Max Stassi gives White Sox a veteran catcher without expectations
Max Stassi wasn’t officially a free agent, but with the White Sox acquiring him from the Atlanta Braves on Saturday for a player to be named later — and with the Braves paying for most of $7 million salary for 2024 — it’s a distinction without a difference on the team’s side.*
(*Unless the White Sox send the Braves the equivalent of Fernando Tatis Jr., that is.)
The White Sox chose the slightly more laborious route in finding a catcher to run alongside Korey Lee or Carlos Pรฉrez, because there are a bunch of similarly iffy catchers on the open market. Stassi didn’t play in 2023 because he opened the season recovering from a hip injury, and he spent the rest of the year on family leave due to his son being born more than three months early. His 2022 line would blend right in with the 2023 seasons below him, though.
Catcher | Age | BA/OBP/SLG | CFR | WARP |
---|---|---|---|---|
Max Stassi | 32 | .180/.267/.303 | 0 | -0.1 |
Jacob Stallings | 33 | .191/.278/.286 | -5 | 0.5 |
Martin Maldonado | 36 | .191/.258/.348 | -17 | -2.3 |
Andrew Knizner | 28 | .241/.288/.424 | -4 | 0.0 |
Gary Sรกnchez | 30 | .217/.288/.492 | 2 | 1.9 |
Austin Hedges | 30 | .184/.234/.227 | 13 | 2.6 |
Austin Nola | 33 | .146/.260/.192 | -3 | 0.1 |
What separates Stassi from that group is what he’d accomplished over the previous two seasons. He hit .250/.333/.452 with 20 homers over 118 games, and his defense graded out well. Then came 2022, and even though he’d never been more durable, his bat didn’t reflect his health, especially over the final two months of the season.
You can’t count on Stassi fully rebounding to better forms considering he’ll be a 34-year-old catcher with a fairly voluminous injury history, so his $7 million club option for 2025 doesn’t figure to hold a lot of value. But the advantage of trading for a guy like Stassi instead of signing one of the other listed catchers is that you don’t have to sell him an opportunity or keep a promise about playing time. He’ll be in Chicago, getting paid mostly by Atlanta, whether he likes it or not.
He might like it. The White Sox could be a great opportunity due to the lack of proven options up top, and he’ll be familiar with a couple of the team’s new coaches, bullpen coach Matt Wise and catching coach Drew Butera. The Sox could also be a fraught opportunity because there are two potentially rosterable catchers now, with two others — Edgar Quero and Adam Hackenberg — looming in the high minors.
The feelings are mutual for those watching Chris Getz resolve the catcher situation. Stassi might be a perfectly credible catcher that buys a transition year for Quero, or he might not be able to cover the top half of the strike zone and he gets DFA’d after two months. My guess is that he’s closer to the latter than former, but the lack of a 2023 MLB performance invites some mystery a la Erick Fedde, although Stassi’s reason for his absence has far more gravity.
(It’s reminiscent of the White Sox acquiring James McCann, whose twins boys required seven weeks in the NICU after they were born 10 weeks prematurely over the holidays in 2017. His subsequent season was miserable and the Tigers DFA’d him afterward, only for the Sox to benefit from his return to normalcy, so maybe they see upside in dads who have been through hell.)
With Stassi in the fold, the White Sox have turned over three of the four positions up the middle, with Gold Glove finalist Luis Robert Jr. the only holdover. It figures to be a far more effective defensive setup, and after looking at what he, Nicky Lopez and Paul DeJong are expected to bring to the plate, it better be. In the meantime, I’m guessing this means the Martรญn Maldonado and Salvador Perez rumors can be put to rest.
Postscripts
No. 1: Did you know Stassi’s great uncle played for the White Sox? Myril Hoag spent three seasons on the South Side from 1941 through 1944, with military service in the middle of it. He was discharged because of dizziness and headaches that stemmed from a collision with Joe DiMaggio in 1936 that required brain surgery.
