Chicago White Sox

Please don’t take this the wrong way, but this is somewhat absurd. There are only so many stars that hit free agency in their prime. If you’re going place a requirement that they be likable, a leader, etc., you’ve just eliminated half of the options that will be available this offseason. We aren’t the Yankees or Dodgers who can be a little more picky, we have to sign whichever whale we can get. Now don’t get me wrong, I would prefer Harper because of the intangibles he provides, but we can not afford to pass on Machado while we wait for Bryce. Even above star power, we need impact talent more than anything.

100% agree. And I think a key thing that shouldn’t be overlooked is there are two whales on the market. If the Sox are prepared to do some crazy shit, there is zero excuse for not landing one of these guys. The odds of both of them turning down substantial amounts of money is probably near zero.

This isn’t the NFL, we don’t need Machado to be a leader, we just need him to keep putting up 6 win seasons. The value of having a star contributor like Manny would be absolutely huge for the rebuild. You only have so many roster spots and the marginal benefit of a high win player is significant. Unfortunately, guys like this typically don’t hit free agency at 26 and teams like us should be doing everything in our power to land these type of players when the opportunities present themselves. It sounds like you just don’t like him for personal reasons and that’s a poor way to contract a baseball team.

Then you’re suggesting a 10 year rebuild, which is not only insanity but would also destroy what little remaining interest our fanbase has in the team. And the reason for this? All because you’re scared to spend some money on a big name player. I honestly can’t comprehend this line of thinking.

If you’re trying to emulate the Astros with our front office in place and without the same analytics infrastructure we are completely fucked IMO.

The Yankees are not giving up anything decent for Alonso, especially once they have already landed Machado.

I’m guessing it won’t be that much less TBH.

I think is realistically our floor once our new TV deal goes into effect. We have zero long-term commitments, so filling the two holes you mentioned can still be done while adding a whale.

Trust me Truth, I’m in full agreement that we need to do whatever it takes to land a whale. And I do they believe they’re willing to offer a record breaking contract, I’m just concerned in the case of Machado they won’t make a Godfather type offer and will instead just assume 10/$325M is way better than 8/$280M. We’re entering unprecedented territory for the franchise so who really knows though.

What else do you supposed doing with this money?

I totally agree with you, I’m just speculating what I think our front office will do and I worry they don’t think they’ll need to outbid the Yankees by that much.

There is a big difference between $325M & $375M and I don’t think we’d go much past the former.

To me, the magic numbers for the Yankees are 8 years and a $35M AAV (which be record breaking). If he gets both of those from New York, I think we’d have to offer around 10/$375M to have a chance. I really think we need years and an AAV edge to convince him to not join the Yankees.

If the Yankees are offering 8/$280M with opt-outs, I think it would take something crazy from us or the Phillies to get him to pass up that opportunity. I think we got to hope the Yankees cap out around 8/$240M unless we’re prepared to spend some really stupid money.

I really don’t think there is that much smoke here. A bunch of wannabe New York “insiders” are jumping off of what Dan Clark reported. And even with Jim Leyritz, he didn’t just come out and post what he did looking to break news, he was responding to a question some random person asked him. This all could be real, but to me it still comes down to the validity of the Dan Clark report.

Just to mess with fathom, another New York “insider” says Machado to Yankees:

I have no clue what this means. Our TV revenue is fixed and could be worth $150M or more once our local deal is in place. You’re really over exaggerating our financial woes.

The Mets & Angels are large market teams, so I’m not sure what you’re getting at that there. Right now, we are realistically a mid market team with the upside to be a low end large market team with some star power and an extended period of success.

Why is it an either/or type thing? Adding a star via free agency allows us to overcome one of those guys not hitting their ceiling. If they all reach their potential plus we add Machado or Harper then great, but we shouldn’t make decisions today assuming all our young guys are going to work out. Also, how quickly does Robert become an impact player exactly? He may not be up here until late 2020 / early 2021 and could take a year or two before he finds his stride. Meanwhile, we burn through Moncada & Jimenez’s service while we wait. Adding a legit star or two takes some pressure off our kids needing to come out of the gate guns blazing to be competitive.

Calling us a small market team is absolutely ridiculous.

If you’re afraid to take risks, then you’re setting yourself up for mediocrity IMO. I get the Astros developed most of their core on their own (although they’ve since augmented), but that’s simply not very realistic for us. We will have to sign a premier free agent or two at some point (ideally while our core is still cheap) if we want to maximize our chances of putting together a championship caliber roster.

Yeah, gotta disagree with your thinking here. With our prospect depth, 2 to 3 win players shouldn’t (hopefully) be hard to come by. Developing stars will be the challenge and the first prospect we’ve called up with that type of upside didn’t make a convincing first case that he’ll ever reach his ceiling. Banking on us hitting on all three of Moncada, Jimenez, & Robert seems like a dangerous proposition.

Exactly, we only have a handful of guys with 6 WAR ceilings. Not using our financial flexibility to add one via free agency puts an insane amount of pressure on hitting big time on most (if not all) of those guys.

That is just embarrassing reporting but par for the course for a hack like Cafardo.

Look, I’m as sick of losing as anyone, but at the end of the day you got to stick to the plan if you’re unable to land the whales. Spending big money on mediocre free agents is the worst thing we can do. That being said, I’d look into Kikuchi as well as Ottavino to be the closer if I could get him on a two year deal. If we miss on those guys, I’d look at one year deals for potential flip candidates like Pomeranz & Allen. I’d also be open to signing one of the 2B free agents (preferable Dozier) to a pillow contract if the market dries up. Hell, I’d be ok with bringing Avi back if we could dump Alonso. Those of the types of moves that make sense to me. Save the rest of our money for a shot at Arenado, Rendon, & Bogearts next year.