Spare Parts: White Sox let Nicky Lopez test free agency early
Halfway between learning he didn’t win a Gold Glove at second base and arriving at the deadline to offer him a contract for 2025, the White Sox let Nicky Lopez reach free agency via waivers.
The White Sox announced on Tuesday that both Lopez and Sammy Peralta cleared waivers and elected free agency instead of accepting an outright assignment. Lopez was projected to make $5.1 million in his fourth and final year of arbitration, which never seemed like a figure the White Sox would meet after watching him hit .241/.312/.294.
Lopez has his uses, bringing plus defense at second base and the ability to cover shortstop, and he’s not terrible at getting on base, either. It’s just that between the lack of power and the greatly diminished effectiveness on the basepaths — he went 5-for-12 in stolen bases last year — there isn’t a way to see a regular, even when squinting.
As for Peralta, this is the second time the White Sox outrighted him and the third time they placed him on waivers in 2024, so he probably greeted the news as just another Tuesday.
The White Sox have updated their 40-man roster page to remove Lopez and Peralta, as well as Yoán Moncada, who at least lasted on the page long enough to provide a hook for Tuesday’s post about him. But he’s evidently quite on his way to moving on, with Francys Romero reporting that Moncada has a collection of suitors, albeit with the level of commitment yet to be specified.
Spare Parts
After delaying the direct-to-consumer part of the rollout in hopes of getting Comcast aboard, Jeff Agrest says CHSN is supposed to launch it this week. As for Comcast, Agrest says that the cable giant is issuing monthly credits for the absence of NBC Sports Chicago from their sports tier, which is more encouraging for the future of seeing CHSN on Comcast than a permanent adjustment of the regional sports fee.
- The Bears are reconsidering the Michael Reese site for new stadium — Crain’s Chicago Business
- Could bad performance on the field affect plans for taxpayer-funded stadiums for Bears, White Sox? — CBS News
Because the Bears and White Sox are tied at the hip when it comes to figuring out the best public financing options for a new home, here’s the latest on Kevin Warren’s wanderings.
Dick Allen is one of three candidates with significant White Sox ties eligible for election into the Hall of Fame via the Classic Baseball Era Committee, along with Tommy John and John Donaldson. He fell one vote shy last time, so this year would be the first that a snub would register as a real shock.
It was pretty safe to assume that the Rays would have to find a temporary home for a good chunk of the 2025 season due to the damage Hurricane Milton inflicted on Tropicana Field, but the assessment report effectively rules out all of next season. The question then becomes whether the city is interested in investing $55.7 million — or whatever amount isn’t covered by insurance and FEMA reimbursements — for just a couple seasons of use before the Rays open a new stadium, assuming that project remains on track.
Scott Boras enters yet another hot stove season with the biggest portfolio of premier free agents, but this time he’s on a little bit of a losing streak. His four biggest clients last year didn’t start signing until late February, all for disappointing contracts, and then the Yankees won their standoff with Gerrit Cole’s opt-out.
Roki Sasaki is one A-level free agent the White Sox should technically be in on, if only because his contract demands are limited to the size of the biggest international bonus pool. There’s no reason for Sasaki to consider the White Sox, but that’s besides the point.
The degradation of Twitter makes me skeptical that any social media site is worth investing real sweat equity in for a text-based site, and every attempt at declaring Twitter’s death has proven premature, so basically my approach is to make sure Sox Machine always has a functioning commenting platform, and everything else is secondary.
Still, by defaulting to a reverse chronological feed and not suppressing posts that link to external sites, Bluesky seems better suited for independent sites than Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, etc., so that’s where I’ll be spending more of the time that isn’t on here.
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For Nicky’s sake, I hope that he can find a reserve role with a contending team.
So, I’d like to make a BlueSky starter pack (basically a list of people you can add all at once, meant for new users to fill their feed) for Sox Machine, so that people who also want to make the switch can find people from this site. The problem is, apparently you need a minimum of 8 people to make a starter pack, and I only 5 Sox Machine folks on BlueSky (counting myself).
So! I am putting out an ask. My profile is https://bsky.app/profile/tcbullfrog.bsky.social; my handle is tcbullfrog.bsky.social If you respond to this post with your handle, I’ll add you to the starter pack.
(If you want to message me on BlueSky, that’s okay too, but let me know what your commenter handle is on here so that I can do at least a minimum of verification)
Hopefully I can get enough to make a starter pack, and that will help other people if and when they want to get on BlueSky.
I’ve read elsewhere that the Rays are considering some of the Spring Training parks. The White Sox site also says that Peralta was outrighted to Charlotte. And we’ve signed Justin Dunn
The transactions page is overruled by the tweet and MLB.com article, which both say Peralta elected free agency.
the deductible for the rays roof is $22mil, funded by tax payers. mlb now has two nomad franchises with no opening date for their new facilities that have not even started construction. will the white sox be team #3 in a couple years?
