PREAMBLE
This is a underwhelming free agency. Skubal seems to be an unrealistic goal, especially since Jerry has always seemed reluctant to give any pitcher a long term deal. With that in mind, I limit the Free agent acquisition and instead focus on being creative with a couple trades. Ultimately, I had three goals: 1. Acquire another top of the rotation arm, 2. Acquire a Right hand hitting corner outfielder, 3. add enough depth that we don't have our young infielders play 153+ games each (Vargas/Meidroth/Colson). The following plans hits all those goals while also adding more depth in the bullpen and end of the rotation.
ARBITRATION-ELIGIBLE PLAYERS
- Miguel Vargas: Tender
- Brenton Doyle: Tender
- Joey Bart: Non-tender
- Huascar Brazobán: Non-tender
- Jordan Leasure: Non-tender
- Chris Murphy: Tender
Miguel Vargas is a no brainer. I think Doyle helps create a great defensive, high floor platoon at center. Doyle may be physically repulsed by walking, but his natural power combined with gold glove defensive at Center justifies tendering him a contract--even if it's just to hit lefties. Literally no reason to tender Murphy. Bart could be brought back as a backup, but I think he could be picked up as a free agent for lesson money later. Leasure should get the Tim Elko treatment: 1. non-tendered, 2. brought back to complete his rehab. Brazobán was a tough call, but the team can do better and Getz shouldn't be married to prior trades. Acquiring Brazobán was a fair call at the time, but I think moving on from him now is too.
OTHER IMPENDING FREE AGENTS
- Erick Fedde
- Sean Newcomb
Instead of tendering a contract to any of the three relievers previously discussed, the White Sox use those resources to help bring back Newcomb on a 2 year/$12 million deal. $5 mil in 2027 and 2028, with a $2 million option for 2029. I bring back Erick Fedde on a one year, $1.5 million deal. He could be a Swiss army knife for the team. Could be the team's #5 starter or pitch out of the bullpen. Most of Fedde's success in the MLB has come on the Southside. His sweeper can be a weapon out of the bullpen and he could step into the rotation in case of an injury.
FREE AGENTS
No. 1: Seiya Suzuki (4 year, $108 million). Suziki, in one move, plugs two massive holes in the roster construction of this team. Suzuki adds a legit middle of the lineup bat who had a .798 OPS against righties and flirted with a 1000 OPS against lefties. He also adds another plus defender to the corners. I'll address the elephant in the room, however. This would become the biggest contract even tendered by Jerry Reinsdorf. However, Jerry has shown a willingness to spend when the team will be competitive in the past, and he seemed convinced of the benefits of appealing to the Japanese market when he signed Murakami. Adding Suzuki makes sense not just in baseball sense, but for marketing purposes too. Could we see a series against the Dodgers in Japan to open a future season?
No. 2: Adrian Morejon (4 year, 68 million). This gives the team a legit high leverage option. I envision Morejon/Hicks/Newcomb as the high leverage arms. That allows Taylor/Hagen/Vasil to fight for a rotation spot before becoming bulk bullpen arms if it doesn't work.
TRADES
This is where I get a bit wild with it.
No 1: Acquire Reid Detmers in exchange for Braden Montgomery, Anthony Kay, Tanner McDougal, Colby Shelton, plus cash. The previous Angels GM reportedly wanted Bonemer. However, a new GM may be more willing to tear this team down for a rebuild. Montgomery could be the Angel's opening day CF. McDougal has middle of the rotation upside and could pitch out of the Angel's bullpen in 2027. Colby Shelton had an .826 OPS this season and could be in AAA this upcoming season. Detmers is projected to make $7.5 million in arbitration so Anthony Kay's 6 million contract actually saves the Angels money this year. The Sox would be on the hook for Kay's 2 million buyout. For the White Sox, Detmers adds another top of the rotation arm to pair with Burke. You can imagine that Cleveland series going different with Detmers pitching games 1 and 4.
No 2: Acquire Jung Hoo Lee (OF) plus Cash from the SF Giants in exchange for Luis Castillo, Ky Bush and Nick McClain. Why would the Giants do this? The Giants expressed interest in trading Lee at the deadline but ultimately hung on to him. Castillo and Lee are both owed about the same amount of the money in 2027, but pitching is a more pressing need for the Giants. This trade would also give more financial flexibility in '28 and '29. Even with the Giants retaining $5 million from Lee's contract in '28 and '29, it still frees up $15 million in both years. They acquire pitching depth with the hopes Castillo can at least eat up innings, while also receiving two scratch-off tickets in Bush and McClain.
Why would the White Sox do this? Lee slashed .274/.320/.404 for an .724 OPS. However he had a .774 OPS vs Righties with a .292 BA. Even if he's never rated as a plus defender in his MLB career, that has been mostly playing CF. He would still be a big defensive improvement in LF over Sam Antonacci. Considering I just traded Braden in the previous deal, Lee would play a key role even if just as a strong side platoon at LF. With the Giants retaining part the remaining contract, Lee would be owed $15 mil in '28 and '29. But considering how little money the Sox have in the books after 2027, Lee's contract shouldn't stop the Sox for making more moves in the future. Lee is Korean, and would add a 3rd Asian star to the team. Could the White Sox catch the Dodgers as one of the most popular teams in the Asian market?
SUMMARY
The last big shake up to the roster: waive DH Andrew Benintendi. The White Sox could retain $5 million of his contract in '27 but could save $10+ million from this year's payroll with a structured payout. Benintendi is a nice guy, and it's not his fault that he became one of the faces of this team's troubles in '24 and '25. Definitely not his fault that $75 million is the biggest contract Jerry has tendered. However, with the acquisitions of Lee and Suzuki, waiving Benintendi opens up the DH spot for Murakami, Antonacci, and others.
Payroll Math: The Jung Hoo Lee and Luis Castillo money cancel each other out, and the Brazoban/Fedde contracts do, as well. So adding Lee/Fedde add nothing to do the payroll. The Suziki/Morejon/Newcomb deals add $25/$17/$5 million respectively for a total of $47 million added. However, the Benintendi buy out saves you another $10 million, which means all together I added less than $40 million to the payroll compared to last year. The payroll should hover around $130 million.
Final Roster decisions: Bonemer should probably spend some time in AAA before making his debut, so he does not make the opening day roster. I see Antonacci getting around 80 starts as the backup 2B/3B with another 40-50 starts across DH and LF. Will this cut some games from Colson/Meidroth/Vargas? Yes, but considering how gassed the team seemed by the end of the season, it feels like a good idea to not have them play 153+ games each again.
Teel being healthy allows Quero to come into season knowing he will be a backup whose job is to hit lefties on occasion and not be terrible defensively. This combined with a fresh start, could help Quero become a serviceable backup C at the league minimum. The team seemed to like both Murray and Baldwin in '25/'26 and they both can play SS and OF. Seems like a logical end of the bench until Bonemer presses the issue.
The Line up:
Sam Antonacci DH
Miguel Vargas 3B
Mune Murakami 1B
Seiya Suzuki RF
Kyle Teel C
Chase Meidroth 2B
Jung Hoo Lee LF
Colson Montgomery SS
Tristan Peters CF
Bench:
Brenton Doyle OF
Edgar Quero C
Tanner Murray UTL
Brooks Baldwin UTL
LHP:
Reid Detmers
Noah Schultz
Hagen Smith
Sean Newcomb
Adrian Morejon
Bryan Hudson
RHP:
Sean Burke
Davis Martin
Drew Thorpe
Grant Taylor
Erick Fedde
Jordan Hicks
Mike Vasil
