @ 9 mil. Back up veteran catcher. Will help with a young pitching staff and young catchers upcoming. Below will explain the reasoning.

TRADES

(1) Sox trade Carlos Rodon and Nate Jones and cash to pay for Jones to Houston for Forest Whitley, JB Bukauskas and Francis Martes — I get it, why move Rodon… am I crazy??? Hear me out, are the Sox really strong competitors next year? With Rodon being a Scott Boras guy and 3 yrs left before paying him, I don’t see Sox shelling out the cash for him and being a boras guy he’s gonna more than likely test FA. Let’s move him after a strong come back from the injury at the start of the yr and get Whitley who could be a solid top guy with 6 yrs control and he’s ready when kopeck and cease are up in 2020 along with Lopez.

Why this makes sense for Houston, with McCullers our for the yr, Morton and Keuchel a FA. Rodon can fit in cheap and under contact for the next three years. He can be a 2 or a 5 in the rotation for a team built to win now. Nate Jones is a throw in to the pen, Sox send some cash to pay for the season

(2) Sox trade Jayce Fry and Lincoln Henzman to the Cubs for Tyler Chatwood, Ian Happ – cubs get a good young arm, Sox get a potential solid bat for the outfield and a starter. Chatwood was horrible for the cubs last year but in Colorado he was good. Let’s get him with the Sox and Coop and let’s see if they can get him cam to form. Happ can play all three OF spots, I pencil him in at LF to start the year but when Eloy comes up he moves to CF and Engel becomes a 4th OF

(3) Sox trade Omar Narvaez, Alex Call, Juan Minaya to nationals for Victor Robles. Sox get their CF for the future, with Robles having been blocked in the OF for Washington. I love Narvaez, he’s improved every year. But Nats need a solid catcher. He’s under contract for next few years for a team that can compete in the NL East. Getting Minaya helps with their pen and Call is a guy that can be a 4th in the future

SUMMARY

25 man…

Rotation

  1. Lopez
  2. Giolito
  3. Gonzalez
  4. Martes
  5. Chatwood

 

Bullpen

Hamilton

Bummer

Fulmer

Burr

Covey

Vierra

Banuelos

 

Line up

3rd – Moncada

CF – Robles

1st – Abreu

DH – Palka

LF – Happ

2nd – Dozier

C – Castillo

SS – Anderson

RF – Engel

(Eloy takes RF and bats 4 by end on April and Engel to bench. Sox option Garcia at that time) (I know Engel is best at CF, but Robles is the guy moving forward and Engel holds RF for a limited time until Eloy is ready)

Bench

Suzuki

Garcia

Sanchez

Delmonico

I am way under the $110 million payroll. I don’t think the Sox go that high and they really don’t need to. If pitching holds up, this roster can have them competing in the AL Central especially if CLE sells off their roster.

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KenWo4LiFe

I don’t see why the nationals would do that trade. 

As Cirensica

Furthermore, I don’t see Houston making that trade either.

Jason.Wade17

The Nationals trade doesn’t make sense. I find it difficult even Eloy would be able to get the Nationals to trade Robles. Also, even if the Nationals resign Harper, there still is nobody blocking Robles.

The Astros trade also doesn’t make sense. If the Astro’s wanted, they could just call up Whitley and he’d be better than Rodon in 2019.

DeepDish

The Nats would never make that move and the Houston one is likely a no go as well, though I do think they would have interest in Rodon.

I’ve been talking a similar move with the cubs though for a month. I would rather get Almora though as Happ is not a great OFer. Sox would likely have to throw in a mid to lower level prospect I think but Chatwoods contract is a big issue for the Cubs so I don’t think it would have to be much. Maybe Coop can work his magic and get Chatwood back to a respectable back end guy like he was in COL and the Sox have a CF who can actually hit a ball.

Trooper Galactus

The Houston trade makes more sense if you target somebody lower than Whitley as a headliner. There’s no way Rodon nets arguably the top SP prospect in all MiLB. Alvarez, James, Perez, and Martin are all much more reasonable targets (possibly two of them, depending on how you value Bukauskas over one of them).

LeftistLefty-Righty

This is a joke, yes?

Neat_on_the_rocks

That nationals trade has got to be the most one sided trade We’ve seen in this project so far.