Day 2 of the 2019 Winter Meetings featured a bombshell signing as Stephen Strasburg returns to the Washington Nationals.
For White Sox news, GM Rick Hahn stresses that there is no urgency in getting moves down during the Winter Meetings, and how he handles false rumors like that of Marcell Ozuna.
Click play below to listen:
Josh Nelson is the host and producer of the Sox Machine Podcast. For show suggestions, guest appearances, and sponsorship opportunities, you can reach him via email at josh@soxmachine.com.
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Josh Nelson is the host and producer of the Sox Machine Podcast. For show suggestions, guest appearances, and sponsorship opportunities, you can reach him via email at josh@soxmachine.com.
When you have a job for life why would there ever be any urgency?
Good to see unnamed AL scouts agree:
https://chicago.suntimes.com/white-sox/2019/12/9/21004189/white-sox-big-push-might-be-year-away
That better not be true. There will be a rebellion if the Sox wait that long.
Let’s just waste all of the cheap years of our best players.
Jesus Fucking Christ. It almost sounds like that scout is a Sox employee. If 2022 is the year, why the fuck did we even sign Abreu and Grandal? How is signing Cole a “win-now” move? I too know the depth chart and prospect base for the White Sox and unlike that “unnamed scout” I know that signing good players now does not mean the Sox are going all in this season and screwing themselves over for the future.
I’ve been doing some thinking this morning and I’ve come to the realization that this is similar to an abusive relationship, although on a much smaller and very much less significant scale. We are continually disappointed and then blamed for the incompetence of the other party. Eventually we get some small token that things will change (Grandal) but nothing really changes (see: Abreu) and we make excuses about how it’ll surely be different going forward and just give them another chance. It’s really starting to piss me off how even in a year when we said we needed top flight pitching and there was top flight pitching available, we are still aiming for the discount option because Ground Beef and Filet Mignon are both beef after all right?
Because it is, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with trying to win now. The time is now.
I think he means that it doesn’t necessarily prevent them from being competitive beyond the next couple years.
And Josh, get your ass back in bed! You’re sounding even worse than yesterday. Lots of fluids and lots of sleep. Then some day-quil when it’s time to do some work.
I also don’t believe this. The Sox do much better when they work under the radar. After striking out on Machado (through their cheapness) and Wheeler when details were constantly leaking out, I’m sure Hahn is going to be very quiet about what he is doing.
I like this quote:
I’m pretty sure Hahn will not give any hints about what he is up to.
Two holes in one swing sounds like a trade. How about relieving Pittsburgh of their Marte and Archer salaries for a package centered on McCann and prospects?
Id pass on Archer…He has been a mess of late
Coop’ll fix him.
Archer was a mess in 2019, but he might be a good buy-low candidate. From 2014-2018, the lowest fWAR he put up was 2.6 (the highest was 5.1). His highest FIP during that time was 3.81.
Maybe 2019 was the start of a sharp decline, but I wouldn’t mind taking a chance on him if he’s cheap…only if he’s not considered the savior of the rotation. Only if they add someone else significant (and ideally a safer bet), that is.
Archer might be a good example of a guy where FIP/fWAR don’t tell the whole story. He’s repeatedly under-performed those numbers over a long enough period of time that it’s probably worth wondering if those metrics really accurately capture his value.
Or it could mean the holes of left-handed thumper and right fielder.
Has to be a trade, right? Could be the Mets, Pirates, Red Sox, Cubs, Yankees, maybe the Rays. Who else?
@lj: One of Hahn’s patented three team trades. San Diego and Colorado seem ready to deal, and Billy Bean’s always a possibility.
Here’s something. From the Pirates, Joe Musgrove and Adam Frazier. For, maybe Andrew Vaughn.
Don’t trade Vaughn. He has plus power/plus hit skills and few holes in his approach. Do not think about trading him until you see what he can do at AAA. Didn’t anyone learn from trading TitasJr.?
There’s also Happ (or Paxton) + Hicks from the Yankees. That might only cost two B/B+ prospects because NYY needs the salary relief if they want Cole that badly.
I wonder if they could get Frazier with Happ. Not sure what that would cost, but I would like to see Frazier on the Southside.
I’d like to get Happ and Hicks. That won’t cost much at all- maybe a couple of mid-level prospects not in the Sox top 15.
Makes sense that Hahn doesn’t want to give up his leverage. No one wins by coming out and saying they are desperate so I wouldn’t read too much into it for now. Same with lowering fan expectations until something more happens.
That said, when asked a few weeks ago how competitive the Sox expected to be in ’20, he said something to the effect that it depended how the offseaon played out which could suggest that after Plan A there aren’t many other paths.
That just sounds like a giant “fuck you” to the fans but I admit to being angry and biased.
Rick Hahn is the human embodiment of a “fuck you” to the fans. He can do absolutely nothing and still keep his job…
Josh nice insight into Hahn’s demeanor. Bumgarner should take the Wheeler cash and Castellanos go Oracle Park on an overpaid deal. Trey Mancini had better numbers than him last year.
My position on Bumgarner is a lot like the guy in the movie “Swingers” who, at the beginning of the movie, is insulted at being offered a role as Goofy when he moved to California, and then at the end he’s like, “I’d kill to be Goofy.”
https://twitter.com/JonHeyman/status/1204428516705492992
Heyman says Pirates looking for a “young, controllable catcher” for Marte. Zack Collins is at least two of those things, right?
They can have our 3-headed, flawed, Triple-A catching platoon team.