Who’s left for the White Sox to deal before the trade deadline?
Today’s the last full day before the trade deadline arrives at 5 p.m. Tuesday, and while the White Sox have done plenty by shipping out five players over the course of three trades …
- Lance Lynn and Joe Kelly to the Dodgers
- Kendall Graveman to the Astros
- Lucas Giolito and Reynaldo López to the Angels
… plenty of work remains.
There’s the matter the White Sox still have impending free agents who might be useful elsewhere:
Keynan Middleton: The league may have adjusted to Middleton’s revamped arsenal, because he’s given up nine runs over 8⅓ innings over the month of July, including four homers. Jon Morosi and Bob Nightengale both said on Saturday that Middleton is drawing trade interest in spite of the regression.
Yasmani Grandal: He’s hitting .251/.317/.382, which isn’t terrible for a catcher, and although he crash-landed into the All-Star break, the time off seemed to work wonders, as he’s 10-for-37 with two homers, a double and four walks over his last 11 games. Given the state of catcher hitting across baseball, it’s not unreasonable to think a handful of clubs wouldn’t mind him as a second catcher for a couple months, especially if the White Sox kick in some cash.
Mike Clevinger: The White Sox seemed hellbent on avoiding a rehab stint despite Clevinger missing six weeks with a biceps injury, but maybe it’s because they were hoping that he could provide a showcase for pitching-starved teams before the deadline. Five scoreless, walkless innings against the Guardians is about the best the Sox could’ve hoped for.
Given how little the White Sox have to play for the rest of the way, the question isn’t whether these players should be traded, but rather how deep the White Sox should keep cutting. Guys like Tim Anderson and Aaron Bummer count in this discussion, but Dylan Cease looks like the biggest subject of debate among reporters’ sources.
Last week, Nightengale said a few times that the White Sox would not entertain offers for Cease:
Wednesday: “Several teams who have checked in with the Chicago White Sox to inquire about the availability of ace Dylan Cease say they continue to get the same response: ‘No.’ The White Sox are not interested in a massive rebuild and still hope to contend next year.”
Wednesday again: “The Chicago White Sox will trade veteran starter Lance Lynn next, but ace Dylan Cease is staying put.”
Saturday: “The Chicago White Sox, who have already traded five pitchers, have just one more remaining pitcher who could also depart: Keynan Middleton. Teams keep asking for ace Dylan Cease and left-handed reliever Aaron Bummer, but the White Sox are keeping them.”
And it’s probably likely that Nightengale is correct, but Ken Rosenthal said the White Sox sound more open to the idea of trading Cease than Nightengale believes.
The White Sox are listening on Dylan Cease and everyone else on their roster. The perception among many in the industry is that Cease and center fielder Luis Robert Jr. remain all but untouchable. But some rival executives see the White Sox’s willingness to entertain offers as an opening, however small.
In the White Sox’s view, nothing has changed. They are simply doing their due diligence, staying open-minded, assessing the values of players and what might be possible. A trade of Cease, a 2022 American League Cy Young finalist who is under club control for two additional seasons, would require a massive return. But given the demand for controllable starting pitching, who’s to say the White Sox couldn’t get what they want?
I’m of the mind that the Sox have a price on Cease that some teams can and might actually meet, because he has a 4.15 ERA and hasn’t pitched beyond 6⅓ innings in any start this season, which is a big reason why he’s already set a career high in no-decisions (14) with upwards of 10 starts remaining. He’s lacked his biggest fastball for most of the year …
- 2019: 53 fastballs 98+ mph
- 2020: 161
- 2021: 211
- 2022: 181
- 2023: 7
… and that’s kept him from reaching the kind of Cy Young runner-up success he had. When he doesn’t have his best fastball, some swinging strikes become foul balls, some pop-ups became well-struck flies, and his slider doesn’t quite play up the same, either.
