Chicago White Sox

I can’t believe the name here hasn’t leaked out yet.

Oh I’m 100% with you. I’m not doing a Cease trade with Baltimore unless I’m getting one of Kjerstad or Cowser (or theoretically Mayo, but far more unlikely) as the centerpiece plus one of their infield prospects (preferably not Norby) as plus a solid third piece. I do think Ortiz could be that second piece, but I view him more of a high floor guy than someone with anything close to a 5 fWAR ceiling.

FWIW, BA put a 70 grade on Ortiz’s fielding in their latest update vs. having him at a 60 grade previously. While I’ll always be skeptical of someone making that type of defensive jump at his age, it’s really the bat that I’m concerned bout. I’ve heard about these rumored elite EVs, but they conflict with every single scouting report I read on him. And without access to Statcast type data at the minor league level, I highly question the validity of said statements.

I would say that anything Macsandz says should be taken with a massive grain of salt. I can’t recall one single rumor he has gotten right but many he has gotten wrong.

Wouldn’t surprise me…but the price should be dirt cheap given the D-Backs non-tendered him vs. paying him $1.5M. I’m not enamored by the other OF options in that price range though.

Most likely yes

Not Steve Cishek is suggesting Scott Alexander

Yup, checks multiple boxes!

But the Price is Right!

I’ll say Amir Garrett

I don’t envision this being a rebuild like we saw previously. If/when they move Cease, it will be for near major league ready prospects. I think they want to be competing for a s%*# AL Central by 2026. Unfortunately, there is not much we can do next year since the bulk of top prospects aren’t quite ready and will need some time to develop once they are finally called up.

Agree…not a ton of guys like that is the problem though. However, if we are going to dumpster dive, I would target guys with additional control. Kyle Lewis is controllable through 2026 and makes complete as part of a RF solution (not sure how his defense is nowadays, but has to better than Sheets). Code Heuer is controllable through 2025 and his pitch mix still makes a ton of sense in our park. I’m sure there are others like that who will come dirt cheap and can offer theoretical value beyond 2024 if they somehow pan out.

Tough to argue against that then.

But as White Sox fans should know, caught stealing percentages are heavily dependent on the pitchers as well. Given his pop time was still in the 70th percentile, it’s not outlandish to think he handled a bunch of pitchers who weren’t good at holding runners and/or have slower than average windups.

Nothing wrong with signing placeholders and not over-spending on C tier free agents to multi year deals. I think people here who are frustrated are just worried we’re making the move based on name value and not acknowledging the decline last year in his defensive performance (primarily framing). The Sox under Hahn weren’t very effective playing in this space and more or less just lit cash on fire to “fill” holes. Hopefully Getz does better in this tier of free agency.

And for the record, Maldonado’s blocking and throwing was still above average last year (at least per Statcast). It was his framing that fell off a cliff and killed his defensive value. Be curious what happened there since he basically went from bad to worst in baseball at it.

Which is fine, but just another reason to launch Pedro to the sun.

I’m not sure Kendall Graveman had that much of a market to be overly picky on the return. And regarding the 40 man, it’s hard to imagine we’ll be pushing the limit on spots this year. I think it’s simply a minor trade that likely won’t end up providing us with any value but was worth a roll of the dice at the time.

Oh no doubt having two good game-callers can help everyone, but I think the marginal value starts to erode some when you’re talking about completely sacrificing any offense out of the catcher spot while they’re handling more experienced pitchers. I’m not losing sleep over this…just theorizing this move may be foreshadowing a Cease for pitching prospects trade.

Because where are all these young pitchers that we need two veteran SPs to handle? I think it’s very clear that this focus on defense is to help a young pitching staff, but right now it’s not like the projected Opening Day roster is overflowing with a bunch of promising young arms. That tells me that when Cease goes out, near major league ready pitching is coming back. Obviously this is all me speculating, but it’s the only way the broader set of moves make any sense.

So AJSS would be on the table but not Waldrep?

They should be DFAing Zach Remillard. He serves zero purpose on this roster with the additions of DeJong, Lopez, & Shewmake.

To be fair, we acquired him for Kendall Graveman and at the time our near term catching situation was atrocious. I think it was a perfectly fine move all things considered even if we don’t hand him a major league role next year.

So Cease to Atlanta is basically happening then?

At least we have confirmed Harold is in fact Getz…one Soxtalk mystery solved