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And even when willing to spent look at how the Yankees and Astro's handle catcher. Jose Trevino platinum glove winner. Martin Maldonado Astros. These aren't exactly superstars .They know where a catcher's true value lies when surrounded by enough competent offense.

I never said it wasn't an important position . It's a very important position but look at Trevino from the Yankees he didnt cost much at all and he got the platinum glove. Martin Maldonado with the Astros, again those teams care about the catcher defense, strong arms, calling games etc. They don't invest a lot in catchers and with a competent offense around them a catchers offense isn't that important to spend on or to give up prospects. Murphy isn't needed in light of the other holes. I'll tell you what, unless Grandal has a total breakdown he will be the starting catcher. He's already met Grifol in person and out there doing charity work for the Sox maybe even with Grifol when both were in Chicago.

So it's a sunk cost but the best the Sox can do is prioritize the more pressing needs which is an OF who can play defense and bat left handed and upgrade the starting pitching. The Sox are in no position to add another RHB and throw away prospects for a catcher. Remember this is the organization who thought Zack Collins was a 1-1 pick. Sox just have to hope Grandal stays healthy enough to share the position with Zavala while his hitting rebounds. This is pretty much the case for all their duds from last year still under contract, Moncada, Eloy and Giolito. You're telling me you would prioritize a catcher with 3 years left, who hits RH and give up the few prospects we have when the payroll is going to be less than last year with all the holes they have to fill and bite on Oakland's demands for a King's Ransom for him ? Suggest a trade for me that gets this done that just wouldn't create another hole.

The most important thing a catcher can do is provide leadership, call a good game and catch the ball and have a strong throwing arm. Catchers should never be prioritized. They are usually base cloggers who age poorly. It would be a misappropriation of funds at this time, right up their with relievers. There are plenty of catchers who do the little things well enough out there for cheap. Plus if you aren't cutting Grandal loose that's a lot of money tied up in catchers for one season. Oakland will try to get a lot since he has 3 years left. They are testing the waters to see if they can get a haul. My guess is he doesn't get moved this off season. I'm 53/47 on it though.

Exactly that was my point. Anthopoulos isn't an idiot.

This. Damn Sox (if true) . If it's not relievers, it's catchers and 1st basemen and RHB's. WTF is wrong with this FO ?

Snapping up the cheap relievers early.

Wouldn't be all that shocked to see Nimmo get 5/$125M so that's a bit more than an extra $5-7M per year.

That's the problem. By this time Abreu wasn't supposed to be our best position player. Could've been Anderson, Jimenez, Moncada, Robert or Vaughn but Murphy found his way to the Sox in the form of Reinsdorf and Hahn and that Law took over.

Those 4 games he played with the Dodgers were something else though ! He was on fire ! He takes walks , has some pop and plays good defense with a strong arm. Also hit for 2 cycles in 4 games at AAA. Of course he has a lot of swing and miss in his game and I can hear us now calling him "Strike Outman". Defensive highllights :

Typical Hahn and Sox always late to the party. All this was highly evident the past 2 years when the Sox did nothing to get LHH. Hahn would talk about it then hedge himself by saying if a RHH can do the job we aren't locked into getting LHH. Idiot !

I brought Outman up last year as someone I would've liked before the Kimbrel trade happened.

Yep Click and Baker didn't get along and Crane is basically siding with Baker. Of course Click inherited a lot of stuff with the Astro's but he did manage not to screw it up. There was a point where Click had a trade worked out with the Cubs Willson Contreras for Jose Urquidy but Baker complained to Crane and Crane nixed the deal.

That's why I've been whining the last year about giving Rodon away. It was like Hahn was working for another team and not the White Sox by not extending the QO to Rodon, not to mention after not doing that I wanted them to resign him. He screwed up in my book twice on Rodon and more than that by using money that should've been paid to Rodon on crap a guy like Kelly ! Damn he sucks.

Just like Morosi said Choi was available.