None of these are reasons to sell for the sake of selling, because Cease remains hard to hit while taking the ball every five days, and the market for pitchers suggests those attributes remain in demand. There’s just no particular reason for the White Sox to remove a Cease trade from the possibilities when plotting out potential road maps for the next few seasons, because with three other rotation spots in flux and Michael Kopech’s future as a starter in doubt, Cease would have to become a practically perfect pitcher in order to make up for all the flaws elsewhere.
Come on.
I have the best interest of each of the players in mind when I say this; the White Sox should trade every player that would bring back a prospect in return.
Agreed, I’d even make Robert Jr available for a large package if a team is willing to meet the price. The Sox are years away from being competitive.
Players as valuable as Robert is right now simply don’t get traded. He’s not just one of the best players in the league right now— 6th in hitter fWAR— he’s also under affordable control for 4.5 more years, all of which are comfortably in his prime.
If he were suddenly made a free agent, he’d get probably get $350-400M on the open market given his age. Let’s say the remaining years of his Sox contract are worth ~$250M, as the majority of that. He’s gonna be paid about $70M for that time. The difference, $180M, is FanGraph’s estimated value of the *literal entire farm system* of the presently 15th-ranked Mets system.
In other words: Luis by himself is worth more than the entire farm system of half the league! Not just that, but only two teams (PIT and CHC) have rich enough systems that if they sent out $180M in prospects for Luis, their system *wouldn’t* be the worst in baseball after even the Angels’ now totally barren wasteland of a system.
Obviously no team is literally going to send out their 20 best prospects/young guys for a single player, or even 10. So getting remotely close to fair value for Robert is simply impossible. Makes much more sense to try and build around him; even if 2024 is a punt, you have a MVP caliber talent for ‘25, ‘26, and ‘27.
Robert is the #1 player who should be traded for the highest offer — whether today or in the off season.
1) He could absolutely be traded for a few top prospects, and he’s not worth $180M in trade value over the next 4.3 years, it’s more like $100M or less: actual salary ($70 M), likely yearly salary if a free agent ($35-40M) multiplied by 4.3 = $150.5-$173M. Difference between actual salary in that time and likely FA salary in that time: approx. $80M-$103M.
2) The Sox will be bad, with Robert, at minimum for 2024-2025. Keeping him for those two years wastes more than half of his current trade value (only getting $27.5M total in 24 and 25 vs. FA value of $70-$80M = trade value of approx. $42.5-$52.5M in those two years — more if he’s traded today). They will also likely not be real contenders in 2026 either .
3) The best thing the Sox can do for the fans right now IMO is trade as much present value as possible for future value. It would be the right call even for a team with average ownership/management. It’s especially the right call for the Sox b/c the longer in the future the assets are ready to play in the majors, the more likely Reinsdorf & Co. are gone.
The annual salary of a huge FA contract isn’t the correct way to estimate his worth. Those huge deals add more years on the end to make the AAV more palatable; it’s not reflective of the “real” market rate value of a year of a superstar’s prime. You see this better reflected in the short term but super high AAV deals signed by aged aces Verlander and Scherzer.
Example: Machado signed for $350M/12 y at age 26. Let’s say his prime is age 26 thru 32 seasons, 7 years; the extra 5 years are just to make the AAV easier to build a roster with on the front end. With, let’s say, 20% contractual inflation since Machado signed, that takes the equivalent contract to $420M/12y today. Machado had a longer track record than Luis, so let’s say Luis would get somewhat less, $380M/12y.
If the payday is actually really for the first 7 years, the ‘equivalent’ annual value is $54M/y. 4.5 years times $54M = $243M. Which is right about the $250M estimate I gave for the remaining value on his contract now, thus $180M (or $173M if you want) of surplus value on his contract. You can knock the surplus value down a little if you want, but the broader point stands.
Scherzer’s AAV is $43.3M (3 years) and Verlander’s is $43.5M (2 years). Robert would absolutely not be worth over $60M AAV over 4.3 years, he wouldn’t get close to that. I”d be willing to buy the $40M-$45M range of Scherzer and Verlander — or maybe even go higher to $45-$50M, but even in that maximum scenario his trade value is still only $110M-$130M — again, easily within the range of a few top prospects.