No. 2: Did you know Hoag had some of the smallest — if not the smallest — feet in MLB history? He wore a size 4 shoe on his right foot, and size 4ยฝ on his left.
Readers who have yet to hit the “become a patron” button: No one else in sports media will give you this perspective on Max Stassi’s signing.
I found a picture of Hoag that shows his feet. He’s third from the left in this picture from 1934 spring training. The players shown are Jim Hagan, Sam Byrd, Hoag, Earle Combs, Ben Chapman, Dixie Walker, and Babe Ruth.
1934 Spring Training Picture
Sporcle Saturday: Shoe sizes
Link to MLB Shoe Size Registry?
If legends are to be believed, I’m guessing that Juan Uribe and Lorenzo Barcelo would head the top of the largest shoe size list.
Otis Wilson approves this message.
I’m putting Bo Jackson at the top of that list. Literally.
Letโs not forget Gavin Floyd and his BHB.
Source?
Stassi has already paid off if he clogged the Kansas City pipeline….
Seriously, if Max stopped any consideration of trading for Perez, than this is an excellent trade.
On one hand Getz is executing his plan all over the diamond
On the other hand, Getz’s plan is a terrible one with almost no long term value or upside.
Stassi adds to the recent pool of absolutely no bat all glove zero upside players. These arent even the type of guys you can hope do something flukey for a couple months and you can spin at the deadline for a lotto ticket. These arent guys who are gonna magically develop and could be options in 2025 or 2026…
Seriously the plan is just to be good defensively in 2024 to make up for the fact you are going to have a bottom 3 staff and a bottom 3 offense in the league???? What good is that?
If you are gonna have a throw away year bring in some 4A 25-27 year olds who have got even the smallest amount of upside , maybe a lack of opportunity or an injury history that has held them back etc etc…
I DONT GET IT
Because then people would bitch that he’s doing nothing but bringing in 4A nobodies who won’t be on the roster in August ala Hahn.
What I don’t get is the belief that if you bring in guys who are good fielders now, that that somehow will translate to the next wave of players who will be expected to win being good fielders. We make our team good at fielding this year, and then our team will always be good at fielding even though all of the players are different. It’s infuriating. How about acquire guys or give playing to guys who might actually be good someday, and work on making them better?
Agreed. Some people also seem to believe that somehow sucking on offense but being better on defense is somehow a more valid or noble way to lose than the inverse. Itโs not, itโs just more boring.
Itโs December 10th. We donโt know the full plan yet but greatly improving the defense is never bad. There isnโt enough offensive talent available right now to cover terrible defense and terrible baserunning. Itโs not more boring to me watching a team play fundamentally sound and coming up short than it is to watch a team walk 10 guys per game, then botch regular ground balls, and then throw to the wrong base once theyโve recovered said botched balls. That is infuriating! By the end of the offseason they may have traded Cease and Eloy and brought back positional talent so that Lopez/Dejong/Stassi are nothing more than depth. But getting credible major leaguers to compete with the Jose Rodriguez or Carlos Perez type players isnโt a bad move. Especially since they spent about 2.5 million so far to do so.
I couldn’t say it better. I prefer to watch a White Sox baseball team doing baseball things professionally than the clownshow we just watched in 2023.
Itโs just as infuriating watching guys take non-competitive at-bats, and all of Getzโs position player pickups are guys prone to doing just that. Those guys are only โcredibleโ major leaguers half the game – you certainly couldnโt describe them that way when theyโre at the plate. And how little theyโre spending to build this inevitable bottom feeder is not a point in their favor. I couldnโt care less about Jerryโs bank balance.
Agreed on the poor at bats but I canโt say Iโve seen enough of the guys they got to say they are like that. You can have professional at bats but just not be that productive. I used to think Mark Kotsay would break out cause I loved his effort but it never really happened. The numbers never followed.
I could be wrong but I just donโt think this is it for building a roster. I think itโs a good start in improving areas of weakness. Raising the levels of talent on the 40 man. I want to give Getz a chance and not just bury him for Hahns mistakes.
But the losing should occur quicker.
