Jack’s (Geo-Sock) Offseason Plan

PREAMBLE

What a fun team! I honestly haven’t had that much fun watching the sox in a long long long time. There were games that I just felt.. confident that they would win? Weird stuff.

The philosophy is obviously to get better, and to put out a more competitive team. With the right moves, this team should be shooting for a 1st place AL Central lock.

ARBITRATION-ELIGIBLE PLAYERS

  • Nomar Mazara: $5.6M TENDER
    • On the sole condition that he has options left, I’m not sure why you would let him go for that price. He’s young with power. Give him another year hacking it in the minor leagues and perhaps he can supplement our outfield as a much needed depth piece. And yes, even for that price.
  • Carlos Rodón: NONTENDER
    • It was fun while it lasted. Good luck elsewhere! Maybe the Indians can make you a stud.
  • Lucas Giolito: $2.5MM TENDER
    • Tender him solely based on the fact that he’s our one MLB the Show representative, I can take him or leave him with the rest of his stats.
  • Reynaldo López: $1.7M TENDER
    • For this price, uh yeah. He put it together his last few strings of starts, and I’d like to see if he can keep progressing.
  • Evan Marshall: $1.3M TENDER
    • Good job this year Evan 🙂
  • Adam Engel: $1M TENDER
    • He relly earned it, and I would love to see if he could handle starter duties (if we cannot find anyone else)
  • Jace Fry: $800K TENDER
    • He’s a young, left handed reliever with potential. Give him his money.
  • Yolmer Sánchez: NONTENDER
    • Love you Yolmes, but if Madrigal is the real deal, and Garcia is a good utility player, I’m sure there are better options for you elsewhere.

CLUB OPTIONS

  • Edwin Encarnación: $12M DECLINE
    • 🙁
  • Gio González: $7M DECLINE
    • At least our two offseason failures were on one year options
  • Leury García: $3.5M ($250K buyout) PICK UP
    • He’s a solid utility player that plays the infield and outfield, I really don’t mind him wearing black and white.

OTHER IMPENDING FREE AGENTS

Try to retain, or let go?

  • Alex Colomé (Made $10,532,500 in 2020) LET GO
    • If you’re letting him go though, you’ll still have to make a significant dent in the free agency: get some depth.
  • James McCann (Made $5.4M in 2020) RETAIN .. up to a price
    • I love McCann, I really really don’t see him resigning. I’m sure you’ll have to pay him a siginficant amount extra if you plan on him being a backup again. But if its within our wheelhouse ( < 6 mil), I don’t mind resigning him.
  • Jarrod Dyson (Made $2M in 2020) LET GO

COACHING STAFF

  • Manager: Finch
    • I hate writing them. F*** the astros. I wish we had a better selection to choose from. I’m way in the unpopular opinion, but I really didn’t think we should have released Ricky. But hey, if we’re gonna release him, go all in on a proven winning manager.
  • Pitching coach: Dave Eiland

FREE AGENTS

No. 1: Mike Minor (two-three years, $5-6 million aav). He put up horrible numbers last year, but if his last three years indicate that he’s a good pitcher. I absolutely would not mind him as a deep rotation spot especially if he’s cheap.

No. 2: Taijuan Walker (two-three years, $6-8 million aav). He might be more, but this is another case of a really strong (and young) pitcher that might be undervalued in this marker. I could see him being a solid addition with Minor to build a system that can allow younger pitchers like Lopez, Cease, Kopech and company to battle to see who could grab the back end spot.

No. 3 Trevor May (three years, $5-6 million aav) incredible reliever that can add to a weak and depleted bullpen. Hopefully some of our relievers can bounce back next year.

No. 4 George Springer (six years, $28 million aav) I’m not sure if this contract gets him here, but he should be our main target. Not only does he fill a gigantic whole in our lineup, but he also is insanely talented, trashcans or not.

No. 5 A good reliever (1-2 years, $5 million aav) please just anyone.

TRADES

Propose trades that you think sound reasonable for both sides, and the rationale behind them. A good example of a bad idea:

No. 1: Trade Jonathon Stiever, Michael Kopech, Gavin Sheets, Flores Jr. to Toronto for Teoscar Hernandez and Tom Hatch. The reason for this trade is to alleviate our collective anxiety of Jimenez in the outfield. He is liability not only to our runs saved, but to his own health. Hernandez isn’t much better, but he is an upgrade. And having him and Jimenez in the lineup vs Jimenez in the field and EE is… a major upgrade. The Blue Jays have stars all over the field, but they could use pitching help, especially if they lose Walker, Anderson and an aging Ryu. Plus they certainly look like they’re doing well developing a pitcher with speed (Pearson), so Kopech is the headliner of our prospects here. Tom hatch might not be attainable in this scenario, but I think we could certainly pick up a good reliever with Hernandez. In this scenario, Vaugh would spend some time in AAA until Abreu declines, or he picks up ABs moving between 1st, DH and 3rd(??). He could also be a really attractive trade piece.

No. 2 Matthew Thompson, Luis Gonzalez, and Rutherford to Pittsburgh for Richard Rodriguez. Another good pitching option we could pursue. Our prospect pool is s*** but maybe they’ll take it because they won’t be using RR in the coming years because they’ll suck, and they can’t afford to bank on his success for the next 3 years. I’d be interested adding players to make this deal more even however. Maybe a Cordero fits here.

SUMMARY

I don’t have any 26 man for you or any money values. But I appreciate that you guys do this every year, I have a blast making it!

Here’s rough draft lineup though:

SS – Tim Anderson (R)

3B – Yoan Moncada (S)

RF – George Spring (R)

DH – Eloy Jimenez (R)

1B – Jose Abrue (R)

C – Yasmani Grandal (S)

LF – Teoscar Hernandez (R)

2B – Nick Madrigal (R)

CF – Luis Robert (R)

Rotation:

1.) Lucas Giolito (R)

2.) Dallas Keuchel (L)

3.) Mike Minor (R)

4.) Tajuan Walker (R)

5.) Dunning (R) / Cease (R) / Lopez (R)

Good guys wear black.

Peace.

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Josh Nelson

If 2020 Teoscar Hernandez is his new norm, sign me up.