And that’s only only considering the straight-up trade value. What is Robert worth to the White Sox over the next 4.3 years? Again, it’s less than half of that, because there is no way they’ll be competitive before 2026. If some team made an offer in prospects that was only 75% of Robert’s true market value, making that trade would be an enormous win for the Sox.
I don’t mean to pick on you specifically, but a lot of people saying “the Sox are years away from being competitive” are the same people wondering why the preseason O/U was “only” 81 (or whatever it was). As colossally disappointing as this season has been, I’m skeptical of anybody who thinks there’s no incongruity between those two notions.
Now, seeing how consistently terrible Hahn and co. have been over the years, I am sympathetic to people who believe that success will continue to elude the Sox as long as the same people are in charge.
Personally, I think there’s enough talent in the organization that a new regime could turn it around pretty quickly. That may seem like a pipe dream, but I have a feeling Rangers fans in the last couple years sounded an awful lot like we do now.
I feel a good GM could turn this roster around in 4-5 moves, we are long ways away from a good GM though.
I don’t know that we even need a *good* GM. An average GM with ownership that doesn’t have a ministroke at the mere concept of a nine figure contract would be sufficient. We have a MVP caliber talent in center, average-ish long-term solutions at corner outfield and 1B/DH (with upside?) and all the best position player prospects are infielders or catchers. We need pitching, and a lot of it. That’s the main strength of the upcoming FA class, so…
“There’s just no particular reason for the White Sox to remove a Cease trade from the possibilities when plotting out potential road maps for the next few seasons”
I would say there is a reason. It is possible Hahn could trade him and you don’t get anything of quality in return. Meaning multiple prospects that never turn out.
Let’s say we keep him and a new owner comes in the next few years. We don’t know said owner won’t be willing to pony up the money to keep him.
The reality is a tear it all down or a keep Cease strategy bank on Jerry not being the owner in the next few years because if Jerry is still the owner both strategies lead to a dead end.
I hate this time right now as what we have left to trade will all be last minute deals but we have to wait 30 hours to get there. And of course no Monday game.
I thought Rosenthal was subtly arguing for a sell-off here. “The White Sox have signaled they want to compete in 2024 around a core of Cease, Robert, Michael Kopech, Andrew Vaughn and perhaps a few others.”
How can you have a 4-player core when two of those players may not be any good?
Interesting that Eloy’s not listed there…
Problem with the White Sox: Everyone should be traded, but no one in charge should be responsible for making trades. Its a cognitive dissonance. Truly existential until change happens where it matters and the team isnt scapegoating: the manager, the players, the (insert anyone outside of the FO) for not meeting the projections the team had when they acquired them.
Cease appears to be valued by the league more than I value him. The White Sox appear to value him in line with the league, so a deal is unlikely. I, however, would be willing to trade him while his value appears to be high. My prediction is that Timmy goes. Any of the others mentioned in the article should go, depending, of course, on the return. (Except for Grandal; no need for a return.)
Let’s set aside for a moment the fact that there is no FO plan other than to dump as much salary as possible.
If there is a core of contending players in the organization they are playing in the low minors right now. Since the MLB “core” is not competitive the correct strategy is to rebuild the team’s farm system with the best prospects that the MLB guys can get back, and the best value is going to be for Cease who will not be controllable by the time the competitive window re-opens.
Eloy’s and Bummer’s contracts are bad from a GM’s perspective, so they likely stay by default.
Robert is the only “core” guy who is controllable through that hypothetical window, so he should stay.
Otherwise, everyone else should be on the table…Vaughn, Sheets, Anderson, Burger, Moncada (but bad contract), Grandal, Benintendi (to Yankees, Twins or Rangers), Clevinger, Middleton, etc.
We have to rebuild the farm system!
It seems like your assessment of who has the bad contracts is off. Bummer’s contract just isn’t expensive enough to be bad. Eloy’s injury history might scare teams off, but the contract is fairly reasonable. To me, the only unmovable contact is Benintendi. Four years and $60 million for a guy who won’t hit 2 WAR this season and plays bad defense at a non-premium position.