We truly don’t know yet what Getz is trying to do in the big picture. We also don’t know what he is allowed to do in terms of $. The off-season isn’t over. Few things appear clear to me:
1) Getz does not like the team he inherited (he even said so)
2) He has mentioned (repeatedly), he wants a more professional team. Professionalism does not necessarily translate into wins. I think he knows a few things we don’t know, and we might never know. Things that happened in the clubhouse. Could be bad habits. Cliques. Complacency. Unpreparedness. Lack of care. All of which exposed Grifol’s inexperience even more making him look like a fool (I think he is a fool). Getz sees a need to purge the “core” Hahn put together. Grandal is gone. Tim Anderson is gone. Eloy is probably gone too. Yoan won’t be gone because of his contract. I have a believe Getz does not want to contaminate the incoming prospects.
3) He wants a more athletic team. Better at fielding. Better at running. Flexible. He has done so.
4) Getz hasn’t mentioned much about the offense yet. I am sure he knows this team lacks the firepower needed to be mildly entertaining. Maybe his hands are tied. Maybe he is being cautious on this topic and not promise anything he cannot deliver.
5) Getz has brought in more pitching depth. Maybe it is just a bunch of warm bodies. I can see Getz knows this team has no pitching. No even for a tank year. So he is addressing that in a cost effective way. Again, we don’t know yet why he is not spending. Maybe he has a plan, and needs that money. Maybe it is just Jerry giving him an impossible budget.
Nailed it.
I am not sure why people are very aggressively trying to give Getz every conceivable benefit of the doubt. Weird.
Because we want him to succeed.
Because we want the White Sox to give us joy.
Because Getz is what we’ve got. Moaning and complaining won’t change that.
So, rather than allow ourselves to be sucked into despair and whining, some of us decide to give Getz some benefit of the doubt. The leash is short though.
To dismiss questioning of these moves as โwhiningโ when he hasnโt even approached acquiring an average major league quality player is certainly a take. Giving Getz a clean slate when he was not an innocent bystander to the previous regime is another.
Do you actually think negative viewpoints are underrepresented in White Sox comments?
The hot stove is one of my favorite parts of the season. And I find it interesting what Getz is doing. Nobody thinks a team in the position the White Sox are in could put together a competitive team over one off-season. Add to that the regularly stated opinions that Getz is unqualified, will be picked clean by more experienced GMs, and even if he stumbles into some talent, Jerry Reinsdorf will decree that those players suck and lose.
I’m 60. If I wanted to root for a team that just went out and vacuumed up all the top free agents every off-season, I would be pretty dumb to still even care about the White Sox.
Chris Getz has chosen a path, and his moves make sense in that.
I think that any objective analysis of the White Sox is bound to trend negative given the state of their franchise. Getz may have โchosen a path,โ but the path of acquiring capable defensive players who cannot hit at even an average level is not one that leads to more winning now or in the future, so forgive me for not being enthralled with Getz and the bottom feeder he seems intent on assembling.
Nobody’s asking you to be “enthralled”. You’re the one who is perplexed why everybody doesn’t think like you.
The repeated chorus of โGETZ HAS A PLANโ suggests otherwise re: wanting people to love his work so far. And Iโm not perplexed – I understand some peopleโs standards have become so low that theyโre willing to accept any activity when it comes to player personnel, even though the sum total of the moves is simply shifting weaknesses from defense to offense.
It sounds like you’re having an argument with somebody oppressively glib in your head.
I get it. You don’t like the moves the Sox have made. Just because somebody is reserving judgement until the bigger picture reveals itself doesn’t mean we suck as fans.
What available catcher should the White Sox have gotten instead of Stassi? Who should they have picked up instead of DeJong? What starting pitchers should they have signed over Soroka and Fedde?
Do you believe there is a perfect string of moves that wins the division this season? What are they?
I didnโt say anyone โsucks as a fan.โ If thereโs one of us setting up strawmen in this debate, itโs not me.
