Chicago White Sox

Just because we still have a great team doesn’t mean we can’t call out a completely botched offseason.

If the Chicago media has a backbone, I really hope someone asks Hahn what the fuck the plan was for this offseason and how did we end up spending $50M on a bullpen, $11M on utility guys, and address absolutely none of the other needs Hahn mentioned at the end of season press conference. Unfortunately outside of Fegan, the rest of these guys simply are water carriers.

I remember when I thought the Sox would actually pursue impact talent

Which is funny, as that’s the exact threshold I set for the first “off-season” thread.

Hey Rick Hahn, just a reminder that injuries happen: Adam Engel: 124 Eloy Jimenez: 117 Luis Robert: 101 Yasmani Grandal: 53 Tim Anderson: 25 Andrew Vaugh: 17 That’s six key position players who missed over 10% of the season due to injury. And yes, I know we were the victim of extreme bad luck, but hope ya’ll are ready for Leury Garcia as a near everyday guy, plenty of Gavin Sheets in the OF, and lots of Zack Collins behind the plate!

“5.  Harrison and Garcia are pretty well matched as a platoon as well. But it's close enough that Harrison could be the primary 2B.” Leury Garcia (2019 to ‘21): 83 wRC+ vs. RHP | 106 wRC+ vs. LHP Josh Harrison (2019 to ‘21): 83 wRC+ vs. RHP | 103 wRC+ vs. LHP I’m not seeing how these two are “well matched” for a 2B platoon. They look like completely redundant players who do nothing to address our weakness against RHP.

This is another good point that has been overlooked.

It is

The risk is Vaughn growing into that must play player when he only starts three games a week.

The problem is relying on two young players at those spots, one of whom is our only hope of adding much needed balance. Just seems super risky when we’re aiming for a championship and have a roster full of players full of injury histories. If the young guys don’t take big steps forward, things could get real ugly real quick.

And for all the anti-Conforto guys, just wait until Leury gets 50 starts in RF. I know we all want Vaughn to be the guy, but La Russa is going to ignore splits and the play the shit out of Leury there. And Engel will also get time out there as well. It’s going to be a hot mess out there without a high paid veteran to claim the spot.

Ok, but who is our DH then?

Come on man, you hate Kimbrel and beef like crazy with James. I ain’t trying to hate, but the two combined should be like the bat signal for you.

Early contender for POTY

Or the Indians increase their payroll by 60% from signing him.

Screw RF, when are the UT guy rankings coming out? Leury gonna be ranked 1st, 2nd, & 3rd given how much better he is than any other bench player in the universe!

Cause it should of been an either or. You don’t sign two of the five largest relievers contract of the offseason after signing the largest of last offseason and picking up the option of one the highest paid relievers in the game. I’ve been defending the need to add relievers, but spending $50M+ on our bullpen is unacceptable. That’s more money than the Orioles & Pirates are spending on their total payrolls combined. It’s very clear to me that if Hahn can’t get a solid offer for Kimbrel now, he’s planning on holding him until the deadline and hoping to flip him then. And that’s an incredibly risky strategy for so many reasons that only a crazy and/or completely incompetent person would go forward with said plan. Just mind boggling what we’re doing.

Probably the Padres as Preller loves making White Sox fans’ lives miserable.

I truly believe Kimbrel is a good reliever, but spending $16M on him and $16.5M on Graveman & Kelly doesn’t make any sense. It’s really fucking stupid when those dollars could be used on a left handed bat or SP.

No, they’ve officially broken me. I really thought we turned a corner when we starting acquiring players like Grandal & Lynn and pursued guys like Wheeler & Burnes. Felt like Rick Hahn had learned from his past mistakes and would focus his limited resources on acquiring impact talent. Instead, we just squandered $46M on relievers & utility guys and have completely ignored multiple major needs. Again, not sure if it’s Hahn or Tony/Jerry, but something is broken and we are blowing an amazing opportunity here.

Probably, it’s just appalling that we’ve gotten worst in baseball production out of RF for two straight years and are simply throwing a bunch of crap at the position and hoping for the best. It’s appalling that we traded a cost-controlled, 2 to 3 win 2B and are replacing him with a 34 year old UT infielder who hits from the right side. It’s appalling that we are doing nothing whatsoever to address our clear weakness against good RHP. It’s appalling that we are afraid to make long-term commitments to impact talent but have given out two of three total 3+ year contracts to relievers and utility guys this offseason. It’s appalling that we are going to lose a 5 win pitcher and think we can think we can replace his production with no external additions. It’s appalling we think we can rely on Dallas Keuchel to be 1/5 of our rotation despite deteriorating stuff and a K rate that is quickly approaching 5 per 9. It’s appalling that we think spending $50M on relievers is somehow a good allocation of our limited resources. And ultimately, it’s appalling that these clowns might squander an amazing opportunity to bring another championship to the south side.

Just came to concede that the Sox aren’t getting Conforto. It’s been hard for me to accept the levels of incompetence with this organization, but after witnessing them ruining their relationship with their best pitcher over $50k, it’s very clear that either Rick Hahn is way over his head as GM, Tony has too much influence on roster decisions, or Jerry is meddling too much in baseball decisions (or some combo of the three). Regardless, the Sox seem totally content with the core they have in place and instead of supplementing with impact talent would prefer spending like drunk sailors on ancillary pieces. It’s an absolute shame that we will be rocking such a high payroll and haven’t really moved the needle. What a bizarre and epic failure of an offseason.

I still don’t get why we didn’t pursue McHugh. Was he the guy who accused us of service time manipulation?

Probably pitch the game Kopech starts.