GreenSox

I don't know what aging out even means with the shape of this roster. He's probably the youngest OF on the 40 man; there is probably 1 interesting OF prospect in the org, and that prospect hasn't played an inning. The putative closer is 31 and he's yet to have a good Major League season. Tanner Banks was a better reliever than some they signed for pretty decent money, and they never called him up until he was 30. But now that he worked out, we traded for the Red Sox version of Banks. He may not make it, probably won't, but I give a little performance grace for the disaster that was 2024. We have many pitching prospects in the org. a lot better than a lot of the pitchers on the 40 man. Not so with OF. No reason to jettison him now.

Fletcher hit well the minors. he hit reasonably well in his MLB stint in Arizona. His Defense is sound. He didn't hit well for the Sox last year, but neither did anyone else. People were beating on him because he was 5-8 and other silly reasons. There is still a lot of riff raff with far less value than Fletcher on this 40 man.

I'll take operating like the Braves, Similar budgets/budget ability.* Braves have just had a well-run front-office. *At least we have historically; I'm assuming JR will allow a competitive budget.

On the subject of this thread, I kind of like this signing. Gallo has a discernable skill: he can hit homers. If he's got 20-25 in July, a team will pay the Sox for that.

We'll find out. I have hope for Getz; he seems reasonably humble and is putting together a team of smart people. He doesn't think he's always the smartest guy in the room. Refreshing, that is. If JR will give him the same budget he gave Hahn, he should be able to get it done. I thought Hahn was a putz almost immediately. Even though Getz has made some real howlers, he seems to me like he will actually try learn from his mistakes. And despite teh gaffes, he's also made some sharp moves that show open mindedness and creativity.

But the Sox have time to let him pan out....he doesn't have to be immediately productive. The Sox need 4 or 5 of their prospects to be studs and another half dozen become useful players. They can build around that. Montgomery would be a great start - lord knows the Sox are due for some production from young players.

The market for Flexen is really limited to teams with no aspirations. He does his job, but he’s just not very good; so a team that thinks it can contend really can’t use him. That limits him to the bottom of the league and he’s already done a stent with the White Sox and Rockies.

Shirley was Hahn's last director of amateur scouting, and he still is director. Some say that Haber was making some of the picks instead of Shirley, and that's obviously not happening anymore.

Well he was waived by the Reds a couple of weeks ago and got all the way to the Yankees; and now he can't make it past the Sox. Hope he's something.

That's probably the outlook, but I don't think it's that unfortunate. Sosa's been a good hitter in the minors. He had an excellent September 2024 in the majors. I think it really would behoove the Sox to give him a long look this season.. Work him in the OF. Versatility is the thing these days.

I've switched to the "trade Robert prior to season for best offer" camp. My reason is completely circular: the Sox seem hell-bent on moving him ASAP, so there must be a reason (beyond just an underwhelming 2024 performance).

They're going to have to get aggressive to build this thing. Hopefully soon. They just don't draft or internationally sign near astutely enough to build this from ground zero. The small opening I see is if they hit on a bunch of these pitchers who are currently ML ready or approaching ML ready, and then make savvy trades of those pitchers. That will require a level of aggression and urgency, but, if successful, could expand their pool of players/young prospects. That's one reason I was cool with the idea of keeping Robert: you have a really good player at a core up-the-middle position. But they turned on that idea of "building around" Robert pretty quickly and forcefully.

Prayers for Bobby. Get well soon! What a White Sox hero!

To me, service time is the only reason to hold him back if he's reasonably ready. I sort of agree with you though that rushing a prospect isn't the problem that perhaps it was in yesteryear. And with AAA in Charlotte....what does anyone learn there? Which prospects have really upped their game in Charlotte and proved they were ready? It's more like a purgatory where you sort of have to do your time before you can play in the majors.

Come on, Eddy's just having a little fun with it...laughing at himself, if anything.

