WestEddy

That's great news. I believe they were targeting the All-Star game for his return. Maybe they're not using the 60-day IL on him for a reason...

Horn is closer to the bigs, and is left-handed. Whether you choose to recognize that as a plus or not is meaningless. the Sox just watched Horn pitch up close last Friday, and probably saw a pitcher who was workable. Thompson sure looks like he stalled out, Rick Hahn's empty praise aside. I certainly wish Thompson and Mena well. I cringe at the guys who call players "hot garbage" and such. I seriously don't know if I'm not getting a inside site joke, or something. I remember the online blow-ups over at SouthSideSox when Jim Margalus ran it - over the trade of Jake Peter, or cutting Jordan Guerrero, two guys who brushed the bottom of the top ten for truly awful White Sox prospect lists back in the early-mid teens. You're advocating for never trading or cutting anybody except for 6 years of a sure-fire, can't miss #1 prospect who is 22 or younger. We all need to have dreams, but that's not really the way baseball works. MLB now has an organizational limit on players, and I'd rather the Sox concentrate on catching the 17-year-olds with stuff and working with them instead of pounding their heads against the wall with a guy who hasn't really clicked in 4 minor league seasons.

To me, the funniest part of all of this is the pivot from calling Mike Elias some uncomplimentary names for not wanting to jettison multiple top-20 in the game prospects for Dylan Cease - to prospect hugging on a guy who is getting passed on the depth chart by pitching titans, like Chase Solesky. Left-handed relievers are a commodity.

Bailey Horn isn't a starting pitcher. Through injuries, failures and a glut of DFAs at the end of ST, I'm sure they'll be okay.

It's really a chicken and egg situation with drafting vs. development, with a side of KW/Hahn jerking the top picks around by rushing them to the major league bullpen ahead of schedule. The organization is developing pitchers, with guys like Chase Solesky and Christian Mena even passing Thompson to AAA. They have a group of guys right behind him in Kohl Simas, Jonathan Cannon, Tyler Schweitzer, Connor McCullough, Josimar Cousin, and Juan Carela. They still have Eder, Nastrini, Bush, and another 3-4 veterans to keep fresh at AAA, where frankly, they don't have the innings at AA or AAA to fart around with this guy anymore.

Matt Thompson's already in Rule 5 territory. The whole league had a shot to nab him for $50k, and took a pass. And depending how MLB handles the 2020 COVID season, he could be a minor league free agent after this season.

I guess they're still not a full week into games, but it's weird they have as many catchers as pitchers at the game.

They have Davis Martin waiting for a 60-day IL, too. I liked Smith-Njigba. He passed through the 8 worst teams twice. Fangraphs seems to think he's a AAAA player. He just doesn't seem to be well regarded.

And it's not a lot of bullpen-only lefty arms for a team with horrible reliever depth in the high minors to sift through in spring training.

And here we go with the digging in to the point where Bailey Horn will be the worst pitcher in all of baseball history in about 4 volleys. Matt Thompson was going nowhere. We've established that. Getz grabbed an interesting lefty arm that he probably knew pretty well. The NRIs are either going to force the issue, or they won't and will be let go at their particular deadlines. I really don't understand all the hand-wringing over one 40-man roster spot. Declan Cronin bounced around a few times. There will probably be a few days at the end of ST where everybody's DFA-ing dudes, and only the cream of the crop will get grabbed. If Horn is so problematic, he'll easily wind up in Charlotte.

I didn't see him making the team this year, honestly. Touki does the same thing, only better.

He was better out of the bullpen than he was starting the game. Even so, as a starter, he put up some nice game scores against Texas, Cleveland, Milwaukee and Baltimore. Putting on my dick hat, again, maybe if the Sox traded him for Baily Horn, all the people mocking Scholtens would be telling us how he was great prospect depth we shouldn't have given up on.

Okay, I was being a dick. Fletcher has hit, tho, and has carried higher BABIPs through the minors. He sure looks like he could slot in and if he hits what B-R projects (.271/.337/.427), there's your > league average RF.

DeJong with DeDONG!! The Dodgers have woken a sleeping giant!

Perez is not on the 40-man, and Drohan will start the season on the IL. Many people here throw out Banks and Peralta as detritus that could be cut whenever some AAAA name passes through waivers. Tim Hill, because he once wore a Royals' uniform, will never be able to record an out while pitching for the White Sox. They're focusing on developing Ky Bush as a starter until they aren't, and Ellard probably needs a couple months in AA before they make any decisions on him. Maybe Getz was working up to teaching Horn how to be a great pitcher, just like he did with Christian Mena, when Hahn traded him in 2021.

They were going to get him on a throwing program by the end of ST, right? So maybe he's up May 1. I just think they figured to get any value for Matt Thompson before he tops out in AAA.

Before the trade, the left-handed pitchers slated for bullpen duty seem to be: Tim Hill (ml) Tanner Banks (ml/AAA) Sammy Peralta (AAA) Andrew Perez (AAA) You're right! 4 left handers is the exactly perfect amount of left-handed bullpen guys in the bigs and AAA to go into the season with. 5 Is just one too many.

That's what I'm guessing. Bannister cut bait on a low ceiling, onerous fix in Thompson. You still need relievers when you're losing 90 games.

I agree with you both on Mena and Fletcher. Mena is untapped potential, and I'm sad to see him go. And I think that by year 6, Fletcher, if still in Chicago, should be a 4th OF. Of course, I'm joking around, now. But it's the course of internet arguments that everybody has to dig in, and an interesting arm becomes the prospect of myth. I would have liked to have 2 Sox-developed starters knocking at the door in Nastrini and Mena. Like many others, I'm going to wait before I rail on and on to see how Getz's plan works out. They could run through all their pitching depth by Memorial Day. Or they could seriously have about 5-7 arms that teams are calling up about, then plug in 5-7 more on Aug 1. Getz has to do something.

The guy who took Christian Mena, and turned him into Pedro Martinez, that's who.

Maybe Chris Getz should trade Fletcher this week. He'd immediately turn into a perennial All-Star, here. Fletcher has hit at every level, including a 100 PA cup of coffee. I'm not sure how hitting in a short stint means he will never hit at the major league level. It's like you want a 3 year track record of production in the bigs, with 6 years of control, still.

And the whole front office just watched him up close on Friday, right? It wouldn't surprise me if they saw something fixable.

Rick Hahn made a lot of bad trades, and some good trades. I don't think that Fletcher/Mena was a great trade, I think it was an even trade. Not like what we did to the Mariners. I would have rather not given up on Mena, but oh well. We now have an average production RF for the next 4-6 seasons. Where we had no OF prospect depth, we now do. The only free agent signing I did not like was Maldonado. I think Stassi/ Lee, Perez or Hack would have been fine. Moustakas is a bit of a head-scratcher, but he might push Sheets off the team, which is a net good. Getz has put together good, veteran bullpen depth without the dumb 4-year contracts. We also have a good 6-7 reasonable rotation options at AAA, where in years past, we really had, like, a half of one. Grabbing guys off the waiver wire and starting them the next day.