The Rays are probably saying to MLB, “How come the White Sox get to play in a major league stadium next year but we don’t?’
If the Rays want to plate at GRF, I might have to buy a ticket for the first time since the pandemic
I attended the Montreal Expos “at” Florida Marlins games in Comiskey Park II after the series was moved due to a hurricane in September 2004.
https://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/14/sports/baseball/marlins-making-themselves-at-home-in-chicago.html
Also attended Cleveland’s Opening Day played in Milwaukee in 2007 due to a massive snowstorm cancelling the first four games in Cleveland, and seven more inches causing the next series to also likely be canceled.
https://www.superiortelegram.com/news/mlb-snowed-out-of-their-home-field-indians-will-play-in-milwaukee
I hope that the players Boras represents reign him in a little bit this year. They wait so long to be a UFA and get that life-changing contract, but his hubris seems to be getting in the way. Snell, Montgomery, Bellinger, and Chapman all had down years compared to their past, and I have to imagine a lot of that was due to signing their contracts late (especially the pitchers).
Will we see guys in that Burnes/Alonso/Bregman tier take a slightly lower AAV on a longer deal at the outset of free agency, so they don’t have to play a three month game of chicken?
Boras isn’t as sharp as he used to be. I think his strategy hurts the mid-tier players too. Sure Soto will get paid, but any agent could find him a massive deal. Ohtani, Machado, Betts, Turner, prove that point. That Gerritt Cole thing also made him look dumb.
I think Boras’ modus operandi is outdated, and he hasn’t realized it. The years of fabulous contracts is over. Only a handful of elite players can afford to wait for those megadeals. The good but not elite players are not getting long term contracts like they used to anymore, and that’s been Boras’ pitfall.
The DTC fee CSHN is charging is the equivalent of what they have been bitching about the increase Comcast subscribers will face if they are bumped to their premium tier, which is going to happen (same with Marquee once their current deal expires), the same as what Comcast is charging elsewhere. Seems dumb to dig in to avoid the inevitable, while simultaneously trashing interest in your teams (Hawks and Bulls) playing now.
In election news, the Austin referendum received nearly 4 to 1 (just under 80%) rejection of Bears stadium funding, so hopefully politicians remain firm that they play where they are at or fully fund their own stadiums / capital costs.
https://blockclubchicago.org/2024/11/05/austin-voters-say-city-should-not-pay-for-new-bears-stadium/
Also, I believe this election is the first time a current MLB owner was elected to the Senate (Nebraska Pete Ricketts – Equal co-owner with Tom and other siblings). The link below is a great article covering the inner workings of the Cubs sale to the family.
https://deadspin.com/the-inside-story-of-how-the-ricketts-family-schemed-and-1831879476/
Probably the first time I’ve seen the Sox advertise these positions.
https://blogs.fangraphs.com/instagraphs/job-posting-chicago-white-sox-multiple-openings/
I don’t know how what they’re seeking compares to other organizations, but I bet it represents a quantum leap for the White Sox. I will be encouraged by these postings until qualified people explain to me why I shouldn’t be impressed.
Also, a full-stack dev with ui/ux experience is no longer a unicorn in the industry, it is a costly spot, and baseball morganizations are known to pay less because people love baseball. I am guessing JR is not paying top dollar. (and people typically are much stronger for a part of the stack).
I of course read that as baseball morgue-anization which I thought was extremely appropriate.
This feels like a description of Zack Grienke.
Happy to see the embrace of BlueSky. Cleaner and seems to have the best parts of “old twitter”
Related, will the new Sox Machine platform allow us to embed…whatever BlueSky calls tweets?
Let’s test it.
I don’t give 2 shits about Nicky Lopez anymore, but I want to know when GM Getz and Jerry Reinsdorf are taking Juan Soto and Scott Boras out to Ruth’s Chris Steak House and when can we expect that press conference showing off Soto in his new White Sox jersey?
Dude. Morton’s. Jerry isn’t just old, he’s old school.
He only dines at restaurants that have men’s room attendants and cherries jubilee tableside.
Sources tell me they will be headed to Max and Benny’s Deli, after Bruce Levine gave Jerry a free $50 gift card to use for the meeting.
Should be more impressive than the trip to Arby’s with Jerry’s BOGO coupons in tow.
Way off topic, but brace yourself for thousands of people leaving Twitter and joining Sox Machine.
I just created my Bluesky account. If people I enjoy following are moving towards Bluesky, so I should. Twitter is devolving in my opinion. I have been seeing things in Twitter, unpleasant things, that I never saw before, and it is starting to give me a pause.
I quit Twitter in December ‘22. One of my better decisions (which says a lot about my decision making skills). Not joining Bluesky, or anything else. Sox Machine comments take up enough of my time. Thanks to Jim, James, and everyone else here for being entertaining, informative, and generally pleasant under unpleasant circumstances.