Balta1701

Then get the deal done before the option decision deadline.

There are some potential issues with a clueless manager. Failing to properly treat or develop or coach actual talent - this can permanently damage young players. Allowing veterans to get away with things because they’re veterans - ,could hurt their performance and trade value. Creating a permanent reaction among players because you were too dumb to know why “he’s so well spoken” isn’t a compliment to your African American assistant GM, generally “I’m just staying away from that medal bad.

Oh lol so it's that "Church of Satan", and you haven't bothered to educate yourself about them. I like them even more now. Fascinating that you went with the pejorative of calling them "Satanic" or whatever word it was rather than saying anything about their actual group or even giving their name. And yes, the idea that I need a conversion ad during sporting events from the same people who were caught looting artifacts from the Middle East bugs the hell out of me, to use an appropriate phrase.

Well this started with a post saying that the Dodgers had endorsed "Satan Worship" and you explained to me that was because of an LGBTQ+ group. Are you saying there's a difference between those?

The "He Gets us" campaign is funded by an organization that includes the Hobby Lobby ownership (heavily lobbied to get the Supreme Court to rule against contraceptive coverage), has donated to a church whose website states "“all people who do not have faith in Jesus Christ will spend eternity in hell,” and to another group that has been labeled as an anti-LGBTQ+ hate group.

Then I have a team they can look at as a good glimpse for how the future will go.

That's Satan worship to you folks?

Then their targets should be Blake Snell, Sonny Gray, or Aaron Nola.

Satan worship? The f***?

As far as I can tell, Lance Lynn on the Cot’s page shows as having a tax value of $19 million, which is half the value of his $38 million contract. However, the Dodgers only paid 1/3 of that amount since he was only there for 2 months. It doesn’t look like Cot’s has a step in there to prorate the value of contracts acquired midseason when adding up the tax total. Joke Kelly similarly shows up at $8.5 million.

As far as we know, nothing serious. The White Sox met with him and had a presentation at the winter meetings. Then, they met with Machado at the end of the month, weeks later. There were zero reports of the White Sox negotiating with Harper at any point after the winter meetings, which stood in huge contrast to the repeated leaks and reports that they were constantly trying to sign Machado and the in person visit. Rick Hahn did publicly say at Soxfest that they were looking to "add middle of the order bats", while stressing the plural. Once Machado signed, it seemed like they went on angry rants about affording their next core and then gave up. There were reports of other teams after Harper, notably Philly, San Francisco, and a couple others, but the White Sox were never discussed, and Boras usually leaks detailed descriptions of how these things went down to guys like Passan to keep them on his good side. My guess was always that the White Sox believed they could sign Harper for $200 million and Machado for $175 million, and that's why the 8/$175 offer was leaked to Bruce Levine in January - the Sox thought it would intimidate other bidders, instead it brought the Padres in. They thought they could afford "middle of the order bats" at those prices, hence why Hahn would say that. When Boras made it clear that he was looking for a fair deal in the $300 million range, the White Sox scoffed at it and thought Boras would come crawling back when he got no where near $200 million. Once Machado hit, they realized they were off on the dollars by a lot, and they didn't bother reaching out about Harper.

I totally understand the Dodgers limiting spending this year. I still do not understand them being $6 million over the tax line. Save a few dollars and get out of the multi year penalties. Unless there is some partial credit against the tax line for Bauer’s deal that set of decisions remains baffling to me.

He was -4 rWAR lower than 2022 last year though. Decreased velocity and a notably down K rate. His exit velocity shot up, and was as bad as in 2020 when they benched him for the playoffs. A lot of this was the slider being hit harder. Is that just bad luck, or were people able to stay on it better with a weaker fastball? His expected ERA last year was 4.07, which is 50th percentile in the league, because he was really bad on exit velocity. I’m not risking a huge bet on it being bad luck alone if I’m an opposing GM, not unless I can see things work better next year or I get a huge price drop. Since fWAR doesn’t take exit velocity into account, it is probably seeing a jump in his BABIP and thinking it’s bad luck, so small difference in fWAR. But the exit velocity jump would cause a higher BABIP, so the higher hit rate last year wouldn’t be all bad luck, it was significantly performance driven.

Dylan Cease is coming off such a bad season that if I were an opposing GM I’d expect him at a large discount. You are not getting anywhere near two top prospects and additional pieces for him right now, especially since his down season also saw a drop in his velocity. There’s almost no harm in waiting to the trade deadline with him right now, he might not be as good as he was in 2022 but he probably will be better than he was in 2023.

The Twins played Don’t Stop Believin in the mid 9th.

This is literally the right thing to do to the letter. They desperately need pitchers to fill innings...and if any of them are remotely successful, they will be tradable for greater value at the trade deadline. Not all of them will be successful, but the end result is that this restocks the team somewhat more quickly than waiting for the draft. If it takes $15 million for each guy, you kinda have to pay it, you need the warm bodies. Same thing with relievers, grab a couple and take advantage of the fact that you have playing time, trade any that do as well as Middleton last year. For position players, it is harder to be sure that guys will be tradable at the deadline because you don't know for sure people will be shopping for that position...take the guys you need to fill a lineup, clearly we need infield help especially if Anderson is cut loose, find someone to give Robert some actual time off next year, add a cheap veteran catcher, and maybe clear out a bad contract or two where possible. Don't waste money and time bringing in guys for 2024 unless you're confident you can trade them. Look forward to 2025, and see where you're at - if you get a good pitcher or two out of trading Cease, if you get a developed Montgomery, and a couple of prospects show promise, maybe at least you've found a path out of the hole even if you're not all the way there yet.

Regardless of anything else, I still can't get over the fact that this would take the 2023 White Sox and make their OBP worse.

And yet, the rumors haven't stopped, rather they seem far more certain to happen with the new GM.

The reality with this player hasn't changed since the trade deadline, when we're pretty sure they asked about him, and where we believe the Royals had several interested parties but with the price being too high. What has changed where this could happen now - have the Royals gotten more desperate to move him? I can't see why they would, they were content holding him at the deadline and there are no obvious new reasons why they just clear payroll. The only thing that might conceivably change to get this done would be the price the acquiring team would be willing to pay going up.

So given that the Royals actually have a fan base who likes Perez way more than Benintendi...you've just justified well why the Royals wouldn't do this unless you pay for him.

Why on Earth would the Royals do this?

I've said before and I'll say again - KC has very little money on their roster committed for next year, and they haven't stripped their payroll down to A's levels. They also had several suitors interested in Perez. They have zero reason to give up Perez without getting a tolerable return, and they have zero reason to eat any money at all unless they're getting a serious prospect for him. The White Sox are not talking about a free agent and they're not talking about a guy whose team is desperate to dump his money. They can easily hold him until the trade deadline this year and just see what happens if the best they can do is a middling prospect and they're still stuck eating $10 million of his deal.

I'd be more afraid that he would be...Salvador Perez, as seen the past 2 seasons, with the $44 million remaining on his contract, and a high prospect price paid for him.