PREAMBLE
It’s clear that the lack of starting pitching really dashed the White Sox chances at a deep post-season run in 2020. To give us a chance to get to the post season again, and go much further (World Series or bust), I'm definitely not getting creative, but I am going all out on the two best starting pitching upgrades available in the free agent market. In addition, I am proposing some sort of trade with the Arizona Diamondbacks to improve our left field situation (while also adding a left handed bat). I’ll be going over our soft $135M cap between $7M-$10M.
ARBITRATION-ELIGIBLE PLAYERS
- Nomar Mazara: $5.9M - Non-Tender
- Carlos Rodón: $4.5M - Non-Tender
- Lucas Giolito: $5.3M - Tender (Extend if possible with a similar $5M AAV for 2021
- Reynaldo López: $2.2M - Non-Tender
- Evan Marshall: $1.9M - Tender
- Adam Engel: $1.4M - Tender
- Jace Fry: $1M - Tender
- Yolmer Sánchez: Uncertain - Non-tender
CLUB OPTIONS
- Edwin Encarnación: $12M - Decline
- Gio González: $7M ($500K buyout) - Buyout
- Leury García: $3.5M ($250K buyout) - Pick up
OTHER IMPENDING FREE AGENTS
- Alex Colomé (Made $10,532,500 in 2020) - Let go
- James McCann (Made $5.4M in 2020) - Let go; time to find out what Collins and/or Mercedes has to offer.
- Jarrod Dyson (Made $2M in 2020) - Let go
COACHING STAFF
- Manager: Joe Espada
- Pitching coach: Matt Zaleski
- BONUS – Bench Coach: Justin Jirschele
FREE AGENTS
- RHP Trevor Bauer – (6 YR / $160M: 2021 - $35M, 2022 - $35M, 2023 - $35M, 2024 - $25M, 2025 - $15M, 2026 - $15M)
- RHP Marcus Stroman (5 YR / $115M: 2021- $10M, 2022 - $30M, 2023 - $30M, 2024 - $25M, 2025 - $20M)
Definitely playing with the AAVs to get closer to the $135M soft payroll cap – Rick needs to get creative here.
TRADES
Cobble together a combination of a bunch of farmhands (i.e. Luis Gonzalez, Blake Rutherford, Zack Burdi, Micker Adolfo, and maybe someone like Dalquist or Bush) for Kole Calhoun or David Peralta. Diamondbacks can pay for the salary for the 2021 season. Either man seems like they would be an upgrade in Right Field and would be a left handed at bat.
SUMMARY
2021 Payroll Summary ~$142M - $145M
Rotation (Now one of the best in baseball):
Bauer RHP
Giolito RHP
Stroman RHP
Keuchel LHP
Dunning / Cease RHP
Bullpen:
Cease / Dunning RHP
Foster or Lambert RHPs
Cordero RHP
Fry LHP
Heuer RHP
Crochet LHP
Marshall RHP
Bummer LHP
Lineup:
Anderson – SS – ( R )
Moncada – 3B – ( S )
Abreu – 1B/DH – ( R )
Jimenez – LF – ( R )
Grandal – C – ( S )
Robert – CF – ( R )
Calhoun or Peralta – RF ( L)
Vaughn – DH/1B – ( R )
Madrigal – 2B – ( R )
Bench:
Collins ( L ) or Mercedes ( R ) – C
Engel – OF – ( R )
Garcia – OF/INF – ( S )
Mendick – INF – ( R )
