Podcast: 2023 MLB Trade Deadline Recap
Record Date: 8/1/2023
Rundown:
- White Sox traded Jake Burger before the deadline
- Now that Rick Hahn has torn down the roster that he built, it’s time for him to move on.
- What’s actually the plan in 2024
- Getting to know Jake Eder and Juan Carela
The White Sox didn’t settle for Pedro Grifol, a former coach from frequent division cellar dweller with no management experience. They were blown away by him.
I keep squinting, and I shouldn’t have to, but I just don’t see it. The people who were blown away by this guy, for a team with playoff aspirations, should not be hiring a manager again.
Like getting blown away by plain oatmeal.
Hahn said something that I found odd when talking about the future direction of the franchise: “…and as always you’ll hear directly about what the plan is from the people in charge.”
I just found that overly vague even for him, and especially for someone who was so sure of his position before the season started.
Do you have a link? I’d like to see the whole thing. It’s certainly odd and almost promising.
https://www.mlb.com/whitesox/news/dylan-cease-stays-with-white-sox-after-trade-deadline-rumors
Thanks!!
You can hear some audio here, around 10 min
Considering Hahn tends to choose his words carefully it is somewhat interesting
This becomes a very successful deadline if Hahn is fired. Unfortunately, if he knows something, that just probably means he is moving up into Kenny’s spot, and he will hire a GM from the Royals (or Getz). With him hiring his replacement, he will just get blown away by a Grifol-like candidate.
Another way to interpret that tea leaf, a 90th percentile way, is that either Jerry or Kenny has informed him he won’t be retained at season’s end (or sooner, even). He was kept for the trade deadline because he has demonstrated facility for trading assets and/or they didn’t want to rush to find a replacement ahead of time, particularly one not up to speed on the players in the organization.
Or it could be Hahn assuming that even he can’t survive this disaster. Or maybe he’s tired of it all and just wants to quit or be reassigned. He might be driving the decision. Hahn is always so careful with the words he uses. I doubt if that was a slip, though I’m sure he was operating on a major sleep deficit yesterday, so a slip is possible.
Maybe he’s heard nothing and that’s different from other years where he’s been assured of his position when things go wrong. Or maybe the opposite and he’s been given the dreaded vote of confidence and now he’s waiting for the inevitable reversal.
Even though Jerry is the final arbiter, he may be hearing the sabre rattling in the ownership ranks and no longer has confidence in JR coming to his rescue.
In terms of messsaging about the future, interesting contrast with the Mets front office which came out and told Scherzer the organization will look to ’25 (or more likely ’26), not ’24
https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2023/08/scherzer-mets-planning-2024-as-a-kind-of-transitory-year-with-focus-on-2025-26.html
It’s realistic, 2024 is a bad FA year. Maybe if you only need a backend SP or a premium 3B, otherwise best to wait until 2025 and give your internal prospect a chance to show themselves.
Off topic, but for anyone who may find the former Sox more interesting that the current Sox, nice start by Lynn last night, albeit against the A’s. Looks like he relied on the 4 seamer. Will be interested to see what approach he takes going forward.
Luckily Katz fixed him before he left…
He is still a little homer happy, but I am really curious to see what an org like the Dodgers is able to do
What kind of shape is their 40 man in? Do we have a list of guys who need to be added yet?
I count about 32 or 33 guys I see for next year already on the 40 man. They could easily chop some dead weight off that number as well.