PREAMBLE
After an egg on your face 2019 winter, the White Sox had a successful 2019 campaign. And before we get to a realistic plan for the 2019/2020 off-season, let's get 2 things out of the way. Any "(Name) Offseason Plan" should start with 2 things.
- Fire Ricky Renteria and
- Sign Gerrit Cole
Ricky Renteria is horrible. Like historically bad. They say managers don't matter in baseball. Well yeah, that's cause they all employ basically the same optimal strategy. Ricky employs his own strategy, and it sucks, and he needs to go.
And to #2, the White Sox are worth $1.6 BILLION. Reinsdorf paid $20 million for them, which is like $100 million in today's dollars. Jerry has made $1.5 BILLION on the White Sox. Billions, with a "B". Oh, and he has made probably double that on the Bulls. Dude, you are 83 years old and that money is not getting buried with you. Just have fun for whatever time you have left on this great earth.
Ok, enough unicorn-land, let's talk about what really could happen. Through 1 re-signing, 4 free agent signings and 1 minorish trade, the White Sox can be AL Central favorites at about $120M payroll.
ARBITRATION-ELIGIBLE PLAYERS
- Alex Colomé, $10.3M - Tender
- Yolmer Sánchez, $6.2M, Non-Tender
- 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
Colome is a reluctant tender. I'm moving him to a setup role and $10M is too much, but there is value in penciling him in and moving on to other problems.
CLUB OPTIONS
- Welington Castillo: $8 million/$500,000 buyout, Buyout
(No explanation needed)
OTHER IMPENDING FREE AGENTS
- Jose Abreu (made $16M in 2019), Resign
- Iván Nova (made $9,166,167 in 2019), Let go, but not a bad fallback option imo
- Jon Jay (made $4M in 2019), Let go, unless he is related to Grandal
- Hector Santiago (made $2M in 2019 on split contract), Let go
Jose is not going anywhere, but also shouldn't be signed for more than 2 years. We'll say 2 years, $22M. Seems fair.
FREE AGENTS
Free Agent #1: Yasmani Grandal, 5 years, $85M
A TOR SP is really need number 1, but Grandal is target #1. The reason? He checks all the boxes. We need 2nd catcher, check. We need a lefty bat, check (double check he's a switch hitter). We need OBP, check. Great defense/framing, check. If there was a LH RF or LH DH on the market Grandal is expendable, but we NEED him. Sign him long term and solve our catcher problems for the next 5 years.
Free Agent #2: Zach Wheeler, 5 years, $110M
This should be Cole or Strasburg but they are not realistic. Zach Wheeler may not even be. But I'm hoping he is. If not Bumgarner is a good option here. But give me the nasty heater and the spin rate all day baby.
Free Agent #3: Will Smith, 3 years, $33M
We need a real closer. Pass on Chapman. Will Smith is our guy. Betances is an option here but his health scares me.
Free Agent #4: Colin McHugh, 1 year $5M
Versatile for a staff that will be in flux all year.
TRADES
The only major need left is RF. I would not even entertain Marcel Ozuna or Yasiel Puigin in the offseason. A LH RF is a must with LF/CF/1B/DH all manned by RH bats for the foreseeable future. Plus they suck at defense and running the bases. We have enough of that.
My first call would be to Brett Gardner. Absolutely the perfect fit for RF. But I don't think he is leaving New York.
So I'd look to trade for a LH RF. Joc Pederson is my guy. He wont cost too much as he only has 1 year left. The Dodgers have a crowded OF and this has been rumored before. The knock on him of course is he can't hit LHP, but guess what....that's what Leury Garcia is for. I know its not this easy, but if you put Pederson RHP and Garcia's LHP slash lines together, you have an insane baseball player.
I'm not sure what he will cost, but one of our young OF and a single A arm seems reasonable.
SUMMARY
Allright what do we have:
Lineup:
- Luis Robert CF (Garcia/Engle cover in April)
- Yoan Moncada 3B
- Jose Abreu 1B
- Yasmani Grandal C
- Eloy Jimenez LF
- Joc Pederson RF (Garcia vs LHP)
- Tim Anderson SS
- Zach Collins DH (McCann vs LHP)
- Nick Madrigal, 2B (Garcia/Mendick until he gets here)
Bench:
- James McCann - Backup catcher and a platoon at DH with Collins. McCann killed lefties and can still play half the nights. Collins is an emergency catcher allowing Grandal and McCann to both be in the lineup.
- Danny Mendick - Utility infielder
- Luery Garcia - Utility everything
- Adam Engle - defensive replacement
Rotation:
- Zach Wheeler
- Lucas Giolito
- Dylan Cease
- Reynaldo Lopez
- Michael Kopech (Colin McHugh until Kopech's arrival)
Bullpen:
- Will Smith
- Aaron Bummer
- Alex Colome
- Kelvin Herrera
- Collin McHugh
- Jace Fry
- Evan Marshall
- Jimmy Corderro
We still have an intact farm system and we still have Rodon coming back in July. What did this cost us? Well it shouldn't matter, cause, you know, the owner is a billionaire, but I got this at $120M give or take depending on Pederson's arbitration and of course the free agent assumptions.
I love the lineup balance, the added LH power and OBP, the bullpen strength, and lineup versatility. Also love we didn't sell the farm to fill holes. We still have a little financial flexibility going forward and still have a long term spot open for Vaughn.
The SP depth is a concern, of course if everyone is healthy there is nothing to worry about, especially with Rodon coming in July. Might be prudent to sign a Ervin Santana type player to a Minor League deal. Also relying on a Zack Collins/James McCann DH platoon can be scary.
Giddy up.
