Chicago White Sox

Vaughn? It’s his 5th full year. And even last year when he fixed his launch angle issues and hit more fly balls it didn’t really matter because of terrible swing decisions. I doubt a new hitting coach will be able to stop him from chasing shitty pitches all the time.

He gone!

Being rule eligible doesn’t make your ready for the majors, even more so with High School and LatAm players.

One also has proven to be a well below average major hitter over 1,400+ plate appearances. Give the me the mystery box over the guy we already know is bad.

Vaughn had a 20% BB rate in his Junior year at Cal vs. the 6% rate he’s been sporting the last three years with the Sox. His BB to K ratio was nearly 2 to 1. He was an incredibly disciplined hitter and that has not translated at all to the majors. And I disagree somewhat on the ability to punish the ball. His exit velocities (especially his max ones) are mostly fine. The problem is he’s no longer making good swing decisions and is chasing like crazy (bottom 21st percentile). I 100% believe having more than 135 plate appearances above Low A ball would have made some difference in that area. Doesn’t mean he would have turned to out to be a good pick or even a semblance of the guy he was at Cal, but you can pretend that essentially no time in AA & AAA didn’t have some effect on his long term development.

There was quote from Getz earlier this offseason that basically said anything they spend would likely be geared to the offense. I could still one C tier bat added to the mix on a short term deal. But again, depends on if they bring back Vaughn for one last hoorah.

We say this every year and he’s only getting worse. And if it was just tapping into his power better then I’d say roll the dice, but the kid has a sub 6% walk rate over the past three seasons. He simply isn’t the same guy he was at Cal, probably because he barely had any development time in the minors.

I think they will add least one reliever on a guaranteed deal. And they may need a DH / 1B depending on how non-tenders go and who they get back in a Crochet trade.

Steven Wilson has options and three years of control. You bring him back and hope he rebounds. Disappointing to hear Vaughn is likely back, but I guess that what you get when your GM lacks the creativity to find a positive WAR 1B.

I highly doubt they don’t sign at least one other major league contract. I’m not expecting anything crazy, but they almost certainly will do a couple dumpster dives to fill out the roster at minimum.

Come on Ray, this isn’t that hard. They called him up early in free agency and made him an offer. Clearly he was their top target for this role. Who cares if they said that out loud to him?

Again, we are talking about a guy signing for a $1M above league minimum for a weak-side platoon OF role. The max we could save by waiting is literally a $1M. If your new hitting coordinator feels he can return to 85% of previous form, then paying a tiny amount of money to secure your dude now makes more sense than settling for whatever scraps remain at the end of offseason.

You’re whining about their sales pitch now? If you don’t like the player that’s totally fine, but if Getz wants the dude then he should 100% say this s%*# if it will help get the deal done. Not sure how that’s even debatable.

That’s generally true, but in this case, I think Getz wanted to add a veteran RH OF to help against LHP (since all our OFs except Robert are LH) and didn’t want to spend big on it. As such, Slater became the “top target” for this very small, specialized role. But no doubt there is a sales element at play here as well that people are latching onto due to their frustration with the org.

We are coming off the worst season in baseball history and have been lambasted in the press since it ended. We clearly will have to overpay to land free agents. In this case, we’re talking paying a $1M above league minimum for a role player that our new hitting coordinator just worked with and probably feels is undervalued and potentially a good clubhouse fit. Who really cares if he was our “top target” for a weak-side platoon OF on cheap? I will happily criticize Getz for many of things, but this is a big nothing in the grand scheme of things.

I think Quero is up by May 1st if not OD knowing this org. And I still think Lee can be a very solid backup catcher. I’d personally investment my limited money into a 1B / DH upgrade and give Robert some much needed protection.

The pessimism around Montgomery is primarily related to his struggles with velocity. And candidly speaking, those concerns are warranted until he proves otherwise. I’m optimistic he can adjust and become a very productive major leaguer, but he certainly has lost some of his prospect shine and no longer looks like a potential superstar IMO. Hopefully he proves me wrong though.

He probably isn’t and that’s really unfortunate.

In that type of package I would certainly welcome Abreu, but worry he’d be a major part of any potential package.

Abreu is a fine player, but five years of control isn’t great when your team is very far away from competing. Having him and Vargas (also with five years of control if he works out) be two key pieces of a potential rebuilt lineup seems a bit shortsighted IMO.

Colson Montgomery put up an 88 wRC+ in AAA while playing half his games in an absolute bandbox. To think he’s ready for the majors is wild to me and to think he’d have any chance of winning ROY next year is even crazier. I’m glad he had a nice AFL stint but it was 42 plate appearances. He needs to have an extended stretch of success in AAA before we consider calling him up. There is zero benefit of burning a year of service while he hoping he’ll complete critical development in the majors. Baldwin can and should start for a month or two or however long it takes for Colson to legit be ready for a shot.

I saw this the other day and was going to post it here, but obviously not even remotely realistic. Mayo would be an awesome addition despite his corner profile. And I do like Beavers as a secondary piece. But no way they do Mayo & Basallo in the same deal.

So Harold’s game plan for the Sox this offseason is: Rush Colson Montgomery to the majors Trade Robert + prospects for Lux Trade Crochet + Benintendi for crap Definitely seems like a foolproof plan!

Would be an incredibly dumb decision based on the last 12 months

This deal is a $1M above league minimum. And we’re talking about a weak-side platoon OF, so it’s not like he’s even blocking any of the AAAA OF prospects we have anyways. Honestly, this is actually a pretty solid move to potentially add some offense against LHP. May not work out but worth the gamble at the price.