PREAMBLE
Let's get this out of the way: I WANT to be positive regarding the White Sox. I WANT to assume the best of this front office. I WANT to believe Jerry will embrace logic. I WANT to see a premier free agent or two brought in.
However, nothing in the past five years, and certainly the last 40 years that Jerry has owned the club, gives me any indication that this team will do anything different this offseason. So please bear with me through this boring and hopefully inaccurate offseason plan. As I started doing last year, this is how I imagine the Sox will operate, not what I would do if given the job.
Here are the assumptions I'm making:
1. The labor dispute after the 2026 season will heavily influence how the Sox proceed. No long contracts, and definitely no big payroll expenditures.
2. Getz will be out there constantly talking about how they need to give at-bats to the young hitters to see if they can prove themselves. So we won't see any starters brought in, and we certainly won't get any backups on major league contracts.
3. They are not creative enough to do crazy things, but any happy accident will be repeated ad nauseam. Shane Smith was a great starter for us out of the Rule 5 draft? Let's put our eggs in that basket again! Miguel Vargas turned in an average season? We should only be looking for post-hype flyers!
OK, enough blather - get on with it!
COACHING STAFF
- Hitting coach: [Left blank]
- Pitching coach: [Left blank]
No clue who would even be a good fit, so I'll leave this to the professionals.
ARBITRATION-ELIGIBLE PLAYERS
- Mike Tauchman: Tender
- Steven Wilson: Tender
- Derek Hill: Tender
The outfield FA class is very shallow when you aren't willing to spend big bucks. Tauchman won't play more than 100 games, but you know what you're getting there. I'm not buying Hill's career best season at age 28, but the league minimum for a guy that can credibly defend center field? Sounds like a Michael Taylor replacement to me.
Wilson's 2024 season is looking more like an outlier, so I'll take a dependable bullpen arm for $1.5 million.
CLUB OPTIONS
- Luis Robert Jr.: Exercise $20 million option
- Martín Perez: Buy out for $1.5 million
Again, Robert may not play more than 100 games, but the Sox are likely to keep him around. I'm more than willing to invite Perez to ST, but with his age and injury at the end of the season, I'm not guaranteeing anything until the season starts.
FREE AGENTS
Adrian Houser - 1 year, $10 million
Great for the Sox, replacement level for Tampa Bay. Which one is the real Houser? I think it's somewhere in-between, but he's 32 and doesn't have a good recent track record before 2025. Give him a one year deal, let him prove last year wasn't a fluke, and then he has a chance for one final contract.
Rule 5 reliever
This doesn't really count as a free agent, but I'm targeting the Phillies here. I doubt they protect both of these guys, so give me either Eiberson Castellano or Tristan Garnett. Both are big guys that can really rack up the Ks. Castellano would have been a slam dunk until he put up a good showing in the AFL. Now there's no guarantee he'll be available, but he can start, and I think they'll be looking for the next Shane Smith. Plus, the Twins took him in last year's draft and returned him in ST, so it would be great to pile more shame on them.
Garnett is older, but he's a lefty reliever that has proven himself at AA. At age 27, there is nothing to gain by making him prove it in AAA.
TRADES
Robert Hassell III for Jonathan Cannon Hassell can hit in the minors, but hasn't yet proven he can hit in the majors for longer than two week stretches. Hassell is either OF4 or OF5 for the Nats, and there is concern that his swing-and-miss tendencies will never be fixed. The Sox have plenty of PAs for him to figure things out.
The Nationals need help in their rotation, and Cannon is the odd man out for the Sox. I realize we need all the depth we can get, but this is an area of excess for the Sox. His demotion to AAA last year feels like writing on the wall.
I also toyed with the idea of a couple of mid-level prospects like Bergolla and Ziehl, but assume the Nats would rather have someone that can contribute right away.
SUMMARY
Hitters
C - Kyle Teel ($750,000)
1B - Lenyn Sosa ($750,000)
2B - Chase Meidroth ($750,000)
SS - Colson Montgomery ($750,000)
3B - Miguel Vargas ($750,000)
LF - Robert Hassell III ($750,000)
CF - Luis Robert ($20,000,000)
RF - Mike Tauchman ($3,500,000)
DH - Andrew Benintendi ($17,100,000)
Bench
C - Edgar Quero ($750,000)
Util IF - Curtis Mead ($750,000)
4th OF - Derek Hill ($750,000)
Util - Brooks Baldwin ($750,000)
I'm not trading Teel or Quero this offseason. Both are young and have shown the ability to improve throughout a season. Keeping this dynamic duo around. However, Korey Lee is gone. I've seen multiple trades in other plans, but he's been below average at almost everything, and I'm not sure why any team would give up an asset to get him?
Ideally, Benintendi is cut and we free up the DH spot for other guys, but Jerry doesn't understand "sunk cost", so we're stuck with him. Hopefully Hill and Baldwin can keep him away from the OF when Robert and Tauchman are hurt.
Pitchers
SP1 - Shane Smith ($750,000)
SP2 - Adrian Houser ($10,000,000)
SP3 - Davis Martin ($750,000)
SP4 - Sean Burke ($750,000)
SP5 - Yoendrys Gomez ($750,000)
Bullpen
CL - Jordan Leasure ($750,000)
SU - Grant Taylor ($750,000)
RP - Wikelman Gonzalez ($750,000)
RP - Steven Wilson ($1,000,000)
RP - Tyler Gilbert ($1,000,000)
RP - Brandon Eisert ($750,000)
RP - Rule 5 pick ($750,000)
LR - Mike Vasil ($750,000)
Not much to say here. With Taylor's max-effort mechanics and Bannister's comments on the bullpen being a better fit, I think he'll be a reliever the rest of his career. Hopefully he can get some shape to his fastball so it's harder to identify/hit.
Plenty of SP help coming back from injury throughout the season, but for the beginning of the year, I'm inviting any veteran starter that will accept to ST. Perez, Flexen, Heaney, Gray, etc.
Total salary comes in just under $70 million. Jerry is happy that it's low, Getz is happy that he didn't have to do much of anything for the entire offseason, and Venable shakes his head wondering why he ever signed on with this moribund franchise. Please don't go Will, we appreciate you!