Eloy and Bummer contracts are overvalued given performance. You may be right about Benintendi except the teams I mentioned need to upgrade LF.
This FO doesnt know how to rebuild a farm system organically, so basically any trade they make is just lipstick on a bigger problem. They will tout new prospects helping their system rankings, but its just a ploy imo, real fans know they have a horrid track record of player development. Nothing really matters until a full on philosophical and culture change happens at 35th and Shields
Exactly. Selloffs for prospects (though necessary for this mess of a team) is the perfect smokescreen to remove expectations while deflecting accountability for terrible baseball. This time we cannot/should not expect any gold at the end of the rainbow because nothing has been fixed anywhere in the organization. I loathe the Cubs but they did change all aspects of the organization, replacing all decision-makers, when they went into rebuild mode. Absolutely no benefit of the doubt has been earned. Rick Hahn’s wall of words can no longer be tolerated.
I didn’t say the FO has a plan or ability. What I tried to say is that the correct strategy is to use every MLB asset including Cease to rebuild the farm system as best you can because the current core of Sox MLB players aren’t competitive.
Totally get your point, I’m just a fan who thinks anything they do is a waste of time until the changes required happen. Honestly they could land Ohtani and I’d say “poor bastard, couldve done something” so long as this FO is around
I don’t think trading the guys still on Arb contracts like Burger, Crotchet or Vaughn at the moment. They’re probably not gonna draw big returns and they’re controllable all the way to 2026 so we might as well see what we’ve got with them since despite the FO’s delusions, a retool will probably collapse by the All Star Break next season as well. I imagine at that point they’re trading Cease since Jerry isn’t gonna pay big bucks for a pitcher and the team isn’t gonna contend in 2025 with a rebuild.
Or they keep Cease and just keep cobbling together teams year after year. That is basically what they did for 10 years prior the rebuild. It is possible they do a whole bunch of nothing.
i think this is their mindset, mostly because they are stupid and don’t have any sensibilities. It’s also what they know and they should stick to a plan that produces a WS once every 100 yrs.
Trading Cease for a big haul of close to MLB starting pitching could work, but then they need Clevinger next year so at least once every 5 games they hold the opponent under 10 runs. 2024 looks pretty ugly in every scenario, but it won’t feel as bad because we expect it.
Crochet is hurt so he’s not going. But Vaughn and Burger are the same type of player. One has to go in exchange for defense speed and athleticism.
Burger should be available, but he is team controlled until 2029, so he is here for the “next window” unless someone wants to give good value for him.
If Eloy goes then Burger should stay and DH or if Vaughn goes he should stay and play first. Burger may have more value than either because of team control. Keeping Eloy Vaughn Sheets and Burger is keeping four of the same type of slow defensively challenged players.
Burger is not slow. He just looks like he should be
https://chicago.suntimes.com/white-sox/2023/7/24/23806142/jake-burger-feels-like-hes-just-getting-started-the-possibilities-are-limitless-in-my-opinion
Jim, it would be interesting and illuminating if you did a post in a month and then at the end of the season looking at how everyone on both sides of the Sox trades performed for their new teams and whether the acquiring teams should be happy with that performance.
I’m happy to make more work for you.
Unless someone does a bonkers overpay now, I could see a Cease move happening this offseason instead. We all know damn well that they aren’t really going to compete next year (even if Jerry’s body was snatched by a pod person, besides Ohtani there doesn’t seem like there are enough impact hitters to actually get this to a complete lineup available in free agency anyway).
Unless they are planning to overhaul the FO—please let it be so!—I can’t imagine waiting will pay off. He just fits *so well* with several teams in the playoff hunt and who have the prospect capital to get him. If they wait, Cease just loses an extra playoff run worth of control and has the starting pitcher free agent market to contend with.
Agreed. The offseason brings additional suitors who may be out of contention now but have designs on competing in 2024, and there are always teams who would rather pay for a player in prospects than money.
You are taking a year of someone elses playoff run away by not moving cease now vs the off season.
