spiderman

I heard Barfield say that the White Sox would be looking to address their offense in the off-season.... OK, makes sense. The offense has at least 6 for sure outs almost every day and their better hitters would be amongst the worst on most average hitting teams. It's a historically bad offense capable of being shut out everyday and scoring 3 runs in a game is considered an outburst. Questions.... How is this going to happen? By all accounts, they don't appear interested in spending this off-season. Are there any realistic off-season free agent signings that aren't light hitting IF types? Is there any chance they would sign a veteran, even overpay, to improve the offense? Who are realistic candidates? They may trade Luis Robert this off-season. He has had a bad season. His trade value is probably down significantly and he is now seen as a talented player who is also injury prone and an underachieving OF with a questionable contract....If they trade him, it will probably be motivated by saving $$$ than it is returning talent. Their best bet is to hold Robert and move him next trading deadline if he stays healthy and returns to an elite level. That's probably the best way to improve the offense is to get him right, but will they do that with a motivation to move $$$? They will likely trade Crochet and that's probably the best guess as to how they plan to improve their offense, but teams are reluctant to trade top young talent these days. Even if the Sox got what is considered to be a good return, we're still talking about young players who may/may not be ready for the majors and/or who are still unproven talent. If he traded, I would guess that 1 player in return would be ready for next season and maybe they get a 2nd player who isn't far away. Can they count on Montgomery for next season given his struggles for this season? When will Quero be on the major league roster? Is he likely to start the season in the majors or will he be up in May+? If he a full-time catcher or will they let him DH/1B at times and pair him with Lee? Is there anyone else from the minor league system that is a legitimate prospect and not an average one who may/may not pan out? I consider guys like Baldwin, Ramos (and Bush, Nastrini, probably Cannon from the pitching side).... Pitching is the strength of their minor leagues. Do they plan on trading from strength to address their hitting? Why not keep Crochet and go with him, Thorpe, Shultz, Hagen Smith (both later in the season), Cannon and some veteran on a year deal (similar to what they did this past off-season)? Most expect next season to be similar to this season. Over 100 losses, maybe not an all-time bad season....but I think we have become conditioned to expect the White Sox to operate like they are a smaller market type team. Why not actually consider keeping a young rotation intact (meaning keep Crochet) and actually look to bring in a few free agents to improve the offense? They can still keep building their farm system through the draft, but they are busy selling us on a 5 year plan that will eventually lead them to trading any young pitchers who work out from this rebuild, meaning they wont' have more than than 2 year window before we're back to this again....

Agreed. We have become conditioned to accept that the White Sox must go through some elongated rebuilding process without any guarantee of return except 100+ loss seasons for this year and next year. Will this team spend on any sought after free agents? Will they keep their current young pitching talent? If the answer is no, what is the point of any of this? The organization isn't serious and won't sustain winning outside of short stretches should everything work out with their own self-induced limitations.

What is considered "high dollar"? The White Sox don't spend on that type of talent.

To a point, it's not wise to be a big spender in free agency when you're rebuilding. You also can't let things to get a point where you are the worst team in MLB history. You can rebuild and spend some money without making moves that handicap the future. You also don't have a budget so the idea of a rebuild that goes this badly and will likely take as long as it will to get back to some form of respectability (not even competing for anything) is flat out laughable.

This is why we can't have anything good. We're a major league team, supposedly a larger market team, who operates on the possibility of trading players because they may get hurt in the future and we're operating on a 3 - 5 year plan to get the team back into some form of competitiveness. Crazy that we are conditioned to think that rebuilding is needed to this level while also accepting that we won't pay for our talent and will need to do this again once it's time to spend money. Maybe the White Sox do trade Crochet for some prospects that everyone gets excited about, but do the Cubs, Red Sox, Dodgers, other big teams routinely operate like this and get us conditioned to just accept this?

No couch jokes please.

I don't think anyone is going to defend Grifol as a legitimate manager, but this problem starts at the top. How can Reinsdorf promote his minor league talent development guy (Getz) for a team that hasn't really developed much outside of some pitching, mainly left handed starting pitchers? This roster is atrocious. Even the minor league talent, while improving on paper, appears somewhat top heavy and won't be enough to win with without spending money. Unless the White Sox are willing to spend money AND develop a minor league system, we'll be firing the next manager in 2 years and complaining about how awful this person is. If the White Sox were serious about putting together a competitive team, why trade Crochet for minor league talent? They can start next season (or early in) with Crochet, Schultz, Thorpe and Cannon. That is a reason for hope, but unfortunately, we know the clock is ticking on any pitcher who may have market value. They probably will have Montgomery/Quero in the majors next season. Why not complement them, Robert/Vaughn (for now) with 2-3 significant talent upgrades? I don't want to hear about this team developing talent and winning the "right away". If they can't commit to spending on this team and keeping their current talent, nothing will change.

