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Someone please add to the megathread, I don’t think I can.

Aren’t you the guy pushing to sign JD Martinez to play RF and suggesting NL teams won’t shy away?

Pass. Not a fan at all of a monster deal for a soon to be 31 year old catcher that I feel is very overrated defensively.

Wasting more international money to avoid paying the buy out

It's not even acceptable then. All the talk about sustained success can never be realized until they start valuing how a 16 yr old can turn into a superstar .

And for those who dont respect IFA remember some of these 16 year olds that get signed, turn into guys like Juan Soto. I for one would like a wildcard or two and hope they pan out. https://www.mlb.com/news/nationals-sign-dominican-outfielder-juan-soto/c-134216106

Did you see what Joe Kelly and Nathan Eovaldi got last offseason?

I love Abreu but he is not good defensively. He, Eloy, and Tim Anderson's inability to cut down on errors may always prevent the Sox from being good defensively.

Even Stevie Wonder could figure out the author of this thread. Tonight also showed why Covey can't be on the pitching staff.

It’s simple. I’ve watched Grandal catch quite a bit and I believe he’s much closer to the career 16 bWAR player per BR than the career 32 fWAR player per FG. At just a tick over 2 bWAR per season that’s not bad but he’s going to get paid much more than most 31 year old 2 WAR/season catchers would. Pass. Regarding JDM, he’s best suited as an AL DH but I also believe he could very well post a 3 WAR season next year as an OF, ala 2019 Jorge Soler (also not a major league quality OF).

Frare was in fact awful this year. Both in the bigs and AAA. But he’s got a great arm, throws left handed and is still just 26. Of all the guys you listed, he is definitely the safest, I’d be surprised to see him outrighted or DFAd this winter. He’s the first lefty reliever depth piece after Bummer and Fry with Osish now gone. But ya, point remains. Sox 40 man is effectively at like 27/28 guys who will be there after ST.

It’s unbelievable the amount that is brought up.

Hey if the Sox actually just stuck to Cuban guys it wouldn't be terrible. I mean of course the Dominican Republic produces the most players but even in the last few years the Sox also missed the boat ( pun intended ) on some decent Cubans like the Twins signing of relief pitcher 25 yr old. Yennier Cano in the middle of June after most players were already signed, for $750K and we already know the Sox had $1.25M at least because of the trades with the Rangers involving Jones and Castillo. So why didn't the Sox sign him ? They signed Yolbert Sanchez who is 22 yrs old.($2.5M) 2 weeks later; The Twins signed Cano and at 25 yrs old you would think he would be right up the Sox alley since they seem to disdain the 16 year olds. Now I might not have the full story because the 2 week difference might be the difference between the Sox having the funds or not and being in the penalty from the year before. Like I said it's tricky learning these things. The Tigers signed some mystery Cuban OF named Roberto Campos ($2.65M) the same day the Sox announced signing Sanchez and he wasn't even ranked in the top 30. Of course ranking these guys is nearly impossible and Baseball America stopped ranking them altogether.

Not at all a loss. Guy is already 31 with little to no success at the MLB level. Sox can do better for a 3rd lefty option out of the pen. Great to see the 40-man getting trimmed rather quickly.

Trying to find his UBER rating Exactly why we shouldn't get our hopes up in FA Precisely, don't get why CWS doesn't participate Thought I was the only one who heard that anecdote from Buck/Smoltz, unreal

Yep wasted money on a washed-up free agent instead of 3-4 wild card intl FA. As an owner, if you’re worried about freeing up 500k, you should sell immediately.

Castillo was already released by TX lol.

99% sure it was @bmags

I offer 3-60 with option for fourth. 24-20-16 and 16 option. The payment structures gives us an advantage over teams near cap and drops salary when we have to start paying our own.

EE on a one year deal might make a lot more sense than JDM on a four or five year deal. You wouldn’t lock yourself into $100m for a declining player, and you leave the opportunity for Andrew Vaughn to play in 2021. JDM 2019: 139 wRC+ EE 2019: 129 wRC+

Who was the poster who was so sure Castillo would be on the Sox in 2020 ?

So they decided to not offer Castillo a QO?