You should also look at the free agents available this off season, the starting pitching market is actually pretty good.
Right now, you have a sellers market, a ton of teams saying they are going for it. Not sure his value will be ever be this high again.
Yeah, his value’s very, very high right now. The issue is that it’s so high, only a limited number of teams could actually offer that value in prospects, and we’d need at least of two of those teams being willing to drive up the bids appropriately. I don’t think that’s happening in the next 26 hours.
I see at least 4 teams that would easily have the prospect value, maybe 5….
Orioles, Dodgers, Marlins, Diamondbacks, Reds
Dodgers‘ top movable guys Cartaya and Busch are less than alluring to us, for both position and performance reasons. Marlins aren’t dealing Eury, and they’re a lot more likely to trade pitching prospects for hitters than trading for pitching. Reds would practically have have to trade from their major league team; their top two still-in-minors prospects Marte and Arroyo have been arrow-down this year.
I think the issue with Arizona and Baltimore is that they’re expressing patience and unwillingness to trade the farm for now, perhaps having seen failed rebuilds blow their prospect wad too early.
They have the prospect value, are a couple of those teams perfect matches for the sox maybe not… but you could always involve a third team, or figure it out in the off season, having an extra elite catching prospect is not a bad position to be in for example. Neither would be having a few high end ss prospects… those guys are always easily movable.
Extra SS prospects make more sense than extra C imo, and also I just really don’t like what I’m seeing w surface level statistical performance from Cartaya. Busch is 25 and doesn’t really have a position. I’m very open to basically any kind of prospect if the quality is high, *besides* “bat first catcher who isn’t hitting great” and “almost definitely DH”.
Reds: Why is Marte arrow-down? He’s had a great year at AAA. Marte, Collier, and Petty (+) is a very intriguing offer.
Marlins: I agree. I don’t think it’s a great fit for Cease.
Dodgers: What if they put Bobby Miller on the table? After a great start he’s struggled recently. Bobby Miller, Busch, and Stone sure sounds interesting.
D’Backs and O’s: For a rental, I’d agree with you. But since Cease is under contract for 2 more years beyond this one, I can’t imagine they feel that specific worry too strongly.
Marte is arrow-down bc of rapidly declining defense and athleticism. He’s reportedly looked basically unplayable at 3B, so he’s kinda likely be a 1B at this point. So in that context, he’s not actually having a great year at AAA. 126 wRC+ isn’t bad, but he’s running a .386 BABIP for that… and that’s not enough to be a stud at 1B. I’d love for them to get Cam, who spent his early childhood on the South Side, but Marte isn’t looking good enough to be a headliner.
Miller is an offer worth considering, but I’m strongly anti-Busch. Please god no more goddamn DHs.
Arizona and Baltimore should be ready to go considering the multi year control, but they haven’t actually done any buying yet… so it’s not clear that they’re actually ready to push their chips. It makes sense externally. It’s just not clear yet that their front offices are ready to pull the trigger.
The O’s have been my favorite team for a Cease trade. Its their time to push, they wont find an arm like this for under 200 mil on the open market. They have almost too many prospects a few are going to be blocked very quickly. Hoping thats the team that they pull the trigger with.
Agreed. They also have the prospects I like best. We can even be kind and let them keep their top prospect. I say, “give me Mayo, Ortiz, Kjerstand, and a 40 FV of your choosing and we’ll call it a deal.”
The only thing that gives me hope is there are *several* teams in the playoff that need a guy like Cease, have the prospects to get him, are in the playoff hunt, and should be looking to ’24-25, too. It’s hard to imagine moving a guy like this, yes, but, golly, he fits so well with the Reds, D’Backs, and O’s. How do any of those 3 GMs not submit a competitive offer?
Will it be enough? I don’t know, probably not. But I gotta think the Sox are getting *at least* 2-3 aggressive offers they have to really think about.