Hawk was also a cheerleader, but he also had a reputation/persona from his playing career. Some fans loved him, and he had his detractors. Schiffen is just over the top on praising things that people aren't seeing or think is ridiculous on a daily basis. I don't care about who he is replacing or how bad the team is, etc. Just call the game that's in front of us, you don't need any tag lines...

I don't hear enough of that show to know, but I'm curious how he would be so piped into a team he doesn't cover and has so much turnover. I probably don't think of this guy as someone people are dropping information on because when I have heard him, he comes across as a clown. I don't listen enough though to know if my take on him is accurate, it's more just surprising that he would have more, or better, information that people who actually cover the team (although I don't know that anyone covering the team knows more than many of the people here).

He comes across as a cheerleader. Completely ridiculous in finding something positive daily when the team is the worst in MLB history. Just doesn't come across as serious when he's saying things that nobody believes.

That's an issue with "21st century journalism". Everyone has an impeccable source even if it's made up, not trustworthy, etc, but if it creates attention or gives yourself 15 minutes of fame....

When did Shane Riordan become a reliable source for the White Sox? With all of the turnover on the roster, who exactly is feeding him information? Gavin Sheets? Andrew Vaughn? Just seems like a stretch to take a guy who isn't a reporter as not only a reporter, but as having "inside sources"....I know that's a thing though for reporters to claim to have when most of these don't actually exist or aren't reliable... Also saw Awful Announcing saying that the Parkins/Spiegal show has been reliable on breaking news with the White Sox. What are they talking about? The Score, particularly the midday show, have become a bunch of social justice/race hustling garbage content.

Please do the same for me

I guess he's saying that the White Sox can keep Crochet and Robert. I wouldn't say though they are in an enviable position. That obviously way overstating things.

I think trading Robert right now is going to be difficult to pull off. He just hasn't played that well outside of a few hot runs. Stay healthy, finish the season strong and see where thing stand. This could take until next trading deadline given how inconsistent he has been with health concerns. Same boat on Crochet. Unless you're just focused on trading Crochet now, there's no real reason to do so. He could be the big fish in the off-season with more teams interested if he finishes the year healthy and the contract talk less tied to a playoff run....

I can see them spending money in 2026, but this off-season would likely look similar to this past one where they sign veteran types to 1 year deals. Assuming Crochet and Fedde are traded, they may look to add some veteran starter to a 1 year deal who is looking for a rebound type season to go with Thorpe, Cannon, probably Schultz early on and whomever else they promote from the minors. Offensively, add in 1-2 veterans for cheap money again, maybe they promote Quero/Montgomery during the season, but it will be a season of young players they acquire today/tomorrow, maybe later (for Robert) and what they have. Next year is probably a step forward though with younger players of value coming more regularly, but it's still possible they lose 100+ games again. Probably 2-3 years from getting out of the basement, but to your comment, it's not likely they will ever spend on a big free agent with Reinsdorf running the show. They will bring in veterans, but not elite difference makers, but they have another off-season of development ahead before there's any spending.

Let's hope that the White Sox aren't more motivated to shed salary vs. get the best prospect return. In a league with no salary cap (and even with the tax, the White Sox are not close to that), they wouldn't value payroll savings. If they did that, Reinsdorf would need to go into hiding for awhile and Chris Getz would have a hard time explaining how freeing up payroll (from a team that can/should add payroll if they chose) was the priority.

Please share, but I feel that Morosi just speculates more than most national writers.

Watch the White Sox trade Benintendi with Roberts....then they can claim they have payroll flexibility!

I understand the injury concerns. Very legitimate concerns which should hurt his trade value. I don't think his current/future salary though is an issue. He's a bargain if he's on the field/healthy and if he hit free agency, he's be paid a lot more than what he's currently making. All of this goes back to his health. Teams aren't going to trade a premium for an off-injured player or based on potential. He needs to do it on the field for anyone to give up anything remotely close to what the White Sox are expecting back. I also don't want Chris Getz to settle - keep a crazy high price and if Robert can start playing like he did last year, a market will form (even if it's not exactly what he would want).

They have to fire him at some point soon. Getz gave him a horrible roster, but Pedro will be the first fall guy Pedro is in over his head, but what a crap sandwich this team is. Almost automatic outs every day at C, 1B, 2B, SS, 3B and LF. A minor league starting rotation. A make shift bullpen Getz should also be fired, but that would require Reinsdorf to admit a mistake

Any optimism in the White Sox for next season has to be zapped at this point, right? Getz says he does not like the team and then trades/signs players who will probably make the team worse under the guise of cutting payroll all the while why Reinsdorf says he wants to win in 2024. It's pretty depressing to have this type of leadership. Onwards to last place!

What is sounding good on paper for what the White Sox have done to this point or are expected to be doing? I think the direction of the organization is well known at this point.

Who does he think is believing that nonsense?

Sure, that's possible, but it's really hard to be that bad. The White Sox appear capable, but I would guess that they will be somewhere north of 90 losses, but probably not back to back 100 loss seasons. The roster does look very bad though so I don't rule out underestimating the bad here.