PREAMBLE
The White Sox are at, well, the same point that they were one year ago; a ton of money to spend, an established core of young and talented players, and, unfortunately, the same general manager, vice president, and owner. Jerry Reinsdorf has appeared to be allergic to spending money, as evidenced by the Manny Machado failure last offseason. Rick Hahn has made his own blunders, such as Ivan Nova and Ervin Santana over Lance Lynn. Luckily for this fanbase, I’m in charge in this scenario. So while this probably won’t happen, we can live in my world where it does.
ARBITRATION-ELIGIBLE PLAYERS
Write “tender” or “non-tender” after each player and their projected 2020 salaries. Feel free to offer explanation afterward if necessary.
- Alex Colomé, $10.3M: Non-tender
- Yolmer Sánchez, $6.2M: Non-tender
- James McCann, $4.9M: Tender
- Carlos Rodon, $4.5M: Non-Tender
- Leury García, $4M: Non-tender
- Evan Marshall, $1.3M: Tender
- Josh Osich, $1M: Non-tender
- Ryan Goins, $900K: Non-tender
Alex Colome was probably the most difficult decision here. With a 2.80 ERA but a 4.61 xFIP, he was mostly smoke and mirrors that probably should’ve been traded at the deadline last year. It creates a hole at the setup man or closer role, and he does have value, but not for 10 million dollars.
CLUB OPTIONS
Write “pick up” or “decline” after the option.
- Welington Castillo: $8 million/$500,000 buyout: Decline (easily, this beef is unwell-done)
OTHER IMPENDING FREE AGENTS
Try to retain, or let go?
- Jose Abreu (made $16M in 2019): Retain, see below
- Iván Nova (made $9,166,167 in 2019): Bye
- Jon Jay (made $4M in 2019): Thanks, no thanks, Manny’s BFF
- Hector Santiago (made $2M in 2019 on split contract): Thanks for Gio but bye
FREE AGENTS
No. 1: Jose Abreu (2 years, 25 million dollars): Jose has numerous leadership qualities for guys like Yoan Moncada and Luis Robert, but is a declining asset and his replacement is one year away in Andrew Vaughn. He is not as good as he was earlier in his career, and everyone knows this. Given anticipated regression, this is probably a more-than-fair figure for a guy who is replaceable on the field.
No. 2 Yasmani Grandal (4 years, 80 million dollars): Grandal is likely the best all-around catcher in baseball. A dynamic left-handed offensive bat with excellent defense, he receives a pay increase here from what he received in Milwaukee, and inherits a young rotation to help steal strikes for.
No. 3 Zack Wheeler (5 years, 100 million dollars): Zack Wheeler has a dynamic upper 90s fastball and effective off-speed pitches. He has posted two consecutive 4 fWAR seasons for the Mets, and would slot in effectively as a number 2 starter behind Giolito. Comes with injury concerns as well.
No. 4 J.D. Martinez (4 years, 80 million, opt-out after year 2): The built in opt-out is because J.D. himself has expressed interest in being able to move around. With a wRC+ of 139, Martinez is a potent middle of the order bat and provides teaching to guys like Eloy, Yoan, Madrigal, and Robert. He is your full-time, albeit slightly overpaid, DH.
No. 5 Jake Odorizzi (3 years, 50 million): Odorrizi is coming off a career year for the Twins, with a 4.3 fWAR and a 3.51 ERA. His xFIP was 4.33, so slight regression is to be expected. He also had never had a season of 3 fWAR before this season, so I feel that this is a reasonable deal for a back-end rotation starter.
No. 6 Alex Colome (1 year, 7 million): Even for Colome’s previously mentioned numbers, this is an overpay. I feel like he will return once he realizes his market isn’t quite as hot as he thinks, with a concerted effort to improve himself for the 2020-2021 free agent class.
TRADES
Gavin Sheets and Jonathan Stiever to the Los Angeles Dodgers for Joc Pederson (8.5 million dollar arbitration estimate): In the spirit of selling high, Gavin Sheets has no place on this future roster. With guys like Abreu, J.D., Zack Collins, and Andrew Vaughn in the fold, there is no need for another 1B-type. He is coming off of a great year in Birmingham and could help the Dodgers at the trade deadline next year. As could Jonathan Stiever, who was masterful for High-A Winston-Salem and projects to move quickly in any system, given his college pedigree. Pederson seems like a costly piece for LAD, who already has a high payroll. Pederson gives the Sox a LH power bat in RF who they can extend if they so choose.
SUMMARY
So I definitely broke the rules of the SoxMachine 120 million dollar payroll limit, but so be it. In this scenario, Jerry Reinsdorf has either croaked or sold me the team. According to Spotrac, the White Sox have a payroll of under 24 million headed into the offseason (23, 833,333 to be exact). I added 117.4 million dollars in payroll, which would be just over 141 million dollars in payroll for 2020. For context, that would be below the Phillies and above the Reds for the 14th ranked payroll in baseball for 2019. Do I think it’s gonna happen? Nope. Can you win a World Series with the team I constructed? Maybe. And that’s what we should be shooting for here. Provides some payroll flexibility but also makes good use of the money we didn’t spend on Manny Machado. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ll post this and wake up from my dream where the White Sox aren’t cheap @ssholes.
