Chicago White Sox

Did we just lose five yards of field position on a ridiculous attempt to draw them offsides?

Talk about moving the goalposts. Here is what you said: Still waiting for an answer. Just the La Russa factor? That’s your only reason?

I get what you’re saying, but adding three starters is basically punting on our young starters.

I still don’t follow. Wheeler signed with the Phillies for family reasons. Machado signed with the Padres because they offered significantly more money. If the money is there, we should be an attractive landing spot for most free agents.

Absolutely embarrassing.

Stroman is the only other who might consider it, but I think he rejects it.

Fully agree. Too much downside for him in passing it up.

You want to add three starters?

I get why our players may be concerned and I get why certain free agents my be concerned, but I doubt the vast majority of guys currently in free agent limbo will care all that much.

Why though? I could see Marcus Stroman having reservations, but most of these guys are going to go where the money is, especially in this economic environment.

The Yankees not offering Tanaka a QO is pretty indicative of their financial situation and good news for the mid tier teams looking to spend this offseason.

So it’s offfical, six players receive QOs: SP - Trevor Bauer SP - Marcus Stroman SP - Kevin Gausman CA - J.T. Realmuto OF - George Springer 2B - DJ LeMahieu

Gausman is getting a qualified offer from the Giants. That means two of the top five starters will require the loss of a draft and Bauer will almost certainly receive a QO as well. My guess is Tanaka will also get one from the Yankees, although I’d wager Paxton will not. The real question is do any of these players accept a QO? Bauer obviously won’t, but no idea about the other guys. It’s a little scary that the top end of the pitching market could quickly dry up.

Why would a big free agent stay away from this team?

My offseason plan is to add the best possible starter and then a cheap swingman who can open the season as our #5. Given the amount of off-days we have in April & May and possible rainouts, that 5th starter would only be needed for five starts most likely. I’m not sure we need to spend big on a second starter if we’re getting enough production out of the top end guy. That means López starts the season as our long reliever and that Kopech & Cease open up the year in AAA. I want Kopech slowly building up innings in Charlotte so that we can save him for the stretch run and get an extra year of control. That means he comes up and takes the #5 spot in June if all is going well. Cease fills in as needed if there an injury arises or unsurps someone as performance dictates. The veteran swingman ultimately moves to the pen and López is either moved to shorter stints or is DFAed depending on how he looks. The Sox aren’t going to give up on Cease this early into his career and they will want to create a path for Kopech to join the rotation at some point. We need to add depth, but I think they’ll be able to get a decent arm on the cheap who can temporarily hold that #5 spot until one of Kopech or Cease is ready and then move to the bullpen. Again, I’d rather put resources towards the best possible starter and add cheaper depth then add two mid level starters because I still believe Kopech & Cease will be a big part of the rotation mix at some point in 2021.

From my perspective, I’m 100% ok with this being our depth chart: Bauer Giolito Keuchel Dunning Cheap FA Swingman Kopech Cease Lopez Lambert Stiever

So you don’t think Kopech ever factors into the mix?

I’m not sure how you’re getting -3.0 fWAR out of Cease or López as we’d hopefully only need one of them to start next year and that’s if we only add one starter. Bauer, Gioltio, Keuchel, & Dunning would be your 1-4 to open the season. Kopech should be ready at some point for that #5 spot. We basically would need Cease or López for a couple months (baring injury) and even then we have like seven off-days in April & May which reduces the need for a #5 starter. I would still add a depth piece, but you could probably survive with a cheaper swing-man if you add the certainty of high end performance that Bauer brings to the table.

I know Harold mentioned him as well, but he would make a ton of sense for us.

Sorry, meant La Russa.

I’m definitely not suggesting it’s Bauer or bust this offseason, although I do think he’d be the ideal addition for us. That being said, we do need to add a legit #2 / #3 starter worst case scenario and to me that means either signing Stroman or trading for one. And obviously if we can add a backend starter as well so we have both depth and the ability to give Cease some time in AAA even better. All that said, I truly think there will be 14 playoff teams next year and if constrained I’d rather commit my resources to that top spot (to set us up better for October) than spread it over two rotation pieces (as our offense should hopefully get us there).

I 100% agree. I think he’s way undervalued by both Law & Fangraphs, but my point is Grandal was a consensus top 7 free agent last year in a class with at least a couple major stars whereas McCann is ranked fairly low (or not at all) despite pretty nice numbers the last two seasons. This idea that McCann is the better player is just kind of crazy to me and I think most baseball experts would agree with that.

Renteria must have someone in mind already for the 3B coach job as no one else other than Capra has been let go yet.

It’s amazing how differently James McCann is valued by his diehard fans on this site vs. other baseball analysts. Keith Law doesn’t even have him ranked amongst the top 40 free agents. Fangraphs has him ranked 33rd overall, but only projects him to get a deal around 2/$14M. I personally think he’s being undervalued, but it does go to show how ridiculous the idea is that’s he suddenly the better catcher than Grandal.

Agreed, although I think we still need to acquire one legit #1-#3 starter