With a lockout on the horizon, there's no knowing quite what the offseason will hold, but we do know it'll have an Offseason Plan Project, which starts now.
If you're new to Sox Machine, the Offseason Plan Project puts fans in the front office to map out pathways to improving a White Sox team after a 84-78 record, a Wild Card Series victory and a disappointing Division Series defeat. You'll fill out the form below, and assuming it meets the minimum standards for effort and comprehension, it'll show up as a post under this category for all members of Sox Machine to discuss.
A few guidelines:
It's what YOU would do: Outside from the budget -- and we'll get to that momentarily -- this exercise is about how you would go about the offseason, regardless of what the White Sox have said or done. You are not beholden to decisions made from today (Oct. 23) onward.
No such thing as dumb ideas: OK, maybe that's not entirely true, but the goal in crowdsourcing is to put imaginations to work and cast the widest net possible. Unworkable plans might contain feasible individual calls, and some ideas that might seem like pipe dreams in October might end up being realistic later in the winter (see: Murakami, Munetaka).
Status quo on labor matters: Perhaps the CBA negotiations will produce some seismic changers how contracts and budgets are formed, but if all GMs are professing ignorance, then there's no reason to think we will know what the landscape will look like afterward. Pretend as though there is no lockout and all the same rules apply to things like guaranteed money, qualifying offers, draft pick compensation and luxury tax (lol). For accounting purposes, consider the league minimum salary $800,000, as that would reflect a $20,000 increase for a fifth consecutive year.
Budget: Last year, I set the Opening Day 26-man payroll limit at $90 million, and the White Sox came in at ˜$82 million, so I'll consider that a victory.
This time around, we're setting the payroll limit at $130 million, but consider it a softer cap due to a lack of financial commitments after the 2027 season. While the White Sox have non-negligible financial commitments for the upcoming season...
- Obligations: $68.35 million to five players
- Arb-eligible: Upwards of $15.4 million projected to six players
- Deferred salary: $1.5 million to Liam Hendriks (José Abreu is off the books)
... that sum plummets after the 2027 season, as all five of those contracts are off the books, and Miguel Vargas' second arbitration year and maybe Brenton Doyle's third are the only real numbers the White Sox have to stake out at the moment.
Jerry Reinsdorf hasn't shown an inclination to spend past mistakes, but he is a fan of creative accounting. If you think you can backload a contract in order to defer the brunt of it to 2028 and beyond, this may be an opportunity to work around that $130 million limitation. Also, part of your job is to convince ownership to loosen the pursestrings, so make your case for stretching.
Resources
Payroll: Cot's Baseball Contracts has a spreadsheet for the White Sox's payroll obligations free of luxury tax implications; Spotrac has sortable tables.
Depth chart: FanGraphs' Roster Resource has the best organizational depth chart with regards to minor league options and Rule 5 eligibility.
Free agents/trades: MLB Trade Rumors has a list of actual and potential free agents (take note of club options and consider which ones are likely to be exercised). Spotrac offers estimations of market value; Baseball Trade Values offers estimation of, well, trade values.
The form: Here's a direct link if the display below doesn't work for you. Give your post 24-72 hours to show up on Sox Machine, as we try to allocate the posts throughout the day so everybody gets some front page exposure.
