With Mark Payton pursuing an opportunity in Japan, the White Sox needed somebody with the ability to play a major-league center field since significant Luis Robert injuries are a little too common.
Enter Jake Marisnick, whom the White Sox signed to a minor league deal according to an Astros blogger/podcast host.
Marisnick, who will turn 32 on Opening Day, has been the underwhelming kind of consistent over the last two years, finishing both seasons with a .661 OPS even though he spent time with three teams. Thumb surgery interrupted his 2022 with the Pirates, as he hit .234/.272/.390 over 31 games before Pittsburgh released him in August.
If healthy, Marisnick provides consistently above-average defense in center field and the ability to steal a base. He has the power to hit double-digits in homers, but plate discipline undermines his ability to get more out of his bat. The more I describe him, the more he sounds like a polished version of Adam Engel. Ideally, he’d be depth in Charlotte instead of Chicago, but either way, he gives the Sox a present answer for potential center-field depth that isn’t Leury García.
Spare Parts
Andrew Benintendi says that he’s adjusted his approach based on what his home ballpark will allow him to do, and Esteban Rivera sees evidence of that with the adjustments made between three very different ballparks (Fenway Park, Kauffman Stadium, Yankee Stadium).
Eddie Rodríguez came over with Pedro Grifol from Kansas City, where he was the Royals’ minor-league infield coordinator, and they’ll be working on trying to adapt some minor-league drills to fit major-league workloads.
At the end of Scott Merkin’s article, he references Vaughn’s fades at the ends of his first two MLB seasons, but says Vaughn rejects the notion.
People point to extra wear and tear caused by somewhat unknown outfield work as a reason for Vaughn’s 22-for-122 showing over the final two months of 2021 and his .200 average and .580 OPS over Sept./Oct. in ‘22. Vaughn doesn’t buy that idea as his offseason preparation is geared for handling a complete campaign.
“Everybody wants to play the full season and not miss a game,” said Vaughn, who appeared in 134 games last season. “162 is a grind, no matter where you are playing. It’s building that routine. It’s being mentally focused to tackle the whole 162 and taking it day by day.”
Beyond the labor peace and influx of cash from TV deals and technology sales, Ben Clemens posits that teams and players are agreeing to deals earlier because both see the benefits of earlier starts on offseason work.
Jon Heyman has some details over the Pirates’ failed efforts to extend Bryan Reynolds to his satisfaction.
While sources say the Pirates offered over $75 million for six years with no team options, Reynolds’ camp originally mentioned the $168 million, eight-year deal Matt Olson received as a comp (though their request was lower than that). The Braves did sign Sean Murphy for $73 million over six years (plus a team option), and Murphy is in the same class as Olson. (The Reynolds camp would counter that that deal is low.)
- As Trevor Bauer fights for his career, his accusers fight back — Washington Post
- The Los Angeles Dodgers have unusual incentives to retain, not release, Trevor Bauer — Wall Street Journal
The Dodgers have until the end of today to decide whether to add Trevor Bauer to their 40-man roster after his suspension was reduced to 194 games. Regardless of what they choose, the legal disputes will likely continue, whether by Bauer or his accusers.
Carlos Correa hasn’t yet been seated as a New York Met because of the same issues with his physical that arose with the Giants, so Scott Boras is once again letting other teams back into the mix.
Signing Marisnick, Reyes, and Hamilton reduces the chances of my most pessimistic prediction for the 2023 season coming true: Yoelqui Cespedes breaks Adam Dunn’s single-season team record for strikeouts.
Who would you rather have as Minor League Free Agents? The group of A) Marisnick, Reyes, Hamilton, or B) Willie Calhoun, Billy McKinney, and Rafael Ortega?
The Yankees manage to pull in better Minor League Free Agents (at least in terms of guys who might be able to hit), even though the amount of money involved is basically nothing, and the opportunity to get playing time is a lot better with the White Sox than with the Yankees.
And the Yankees don’t need to have all 3 guys hit, you just need 1 of the 3 to sort of work out and be competent to make it well worth their while.
I don’t think any of those guys are any good.
LOL I think it would be pretty hard to argue that. Dumpster diving Rick.