Giants should be thanking Hahn now that they will get a draft choice for Rodon instead of the Sox .

I tried to tell you when we were debating getting the extra year on Colas that things were grim and more than likely to get grimmer. This is no surprise to me at all. It's why I want Colas up from the start. Wins are just going to be to hard to come by in 2023 to sacrifice even 1 game to gain an extra year. Now it's up to trader Hahn to improve the Sox ? That's just the worst news possible. More 30 somethings and guys with a year of eligibility left traded for what little youth we have chasing down miracles to compete and we'll still be below .500. I suppose this will register with some that it's the official end to the rebuild. I've seen you other posts about trading away Cease now. I said the window was over and people needed to be hit on the head with a brick to believe it. Now I think you do.

Rays are looking to trade pitching to protect some of the rule 5 guys particularly Ryan Yarbrough, Yonny Chirinos and from the BP Shawn Armstrong. Choi is probably available too according to Morosi.

2023 season. We just finished the 2022 season.

Ha I don't trust Soxtalk and I don't have the education necessary but as owner I would upgrade everything behind the scenes related to player development , biometrics, analytics, scouting,allow Marco Paddy to do his job without any restrictions and fire just about everyone else. I'd hire as many people from the Rays and Houston as possible to accomplish all that. I'd emphasize middle of the diamond and LH and switch hitters, defense , starting pitching, speed and power. 1st base and catcher would be last on my list when drafting either internationally or college.

Zero chance it's Nimmo too given what Diaz just got from the Mets.

It's water under the bridge which means what's done is done. I mean we are always in agreement that the direction of the Sox and decisions by Hahn and the collective group of idiots in the FO were based on some run amok thoughts about relievers being the new market inefficiency.

All water under the bridge at this point regarding why they drafted him. His college resume didn't exactly scream starting pitcher so I wouldn't exactly say he was shoehorned into middle relief. They had a talented arm that was needed when you are trying to win and his arm fell apart which would have happened anyway. Best thing you can say is they put him in the minors as a starter in 2021 he gets injured earlier and is ready to pitch 6 months ago as a SP in the minors still developing a 3rd and 4th pitch and building up his arm towards 100 innings but have more service time.

Crochet may want to be a starter but that's a long road for a guy who hasn't pitched 65 innings since 2019. His quickest way back to the majors is as a reliever and for a young man with arm problems and lack of SP innings I'd be thinking more along the lines of qualifying for the MLB pension and a long career as a reliever rather than chasing the dream of being some guy with an ultra slim possibility to put enough 150 IP seasons together to get the big bucks.

Sox didn't ruin him. He hardly had any time as a starter in college. 2018 64 IP , 2019 65 IP. Tell me what were the Sox supposed to do and how they ruined him. He started a whole 13 games in his 3 years at Tennessee with 12 of them in his 1st 2 years and wasn't an outstanding pitcher those years by any stretch. He was drafted based on stuff and spin rates since Covid shut down the 2020 season for him when he was a Junior. But he did have a sore shoulder also. With 2 highly effective pitches he was destined to be a reliever. Should the Sox have not used him in that role in 2020? Based on results in 2020 with the Sox when he was throwing 100 all the time and got in a few games, it looked like they did the right thing. He was MLB ready from the start. Should he have been in the minors in 2021 being developed as a starter when the Sox were chasing a World Series appearance? Do you think using him as a reliever in 2021 caused him to have TJS ? If he was starting in the minors instead would he not have had TJS ? Like many young pitchers throwing 100 he was going to have the surgery soon no matter what the Sox did. If you put him in the minors right away and let him be a starter while never pitching for the Sox its likely he'd still have TJS and never pitches an inning for the Sox. Basically the only thing you can argue is that he would be a promising SP without having accrued any MLB service time but still recovering from TJS. If he was going to have TJS anyway I think he's pretty happy he got paid better than a minor leaguer and put some time toward getting an MLB pension.