Cease retained Scott Boras in the off season heading into his first year of arb. There’s not much an agent can do for a player heading into arb for the first time. Cease , coming off of a Cy Young -worthy season, signed for $5.7 million. A steal for a starter with his upside. My take on Cease’s retaining Boras as he did when he did is that Cease was telling the Sox that he is very unlikely to sign an extension. No extension= no core piece. The Sox are in a Soto situation with a top tier talent, two years of eligibility before free agency and an unwillingness to sign an extension. I think they’ll move him in the off season after everybody gets a look at the free agents and the market.
Cease has literally said he’s open to signing an extension. But it’s not going to be one of those Sox-style extensions where he signs for 1/10th his open market value.
I’m personally very open to the idea of trading Cease, but it could/would/should only be for an absolutely *massive* return with this market. Two months of Gio, two months off Jordan Montgomery, and a year and two months of Ancient Scherzer With Cash all returned a #50-75 range prospect.
So just the two months of Cease this year commands is worth at least one of those types: let’s say one of those plus a 45, since he’s better than Montgomery, who is the best of the traded trio. Then there’s the two arb years of ‘24 and ‘25. I’d guesstimate a top-10 to 30ish prospect, a backend top-100ish 50, and another 45 for that. So: A 55, two 50s, and two 45s, or maybe a 60, a 50, and two 45s.
There’s not many teams in baseball that are both buying and could pull that off. Baltimore, Pittsburgh, and Arizona haven’t committed to buying yet, but they could if they did. Tampa and Boston could if they wanted to push their chips all in.
LAD’s top prospects don’t look great rn and don’t fit well positionally for us. Texas has already blown much of their wad. Philly, SF, and Milwaukee have good top-end but shallow systems, so they could maybe but it’d cost them dearly.
Cincinatti is in the Baltiimore, Pittsburgh, and Arizona list.
Eh, they’re not in that group without trading from their major league team, they’ve graduated more than a couple guys, and their top hitting prospects Marte and Arroyo are looking worse this year.
The Sox could really use some high-end pitching talent at the top levels (grade 50 and up). The problem with all these teams is either they don’t have it or they have already promoted it to help the major league club.
That’s kinda just how teams handle pitching prospects these days. If his stuff is nasty + sustained and he’s throwing strikes, just promote him; he’s got limited bullets anyways, so waiting another season for like a half grade of command to develop isn’t worth it.
Sure, but the point is the Sox need to add some top end pitching to the upper levels – ie. close to major league ready. And if they are already contributing to a contending team, that team is less likely to consider moving them. They can add more top position talent and hope to convert it to pitching, but that assumes they can swing those deals.
Just imagine how many guys we could trade THOSE guys for
I’ve suspected that Kenny was a Rosenthal source (see the Eaton trade) so it’s possible that Nightengale and Rosenthal are correct. It’s just that the front office is that dysfunctional.
My sole concern is that the minors are so terrible right now. The White Sox have had so many problems developing pitchers lately compared to even a few years ago that I wonder if they could even put together a rotation without scouring the MLB waiver wire.
“ace” Dylan Cease?
I got a text an hour ago that Eloy to Miami.
go on…..
I’m trying to figure out the source they used. It just says Eloy is now a Marlin. if it happens, you heard it here first. if it doesn’t happen, a reliable source of mine has lied to me and I don’t know why. 😀
Maybe Eloy caught two marlins.
Without injuring himself?
He did post things on his Insta story from the night before yesterday’s game that def appeared to be him partying in Miami. I thought it was just old footage, off-season etc, but unless he was in the dugout despite not playing yesterday it might be real. Nothing today though.
I don’t think this team is as far away as people think, but Cease and Kopech gotta go this year. TA can go now or next.
If they keep Robert, Eloy, Benintendi, Vaughn and Burger…shooting for 2025 and using no free agents for the lineup we could have
C- Quiero
1b- Vaughn
2b- Ramos
SS – Montgomery
3b- Burger
Lf- Benintendi
Cf- Robert
Rf- Tatum/Colas
Dh- Jimenez
With Gonzalez, Elko maybe in the mix to push somebody at infield. Sosa is hopefully good enough to be the utility. Lee or Hackenburg good enough to be backup catcher. Id like Tatum to be the guy who takes Rf because of his patience. It gives the lineup 5 patient hitters who would help to balance.
