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And this is where Reinsdorf’s cheapness is beyond appalling. Instead of being able to add a starter at $10M and say La Stella at $7M, we now have to pivot to D tier starters in free agency or empty our prospect cupboard because Jerry won’t fund an extra $2M. Fuck that clown.

Just another reason why overpaying for Eaton, especially so early in FA was pure stupidity. You could've had that deal once spring training started, because no one was scrambling to go sign him. Hell at this rate, you probably could've had Joc Pederson at 6. On another note, the way you people talk here about Vaughn reminds me of how people talked about Joe Borchard, Brandon McCarthy, Ryan Sweeney, etc. Vaughn is just a prospect. The Sox have multiple prospects/young players left. If I could go Vaughn and a bunch of lower level prospects instead of getting rid of our projected starting 2B and potential ace starter, then you do it.

Jerry Reinsdorf owns the team

He's waiting

Oh fuck off Fathom...shit, you’re right.

Complete quote: No. 4: “The downtime between hearing from teams and stuff gave me a lot of time to go down rabbit holes online about which way organizations were doing. I may or may not have read all 90something pages of the SoxTalk blog [editor’s note: it’s a forum] that was about me, ’cause it was interesting. I wanted to see the fans’ perspective, and they were largely positive. White Sox fans were by far the most positive in everything that has transpired that I’ve seen online. That was another big thing. You see the fan group, you see the fact at how positive they were, and that was a huge contribution to helping us narrow everything down. You guys helped him to decide to sign with the Sox. Good job to all you great posters.

If the Sox wanted to move Lopez for nothing they would’ve just nontendered him.

Dumpster diving is absolutely inexcusable with the direction they have been teasing us going in.

Give Soxtalk $54 million and we would sign someone and call for his DFA in spring training.

Get a proper swear filter

Want to add one thing about 7-inning doubleheaders...it needs to be fair. If they're going to do it, it needs to be because they're trying to shorten the season by playing an equal amount of scheduled doubleheaders for each team. If a game gets rained out, the make up game still needs to be 9 innings. It can't just be "all doubleheaders are 7 innings". Yes, they did what they had to do in 2020, but it isn't what I would want going forward.

Luis Robert and Kopech

Spanish?

Tampering with erection is definitely a serious crime.

1) You're making the argument for signing Bauer for me. Everything you mentioned in this point is a great reason to sign Bauer and bring more long term stability to the rotation. 2) That kind of thinking will lose you a World Series in today's game. Get 4 SP and have the depth to rest and replace as needed. Also getting Bauer makes the Top 3 better. 3) The character risk thing is overblown and at the very least far outweighed by his talent. It's not about "right away", it's about the cost of replacing all the talent that would be gone at the end of 2023. Or are we just tearing it all down at the end of 2023?

Because we weren’t serious contenders without a legit #2 starter and having Dane Dunning for the next six years wouldn’t change that. There’s a difference between recklessly going “all-in” and not wasting a season of a young, promising core by refusing to trade a guy like Dane Dunning. And I say that as a huge Dunning fan.

I’ll be glad when we get an owner who isn’t so profit driven.

By trading for someone with more than 1 year of control who was younger than 34 with a higher profile? The Lynn trade was conducive with an all-in strategy and that's it. If they aren't following through on that strategy and simply waiting then why not see if Dunning continued to develop? He was coming along nicely. I don't see how this is hard to understand.

One guy who hasn't pitched since 2018 and 2 guys that haven't seen A-ball...I know we love our prospects but zero chance of that one.

Right, after seeing how they got creative with Liam's deal, this seems like an opportunity for our FO to do something funky with a deal that would appeal to Bauer and give us some flexibility. I just don't think they'll get the go-ahead to push it.

It's insulting. Having an owner with two major league franchises at that . It's the one chance we have to make a dent in the top of the market with less competition. Dj Lemahieu got 15mm average. Why not take advantage of signing a difference maker as opposed to trading heavy assets? It's not even about Bauer at this point.

Last year, 3 of the final 4 teams used their bullpen the most. But I agree with you. If they play 162, the more you get out of your starters the better you will be.

While I’d expect them in that range for a starter, I’m a little confused as to why they’d have a have a hard cap unless all they have left is $8M or they are already committed to a bat like La Stella.

It definitely appears that our front office wanted to strike early and get *their* guys. We paid more than a fair price for Lynn, Eaton and Hendriks, it will be interesting to see how the remainder of the off season plays out but I don't think you could say we were value shopping with any of those moves. It is surprising that they don't have a strong preference for any of the remaining veteran starters where one would think a slight overpay would lock *their* guy up. Of all spots to value shop this one makes the least sense to me. It makes me wonder if they were in on any of the starters that signed early for good money like Morton, Minor or Smyly?

Yeah, I too don't get Richards.. We need someone who can give innings, he, unfortunantely cannot.

Why not just get bauer instead of this garbage??

Oh hell yes.

Though I like Walker as a FA, the payroll says its best for a trade. If its Musgrove then yeah, you trade Kelley. Agree that Pitt wouldn't want the others you mentioned, either. With due respect to Kelley; no guarantees. Musgrove is through all the finger crossing. Also, if target would be Castillo, virtually same 2021 salary, 1 more year of team control over Musgrove and a step up in quality, they should consider Vaughn if that's what it would take. They probably wouldn't though. Probably other similar candidates around the league.

