Jr’s Off-Season Plan to a 2022 Championship

PREAMBLE

I’ve done this off season plan every year for the last four years, I believe. My plans are more of a wish list than reality…and I’m ok with that. Ya, I’m also probably over the set salary cap of $170mil…Sorry.

The Chicago White Sox had a great season, although, riddled by injuries, trades that didn’t pan out, and players that underperformed…it was still a great year. The Sox will look to get over the “hump” in 2022 (if there’s a season). Time to open your wallet, Jer. Stop hindering Rick Hahn from doing his job and attempting to compete for something more than just an AL Central Championship…which is NOT a given the Sox will win again next year. Watch out for the Detroit Tigers! Not only do we need to continue worrying about teams in the AL like the Rays, Astros, BoSox, Yankees, and Blue Jays…but we also need to worry about the Tigers who are up and coming in our own division!

ARBITRATION-ELIGIBLE PLAYERS

  • Lucas Giolito: $7.9M- Tender
  • Reynaldo López; $2.8M- Tender
  • Evan Marshall: $2.3M- Non-tender
  • Adam Engel: $2.2M- Tender
  • Brian Goodwin: $1.7M- Goodbye. Thanks for the bat flip against the Indians!
  • Jimmy Cordero: $1.2M- Non-tender. Sign to a minor league deal.
  • Jace Fry: $1M- Tender – we need lefties.

CLUB OPTIONS

Craig Kimbrel: $16M ($1M buyout)- Pickup. Attempt to trade in off-season. I’m not even including him in on my trades, because I have no clue who wants this guy after his half season with the Sox. Someone does, I’m sure…I just don’t know who.

César Hernández: $6M- You were literally the worst midseason acquisition I may have ever seen. GOODBYE.

OTHER IMPENDING FREE AGENTS

Try to retain, extend qualifying offer, or let go?

  • Leury García (Made $3.5M in 2021)- Extend offer of 2 years/$7mil
  • Carlos Rodón ($3M)- QO. Rodon accepts the QO because this is home and the Sox have treated him like a king while hardly playing.
  • Billy Hamilton ($1M)- Let go. Sorry, Billy.
  • Ryan Tepera ($950K)- Try to retain…listed in FA below.

FREE AGENTS

Ryan Tepera- 2 years/$16mil

  • Tepera showed that he was the most reliable bullpen option for the White Sox down the stretch. I just wish he didn’t have to open his mouth vs the Astros…because that’s definitely why we lost (rolling my eyes). Tepera on a two year deal would be a perfect fit for the Sox.

Corey Seager- 7 years/$200mil

  • Have the Sox ever paid over $100mil for a player before? NOPE. Heck, they’ve never paid over $80mil for a player before. Well, Jerry, if you’d like to win…you need to pay for players! The Sox have struggled to find left-handed bats in recent years. Signing Corey Seager (28 years old) would change that narrative. Seager could play 2B, I’m sure. He could play SS, obviously. He could play 3B, I’m quite confident. I actually really like the idea of Corey Seager playing second base for the ChiSox next season. He has had his share of arm injuries, so second base would be ideal for a little less range/wear and tear on that throwing arm compared to playing shortstop.

Nick Castellanos- 4 years/$78mil

  • This sign completes the Sox free agent acquisitions. The Sox get their second baseman in Corey Seager and their RF in this signing of Nick Castellanos. Can you say best White Sox off season ever? Oh…its not done yet. Wait til you see the trades! Castellnos provides another bat that puts the ball in the air. He is a competent right fielder, not great, but most certainly better than the players we’ve thrown out near the 108’ers lately! Nick will enter next season cracking 30 years old…so 4 years is a perfect timeframe of a deal for him.

TRADES

Trade Jared Kelley, Micker Adolfo, and Jimmy Lambert to the Chicago Cubs for Willson Contreras.

