WhiteSox2023

Maybe Getz wised up and realized Vargas has no glove?

Very, very small sample size at a low level of competition, considering his age, but the strikeout rate could have been promising.

Sure, contending teams wanted him as a backup / utility-man, due to his good glove but weak bat. Meanwhile, Rojas signed with our lowly non-contending White Sox. Why? Because he was likely told he would get plenty of playing time. The Sox will no doubt overexpose him as a full-time starter.

You are right. Lux is definitely a better player. But why does Lux make sense for this Sox team? With only two more years of control, are you thinking that Lux will produce more like he did in the second half of last season and will be flippable for prospects, or is he a guy you would want the Sox to give a contract extension to?

Exactly. That’s what he would’ve been for the other interested teams. We will use him as a starter at 3B.

Acquiring Lopez, Fletcher, and Rojas shows that he still values slappy little scrubs like himself. All guys that could be replaced internally with equally bad players, so why bother?

Look at the positives — if Rojas has a good first half, Getz can flip him for prospects like the ones he gave up for Booser and Gilbert!

You mean the rumor that Harold kept mentioning that made zero sense to begin with considering the Sox would have to give up talent for a guy with only 2 years of control left? No s%*#, fathom! 😉

Yep. I was hoping two Little Nicky’s would be enough for the Sox in Madrigal and Lopez. Now we have Rojas to fill the void. Other teams including the Cubs wanted Rojas as a utility guy, but he probably signed with the Sox because Getz told him he would have the starting 3B job. Even though this move won’t mean much in the grand scheme of things, it’s scary that it continues to show the type of players Getz values — crappy little infielders and outfielders that are as bad at baseball as he was.

Hyperbole is assuming that when someone says another team may have offered more than the Braves for Bummer, that immediately means it was two of the Orioles top prospects. No one ever said that, but it wouldn’t take much to beat an offer that included the Braves two DFA candidates in Soroka and Lopez, a mediocre longman with crappy stuff in Shuster, along with Gowens and the recently DFA Shewmake. I don’t care about last year and acquiring bums like Soroka and Lopez. Everyone knew it was a lost year and those guys sucked. So yes, it is possible that two prospects from another team could be worth more than Shuster and Gowens right now, and they don’t have to be two of Kjerstad, Mayo, and Basallo. I know I’d rather have the Twins #3 prospect right now over Vargas but I’m sure you’ll defend that trade to your dying breath as well.

We don’t know what the other offers were. Getz thought he was getting back two rotation arms in Soroka and Shuster and a starting 2B in Lopez. He was trying to fill out a rotation and lineup with cheap fliers [junk]. Perhaps another team was offering a couple prospects better than that 5 player “haul” that Getz got back.

Do Shuster and Gilbert also strikeout 11 per 9 innings like Bummer?

Shuster is pretty much smoke and mirrors. His stuff is trash and he walks far too many guys. He was lucky to have an ERA under 5 last season.

But Bummer didn’t take a haircut. Team options aren’t guaranteed money. Like I said, did either Eloy or Moncada get theirs? Robert won’t get his either if he keeps sucking like Eloy and Moncada. Meanwhile, if Bummer was as bad as you and @PaleAleSox are saying, the Braves could have paid him $1.25 to go away. Instead, they gave him $13 million guaranteed.

It would have been interesting to see if guys like Booser and Gilbert would have been cut outright eventually and become free agents with no other teams having interest, had Getz not jumped to give up a player for them.

Bummer received a new contract which guaranteed him $13 million over the next two years. His previous Sox contract was two non-guaranteed $7.25 and $7.5 million team options for 2025 and 2026 respectively, each with $1.25 million buyouts. All Bummer was guaranteed after being a “corpse” last season was a $1.25 million buyout. Instead, he got $13 million guaranteed. Guaranteed money trumps team options with buyouts. I’d say Bummer did pretty well for being a “corpse” last season. As I said, club options with buyouts aren’t guaranteed money. Moncada and Eloy can attest to this. Neither is incentive-based money. Unless you are Kenny Williams and truly think the Sox offered Machado the best contract.

He was so bad that the Braves, an annual contender, chose to extend him.

You could make a list of bad Getz acquisitions from last offseason that were cut before their contract and/or player control was up.

I thought only Greg cared about losing 120 games instead of just 110. Who the f*** cares? It’s massive failure either way you slice it.

One would think the dumpster would be empty by now but Getz keeps managing to pillage from it…

Isn’t it interesting that Getz had to DFA one of his trade acquisitions from last year to make room for this guy? My guess is that Gilbert will go the same way as Shewmake within the next year.

Banks had some history of success in three straight seasons with the Sox before he was traded. Gilbert hasn’t been good since his rookie season in 2021.

Hope this choice by Barfield works out better than his last one…

He’s 25 years old now and he has put up a .586 OPS in 591 plate appearances. Not a huge sample size but the equivalent of a full year in the majors. He also blows with the glove at whatever position he is thrown at, so that will further keep his WAR/value down.