On the pitching side you have Martin, Schultz (sometime soon), Bush, Nastrini, Pallette, Mena, Cannon hoping 2 or 3 of those guys fill rotation spots. Free agency for another 2-3 because this team as constructed is very, very cheap. You’d have some depth at least.
So if you continue on that track and trade Cease, Kopech, TA to build more, plus hopefully two top 5 or 10 picks from 23-24, and lots of money (ok some money) to spend, it could happen.
I miss those days of prospect optimism. Follow this team long enough, you slowly lose faith that anything in the pipeline matters at the end of the day. Go Sox.
The position player outlook isn’t terrible; it’s very helpful that the top hitter prospect strengths (C and infield) are the opposite of the present long-term roster strengths (1B/DH and outfield). I just don’t know what the pitching staff will look like. I think they have a few future SPs in the system now, but no one I see with a clear path of being a no. 2 type or better, like pre-‘22 Gio or Cease now. Schultz is the closest to that, but he’s a long ways off.
I do not believe the White Sox can pick in the top 10 2 years in a row.
I don’t think this is right. I wouldn’t say I’m crystal clear on the rule but my understanding is if they pick in the top six one year, then they can’t pick in the top nine the next. They could pick in the top six and then tenth the following year. Or, if they don’t make it into the top six, they could pick, for example, 7th in two consecutive drafts. So, my understanding is there are a few ways they could pick in the top ten multiple years in a row, but there are some restrictions around how it would happen.
Guardians traded Civale to Tampa for Kyle Manzardo.
They already have Naylor and Bell. Where will he play?
They will trade Bell to the White Sox so we can pursue Ohtani in the off season as the Guardians found out that Bell is second cousin of Ohtani’s best friend.
The Guardians, while vastly more well-run than the Sox, seem to always come out on the losing end in deals they make with Tampa. I’m perfectly fine with them not learning their lesson. It’s fun when other teams do it.
Yes the trade seems very light with only Manzardo going back.
This trade is a troll move by the Guardians to the White Sox lol basically saying, we can trade our dudes too and still win this sad ass division of mediocrity
Is that the Guardians throwing in the towel, admitting that even winning the division is worthless?
Cubs get Candelario. Herz seems ok but not a big price.
I guess they weren’t all in on Madrigal at 3b.
Would you be?
I was hoping they’d be all in on Moncada. Heck, we could’ve thrown some money in too.
Brewers get Mark Canha. So much for that possible Eloy destination. Justin Jarvis is about the same as Herz. Don’t think that would’ve been worth it for Eloy.
For some reason, the Giants traded for AJ Pollock.
I say traded. They received AJ Pollock. The Giants are sending future considerations (almost certainly cash) to the Mariners for our old friend and a utilityman the Pirates DFA’d earlier this month.
Pollock currently has an OPS of .547. Not SLG, OPS.
And he’s on the 10 day IL…He’s got a hamstring. (Wanny Voice)
Part of me would like to see Rick Hahn trade Elvis Andrus for a kick in the balls…but that has more to do with my feelings about Rick Hahn than it does with Elvis Andrus having any trade value.
I’d deal Burger. Selling high on Madrigal was one of the few good ideas that Hahn has had. It’s similar for Burger – great story, seems like a wonderful guy, but his career OBP is under .300. This is probably his peak so if they’re rebuilding anyway, better to take a flyer on a prospect before Burger turns into Josh Fields or Daniel Palka.
or Matt Davidson
Aim high and if the opportunity arises, trade Cease. I believe we may have seen the best from him already. Pitchers are fragile and the margins for success are slim, particularly when a pitcher lacks precise command. The risk of injury or further regression toward the average seems to outweigh the likelihood that Cease can lead a 2024 playoff push.
You don’t trade Cease for a few pipe dream guys who might be good in 2026 or 2027. You trade him for three good players who you think can be on your MLB roster in 2024 or 2025, and if you don’t get that then you just hold on to him.
And get less for him in the process.