  • The Sox desperately need a catcher. Zack Collins, Seby, and even Yasmani aren’t the answer at catcher. Willson would fill the catching role immediately for the Sox. He also brings much needed power to the Sox lineup! Willson will be 30 years old next season, but has a lot of good years left in the tank. We finally get a catcher that can throw guys out consistently. Yasmani goes into DH role, catching only 1-2x a week. Willson is under control through 2022. Kelley, the Sox top pitching prospect still has a ways to go until he gets a chance at the MLB level. This works out perfectly for the Cubs, who claim they’re not rebuilding…but they’re rebuilding.

 Trade Jake Burger, Blake Rutherford, and a PTBNL to the Rockies for Kyle Feeland.

  • Burger is blocked by the long list of Sox players who probably should be a full time DH, but somehow continue to find their way in the field. Rutherford has been awful for the Sox. Maybe the Colorado air can help him hit more HR’s. Ahhh, yes… The best player of them all…the ole PTBNL. This guy might be a stud! Probably not, though! Kyle Freeland is a 28 year old left handed starting pitcher, who has had an ok career so far. I think he would fit well in the back end of the Sox rotation. Lots of question marks in the back end of our rotation going into next season.

SUMMARY

The Sox lineup should look something like this (batting order listed below):

  1. Luis Robert CF
  2. Tim Anderson SS
  3. Jose Abreu 1B
  4. Nick Castellanos RF
  5. Yoan Moncada 3B
  6. Eloy Jimenez LF
  7. Corey Seager SS
  8. Yasmani Grandal DH
  9. Willson Contreras C

Starting Rotation:

  1. Lucas Giolito
  2. Lance Lynn
  3. Dylan Cease
  4. Carlos Rodon
  5. Kyle Freeland

 

Bullpen:

  1. Liam Hendriks
  2. Craig Kimbrel (maybe)
  3. Garrett Crochet
  4. Aaron Bummer
  5. Jace Fry
  6. Ryan Tepera
  7. ReyLo
  8. Michael Kopech- who could very well crack that rotation
  9. Dallas Keuchel- ugh.

Bench:

Leury Garcia- OF/INF

Adam Engel- OF

Gavin Sheets- OF/1B

Will this plan happen? Probably not lol. But, I can dream! This plan shores up the Sox deficiencies that were on notice for the world to see against the Astros in the ALDS. They need some more offense, they need better defense, they need more pitching depth. This off-season plan brings all those things to life for the Sox! Acquiring Corey Seager and Nick Castellanos would clearly be the best off-season the Sox have ever had…we would quickly forget about the Melky Cabrera, Jeff Samardzija, and David Robertson off season ????! Bringing back Rodon and Tepera gives us both starting pitching and bullpen depth that is much needed as well. Trading for Willson Contreras is huge for the Sox. Grandal had a knee surgery midseason and has also had one already this offseason. To go into next season with Grandal as your primary catcher would be a huge mistake. Kyle Freeland, although not the sexy option in the trade market, makes a lot of sense for the Sox. Even though we may not have a number 1 starter, they have 3 guys at the top of the rotation who would be excellent number 2’s for almost any team in the league. Bolster your roster with a guy like Freeland at the back of your rotation, with Kopech waiting to take a shot at it shortly is a smart move, in my opinion.

Let’s not be satisfied with AL Central titles. Rick Hahn built this to win the whole thing!

Thanks for reading! Go Sox!

Take a second to support Sox Machine on Patreon
15 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
shaggy65

I really like the idea of making Yasmani into our back-up catcher! This is exactly why I love the OPP–all sorts of ideas I’d have never considered.

metasox

I am surprised more people haven’t tried to do that

Trooper Galactus

I didn’t intend for that in my trade for Jacob Stallings, but it would be an option, depending on what was happening with the rest of the lineup.

Trooper Galactus

I’m shocked people think he was so bad he needs to be replaced back there.

Trooper Galactus

Wow, this has to be around $200 million in payroll here, and that’s even assuming they can trade Kimbrel!

Trooper Galactus

Keep wishing. Are the Rockies obsessed with getting Blake Rutherford and I just missed it? This is the second plan I’ve seen that includes him in a trade for one of their perfectly good starters as if he has value.