I don’t know why a team would want to pay Richards to be in the injured list most of the time.

Stiever, Sheets, lottery ticket for Musgrove ($4.45M) Sign La Stella to a 1 year deal ($6M) Sign Flowers to a 1 year deal ($4M) That’s 3 moves, but still.

I'd honestly rather have Quintana.

Mypillow guy from the top rope with the treason bomb

I think Lavine took 1 shot in OT. The problem is he isnt shooting enough.

I don’t think he’s be the centerpiece, but if he allows you to do Madrigal + Heuer instead of Vaughn, that’s a no-brainer. True, except Dunning as a starter holds more value for me. Rangers have the higher likelihood to make out on top of that deal long-term IMO. If Lynn gets hurt or implodes that trade is going to look terrible for the Sox. I think that trade boiled down to Dunning not having as high of a ceiling as Kopech or Cease and the Sox not being able to depend on a former TJ guy for innings as the #3 on a playoff contender.

I see a lot of comments about this signing being too much money...not so much on here but on Twitter. Colome's salary last season was $10.5MM. Hendriks is going to be paid an average of $13MM a year over the next three years. If the Sox hold on to him for a fourth year, he'll make $15MM. If not, it's $1.5MM a year for 10 years. In my mind, this is not a bad deal at all for probably the best available reliever on the market. To get the best, you have to shell out some dough.

I am happy. Just remember it wasn't about the money. It was more about the fit.

This is a really nice signing. Hendriks is the guy we've heard they've been targeting, and he makes the bullpen one of the best in baseball, especially from the 7th inning on.

$54M to replace Colome because he get K's. People wanted to save resources when Eaton was signed and McCann left. This would be a major market type signing. Wrong team. Colome was stellar last year and people did not like him.

They need another innings eater.

I like it. It is expensive and those deals can go wrong but he is an elite talent and 3 years are managable in case it goes wrong. This should allow the sox to keep crochet in the minors especially if they keep heuer.

I would like to welcome Liam Hendriks to a long tradition of closers on the south side! In my lifetime we've had Farmer, Thigpen, Hernandez, Foulke, and of course Jenks. Also I shouldn't forget Colome. He was a big part of last years playoff team. There have been others, of course. But these are the ones that have stood out to me. Either had personal success or were on some very successful teams.

As both an Alabama Alum and a White Sox fan, this is an excellent night for feeling excitement for, and taking enjoyment from, accomplishments I contributed nothing to. Roll Tide / Go Sox, sometimes being a fan is really great.

Well they overpaid, gave him the 4 year deal I was opposed to. Shocked the hell out of and never thought JR had the balls to do it. BUT I WILL SLEEP GOOD TONIGHT KNOWING BUMMER STILL PITCHES THE 8th AND ALL THOSE GREAT YOUNG ARMS ARE THER TO PITCH THE 6th and 7th innings. We are the odds on favorite to not only win the Central but win the AL. Still see the Dodgers now as the obstacle to win it all. Are the Sox done?? Hopefully not. Still would like Brantley or Ozuna and a 4th Starter and let Cease and Kopech battle it out for #5. Crochet can now develop as either a starter or Hendricks eventual replacement. I could even live now with the Vaughn experiment as a DH/1st Base rotation with Abreu.

Given how much of a crapshoot closers are, that is probably the last place I would have invested the cash. That said - my answer probably has just as much risk, but I'd rather spend a bit more on a front-line starting pitcher and/or allocate some extra cash to extend Lynn/Giolito (and see if I can acquire/extend a starter). I don't love long-term cash tied into pitching, period (so my answer is hypocritical in nature as is my follow-up answer). It is one place I think Jerry has been right. And I can think of so few times he has been wrong - but I think this team has enough young arms that you could throw $100M at Bauer for 3 years and see if he bites (or go $70M for 2 years for all I care). For example - I would have been fine earmarking some funds to extend Lynn and make sure I get Giolito (I like longer term in this case because you are betting on someone younger and in Lynn's case, while there is risk due to Lynn's age, I think his age also means you don't have to go long-term so less chance of an albatross). That said - I don't hate the move - in the sense that if you are going to spend money on FA, I prefer going cream of the crop or waiting a long time for the market to play itself out. I don't like the middle of the pack game, feel you have a > risk of overplaying the market (from a price perspective) with all the same perils of free agency. But now that they've done this - I need to find some more pitching and do like the fact that on paper, this pen can shorten the game up quite a bit (which is another way you can handle not having as deep of a rotation - at least once you get into the post-season). My revisionist history move is I would have rather used some prospect capital and payroll to get Yu Darvish vs. Liam. But I recognize Yu comes with his own risk so not a slam dunk choice by any stretch of the imagination and this move preserves prospect capital for other potential moves.

I will say I am lukewarm on this move. I just don't like the use of salary resources on a closer. I like Liam and he makes the team better, I jus think if the Sox are as payroll limited as I assume they will be, there were probably better uses of the funds, however, I hope Liam crushes it for next 4 years and also hope I'm wrong and JR goes deeper in his pockets than I expect over next handful of years.

Add another starter like Quintana or Richards and it'll be one hell of an off-season.

Rick getting freaky with this one Can't complain about the results.