No player is too bad for the Sox to consider. And they have so little depth that actual MLB innings are not out of the question for any of them.
these are not the same types of minor league free agents. mckinney and calhoun have mashed in the minors and never shown up in the majors; they have negative career WARs. Reyes and Ortega are close to being identical. Marisnick and Hamilton are established role players with distinct skills that allow them to contribute positively in bench roles. Marisnick/Hamilton are definite depth pieces— though ideally plans C & D not B & C respectively— not lottery tickets. the Sox are in greater need of the former.
Yeah, none of these guys is good, that’s the point, they’re minor league free agents. The post is more about how competent organizations attack depth. Sure, having a 5th OF is fine, but what is the White Sox plan if Robert gets hurt, or Benintendi gets hurt, or if Colas doesn’t hit the ground running? (because, even though people on this site don’t want to hear it, Fangraphs has him in the 150-200 range of prospects, and far better prospects fail all the time)
The Yankees have Aaron Hicks pencilled into LF, who isn’t great, and gets hurt a lot, but had 1.5 fWAR last year (which would’ve been a starting caliber player on the White Sox last year), even while being diminished from his peak. The Yankees nonetheless load up on guys like McKinney and Calhoun, who if something clicks with their coaching staff could hit enough to be everyday corner outfielders for a month or two, and Ortega, who’s been a viable low-end regular CF the last couple seasons. Ortega, unlike Victor Reyes, has an actual approach at the plate. They also have Oswaldo Cabrera who can play LF (as well as other positions) and is about the same level of prospect as Colas. As well as Esteven Florial who’s fallen in value quite a bit but was a former top-100 prospect who put up a 124 wRC+ in AAA.
Again, any one of those types of players probably isn’t going to be very good. But there’s a good chance that 1 out of the 6 wind up being good.
I think there are many more substantive things to go after the Sox FO for than not signing Billy McKinney or Willie Calhoun.
Vaughn rejects the notion that his offseason prep is geared for handling a full season. He says he wants to play a full season, and will prep for that
Exactly. I don’t get what’s so hard to understand about that.
Adam Engel is a Padre.
2019-2020 Engel would have been an ideal 4th outfielder for this team (hit lefties well to mix in with LH corner outfielders), but I get moving on from him.
Always a little hard to rely on the Sox FO being smart about things — and I’m sure people will line up to say that they can never be expected to be smart enough to pull their heads out of a paper bag — but it’s hard to see why they would non-tender Engel if they didn’t plan on having a better 4th OF than that.
I guess maybe they always thought “Gavin Sheets will be our 4th OF,” but seriously? I have to think they planned and are still planning another OF addition.
Bauer to the Sox confirmed by Daryl Boston.
It takes a twisted soul to come up with that…but we’re Sox fans, so party on Garth.
dodgers have finally cut bauer loose. i wish him the absolute fuckin worst in all his future endeavors
Initially, I share your sentiment. But at the risk of being absolutely freaking tone deaf, I’m left questioning my own sentiment. And forgive me in advance if this has been discussed ad nauseum here, as I wasn’t part of this community at that time.
Having witnessed the irrational and unvetted responses and accusations that came from the #metoo movement, I’m left questioning, where is the line? This isn’t a case of one night stand abuse, I don’t believe. These were ongoing relationships. As messed up as the actions seem on the surface, I’m still a believer that consensual relations are nobody else’s business.
After that, doesn’t it become a he said/she said? Or am I missing something? I have seen people engage in relations willingly and then have some regrets afterwards, regarding how they felt about themselves. In psychology they use the word, reframing, where a person casts their actions in a light that makes them not responsible for their actions, essentially a victim. This however, potentially dips a toe into the victim shaming side.
In Bauer’s case, he’s pretty much proven himself to be volatile and self righteous, along with other character defects. Does that however draw the line directly from A to B on this incident, or are we more guilty of assumptions not in evidence and being more politically correct than objective?
All that being said, I wouldn’t want him on my team for a plethora of reasons, without this incident factoring in.
Somehow you managed that whole bit of horse shit without using the words woke or cancel culture.
The easiest and most ignorant thing to do, is go with the flow. Most people will agree and you’ll be in the majority. You won’t however have any greater understanding of the problem or causation and resolution options.
Adult discussion about hard topics isn’t easy, but that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be done.