There was absolutely a set of signings to be made that could have been made to make the Sox competitive in the division. Of course, those would have started with a new front office from the outside and a competent manager, but then could have continued with Bellinger, Yamamoto, etc. Yes, I know Jerry wonโt spend that money, but those moves are there.
Short of that, you could at least devote playing time to guys who might have some chance of being a part of the next good Sox team. Instead, theyโre going with the cheapest defensive solutions they can find, not considering alternatives who might have an untapped offensive ceiling.
I don’t have low standards. Try again.
Okay, so you admit there’s no perfect string of moves that wins this division unless we pretend reality is different than it is.
When somebody leads with “fire everyone, then vacuum up every top free agent”, I stop reading. You don’t have a realistic scope of what the Sox are willing to do. I’m really surprised you didn’t mention signing Aaron Nola and Ohtani. Who has the low standards here?
Who isn’t getting playing time? Our best prospects are in AA or lower. Who is saying Lenyn Sosa and Korey Lee won’t be getting meaningful playing time?
Haha, stop reading then. You asked if there was a string of moves that could put the Sox into contention for the division, and the answer is โyes.โ If you donโt like the answer thatโs on you. I do indeed know the reality of what the Sox are willing to do – reread the entirety of my comment and try again, sport.
And where did I say it was our own prospects that I wanted to see playing? Instead of the likes of DeJong, get a guy blocked in another organization who might have the potential to not be terrible at the plate.
I always find it strange that commenters who have all the answers have never submitted a resume to a baseball team for their GM slot.
I’m sure your ideas of “just go out and get all the best players, don’t worry about the cost” would make you the most sought after candidate in the sport.
Responding to the repeated cries of โWhatโs going on, this makes no sense!!โ with the plan Getz has laid out and its potential merits isnโt advocating for others to love the moves. Thatโs you reading too much into otherโs responses. I can see why a lot of fans donโt like these moves and there is plenty of downside to go along its potential upside. Some are taking a wait and see approach and thereโs nothing wrong with that.
This very thread started off with the recognition that Getz has a plan, just that itโs a bad one. Perhaps the difference is that some believe โhaving a planโ is a feat even if that plan doesnโt actually improve the state of the team when it comes to winning baseball games?
It also ended with โI DONT GET ITโ. So, others will naturally respond with why and how it could potentially be beneficial and how it could work. If you donโt think it will and itโs a poor plan, fine, there is plenty of reason to believe it will fall flat, but could you please stop being so condescending to imply that those that are providing counterpoints are simply happy there is a plan?
I think itโs perfectly reasonable to ask questions about why people are happy about this plan when thereโs no real reason to believe in leads to additional winning now or in the future.
It is reasonable. And itโs been answered throughout these comments. Itโs depth so prospects arenโt rushed to the majors like Colรกs and Vaughn just to fill open spots without competition. Young players arenโt forced to play out if position. Good defense can benefit a young rotation breaking into the major leagues, where they can be more confident in allowing hitters to put the ball in play. If young starters go longer in games it takes pressure off young relievers.
Yes, there is significant downside as well with the offense being a train wreck. However, they are focusing on run prevention and increased competency in that regard is a step in the right direction.
If you think it’s perfectly reasonable to ask questions, then why don’t you think it’s perfectly reasonable for people to answer those questions?
Your question was “why are people very aggressively trying to give Getz every conceivable benefit of the doubt?”
Why would you feel the need to misrepresent what you originally asked?
Our regular SS contributed -2.0 bWAR in 2023. Our RF tandem logged -3.0 bWAR. 2B was at replacement level. Grandal and Zavala logged negative bWAR.
Nicky Lopez put up 2.0 bWAR in 260 PAs. Paul DeJong represents almost 3 wins over Anderson at SS. Stassi has hit in the past, and has good defensive numbers.
These aren’t sexy moves. But they represent better options than we trotted out there last year, while not creating situations where our best prospects can’t supplant these obvious place-holders.
Please explain how that is a bad plan.
Please explain why the only options are the guys they acquired and the guys they had previously.
