Matt Berklan’s Off-Season Plan

PREAMBLE

This year is the make or break year to prove if the organization actually cares about being competitive. And yes Jerry, I will accept finishing in 2nd place this year (and this year only) because that would mean we actually opened up that little coin purse of yours. I will say I still planned this offseason in win now mode.

ARBITRATION-ELIGIBLE PLAYERS

  • Alex Colomé, $10.3M – tender
  • Yolmer Sánchez, $6.2M – non-tender – “Bye Felicia”
  • James McCann, $4.9M – tender
  • Carlos Rodon, $4.5M – non-tender (tender if potential FA “*” doesn’t become available)
  • Leury García, $4M – tender
  • Evan Marshall, $1.3M – tender – not gonna forget this Marshall
  • Josh Osich, $1M – non-tender
  • Ryan Goins, $900K – non-tender

CLUB OPTIONS

  • Welington Castillo: $8 million/$500,000 buyout – decline – LATER

OTHER IMPENDING FREE AGENTS

  • Jose Abreu (made $16M in 2019) – 3 years $44 million (front load the contract and decrease over the 3 years) Start at $16 mil
  • Iván Nova (made $9,166,167 in 2019) – Let go
  • Jon Jay (made $4M in 2019) – Let go
  • Hector Santiago (made $2M in 2019 on split contract) – Let go

FREE AGENTS

Grandal – 5 years $85 million ($17 mil / year) McCann’s season was most likely an anomaly last year and this is the only position were I can see the top guy available with in the Sox price range.

Wheeler – 5 years 92 million ($18.4 mil / year) Cole isn’t happening and Wheeler with a 3.96 ERA last year I think can slide in for this price tag.

Castellanos – 5 years, $65 million ($13 mil / year) I would put Puig here for cheaper but a reliable Cincinnati friend, who has connections to both parties, tells me that he would be shocked if he isn’t back with the Reds. Granted I still take that with a grain of salt (he isn’t a reporter) but I will go with the hypothetical my friend is right. With the arguement I hear against Castellanos is that if you take his HRs at Wrigley and imposed them at Comerica most would be short of the wall. Well if he plays 50% of his games at not Comerica, but the G Rate, which is even smaller then Wrigley, his numbers should jump even more from Wrigley just like how his jumped from Comerica to Wrigley. He can play RF or be moved to left if Eloy DHs or is injured. If we follow trough on a trade for a RF I think he will be more than serviceable at DH. I know this salary may be a little light but hopefully you can entice Castellanos with a longer amount of years and player options.

King Felix – 2 year – $ 14 million ($7 mil / year The Sox are going to need as much quality SP as they can get and getting this guy who is dying to compete would be an excellent move.

Gennett – 1 year $ 5.5 million. With Gennett getting injured and getting traded from the Reds to be cut by the Giants makes me think we can get him for a steal. He is a low risk, high reward guy at 2B if his power does return. If it doesn’t than I think he is a fair guy to have Madrigal try and beat out for the starting job over the course of the year.

*Quintana – 2 years – $14 million ($7 mil / year) If the Cubs drop him this a move we need to make. I wanted to see Coop get a pink slip with Steverson this year but since Coop is still here I can say this with confidence. COOP WILL FIX HIM. I would also love to see how POed Cub fans get when Quintana is throwing great and we have Eloy mashing balls and Cease figures it out. If Q isn’t optioned than you can pencil in Carlos Rodon here.

TRADES

Sox and Orioles: Mancini for Collins, Dunning, and Walker

Love Mancini’s upside and the Orioles just love hoarding prospects.

White Sox get 19.70 Orioles get 18.70 Trade Accepted

Sox and Rays: Choi and Poche for Burger, Basabe, Burdi, Sheets, and Sosa. Sox get 15.30 Rays get 16.10 Trade Accepted

The Rays guys are cheap. Jerry would love this. More profit off the 108er’s beer!

These trades clear up some of the log jams in the minors and add talent and control for these guys turning you prospects in to more potential trade pieces for pitching.

I think you can mix and match the White Sox players involved in these trades for both to work.

SUMMARY

C – Grandal – Switch

1B – Abreu – R

2B – Gennett – L  (Madrigal eventually?) – R

SS- Anderson – R

3B- Moncada – Switch

LF – Jimenez – R

CF – Robert – R (Engel to start?) – R

RF – Mancini – R

DH- Castellanos – R (Injuries in OF lead to platoon of Bench players/guys on “off days”)

Bench – McCann – R, Madrigal/Gennett – R, Leury Garcia, – Switch, Palka/Engel – R***,       and Choi – L

***(one up, one in AAA, whoever is hot at the time)

SP – Wheeler, Giolito, King Felix, *Quintana (replace with Cease from AAA), Lopez (move to bullpen or AAA when Kopech replaces)

RP – Poche – L

RP – Fry – L

RP – Cordero

RP – Hererra

RP- Marshall

SU – Bummer

CP – Colome

I do notice that I am a bit over the limit of $120 million. With my math I am sitting at a 2020 team payroll of $124.9 million with Quintana and $122.5 million if you have to stick with Rodon. Again, dollars wise I bet you can go with a cheaper option at DH who can be serviceable but I don’t know who if that is Mercedes a platoon or some guy not on my radar. With how bad the Sox were you only need a serviceable guy here. But a true HR to me would be Castellanos for that price. Hopefully going over a couple million is reasonable.

With this plan, at catcher you are solid with Seby still in the minors. 1B you add Choi at back up who can also DH. 2B you have a guy who has upside with his power and a good bench mark for Madrigal to beat if this 1 and done fails. You also have Mendick in the Minors. SS same plan as last year. 3B same plan as least year minus Goins. OF is now set and has depth all the way to AAA so these AAAA guys aren’t your every day starters. I still have Palka coming up on occassion. Look at how Giolito went from being terrible to having a great year, he will probably be somewhere in between this year. I believe the same to hold true for Palaka possibly. Had a great year then a bad year so there is a good chance he can fall somewhere in between this year. But still he should only be a call up due to injury. DH you have Castellanos and Choi and potentially Yermin Mercedes if he keeps killing it in the minors. You also have enough serviceable back ups that at the worst case this platoon at DH will be better than last year. The starting pitching bumps Cease down to AAA. Lopez could get moved to the bullpen if Cordero, Fry, or Marshall are struggling. And if Herrera gets his annual injury this is another spot to slide Lopez too. If all is well he can wait in AAA. The problem is this leaves little margin of error on the pitching still. Starters have to be healthy and succeed. Same goes for the bullpen. You are placing the most risk on Fry being one of your two lefties in the bullpen. Also with down the road you need to fill in a lot more gaps in a diminishing minor league system. Especially after 2 years and core guys start demanding more money you will need cheaper arms coming up. This may cause you to eventually trade more guys with in the minors. The other problem, which Ricky won’t like, is you will have Choi and Gennett as your only LH hitters. Granted you do have 3 Switch hitters in Leury, Grandal, and Moncada. But we know Ricky loves going R,L,R,L,R,L the whole batting order. I can’t wait for Soxtober!

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KenWo4LiFe

Good! But I don’t think Quintana can be had for 7 mil a year. 

Trooper Galactus

Not to mention there’s pretty much zero chance the Cubs don’t pick up his option. They’re not gonna find anything better for that price.

BeefLoaf108

Ji-Man Choi is #108thicc

Josh Nelson

@ChiBerk96

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