"Mr. Hahn, the White Sox have had international signing penalties for the last 2 seasons and thus they were limited in how they spent their money. However, this year, the White Sox had a large international signing pool available to them and those 2 full seasons where they could have been scouting players prior to the penalties expiring. However, despite those advantages, the White Sox chose not to spend all their international money on players that could have made them better in the long term, instead signing only a handful of players and sending excess money off to Texas in exchange for a pittance of extra money in a year where the payroll was already extremely low. While I'm sure you're happy with the players you did get, as White Sox fans watching this behavior, how can we judge your failure to take advantage of all your available international funds to mean anything other than the money this year was more important to the front office than winning, and how can we interpret these trades to mean anything other than teams like Texas clearly care more about winning than you do?" Anyone wants to ask it at Soxfest? Already written.

Yeah, the problem isn't that they're selling off the slot, it's that they haven't already used it. After you failed to spend it it, why not ship it off? We already know, and have discussed plenty, that they botched this signing period, this is just rehashing that.

Every year they should be rolling the dice on some of these 16 year old players. If one hits its worth it. The fact that we opt out is overly dumb.

Only excuse I can think of is the Sox valued the player they got back more than a $250k player in IFA. Being 23 at low A and bad isn't really a glowing endorsement though so I'm going to say that's BS.

Gerrit Cole's sister might be available too.

Another penny pinching move by the Sox. Jerry Reinsdorf is pathetic.

Sox saved 500k. Cole is ours.

It is truly funny. Beautiful financial engineering.

Maybe a fall back option, once they lowball JD Martinez.

If I was the Mets GM, there is literally no reasonable package you could make out of those players that would convince me to give up Nimmo right now. I'd turn down any 4 of those guys. Maybe talk to me at the deadline if some of them have some success. Brandon Nimmo is a 27 year old former first round pick with 3 remaining years of control and a 4-win season 2 years ago. I don't care how many other OFs they have, there is no good reason to give that up without a top 50 prospect keying the return. If I go back to Carlos Rodon after 2017, even after he had his first injury problem, and say "would I trade Carlos Rodon for a package of 5 of those guys?" I'd have said "good lord no." Those guys have enough value to do the kinds of deals the White Sox did in 2015 and 2016; getting guys who are now in their last 1-2 years before free agency, who don't have a lot of time left to build any additional value with their team and who are getting expensive. They're not valueless, but the only way they could bring Nimmo in return is if the Mets FO is awful.

Lol you want me to list off guys with trade value? Stiever, Dunning, Walker, Rutherford, Adolfo, Basabe, Sheets, Thompson, Dalquist, Pilkington, Lambert and Hamilton should all have trade value and are the primary pieces other teams would be interested after the elite prospects.

Have the Sox actually made any statement about where they want to end up payroll wise for 2020? Where they are willing to go payroll wise for 2021 onward? The average MLB payroll is $138 million, and if we aren't willing to be at $140 million in 2021 then this whole rebuild was a sham. We do need to save $20-25 million for next year's free agent market I would imagine.

I think this off season is going to be the opposite of last off season with the big market teams being very aggressive and throwing their weight around. That's why I think the Sox should go heavy in the trade market. If (giant if) they're creative there could be some very good deals to be had.

No one is screaming the market will work in our favor. But to say the market dynamics are vastly different this year and the Yankees are automatically going to spend hog wild and there is no hope for us is absurd. The Yankees could afford a $300M+ payroll every single year and don’t. Why is that? And last year they could have added Machado or Corbin and didn’t. I still think they’re a huge threat for the top guys, but they aren’t the free agent monster they were under the previous Steinbrenner.

Yep, and that will put them down to $200 million. Just below the $208 million luxury tax.

The Yankees are there right now.

Happy for nats. Goes to show you don’t need some aggressively analytical front office to win a WS still, but do need super talented and competent decision makers.

Cole for sure, but I almost feel like Strasburg would be the better play for the Sox since they can let the other teams actually willing to give out record breaking deals fight over Cole, and meanwhile the Sox can make Strasburg feel like the only pitcher in the room and go straight for the heart.

^^If only Abreu could defend 1st base even 1/50th as well as the Abreu worshippers defend him

Awesome! Really happy for Ryan Zimmerman, dude has been through it all

Almost forgot why I stopped coming on here

Yes that's how it works.

Idk. I almost like the fact that injuries have limited the miles on his arm After how much both have pitched this year I wouldn't he surprised if both had down years next year.

I'm not playing this game again this season off season

You were saying?

I'm 100% on board with signing Rendon and moving Moncada to RF. Moncada would be above average in the OF, at least. I can see him being an elite right fielder. Add Madrigal and you have a damn good defense.