PREAMBLE
The White Sox are in the precarious position of having a few players emerging as stars, but still having a tremendous amount of holes. It almost seems like they’ve been in this position before, but how could I remember that far in the past? You know, I drink a bit.
So it’s time to add talent through Free Agency, but Rick Hahn hasn’t been very good at that. He has however been able to add through taking on cash in trades. It doesn’t always work out (James Shields), but on occasion it does (Alex Colome). I see this being the path to acquisition this off-season.
ARBITRATION-ELIGIBLE PLAYERS
- Alex Colomé, $10.3M – tender (almost don’t want to do this, but I literally just mentioned him as a good trade)
- Yolmer Sánchez, $6.2M – non-tender despite what BeefLoaf wrote about
- James McCann, $4.9M - tender
- Carlos Rodon, $4.5M - tender
- Leury García, $4M – tender
- Evan Marshall, $1.3M - tender
- Josh Osich, $1M – non-tender
- Ryan Goins, $900K – non-tender
CLUB OPTIONS
- Welington Castillo: $8 million/$500,000 buyout – decline (good bye sweet prince)
OTHER IMPENDING FREE AGENTS
- Jose Abreu (made $16M in 2019) – retain at 3yr/48M
- Iván Nova (made $9,166,167 in 2019) – let go
- Jon Jay (made $4M in 2019) - gtfoh
- Hector Santiago (made $2M in 2019 on split contract) - let go
FREE AGENTS
No. 1: Jason Kipnis (one year, $8 million). Basically what a Brian Dozier costs. The idea would be to have him play 2B for a while. Also deploy him at 3B/OF once Madrigal comes up
No. 2: Matt Wieters (one year, $3 million). I hate this as much as you do. But have you ever seen a free agent more destined to be on the White Sox? Not to mention, this will allow them to waste the extra roster spot on a 3rd “catcher” in Zack Collins. How could they pass up that opportunity?
TRADES
No. 1: Trade Dylan Cease, Andrew Vaughn, and Micker Adolfo to Boston for David Price and JD Martinez. When JD hears his market is essentially the White Sox and maybe 1-2 other teams, homeboy ain’t gonna opt out. So the only way to get him is through a trade, which lowers the money involved, but costs prospects. The BoSox will need to eat some money to make the deal work within these guidelines, but that’s why the White Sox have to pay with real prospects. Cease feels like the type of pitcher they’d be all over (think Nathan Eovaldi) and Vaughn is the type of hitter they love. Micker is the lottery ticket to replace the players they’ll soon lose in the OF. Assume the $/yr is about $40M for these two. Maybe David Price finishes the contract as a late inning reliever, but I still think it’s the best way to fill the 2 or 3 slot in the rotation with a name player. I will deploy Kenny to obtain the money for this. He’ll be all over Price.
No. 2: Trade Dane Dunning, Steele Walker, Jimmy Lambert, Kodi Medeiros, and James Beard to Pittsburgh for Chris Archer, Starling Marte, and Keone Kela. If you look at the position the Pirates are in, it’s it’s, well it’s very bad. Their division is really tough and they’re not ready to compete. So these three guys nearing the end of their deals will have to go. For the Sox, it fills in a lot of spots. For the Pirates, this replenishes their minor league system. And for some reason, James Beard just seems like a guy that should be on the Pirates. I’ll convince Jerry to do this by telling him he can keep Luis Robert in the minors an extra month or two with Marte in the OF.
SUMMARY
Is there a heavy prospect cost to this? Yes. Is there a lot of payroll added? Yes. But you’ve got to spend and you’ve got to use the assets you have to get better. A lot of this plan has to do with my lack of trust of the organization to develop young players and to sign free agents. So there is not much else you can do to fill out the roster. This was my way of playing to the strengths of our front office in an off-season that has teams trying to cut payroll. And a few of those teams match up well to not only have players the White Sox need, but also appreciate the types of players they have to trade.
Roster
Madrigal and Robert come up in May
C James McCann (ARB) – 4.9M
C Matt Wieters (FA) – 3M
C Zack Collins – 600K
1B Jose Abreu (FA) – 16M
DH JD Martinez (Trade) – 23.75M (4.75 from BoSox)
2B Nick Madrigal (Rookie) – 600k
SS Tim Anderson – 4M
3B Yoan Moncada – 600K
LF Eloy Jimenez – 2.3M
CF Luis Robert (Rookie) - 600k
RF Starling Marte (Trade) – 11.5M
IF Jason Kipnis (FA) – 8M
Utility Leury Garcia (ARB) – 4M
SP Lucas Giolito – 600K
SP David Price (Trade) – 32M (11M from BoSox)
SP Michael Kopech – 600K
SP Reynaldo Lopez – 600K
SP Chris Archer (Trade) – 9M
RP Evan Marshal (ARB) – 1.3M
RP Kelvin Herrera – 8.5M
RP Manny Banuelos – 600K
RP Keone Kela (Trade) – 3.4M
RP Jose Ruiz – 600K
RP Jimmy Cordero – 600K
RP Aaron Bummer – 600K
Closer Alex Colome (ARB) – 10.3M
60 day DL
SP Carlos Rodon (ARB) 4.5M
RP Ryan Burr – 600K
