PREAMBLE
I had a huge post here, then accidentally refreshed at the end and lost everything. This will be the shorter version:
The theme of this plan is asset relocation. We are spending too much payroll at non premium positions. We need to fix that if we're going to win the world series. We had a succesful 2021 season and a good team moving forwards, but I dont see a world series contender with the roster as currently constructed without major changes around the core of youngsters.
ARBITRATION-ELIGIBLE PLAYERS
- Lucas Giolito: $7.9M -- Tender -- we need moeny so we're riding Giolito thru arb
- Reynaldo López; $2.8M -- Tender
- Evan Marshall: $2.3M-- Non Tender
- Adam Engel: $2.2M-- Tender
- Brian Goodwin: $1.7M -- Non Tender
- Jimmy Cordero: $1.2M -- Tender -- turns out I need his innings
- Jace Fry: $1M -- Non Tender
CLUB OPTIONS
Write “pick up” or “decline” or “rework” after the option.
- Craig Kimbrel: $16M ($1M buyout) -- DECLINE -- Its not worth the headache
- César Hernández: $6M -- I wanted to love Cesar, but we're declining this
OTHER IMPENDING FREE AGENTS
Try to retain, extend qualifying offer, or let go?
- Leury García (Made $3.5M in 2021) -- LET GO -- We need to fill his role with cheaper players
- Carlos Rodón ($3M) - QO - I dont think he takes it, even if he does, its not so bad honeslty
- Billy Hamilton ($1M) - LET GO
- Ryan Tepera ($950K) - RETAIN -- 2 years 12M -- I think he is worth this much, he gets it done, keep him.
FREE AGENTS
Sign Corey Seager to 9 years, 252 Million (28M AAV) 25/25/25/25/29/29/31/31/32 -- Finally the chance to make right on "the money will be spent:". the 28M AAV is Lower than I think he might get, but we're giving him 9 years to get there. The Bryce Harper deal is inspiration for this one. I dont see anyone else offering more than 7, this is a competitive deal, lets get it done and bring in a playoff tested start
Sign Max Scherzer to 3 years, 90 Million -- A clean 30M AAV, I think we're the only team giving him that 3rd year at this much money. We will have to overpay to get it done. We get a superstar SP for under 100 Million, the Reinsdorf way. Scherzer makes sense for the same reasons Lance Lynn extension did. Get it done.
Sign Brett Anderson 2 years, 14 Million -- I lost Rodon and Keuchel, I need Starters badly. Anderson is solid Veteran Fill
Sign Jose Quintana to 1 year, 2 Million -- Old friend Alert, Coop'll Fix em!... Anyway, this feels whitesoxy. he is taking Lopez's swing man roll, and if he sucks we cut him.
TRADES
N0. 1: Trade Yasmani Grandal + Reynaldo Lopez to Cardinals for Paul Dejon+3 Million. Out go Molina and Wainwright leaving a vaccum to fill. The Cards fill it with Grandal and Lopez, and offload Dejong's dissapointing contract in exchange. DeJong takes on a Garcia roll and is our primary backup INF, and hes gonna learn to provide corner OF depth too. We need to offload Grandal's money to spend it elsewhere, this is a fair and reasonable way to do it.
No. 2: Trade Dallas Keuchel, Jonathan Stiever, Micker Adolofo, and Yermin Mercedes to the Marlins for PTBNL. Pure salary dump for Keuchel, This is a popular move this year for us. I need to free up the money but I wanted to do it fairly, the rebuilding Marlins get FOUR guys that could potentially be on their 26 man roster for their efforts.
No. 3: Trade Liam Hendriks to the Mets for James Mccan + 8 Million and SP Prospect. This is where the pain sets in. We get Mccann for free this year and are on the hook for around 2 years/22 Mil after it. The Mets get a stud closer, and his contract. Guys, asset relocation isn't free and isn't easy. I dont really want prospects for Liam, I want salary relief and/or major league help. We bring back Mccann to man the dish and dont pay him a cent this year. The Mets have a quality 19 year old prospect whose name I lost when I deleted the post. He helps soften the blow of the next trade
No. 4: Trade Jared Kelly, Andrew dalquist, Blake Rutherford to the Rockies for German Marquez. Marquez is a 26 year old quality Starting Pitcher under solid cost control for another few years. I'm willing to trade more to get this done, Cespedes is on the table if he has to be.
TOTAL PAYROLL: I got 175 Million, mostly on budget!
SUMMARY
The Whitesox aren't built to win when their highest paid players are a closer and an over 30 year old catcher. That is not a recipe for success. I have successfully re-allocated our assets into a 28 year old left handed star middle infielder and a psychotic start starting pitcher in a way that is semi reasonable for the Whitesox to do. I've replaced big holes with smaller, more easily filled holes. The Sox still have long term flexibility with Scherzer, Lynn, and Abreu all being off the books before the big name young guns start to make serious money. I'm not some Mccann Superfan, its just a trade that made sense. Catcher is still a problem with Collins my current #2.
Rick Hahn Successfully built strong bullpens in almost every single rebuild season we had. Why not let him try again? Plenty of great teams enter the season with average at best bullpens on paper. Ours still leads with Bummer/Tepara/Kopech/Crotchet. That is good enough to start, you can add to it on the fly as the year goes on. Yes, I'm leaving both Kopech/Crotchet in the pen to start the year. Why rush, lets see how it shakes out with them. If we're lucky we can move one or both of them into the rotation for Anderson/Injuries.
26 man:
C: Mcann
1B: Abreu
2B: Seager
SS: Anderson
3B: Moncada
RF: Sheets/Engel
CF: Robert
LF: Eloy/Vaughn
DH: Eloy/Vaughn
BN: Sheets/Engel
BN: Dejong
BN: Mendick
BN: Collins
SP: Scherzer, Lynn, Giolito, Marquez, Anderson
RP: Bummer, Tepara, Kopech, Crotchet
RP2: (Hahn Fillers) or Cordero, Burr, Ruiz, Quintana