Hahn, in his 2nd rebuild, routinely "lost" those smallish trades, such as peddling relievers at the deadline. He also didn't hit on a thing on the waiver wire (except for a couple of relievers that he would end up dumping for peanuts in July). That contributed to the lack of depth and staying power of the rebuild. And by "lost" I mean the trades didn't help the team; a "win" helps the team. I don't really care about the effect on the other team unless it's disproportionately to the other team's advantage. Getz is starting from a much lower-point than Hahn and has a much tougher rebuilding task. He really needs some hits in these areas. The Sox have a lot of pitchers right on that ML/AAAA precipice and we'll find out some answers this season (which is one reason I wouldn't bother much with these veteran relievers). if a bunch develop, there should be good opportunities for young player for young player trades. Let's get a Carlos Quentin in here.

I think that's the right approach; "All-in" efforts still don't hit that often and there will always be a team that an go "all in" better than they can.

It was a top 100 prospect short. The two low-minors guys were essentially the return for Kopech. I've said it before, but it seems to me that Getz makes these trades on the other teams' terms and he trusts these GMs for some reason. If your own pro scouting department is competent and properly deployed, you should never be in the position to have to trust these GMs. It's particularly annoying in the Fedde trade given that there was really no urgent need to trade him in first place. And yet, Getz basically did what Mozeliak and Gomes/Friedman wanted him to do. Even the Crochet trade was on the Red Sox terms, as they held back their top 3 guys; that should work out for the Sox in this one case because their next prospects were players about which the Sox had independent knowledge. But overall, he's trying to build this org from absolute ground zero. He just can't afford big gaffes like this, especially as they haven't been much better than C-level performers in the other modes of talent acquisition: the Draft and International signings.

I will preface this by saying that Law is my favorite evaluator, and I think his ranking of the Sox farm is closer to reality than Kiley's at #2. That said, this review seems gratuitously harsh. He's really over the top with Montgomery. It's hard to understand how he could rank the farm as high as he has, given these individual writeups.

My assumptions may be off. I assume Booser = Banks. Maybe he's better than Banks. Bergola (the return for Banks) doesn't seem like much of a prospect to me due to his 0 power. Could be wrong.

Yes, but Booser wasn't a signing. We traded Fajardo, an 18 year old pitcher who Kd 11.4/9 and only walked 1.4/9 (yes in DSL so he is an absolute lottery ticket). Still, for it to work, we need to get back a better prospect than Fajardo. Banks and Booser seem like the same pitcher to me. Maybe Bergolla's a better prospect than Fajardo, but 1 HR in over 600 PAs suggests a lowish ceiling.

Given that the Sox have basically two good OFs in the entire organization (Robert and the prospect they got in the Crochet trade) , I would have liked to keep DeLoach around. I guess they are going these "proven" 30+ year olds with no power instead of the DeLoachs. Looking over the 40 man, still a ton of what appears to be available space on the pitching side. What was the point of trading for Boozer? He's not a flip candidate - they won't get a prospect any better than what they gave to get him (See the Banks trade).

When you floated the 2 of Phillies top 5 proposition, I remembered that they had an interesting SS prospect; I missed the Christmas Eve trade where they sent him to Miami for Luzardo. Nice prospect for the Marlins. You may be correct that that is Robert's value right now. I have no idea whether they "fix" him or not, but I it's worth the risk. My hesitancy there is that a year ago, Getz wanted to "build around" Robert; by the summer, he was anxious to trade him. Is it just because he had a lousy year, or was "build around" just Getz-speak for "we'll trade him later, not now" or is there something else?

I think the White Sox would scoff at that, however. The Sox should also take Rojas back. While probably not an important piece in the long run, he keeps the defense stable in CF. And if I were running this operation, I would insist on stout D as it builds.

I'm of the belief that the White Sox should not do business with the Dodgers (or Cardinals). There was absolutely no reason for the Dodgers to rip-off the Sox like they did with Vargas. I know Getz should have known better, but he didn't, and they knew he didn't. Intentional win-lose trades aren't good for the game or for either team. The Dodgers could recompense a bit with some giveaway trade to clear their 40 man; but not for any sort of prospect - not even a lottery pick.