iamshack

You can never say never with no true salary cap, but I would be shocked if the Cubs would put together something that is in the ballpark of where the Sox offer is. Can they do it? Sure. But would it be a net gain for them? I think Theo/Jed are smarter than that. The Cubs will benefit almost zero in regards to television ratings or at the gate from adding Harper. The benefits to them are pretty much entirely related to his on-field performance. That makes it very unlikely that they would be able to make a series of transactions, given their current state, which would seem to improve their ability to compete for a championship in the near future.

You are ignoring quite a bit of context when you are judging Hahn’s performance prior to trading Chris Sale.

Yeah, I agree with you here, and it is definitely something that Harper and his camp are looking at. Just look at Mike Trout. That being said, I don’t see Boras and Harper signing a contract that’s significantly under market because of the marketing opportunities off the field.

This would be quite the inopportune time to move Willson Contreras.

Gonna take a little time, Dick. You can oppose the decision to keep the FO in place all you want, but placing unreasonable expectations on them only makes you look like a fool.

Didn’t mean to kill the messenger. I guess anything is possible.

I think it would be less AAV too. The Sox aren’t married to a 10 year deal on Machado if he’d prefer less.

I feel very comfortable in saying that to not even mention the White Sox for either player means he doesn’t know shit.

Yeah, I’m just not sure that’s wise. I think there needs to be a decent portion of money up front, but I think the FO would be sensitive of offering a contract that makes it too easy for the player to walk after 3 years.

As for the opt outs, it depends on how the contract is structured. If the Sox were to weight the money so that a significant portion of it comes during the opt-out years and immediately following them, I find it hard to believe that there are going to be much higher offers out there than the remaining $ on the contract. We’ll see though. A lot of variables there.

I totally get it. But you still have to be responsible. There are going to be 5-6 guys we will likely be trying to extend down the road, some of which could be outperforming Machado or Harper by that time. You don’t want to be looking back and saying “if we had only not paid Machado $75 million more than market.”

I mean I can buy that to a point, but everyone has a line.

Well, Alonso has at most a 2 year deal. You’re comparing a similar expenditure for 9 years.

I suspect some of these national guys may try to confirm this now. I guess you may be right about an official announcement, but I’d be surprised if none of the national guys try weigh in on this until Wednesday. One would think they could confirm Leyritz statement about the signature just being needed.

If Leyritz is correct, I don’t think there is a chance this holds until Wednesday.

Agreed. You don’t become much of a joke if you don’t have very far to fall. People will mock him a bit if Machado signs elsewhere, but then they’ll forget until the next time he does this. Even then, given how many scoops have come from reddit, twitter users with few followers, and other message boards, it’s hard to truly discount someone that claims to have information. A certain percentage of folks will always believe.

Cottillo?

I believe sportrac accommodates for those things. As for the arb money, it’s not unlikely they’d move some of those players should they sign Machado/Harper. I don’t believe the tax would be an issue for them.

https://www.spotrac.com/mlb/new-york-yankees/payroll/ how much in arb do they expect to add?

They aren’t anywhere close to the tax number.

The Yankees clearly have the money.

There is a difference between having the strongest offers and being Tom Hicks and paying Arod $250m though. I think they’d like to get as close to the former (and still sign the guy(s)) than the latter.

I tend to agree that most of this stuff is nonsensical, but these leaks fly left and right every year and they obviously are coming from somewhere. I don’t think they are created just for entertainment value.

A couple thoughts: 1) I don’t think they are taking the position that they won’t be outbid. 2) JR is aggressive, but he’s not an idiot. You are absolutely right in regards to him not being one to mess around. They have shown a willingness to move a bit on Machado, however. 3) The range of potential numbers when Belle signed is far smaller than the range of numbers Machado/Harper might ask for.

So it’s impossible to believe they would have interest in EE in any scenario? Because you seem to be arguing you believe the Sox might have interest in EE if Machado had moved on from them, but not that the White Sox might use that very same possibility (which you seem to think is plausible) as a negotiating lever? That is illogical.