South Side Hit Men

Yes, but an alternative not palatable to the owner now, is it? Jerry's priority is not the "multi-championships" Hahn has been blathering about for the past decade with absolute ZERO playoff success. Jerry's priority is to wave carrots and maximize profits. There is no change with the Sox or Bears until there is a change at the top.

Well, they do have enough cash to give Hahn another extension. It would seem most of the board would support that move.

While player movement would halt during a lockout, management positions are still in play Don’t look for the Mets or Athletics to get serious about their managerial searches until the expected start of the lockout. At that point, player movement will halt, but teams still will be free to hire for management positions, including managers and coaches. - Ken Rosenthal

I plan on supporting the Players, so can do that here and not cross the line. I may have posts critical of Jerry/Manfred et al for the first time in this forum.

The alternative and most likely course from this team is LESS than what I laid out, not more. Stick with the SP and C they have, Sheets and Vaughn have RF, Eloy for as long as he lasts stays in LF. Scrub 2B, perhaps one more lower cost RP. Then you have the team also declining to improve for free, employing defensive shifts like the best teams, but passing because 78 year old manager doesn't likey.

https://theathletic.com/2985471/2021/11/29/rosenthal-by-adding-max-scherzer-the-mets-are-acting-like-a-new-york-team-should-but-thats-no-guarantee-of-success/

I'm hopeful for this scenario, felt they rushed into poor signings to jump the market the past two seasons, when better (and less expensive) alternatives were available if they showed patience. Time will tell if their budget is limited to whatever salary relief they can salvage out of Kimbrel. or they have $30M-$40M to spend including his salary. If they can pick up a decent catcher (Stallings, Gomes), second baseman (Iglesias/Villar/Harrison), right fielder (Pederson/Soler) and starter (Matz was the one regret in terms of misses so far - Richards, Martin Perez and Tyler Anderson have some upside) and bringing in a hybrid like McHugh and one more reliever would put the team in decent position entering the year. Detroit will improve, but the focus is having guys firing in October.

Or perhaps he knows Tony is Italian.

This would be a solid add for the White Sox.

Buxton key demand for a no-trade clause finally got this deal done after the Twins refused to offer it in previous negotiations.

White Sox upset Boras isn't accepting their 40% off coupon code on Cyber Monday.

I could see arguments for either. I hedge on 2020 because they entered the season with two legitimate playoff starters (Giolito and Keuchel), and ???s, though COVID unexpectedly impacted Kopech's availability.

Would you peg 2020 or 2021 as the start of the Sox' theoretical competitive window?

Matz and Gray were the only two signings so far I wish the Sox would have done in terms of likely budget and their value vs. what they signed for. The most likely chance to improve is likely via trade with Oakland or another team looking to dump salary.

Meh, they will just trade for Wander Franco and Gerrit Cole, sign Ray, Rodon and Baez, and grab Jose Ramirez and Bryce Harper at the trade deadline for good measure.

Can he come here for 2022?

Liking what Kim Ng is doing in Miami.

Solid article regarding the MLBPA's chief negotiator Bruce Meyer. Jerry's crony "special advisor". I have confidence the players will both win significant gains in this contract, and also help fix the game. https://theathletic.com/2981810/2021/11/28/mlb-players-want-change-and-bruce-meyer-is-fighting-to-deliver-it-the-other-side-is-not-going-to-be-happy-with-me/ Bruce will be the only baseball fan when in a room when he meets with Manfred and Halem. Max is on board, as are McHugh, two of eight on the Player's executive committee.

Players have generally been signing for $5.5M-$6M AAV per each projected 2022 fWAR share. Updated through 9PM reporting: Crowdsourced or final AAV per projected 2022 fWAR (Limited to the 33 FAs with a 2.0 or higher projected fWAR): https://www.fangraphs.com/roster-resource/free-agent-tracker?&pos=all Fan Graphs Top 50 FA Rank ; $ = 2022 fWAR / AAV; (Age / #AAV Years) 1B (2/1): 5. F. Freeman $5.1M (32 5); 29. A. Rizzo $6,4M (32 3); 28. B. Belt $8.8M (34 1). 2B/SS (1/1): 3. M. Semien $5.6M (31 7); 12. J. Baez $10.0M (29 4). SS (3): 1. C. Correa $5.8M (27 8); 2. C. Seager $6.1M (28 7); 10. T. Story $6.9M (29 6). 3B (1): 30. K. Seager $6.0M (34 2). OF (6/2): T. Pham $4.5M (34 2); 20. K. Schwarber $5.8M (29 4); 21. A. Garcia $6.0M (31 4); 9. S. Marte $6.5M (33 4); 22. M. Conforto (29 1) $6.8M; 11. N. Castellanos $7.6M (30 4); 6. K. Bryant $9.3M (30 6). SP (9/8): J. Quintana $0.9M (33 1); A. Wood $4.0M (31 3); 31. S. Matz $4.4M (31 4); 13. E. Rodriguez $4.4M (29 5); 38. A. Cobb $4.6M (34 2); 17. C. Rodon $4.7M (29 4); 7. R. Ray $4.9M (30 4); D. Duffy $5.0M (33 2); 36. A. DeSclafani $5.2M (32 3); 32. J. Gray $5.8M (30 4); 50. Y. Kikuchi $6.0M (31 1); 14. K. Gausman $6.1M (31 5); 19. J. Verlander $6.9M (39 2); 8. M. Stroman $6.9M (31 4); 4. M. Scherzer $7.3M (37 3); 18. C. Kershaw $8.4M (34 4); 15. N. Syndergaard $9.1M (29 1).

Hahn's going the distance. He's going for speed.

If Jerry was anti "scumbag criminal", he would have not big timed Hahn last October with the managerial hire.