Perfect Vision

Whether or not the Sox are working on Harper right now, Lozano might have requested that they wait to announce the deal. Think about it -- he wouldn't want Boras to be able to use Manny's contract terms as a floor in negotiations with the Phillies (and if the Sox really are still in on Harper, they wouldn't want Boras to know those contract terms either). It actually makes a lot of sense that they could have a deal but have chosen not to announce it. For those that think they wouldn't be able to keep this quiet, if we've learned one thing this offseason it's that our acclaimed national reporters and experts aren't exactly crackpot investigative minds. Rosenthal, Heyman, Morosi....these guys are respected and trusted because they have direct lines to the GMs and agents. But if Hahn and Lozano refuse to confirm anything to these guys, they're not going to report a deal is done. Simple as that. And if a deal was essentially done, but they have decided not to announce until Harper is resolved, what are some of the things we might see: We might see Manny ordering new White Sox-colored gloves to get ready for the season. We might see Hahn joking about Manny signing with the Raiders, rather than talk about the Sox working hard to get a deal done. We might see an open locker next to Alonso and Jay. We might see a particular reporter with close ties to Manny's family unreasonably confident that Manny is going to the White Sox.

You're making an assumption about their salary ceiling. None of us knows what their plan is.

I think the Sox have their price for both guys. They may expect the Phillies to beat their offer for Harper, but I don't think a Machado signing takes them out of the Harper market.

With all the tension surrounding leaks this offseason, I kind of expect there to be nothing and then all of a sudden "Machado and White Sox have reached an agreement." I don't think we're going to get any of the usual "talks are progressing" or "sides are optimistic" or anything like that.

For a guy who talks an awful lot about others trolling, Jon seems to do nothing but troll these days.

Might as well put this here. Not sure if this has any bearing on their pursuit of Bryce, other than the Phillies front office has obviously been splitting their attention with other things.

It just seems inevitable that absolutely nothing will happen today, tonight Passan or someone else will tweet that it seems that the Padres are motivated to get a deal done with Machado, and it will be utter doom and gloom here after that. Isn't that the pattern we've been following for a while?

Reporters aren't bound by the CBA. Neither is Rawlings.

If only Jon knew someone whose job it was to look into something interesting like this and, you know, report findings.

Yankees and Cubs fans lol. Couldn't happen to a better bunch.

Right. Now that it appears that the Indians aren't going to trade one of their starters, there just isn't anyone available by trade who is good enough to give up Andujar.

Dude

Ok this is funny

The owners are winning.

When this whole thing is over, everyone who has chimed in about the offers (Gomez, Nightengale, Levine, Passan) is going to find a way to claim they were right.

I have this strange feeling that the Sox are going to sign both Harper and Machado. It really seems like the Sox and Phillies are the only two teams committed to making long term offers to these guys. Everyone else's interest is always qualified as "short term" or "at their price." It also seems like both players prefer the Sox over the Phillies if the offers are close. Finally, I think the Phillies' willingness to spend "stupid money" has been overblown. Otherwise, Patrick Corbin would be in camp with them right now and they probably already would have locked up one of the two stars. I also think their apparent caving on the price for Realmuto is a sign that they are not confident about signing either player. I know some people disagree with that but if I was about to commit $30 mil/per year to one player, I would be holding tight to my cost-controlled top prospects.

If the Sox entered this thing prepared to go to $250 mil + if they needed to, and the Giants and Padres did not get into this thing in the beginning because they weren't prepared to go that high, then there's no reason to be worried about them. Manny isn't going to be upset with the Sox by this process. The Yankees, yeah he's probably pissed at them.

Every year, players and agents fight tooth and nail to "get that additional year." Just this offseason we saw it with Corbin, Pollock, and now Keuchel. It's about squeezing the most total money. Players don't sign short term deals by choice. If Lozano comes to the Sox saying Manny's considering taking a short term deal, they should resist the urge to laugh and politely tell him that they understand and that their offer is still good.

I don't think the Sox would send Jim Thome to meet with Harper unless they were very much in on him. They knew what Harper's price would likely be before that meeting. I'd like to think that the Sox have more respect for Thome than to send him to meet with a guy they have no intention of signing.

Likely true. But Alonso didn't make much sense as an acquisition without the Manny connection, and he would be a constant reminder of their failure to get Manny. To say nothing of the fact that the Sox fanbase (unjustifiably) would probably harbor some resentment towards Alonso for not convincing Manny to come here. Make no mistake - the front office will be planning on how to move Alonso within hours of Manny signing somewhere else.

I tend to not put much stock into social media posts, but Manny's got to know that if he doesn't sign with the Sox there's a decent chance that Alonso will be traded before opening day (and almost certainly by this year's trade deadline), right? So getting Alonso's daughter Sox shoes is just odd unless Manny is currently of the mind that he's going to sign with the Sox. My two cents.

Does anyone know how an agent's commission works on a long term deal? Does it became guaranteed over the life of the contract even if the agent is fired the day after the contract is signed? If so, Lozano is going to be steering Manny towards the longer term contract (even though he's ethically obligated to bring every offer to Manny). A short term deal would be seen as a failure and I think Lozano would be at great risk of being fired, and not cashing in on Manny's next deal.

I think the offer he actually wants would have come by now if it was going to come at all.

If I was Lozano, I would have done the exact same thing he's done. What sense does it make to agree to an offer with the Sox on January 15th when you know that offer is still going to be there on February 15th. Might as well try to drum up interest with other teams. There's no downside to that if there's really no risk of the Sox offer being pulled. But we're reaching the end of the road. At what point does Lozano wave the white flag and re-engage the Sox to get the deal done.

At the end of the day, I just can't see Manny agreeing to a short term, high AAV deal over a longer term deal. There's just too much uncertainty with a short term deal and I think he makes the rational decision when the time comes. I also can't see Bryce signing before Manny. Boras won't allow it. That should remove the risk of the Phillies making a large panic offer to Manny. I remain very confident that the Sox will get this done.