Balta1701

If you were Rick Hahn and you spent 1/3 of your day reading mean tweets about you, wouldn’t you leak that it was all someone else’s fault no matter what the reality was?

Burdi.

Crochet and Burger are positive also. They offset the negative performances by Vaughn, Collins, and Fulmer.

quickly done in my head they're at 0.2 fWAR. I might have a rounding error in there.

Well now I wonder how that looks in fWAR.

By "tarred, feathered, and ridden out of town on a rail" I assume you mean "nothing will happen and he will be in exactly the same position next November."

Yeah, but they still don't have replacements for most of those guys. They have 2 starting pitchers under contract, they could easily blow that $75 million on rebuilding their rotation before even worrying about the bullpen or position players. At the very least, I'm allowed to be nervous that they win 84 games this year with Benintendi and then have like 3 versions of cueto crewing their rotation next year.

Not mad. A bit concerned about the long term plan as they already are looking at being worse after 2023 once they lose a couple of starting pitchers, if they have the same spending limitations next year then it will be even harder than this year. But otherwise, at least they filled the OF hole.

What's actually ironic is there is a Star Trek character named Tendi.

This is probably Benentendi's best chance in his career at a multi year contract that generates a lifetime of wealth for him and his family. I would strongly bet that he will take the biggest contract offer he receives. I doubt that would be from someone who doesn't think they can compete right now, but look if the Rockies decided they wanted him and wanted to pay the most, he's moving to Denver.

Frankly, no. They maneuver around contracts and often let better players go after they become too expensive. The Astros, for example, have allowed Correa, Cole, and Verlander to walk as free agents. None of them were traded to create room for anyone. I can't think of the Astros moving any lesser players in trades because of someone they wanted to sign. The Braves added an expensive 1b - after their 1b, Freeman, was hitting free agency. I can't think of any examples of the Braves trading away a guy in order to clear room for a free agent signing. The only guy being paid $10 million I can think of that the Dodgers traded away was AJ Pollock. The Nationals let Harper walk and that was their path to a title. Can you give an example of a team that did something like what you're describing? Trading away a cost controlled player to sign a more expensive player at the same position?

No, they really wouldn't. A forward thinking team would recognize that their best chance to win is right now because they have multiple guys about to hit free agency in the next 2 years and Tim Anderson playing at his best contributes to winning right now, but they have a hole in the outfield. While it won't be cheap, they therefore either need to spend prospect talent to bring in an outfielder they can afford, or they need to adjust their budget enough to go after the outfielder who could have put them over the top. Competitive teams don't commonly give away guys they think will be MLB contributors in the next 1-2 years, even if they're blocked. If a guy can contribute this year, they're going to hold onto him and use his contribution this year. They give away prospects who, even if they're highly ranked, will probably take a couple years to grow into high quality MLB players. You can likely get that in exchange for Anderson, but that is a rebuilding type move.

I want someone who wants to make more money! The White Sox are in the 3rd biggest media market in the country and they’re a minor player in the entertainment business there. Their ballpark is only 60% full and their ad sales are often niche businesses (US Cellular? Guaranteed Rate?) Their franchise value is inflated by the media market being present, but it’s completely underutilized. I don’t think they need to be stupid about spending, but at the same time there’s substantial money being left on the table by how they run the team. There’s no reason why this franchise cant grow from 15th to 9th in MLB franchise value over the next decade if it is run well and regularly competitive, and that would be worth a billion dollars or more to a new ownership group.

He definitely has an attitude and his management of the Mavericks isn’t without issue (I believe there were some notable sexual harassment issues from some of their top staff a few years ago) but he took over that franchise when it was undervalued and said that they were going to sell out that arena every night. They were going to be competitive and make regular playoff appearances and set a solid standard of excellence in basketball to grow their fan base in one of America’s largest cities. He did that, he put a regularly competitive team on the floor, and now the Mavericks are a way more valuable product than the one he bought. His antics got him on the news but the idea of investing in one’s product and being rewarded by customers for it - that’s the thing Reinsdorf would hate.

After all Mark Cuban clearly bailed on the Mavericks and did nothing to improve that franchise or provide stability.

“We had an outfield signing all wrapped up but then it leaked on Twitter.”

A higher ceiling? Syndergaard once put up a 6 fWAR season, and both were 4 fWAR pitchers in 2018 and 2019. Care to elaborate on how you concluded that?

I believe Holland was really good the year after he left Chicago

This is also why teams like the Red Sox, Guardians, and Tigers are in the bottom 5.

I don't think they're going to move Anderson yet, that would be an unavoidable admission that they are rebuilding. They can't frame that move any other way and be believable, even "we brought Andrus back" doesn't come off as convincing. You can certainly imagine a scenario where Montgomery is ready enough by next offseason that they feel more willing to make such a move then.

Some people have suggested that based on the market for relievers, one like Hendriks being available for $14 million is a pretty good arrangement, even if his luxury tax number is higher. This is probably true, he does have substantial value in this market. I've also believed that he has a strong likelihood of being worth more at the trade deadline, if he is healthy. The White Sox are not the only team that will pay highly for closers at the trade deadline, The Braves, for example, took on all of Iglesias's back-loaded contract at the trade deadline last year and gave up a decent enough pitching prospect who was previously in the top 5-6 in Atlanta's system before some forearm issues in 2021. However, the teams that would be willing to take on a $14 million a year closer are teams that are looking to compete themselves. The only team that trades for highly priced closers when they're winning 60 games is the White Sox, no one else thinks that's smart. Those teams are always hesitant to give up major-league-ready players, because major-league-ready players are guys who can contribute to big league rosters this season on those competitive teams. To my eyes, Hendriks could bring back a solid return, but it's a rebuilding return. You're unlikely to get back a big league quality piece for him, because your trade partner would rather have the cost controlled big league piece than a closer.