Podcast: Goodbye, Carlos Rodon and Nomar Mazara

Josh and Jim recap the Chicago White Sox non-tendering Carlos Rodon and Nomar Mazara for the 2021 season. What went wrong for both leading to this decision, and who are some possible targets for the White Sox to fill in the right field gap? 

Plus, they take a look at the 2021 coaching staff that features a mixture of old and new faces working with Tony La Russa. 

 Click play below to listen:

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knoxfire30

An interesting non-tender deadline, not quite the total cut throat mess that was expected but certainly some bigger names let go then would be in a normal year. I think it also fell really well for the whitesox and their needs. 3 lefty hitting outfielders in Dahl, Schwarber, and Rosario add seats to the game of musical chairs on how the whitesox may want to fill their need for a RF’er and/or DH. When you add these 3 to the existing list of free agent outfielders such as Springer, Ozuna, Pederson, Eaton, Brantley, JBJ, Reddick, and even a dh type like Cruz the sox have lots of options although no one stands out as a perfect fit.

Feel this is very similar to the 2ndary pitching market. I don’t think the sox have a realistic shot at Bauer, but with some creative 1 year deals they could probably form a pretty nice staff by adding multiple starting arms from the pile of Quintana, Tanaka, Odorizzi, Archer, Arrieta, Kluber, Lester, Wacha, Wainwright, etc obviously some of those guys fit better then others. Adding a couple vets will allow for them to let their younger arms develop more in the minors, limit their innings, and / or could create some flexibility in trades.

peanutsNcrackerjack

Not likely to get Bauer, but must have ace/#2 quality starter to get through the playoffs, and that’s not in the remaining FA list. Trade whatever prospects are necessary for Snell–Crochet, Dunning and pick an outfield prospect or two?–and sign Quintana for back end depth.

knoxfire30

I would be very interested to know how the league would treat the sox young pitchers in terms of ranking them in value for a trade I would imagine it could go something like Kopech, Crochet, Cease, Dunning, Stiever, Lopez but you never know… some teams see different qualities in different players and their young high school arms havent been given much of a chance to pitch yet. If I can get my hands on blake snell for the next three years of this window I would be willing to trade a lot, but not sure the sox are there yet.

peanutsNcrackerjack

If Kopech were in that deal he will have been traded for Sale and Snell.

GrabSomeBench

Hold on now. Are you suggesting trading Crochet, Dunning and two outfield prospects for Snell? Crochet is the best pitching prospect to be drafted by the Sox since Chris Sale. I would prefer that we not reenter the golden years of Kenny Williams where we decimated our minors to chase after short term fixes. Better plan would be to sign Bauer or Tomoyuki Sugano. Bauer is a 1. Sugano is at least a 3 in the rotation, which is where Snell would be.

peanutsNcrackerjack

Snell is a 1-2 starter in his prime, with mult years of control. Unless its Bauer, it’s not a playoff quality rotation. See Minnesota Twins.

Oddvark

My latest daydream is that the Sox look East and sign Sugano and Tanaka to bolster their starting pitching. Quality pitchers who could have the secondary business benefit of bringing in new fans, both to the stadium (assuming that’s allowed in 2021), and internationally, which could boost merchandise sales if nothing else.

asinwreck

Where are you gonna come down?
Where are you going to land?
I should have drafted Aaron Nola
I should have traded for Lance Lynn
You know Boras can’t hold me forever
I didn’t sign up with him
You’re not an option for Dunning to open
This boy’s too done to be pitching
For La Russa, ah

So goodbye Carlos Rodón
Where the slider-ravaged elbow barks
I can’t plant you in my bullpen
I’m going back to that drunk
Back to Jerry’s old buddy
Solving 34-year-old woes
Oh, I’ve finally decided my future lies
Beyond Carlos Rodón

craigws

Was about to say that there is something about Rodon leaving that makes me sad, and that it is more to do with a wishcasting, wistful feeling as opposed to the reality of Carlos himself, so teaming that with a song that makes me feel those same feelings was impressive work.

asinwreck

Jim’s succinct description of Rodón’s disappointing last few years nails the wistful feeling I’ve had really since late September. He worked his tail off trying to get back to where he was, but it just wasn’t to be. Josh’s headline immediately made me think of Rick Hahn channeling John/Taupin on both that and the La Russa hire, so I inflicted it on you all.