Oh, I get it. You don’t have an answer, so you’re going just keep changing the conversation. You’re original question has been thoroughly answered by multiple people.
You seem to present yourself as “too smart” to be a White Sox fan. Yet, here you are. Funny.
Actually, the guys they had previously generally project in Zips and Steamer to be better this coming year than the guys they brought in to replace them.
It is true that DeJong projection is better than what Anderson did last year. But it’s not good and not as good as Anderson’s projection for this year.
If you step back, the thing that has happened so far is that the team has gotten notably cheaper in terms of payroll. And the rotation and team on the field have projections that are around or slightly better than what the team achieved last year.
In that sense, Getz really has done a good job. And if you can’t appreciate and respect the execution of that plan, I don’t think you will find much joy in White Sox baseball.
And here I thought I was overly pessimistic in life.
The White Sox are cutting salary in 2024. Thatโs obvious.
Unless youโre a good organization like Tampa or Cleveland, itโs very difficult to find good major league players while cutting payroll.
The White Sox are not going to morph into Tampa or Cleveland in one offseason. They wonโt ever be those teams while Jerry is alive.
So what are the options? How do you improve when you have no talent and no available resources?
Getz has chosen to improve on the fringes (defense, baserunning) in an effort to compensate for zero pitching depth and a lineup of bad at-bats.
Will it produce wins? Seems unlikely. But as Jim has reiterated, at the least, these moves insulate young players from the risk of being exposed at the ML level before they are ready. Those young players are expected to be part of the next contending Sox team. Those are the guys that matter. And if they stay on the correct development path this year, then it will have been a moderate success.
If you were expecting a Bellinger or Yamomoto signing, or trading for Arozarena, or finding hidden gems via trade (i.e Paredes ), I donโt know what to tell you. You werenโt being realistic to:
1. The organizationโs historical patterns.
2. The organizationโs current state.
They are not equipped to win in 2024. We can allow Getz to share in the blame for that while also acknowledging our current realities and adjusting our expectations accordingly. Acquiring players who do SOMETHING well is not a bad thing for 2024 and would likely be an improvement from 2023.
I seem to be between you and As Cirensica. I’m waiting for Getz to make a dumb move, one that takes this team decidedly backward. But I haven’t seen that move yet.
They couldn’t use Bummer in a tank year, so got a rebound candidate in Soroka and a glove-first guy in Lopez. Aligns more with the Sox’ needs.
Picked up Fedde. Maybe his overhaul translates to MLB, maybe not, but he filled another need with better than any in-house option and for relatively cheap.
Got Stassi for a PTBNL and got Atlanta to pick up most of his salary. Should at least preclude them getting Salvy.
Didn’t have to sign DeJong so early, but the defense gives him a playable floor. And before he was traded this year, his OPS+ was over 90.
Getz hasn’t transformed this team into a winner, not by a long shot. I still don’t think he will. But I haven’t seen him make a move yet that didn’t address a need or wasn’t according to his plan to get better defense.
He’s starting to earn the benefit of the doubt from me. I’m waiting to see what he gets for Cease. If there’s an issue I have with him so far, it’s that he didn’t seek a top 2B-capable prospect and a pitcher, instead of focusing on top pitchers. Not that they need pitching less; it just makes deals with certain teams less likely.
One thing I forgot to mention is that Getz seems to be a man with with eyes opened, and a man of actions (at least for now). He has been one of the most busiest GMs this off-season.
Making trades and signing players in North-America and in Asia. I never thought Bummer was tradeable and even less for 5 players. Sure, Soroka and Lopez weren’t probably going to be tendered by the Braves, but Getz seized the opportunity first. Getz has also signed a bunch of coaches to help him. A couple of them look interesting. Some other GMs appear to be sitting on their asses.
I am not saying Getz is a good GM. I can’t draw that conclusion yet, but I can’t also not draw a conclusion that he is an idiot because thus far, all he has done, at least, makes sense on paper.
I’m with you. I’m by no means signing up for the Chris Getz fan club, but I have liked his moves so far.
