Chicago White Sox

Teams like the Phillies & Jays are able to give a $100M+ contract every winter when they are going for it. Meanwhile, Jerry is tapped out and on the brink of bankruptcy after signing a couple high paid relievers.

He was good in 2020. And the Twins may want to move him because they two other young corner OFs that warrant playing time. I agree on the divisional aspect making this very far fetched though.

I don’t disagree with your core premise, but I wouldn’t categorize Kepler as old.

I don’t disagree, but sometimes teams can’t through to guys and they need a change of scenery. I could see Kepler being one of those guys, I’m just not convinced we’d be the ones able to tap into that potential. Regardless, I think this rumor is 100% BS given the sources. And even if our interest was real, I think the two sides aligning on fair compensation is very unlikely to happen.

At this point, we just got to hope Fegan was wrong on that $180M estimate, because I can’t see Hahn pulling enough miracles otherwise.

Oh I totally believe that Tony pushed them to bring Leury back, but Hahn still negotiated the contract and gave him a deal that kept him around longer than Tony’s two years remaining at the time. I don’t care if Leury’s agent said the Tigers were offering three years to make him their starter at 2B, Hahn 100% ended up giving a well above market contract to Leury. And what makes it even more frustrating is Hahn’s unwillingness to commit long-term to free agents at 2B & RF to avoid blocking prospects, but had no problem committing big dollars to a mediocre UT guy / reserve infielder despite having several guys in the minors who likely could have filled that role for pennies on the dollar by 2023.

I may be in the minority, but I wouldn’t hate a Kepler trade at the right price if Jerry is in fact cutting payroll. The guy is a premium defender with plus plate discipline and above average raw power. His main issue is a abnormally low BABIP. I’m a strong believer that you can’t teach plate discipline this late into someone’s career, but adjusting someone’s plate approach to create a better quality of contact is still theoretically possible. Am I confident the Sox are the team to help him figure it out? Definitely not, but I may be willing to roll the dice with a new hitting coach coming in and a change in shift rules that should benefit Kepler more than most players. Again, it all depends on the price and whether I can simply buy a similar player in free agency for just cash. I’d rather sign any of Conforto, Bellinger, or Gallo to a pillow contract than trade assets for Kepler. But if we’re too cash strapped, Max’s $8.5M salary would make some sense. However, the price would need to be reasonable (i.e. a prospect in the 10 to 20 range) and I just don’t see the Twins going for something like that. I think they’d want something far more valuable to trade him to a direct competitor (say Ramos) and that should be an immediate non-negotiable. As such, I just don’t see this having much of a chance of coming fruition.

I bet Leury’s agent still can’t believe he pulled off that miracle. Like how did he even get the discussion to three years? There is no chance in hell any other GM would have been willing to go more than two for Leury. Just one of the most mind boggling signings I can remember in recent years.

I‘ll take Clevinger on a 1/$12M deal as our #5.

The only reason I’m entertaining the thought I’d because of Tosar. If Frank “f*** the HR” was still here I’d be steadily against the notion of this trade.

Dude blocked me on Twitter and I’ve never even tweeted at him. Must not appreciated me calling out his buddy FootlongComiskeyDog for the attention seeking fraud that he is.

If I were the Twins, I wouldn’t accept a prospect less than Bryan Ramos. And for all I know they’d prefer a major league player in return rather than obtaining more prospect currency.

A Colas-Robert-Kepler outfield would be elite defensively if Luis is healthy. My primary concerns with such a trade would be the bat and the cost to acquire. On the latter, I can’t imagine the Twins would make such a deal comfortable for us. And regarding the bat, the dude has been slightly below average every year outside of 2019 & 2020. However, there may be more there as his GB rate skyrocketed last year and perhaps a change of scenery gets his launch angle back to more optimal levels. And the shift rule change should help him more than most players given his hitting profile. I wouldn’t hate acquiring him depending on the price, but definitely concerned it would be a bit painful.

Lol…he literally stole this from MLBExecutiveBurner

Hopefully not for long, but he’s literally our fifth starter right now.

Like I said, I’m not against it if our scouts think his defense will redound. But adding him can’t come at the expense of OF & rotation upgrades. We can live with Sosa & Romy competing for the 2B job for four months. We won’t survive another year of Vaughn or Sheets getting significant OF time.

Unfortunately adding impact talent via free agency is every 30 years move for Uncle Jerry and we’re still couple years shorty before we can expect that type of addition.

He doesn’t care though. He will not risk a small one year loss even if greatly enhances his chances at winning. It’s really that simple.

I think the concern is with his defense, especially when rule changes will require more out of the position. He’s also at an age where he could come to the Sox and fall off a cliff offensively. Again, I’m not necessarily against it, but just think we have more obvious holes in the outfield & rotation and little money to add.

Honestly, those don’t upset me too much. We have a bunch of guys coming off unpredictably bad seasons and a couple major holes not filled. More concerned that Hahn fill those holes with marginal talents and we end up a couple games over .500 and just short of the division.

@Sleepy Harold - You should listen to the White Sox Talk Podcast if you haven’t already.

I think Burger to the Brewers makes a ton of sense. With Renfoe traded and Taylor likely sliding to the OF there is also a massive hole at DH now. I’d prefer a young pitcher like Gasser vs. Wong though.

Agreed. I’ll keep screaming it, but get me the best OF and SP possible, and then go with youth and cheap depth options at 2B.

Errors would be less concerning than range, but to your point they could easily be interrelated. If we were to acquire him, our pro scouts better be certain he can at least be average there next year.

Anyone know what happened to Wong’s defense last year? Those splits against RHP are sexy AF but probably not worth it if he’s defense is going to be as bad as it was last year. 2B defense needs to be prioritized with shift rule change.