It sounds like Jose Abreu is staying put
Under normal circumstances, you’d start hearing Jose Abreu’s name in trade rumors by the end of the month.
Abreu overcame a terrible first fortnight and is hitting .268/.328/.518 in his contract year. The White Sox aren’t quite out of it yet at 19-22, but they didn’t fashion themselves as even shadow contenders before the season, and now that they’re down to three fully functional starters, I don’t think they’re going to develop the appetite to buy.
But Abreu and the Sox have found themselves in this position at previous deadlines and over previous winters, and trade talks have seemingly never advanced past initial inquiries. The White Sox value Abreu more than a league that is highly suspicious of over-30 corner bats, so he hasn’t gone anywhere.
Based on what was said on Tuesday by a couple of different people, remain Abreu will.
In his notebook column for The Athletic, Ken Rosenthal said he couldn’t envision a deal.
(Abreu) has said, “I would like to stay with this organization forever,” and the feeling might be mutual. The White Sox value Abreu’s clubhouse presence, and owner Jerry Reinsdorf even presented him with a special ring after he hit for the cycle in ’17.
The team obviously would listen to any offers, but the trade market for first-base/DH types will be crowded with players such as the Blue Jays’ Justin Smoak and Mariners’ Edwin Encarnación and Jay Bruce. The White Sox would weigh any potential return against the value of the draft pick they would receive if they made Abreu a qualifying offer and he rejected it. Put it all together, and a trade would appear unlikely.
That’s kind of the status quo and wouldn’t be much to run with, but conveniently, Rick Hahn reiterated the point during his appearance on MLB Network later in the day.
Starting around the 3:30 mark, Matt Vasgersian asked Hahn about Abreu, and Hahn opened with how much Abreu means to the Sox, and how other teams’ offers haven’t inspired the Sox to consider how they’d deal with his absence, all of which we’ve heard before.
Hahn saved the new part for his last sentence:
“(Abreu)’s been here for the early stages of this rebuild, and it’s certainly very likely that he’ll be here for the more enjoyable stages that lie ahead of us.”
That’s probably as plainspoken as you’ll see a GM get about an impending free agent. I’d normally hedge say something like, “Unless Abreu has a 2009 Jermaine Dye-like second half…” before penciling him into offseason plans, but as we saw with the end of Paul Konerko’s career, if Reinsdorf is attached to Abreu, all the writing on the wall won’t register.
Assuming Hahn isn’t Rick-rolling everybody — he usually traffics in generalities instead of misdirection — then the idea of freeing up first base will be nothing but a thought exercise, leaving everybody to hope that Abreu will continue to be a productive, well-rounded hitter who you wouldn’t ever want to see in another team’s uniform. And if Abreu is the White Sox first baseman of the foreseeable future, then here’s hoping the said Sox avoid reserving the DH spot for another 30something first baseman, because Yonder Alonso is on track to be the third one who hasn’t worked.
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Wow, is Abreu really going to want to be here until 2023?
Is 2023 a couple years into the new ownership/front office’s rebuild?
One can dream.
Hahn can be pretty good about telegraphing his intentions. Though I thought Abreu would benefit from going to a contender, assuming one was interested. Then he and the Sox could always reunite in the offseason if they chose to.
They’d lose the leverage the qualifying offer generates if they did that. Maybe it doesn’t matter because they’re going to extend him before he even hits FA, but that’s something to take into account when doing the math.
I just hope they don’t give him a long term deal. Use the QO to get another year out of him at a slight overpay.
I’ve been placing the over under at 3 years/45M for a while now. Its probably likely that at that contract the Whitesox “lose” on cost – value production a bit. But It wont figure to be terrible and it wont spill into the time frame where you start paying Yoan, Tim, and Eloy a lot more annually.
And for 2020 I dont know if the Sox can really afford to lose Abreu’s bat if they have any hope of putting together a legitimately interesting club.
I really dont see him getting a Carlos Santana type deal. If its 3/60 than i’m a lot more apprehensive.
He’s just a guy, but the rebuild has become so tenuous that we can’t replace Just A Guy internally.
Eh, 3-3.5 WAR is a little more than just a guy, which seems like where he’s headed this year. But yeah, we don’t even have a guy you could expect to produce half that value this year or the next at 1B/DH. They still want Collins to catch. Burger’s still out with the blown achilles, Adolfo’s out for the year, Sheets isn’t hitting for crap in AA. Good times!
I am sure there is a rule against this, but could the Sox collude with Abreu to get a higher 2nd round pick? If the Sox have a protected top 10 pick and offer Abreu a QO (he declines) then sign him to a longer term deal, would they give up a 2nd round pick for a 1st round supplemental pick? It would likely only move them 10 slots or so anyway, but that’s got to be illegal, right? I assume this only shows my ignorance for how the QO works.
You don’t gain or lose draft picks if you re-sign your own player, regardless of the QO.
Perhaps the most damning thing about this organization is that they’ve pushed me towards ambivalence about them as a team if not yet nihilism.
This. I’m pretty much resigned to waiting for new ownership.
I am waiting for new ownership AND once the new ownership takes over, they show KW/RH the door.
And it’s so frustrating this year, because they had a chance to be very competitive in a poor division. They just absolutely refused to address a few glaring needs, like starting pitcher and middle of the order bat. Even now, at 3 under, they could make some noise, since it’s pretty obvious that Cleveland is not very good, and I’m not at all convinced the Twins are that good either. But Hahn/Jerry/Kenny are content to sit back and throw away 2 out of every 5 starts to pitchers that have no business being starters. We are having a breakout year from Moncada, Giolito looks very much improved, Timmy and Lopez seem to be getting better, and Eloy will be back soon. The young guys are starting to hold up their end of the bargain. Management is giving them no help whatsoever. That is pathetic.
Meh
Et tu brutus?
whodis?
It’s been a nice run, but we can’t keep Matt Skole down forever.
Nice timing with this comment. He has two more homers tonight and 12 for the season!
If you feel like the pitching wound needs more salt and lemon, Szymborski’s got you:
https://blogs.fangraphs.com/the-elbow-gods-punish-the-white-sox-again/
I would keep Abreu, unless the Sox somehow get the type of offer that they accepted for Sale, Quintana or Eaton. Dependable run producers who want to play for the White Sox are not easy to find.