Not only that, but one thing that’s also clear is he doesn’t share Hahn’s dim naivetรฉ that the Sox are just one healthy player, one reliever, one whatever away from being a dynasty. Getz seems to know this roster, in terms of its basic construction, is f***ed. And he knows one player isn’t going to fix it.
What people like me are seeing is him building from the ground up. Getting a good foundation to build more substantially off of.
If that is indeed the plan, great. If it’s not, then I’ll be right there with the most cynical among us!
I disagree with Stassi having no upside. He was a 3 FWAR catcher in 88 & 87 games in โ18 & โ21 and consistently put up league average or above average offense before the last two seasons. Itโs all in limited action and his age and bad season-no season in โ22-โ23 should cast serious concerns on his future value, but as Jim pointed out, heโs more like Erick Fedde, in that his ultimate value for โ24 is a mystery.
โSeriously the plan is just to be good defensively in 2024 to make up for the fact you are going to have a bottom 3 staff and a bottom 3 offense in the league???? What good is that?โ
A good defense should benefit the rotation if itโs going to be consisting of a bunch of young players breaking into the league. They donโt have to cover a bunch of extra outs and should have confidence in allowing the defense to take care of balls put in play. Yes, there is something to be said for young pitchers also having confidence in an offense giving them leads, picking them up after a rough half inning, and picking up Ws, but I disagree with the idea that a good defense is doesnโt provide value to a young, unknown rotation.
Are 21st century psyche’s really this fragile?
I was just making this very point offline: Young pitchers won’t have to nibble. They can trust their stuff and challenge hitters. Starters can go deeper in games. Relievers won’t get overworked. It’s one key to improving pitching and making sure we don’t have a bottom 3 staff.
Think back to some of those games against Cleveland and Baltimore where every ball to the outfield was an out, even liners to the gaps. It was beyond frustrating. (Of course, other than firing Boston, we haven’t yet addressed outfield defense.)
Step in the right direction. Itโs better to acquire guys who are good at one thing than guys who are bad at everything.
Generally speaking, I feel confident Stassi and Lopez will be easier to watch than Sevy Zavala and Zach Remillard. (Wonโt say the same thing about Anderson โ> Dejong.)
I’ve said it before, and it was contested, but I’m still firmly of the mind that top free agents have no interest playing for the White Sox (at least right now).
The Sox are a dumpster fire, off the field and on. And if I know that, and you know that, every MLB player knows that (and better than us, even). Whatever Bellinger ends up signing for, if the Sox went over it by, say, $5-$10 million, would that sway him to come here? Would $135 million to play for laughing stock really be worth it, over $125 million to play for a team that isn’t an embarrassment? It’s not. If the Sox threw $720 million (HA!) at Ohtani, he’d still be playing for the team that regularly wins ~100 games a season and isn’t the national butt of many jokes.
Point being: we cannot compete for top free agents, at least not at the moment, without massively overpaying them (something they won’t do, and I don’t want them to anyway).
I wish this team could do more. I wish we could pull ourselves out of the gutter faster. But this organization is so low, so far down, that building its way back to just credibility is going to take time. And while I’m certainly not enthusiastic about Getz’s moves, I do understand them. The Sox have to show they’re not so dysfunctional that they can’t field a competent team game in and game out. It’s a ridiculous need, but it’s a need nonetheless.
(And before anyone asks “But how does this take the team back to credibility?!?” I’m not answering that question again–and I think commenters have already answered it above.)
White sox baseball remains mostly a waste of time. Eat arby’s.
I’m beginning to think White Sox baseball has been a waste of time for the last 60 years.
One fluke per century!
Don’t be so hyperbolic. It’s one fluke every 88 years.
Of course it is. But itโs OUR waste of time.
Right now Getz is focused on defense. There is nothing worse than watching poor defensive teams. The White Sox I watched years and years ago usually couldn’t hit a beach ball. But they played great defense and had outstanding pitching. And they played in a big ballpark for sure. Unfortunately this is going to be a long process. I’m betting that Getz will get promising bats on the Cease trade. That Cease trade is the biggie for him. I think the Dodgers should be the target. They certainly don’t want $700,000,000 player playing golf in October!