I expected some knee jerk responses like yours, and got them. I also expected some well thought out adult responses, and got them also.
Attempting to shame someone for nothing more than seeking enlightenment isn’t all that helpful.
You might want more of the information to be made public than will ever happen, but there were in fact investigations — first by the MLB and then by an independent arbitrator who decided that the bulk of Bauer’s suspension was justified (i.e., there was enough evidence of domestic violence that both the MLB and the arbitrator thought it more likely than not that Bauer violated the domestic violence policy in some major way).
https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/35307636/trevor-bauer-mlb-suspension-reduction-dodgers
As stated in the article, there were apparently another two women from Ohio that alleged similar things against Bauer. Both the MLB and the Arbitrator presumably had authority to also consider consider contemporaneous communications (text, email, etc.), physical evidence, and any other witness testimony.
I have no reason to think that the judgments of the MLB and independent arbitrator — that, yes, Bauer committed major violations of the domestic violence policy — are incorrect. I kind of doubt you do either, other than just saying “he said/she said,” which is obviously not the totality of relevant evidence that was considered and weighed here (or really in almost any charge of domestic abuse, rape, and the like).
While you may be correct in every sense, I don’t share the same belief that MLB will work in anyones best interest besides its own. I believe that toxic corporate situations are mostly guided by folks looking to give the appearance of “right side morality”, rather than conscience or doing the right thing.
Metoo showed us that people can get swept up in the morality cause de jour and accusers, some legit, some not, come out of the woodwork.
It’s these experiences that open the door to doubt.
On top of Bonus Baby’s very measured response, your “Hey! Just a guy askin’ questions, here” take pretends that it’s so easy for a woman to file a police report, the police are totally respectful and supportive, online bro-dudes don’t send endless rape and death threats, or dox her, and she never has to go into hiding out of a very real fear for her life.
Where is the line? Way over there, where it’s still extremely difficult, expensive and dangerous for a woman to get anybody to believe her word over a celebrity dude.
I pretended no such thing, you pulled that out of thin air.
Oh, then fuck the hell off with your rape apologist bullshit. Seriously.
It’s unfortunate that you have such a myopic view of my inquisitiveness. It serves no one but yourself.
Is it somehow “he said she said” when it is not one but three women accusing him of very similar things? Is it somehow “he said she said” that Bauer, who cannot help but display his blatant misogyny on Twitter, also expresses that misogyny in increasingly violent and consent-violating sexual acts far beyond what was agreed to? Is it wrong to “draw the line directly from A to B” that such strong misogyny in his character, strong enough that he expresses it on Twitter— despite clearly being smart enough to understand that expressing it is very much damaging to him— leads to him actualizing his hatred of women by violent, non-consented-to sexual acts when he has a wholly vulnerable woman in front of him?
The glove fits in every way. Sure, it’s not right to say that every volatile, anger-filled, misogynistic man is guaranteed to do or have done such vile acts as Bauer is accused of, but yet the accusations— again, 3 of them, not just 1– mesh entirely with everything we know about Bauer’s personality. It is not proof sufficient for a court, but Bauer’s at no risk of legal issues now, not that wealthy athletes accused of sexual misconduct ever really are. I’m completely confident in judging Trevor Bauer to be a piece of shit deserving of no good fortunate, especially considering that he will remain wealthy and immune to legal repercussions for past actions for the remainder of his life.
Pffft, Reynolds thinks he’s Benintendi good?
If he does, he’s selling himself short.
Why did the Tigers just give away Gregory Soto?
Might be an overpay by Philly IMO. Soto walks a ton of guys (1.36 WHIP) but has the benefit of pitching in Comerica Park … the absolute worst stadium to hit home runs in the majors according to statcast park factors. His ERA will be going up.
Vierling alone is a pretty good get. 5 more years of control for an outfielder who played all three spots last season and hits the ball hard. He could be a legit starter for Detroit for years.
Also, closers are just not worth nearly as much as people often think.
Should have traded him for Kemp and Laureano.
🙂
Lol, this was such a perfect exchange.
Pollock is joining the Mariners for $7 million. So, he lost $1 million by declining his option. He’s probably ok with that (and we’re all very ok with it).
If I’d made almost $75 million in the last decade, I’d probably be willing to sacrifice a million just to get away from the South Side Clown Show too.