GrinnellSteve

I wouldn’t write off Grandal being the regular catcher until we see if he can get his knee healthy this winter. I think that was a big factor in his defense. That said, we need someone who can take over seamlessly. My suggestion was Carson Kelly, but Contreras works, as do others.

GrinnellSteve

I’m not writing off the Guardians or the Twins. You’re right,it’s not a given that we will coast to the division title.

LamarJohnson

I think you have the only other plan besides mine that is in on Seager. We have (correctly) fixated the past several years on the left-handed RF puzzle piece, but I really think it’s a game changer to think of Seager at 2B as a way to get more left handed bats (and less swing and miss) into our lineup. We have in-house possibilities for RF (with more in the pipeline) that we can use, but rarely can you get a LH bat in your middle infield.

With the amount of shifting teams are doing now, I wonder if it makes sense to have more than 1 shortstop in the middle infield.

PA81037

Because Seager will never happen. Not in a million years. Even if Jerry was willing to spend $250mil this season, there’s literally no way a guy who’s spent his career thus far entirely in the NL, NEVER played a single game at 2B, has a history of injury trouble at a young age, is represented by Boras and will likely want a Borasian contract, AND is coming from the Dodgers will EVER sign with the White Sox. Let me break it down for you so that we can begin to stop putting Seager in plans and just forget about the dude entirely.

  1. He’s never played a game at 2B, so even if he’d be willing to, you’re rolling the dice. 2B is unarguably easier to play than 3B and yet you have Moncada, who was a lousy 2B but has shone brighter than any other White Sox infielder in ages at 3B. Him being a career SS doesn’t automatically mean he’ll fit in just fine at 2B, and for the amount of money he’ll cost, you better be damn sure he can play 2B (like, say, Semien).
  2. I’ve seen a lot of people talking about moving TA to 2B and plugging in Seager at SS. This would be awesome to see, but unless you own a copy of MLB The Show, it’ll never happen. TA won’t switch positions. If he would, this team wouldn’t be struggling so hard every single year to find a good RF, because that’s where TA would be, and he would be the best RF in baseball too. Even if you forced him to move to 2B, it wouldn’t end well; TA is the kind of guy you need to lock down for good and make sure he never plays in another uniform. He sells tickets, people love him and love seeing him out there. Even if it’s to the slight detriment of the team (which it really isn’t, he’s still a 4.5-5 WAR player), TA has to stay at SS.
  3. Yasmani Grandal was a 31 year old horse who hadn’t sustained ANY kind of injury since the very beginning of his big league career when the White Sox signed him, and that was at not much more than half the money that Seager is likely going to want in free agency. Seager ALREADY has a fairly significant (and to be honest, worrying) history of injury going into his age 28 season. This is by far the biggest reason why Seager wouldn’t happen even if Hahn had infinite money; he would rather go out and get any number of Semien, Castellanos, extend Rodon, etc. before Seager would even pop into his mind.
  4. Like the last sentence of number 3, the contract Seager would want (in part because of his talent and in bigger part because of his agent) makes it difficult to justify signing him. Leave him for the eager (no pun intended) teams who think throwing money at their problems will solve everything, Hahn is too good at wise spending to go for Seager.
  5. Nobody of Seager’s caliber would go from Los Angeles to Chicago for multiple reasons. The biggest being the weather, but even beyond that, the Dodgers are still contending and willing to spend more than literally any other team in baseball. If he isn’t getting some absurd, unbelievable contract from another team (one that Hahn would never sign), the chances are the Dodgers will just re-sign him.

It’s never gonna happen. Move on.

Trooper Galactus

Just to argue your first point, second base is not easier than third base and they generally sit roughly equally on the defensive spectrum, but each position skews to vastly different skill sets. Third base is less range focused and tends to be pretty straightforward in terms of footwork, but requires a much stronger and more accurate arm. Second base, on the other hand, requires much better range to both sides (third base’s range requirements skew more to the left in general), more complex footwork (something Moncada struggled with), the need to turn double plays with regularity, and has less focus on arm strength except for double play execution.