Watching a poor offensive team is at least as bad as watching a poor defensive team, and itโs probably more boring.
I canโt wait to get out to the ballpark and watch them lose 5-0 game after game – hey, at least they wonโt boot as many grounders!
I completely disagree.
Scoring runs means you technically have a chance to win.
I’ll withhold my applause until the Sox acquire someone this winter who’s more than a fringe player; someone who actually had a good season this year, in the (U.S.) big leagues; someone I can be happy about not just because he saves the Sox money and precludes them from doing something worse. I look forward to this day, but suspect it’s not around the corner. Too much to expect, perhaps, for a club from the small market of Chicago.
Can’t wait for pitching help from the California penal league.
I think Getzys off-season plan is clear: corner the market on all the guys not good enough to make the Braves 40 man roster. itโs clear he isnโt getting any money to spend, this is the only explanation.
they are currently armed with a butter knife for a gun fight. at least give us a set of nunchucks.
Getz has to nail the Cease trade. His best chance is from Baltimore, and he should at least be able to get Kjerstad and Norby, which would give them the best prospects at rf/2b in years. Then their lineup/defense could look like this:
Benintendi, LF
Moncada, 3B
Robert, CF
Eloy, DH
Vaughn, 1B
Kjerstad, RF
Norby, 2B
Stassi/Lee, C
Lopez/Dejong SS
Obviously they need big bounceback years from Benintendi and Yoan at the top. If they get that, this lineup has the potential to be decent.
The rotation still needs work. Fedde, Kopech, Soroka, Touki, Nastrini, Shane Drohan would be in the mix. I would think they can get at least a middle of the road FA like Flaherty, Lorenzen, Lugo, or even Giolito to help.
After the Cease trade, Getz then needs to add a couple of pitchers. I will withhold my judgment on his offseason until that is done. But, so far, his plan of getting better defensively has been carried out. Now he needs to add some young hitters in the Cease trade, then some veteran pitchers.
Let me get this straight. We trade Cease. Solve RF and 2B for the next few years assuming Kjerstad and Norby pan out. Then Getz goes out there to sign 2 pitchers at free agency market prices? That would be around 20 to 30 million in pitchers. It’ll be a lot cheaper to keep Cease and get Bellinger in a long term deal and use cost controlled Lรณpez and Lenyn, which we already have to handle 2B. That way we might have a chance to compete for 2 years while Colson and some of the pitchers prospects gets ready to be called up?
Just wondering.
Getting two of the Orioles better prospects to finally solve 2B/RF would be a major win for Getz. Cease will be gone in two years. I don’t think they’re going to win in that time. But solving 2nd and right field would be huge in leading up to having Montgomery, Quero and maybe Ramos join the team by 2025. That would be a pretty solid base to work from, and they will be cheap (except for Robert and Benintendi). Then Getz can supplement them with some real additions in 2025.
The White Sox have trained me so well that at this point when I see a new transaction, and I donโt feel like throwing up, I consider it a win.
You can lead a sox fan to hot stove but you can’t make him puke.
Dr Pavlov is taking notes.
There’s an old SABR article that found catchers’ effect on pitching staffs’ ERAs to be best when they have caught between 450-800 big league games. Stassi has caught 378, so he could be entering his catching “prime” (if his 33 year old body holds up for it).
Now, the caveat of that study is that it only looked at catchers who played for one team the whole time, to measure the hypothesis they got to “know” the staff better. I guess the counter to that caveat is that, in Stassi’s case, he has the continuity of pitching and bullpen coach from the 2022-23 Angels.
I wouldn’t call it “upside”, but there’s more potential for a good catcher here than in Sal Perez or a 37 year old Martin Maldonado.
I didn’t fully understand the Salvy hate until I looked up catching stats on BaseballProspectus. He’d probably be a clear upgrade to Grandal at the plate, but horrible behind it.