Sarava

Good post. If you want to compare RF - Castellanos had 3.2 WAR last year (despite his defensive shortcomings), and could of been had for the same $20 mil per. And his WAR could easily go up if he continues to improve on defense. For 2B - I still go back to Marcus Semien. IMO there was no player available this off-season that could of impacted the Sox in a positive way like Semien would of. I wouldn't assume the Sox would of had to of paid him the same $175 mil that Texas gave him. Texas was a 102 loss team and they have that horrid Texas heat in the summer. It's probably a team that has to massively overpay a guy to get him down there. And they did that. If the Sox had a solid offer in the $120 mil range, I'm not so sure he might not of taken that. Who knows. For relievers - I think just about all of us agree they way overspent on relievers. Even if you get the expected performance out of these guys - it still wasn't money spent wisely. And unfortunately - relievers are about as volatile as any position on the field. So they're not likely to get the performance they're paying for out of all of them. It's just a poor use of resources. It is true the Sox have few holes. It's just baffling when you go out of your way to not fill them. Why not put your best foot forward in this short championship window?

If he signs a one year prove it deal, it seems likely that would be returning to the Mets.

I'm not going to be emailing anyone. But it sure feels like they've gone out of their way to stifle interest and ticket sales with how they've managed the roster since last year's trading deadline. We'll see. As I recall, most of us weren't terribly thrilled with the off-season in 04/05.

Semien had 30 HR's against righties last year, so he would of had the same effect as adding an impact lh bat.

It also doesn't help the team's need to hit good right handed pitchers better.

What concerns me is the Sox don't seem to win these negotiations that drag on. Maybe you could say Hendriks. But Grandal was a quick strike signing. Hopefully they surprise me.

The Sox have won 2 out of 7 playoff games the past 2 seasons ,and have for the most part looked lousy in most of them. How can anyone wrap that as anything but bad?

Other than naming James specifically - I think Look at Ray Run is 100% right. We do see this same pattern every flipping year. Whether leaks come from insiders on this board, Bob Nightengale, Steve Stone, Not Steve Cishek...who really cares. But we do see the same pattern every year. We get teased and raise our expectations for players that will be signed, and it usually doesn't happen. Maybe it's a case of us Sox fans being at fault for believing things that weren't ever going to happen. But one thing Rich Hahn and Jerry Reinsdorf should understand is this. Just about all of us don't give a flying fuck about having a seat at the table. That gets us nowhere. We still have a giant hole in right field and a subpar starting second basemen. We don't care what failed offers went out to Machado, Harper, Wheeler, Conforto, Semien, whoever. You either sign the guy or you failed.

Good post. I'll add one threat, that to me is by far the biggest threat. The White Sox. The threat is that they just don't want to fill the RF hole with a championship caliber piece. The threat is that they've blown their load on relief pitchers and utility infielders and don't want to spend further. The threat might even be that they are content being a contender and don't want to take the steps to be one of the actual favorites. I hope I'm wrong. I don't care about being right. I just want the Sox to win the World Series.

So Correa got 3 years @ 105.3 mil. Opt outs after first 2 years. It's interesting. Sox fans have been dying for an impact signing since this rebuild has taken shape. There's been a couple nice minor impact signings like Grandal or Hendriks. But nothing even close to the Twinkies signing Carlos Correa. I'm going to say right now - if the Sox don't sign Conforto, then they deserve the scorn and backlash that will be coming their way from the fanbase. Enough of this utility infielder and relief pitcher bs. Go Sox!

Twins signed Correa? Wow

I think I would be ok with moving Crochet and Sheets for Montas.

Wheeler I acknowledge. Machado - I've always felt the Sox structured their offer in a way they knew wouldn't be accepted. I'm not convinced they wanted more than a seat at the table. And the reality is, once they lost on Machado, Bryce Harper was still out there for taking and seemingly without a team, and the Sox media moles all immediately snuffed out any potential Sox interest. I personally think Harper would of jumped at a Sox offer over Philly if it was in the ballpark. It felt like he went there because nvbody else really wanted him and that scale of a contract. It's too bad. He would of solved many issues for this team.

Well it's down to just Conforto left now, right? I can't say that i'm confident the Sox will sign him. But if you are, I'll run with that.

I'm not sure the problem is Hahn. If Jerry is willing to spend the money on a yearly basis, but refuses to give long contracts. That takes the Sox out of the running for almost all premium talent free agents. Are we still paying the price as fans for the Julio Cruz contract? Jerry was paying that one for almost 20 years if I remember right.

At this point I would be shocked if they signed Schwarber or Conforto. I think it's just a gut feeling we all have. In the end, isn't Grandal's contract the biggest Sox contract still? They seem hesitant to give any single player a huge deal. Which basically locks them out of the top of the market for pretty much everything except relief pitchers. As others have said, they are the spending the money. Just not on the glaring team needs.

Because he's not a reliever

I feel like I'm in the twilight zone with some fans here openly advocating the Sox make their defense as piss-poor as possible. This is a formula for winning the AL central going away, and then being easily cast aside in the first round of the playoffs as the Sox were the past 2 seasons.

I was a really big fan of Rick Hahn, even despite the Tatis trade. I think he did an amazing job of assembling all this young talent. That is - up until the Madrigal trade. He's been a dumpster fire from that trade onward. We're so damn close, and they just keep ignoring the glaring holes that can improve this team. It's frustrating. and that said, if they announce Schwarber or Conforto is signed soon, that could change my view somewhat. But even if they do sign a stud in RF - do they have the starting staff to make a WS run? I suspect no. They don't have that horse to anchor the rotation like most WS champs have. And for Kimbrel - I think Hahn's quotes that are out there show he is trading Kimbrel. He wouldn't be hinting it if he didn't 100% intend on doing that.

Unless we can trick Rick Hahn in to thinking Schwarber or Conforto are relief pitchers or utility infielders, I don't think they will be interested ?

It's unlikely, but his play in the latter part of 2021 probably warranted some time in Charlotte.

I do think Kimbrel will be traded. But let's not pretend that there isn't a history of White Sox front office incompetence when it comes to Kimbrel. That trade was a bad idea from the moment it was conceived, all the way to this very second.

Isn't that too much for a guy that's pretty much a lock to be gone after 1 season?

I like the pen a lot. I just worry that it might come at the expense of a good right fielder, a good starter pitching addition and maybe a good DH solution. We've already seen it came at the expense of a good 2nd base solution.

I know....I was mostly dreaming hahaha. And if anyone is to believe NSC saying they're still talking to Tepera, they might not even have enough money for Conforto or Schwarbs. We would have the most filthy bullpen in baseball, but still wouldn't be able to hit good RH pitchers.