Jose Abreu

I think that's less of an issue of the stat itself and more people just not realizing that it's a positional adjustment that makes catchers look more valuable defensively/them not realizing that the "Def" stat next to WAR isn't dWAR. Sanchez ranked 18th out of 30 defensively among catchers with 600+ innings, which seems fair since he did make a few tangible improvements last year

https://www.mlb.com/video/grifol-talks-managing-white-sox 7:40 mark of this video is when the question starts, 8:10 is when he says La Russa will be around at Spring Training. This video is a month and a half old so I'm assuming that's where the tweet came from

Because Grifol has already confirmed it

I think they would have let him back, but he would not have come back, given his comments in his final conference about how the fan pressure might have led him to leave regardless

I’d assume so, I think it was from a radio interview. My comment above is from 12/1 so it was probably from the week before

Pretty sure Grifol revealed this in an interview last month

Tremendous article. One overlooked part: I've been begging for them to get those machines for years. I really think they'll work wonders for guys like Robert when it comes to laying off high-spin sliders out of the zone

A Varsho-Kiermaier-Springer outfielder is the best in baseball (defensively at least) without a doubt. 2 gold glove-level CFs and an above average (arguably well-above average depending on the metric) Springer

Are you saying Teoscar and Varsho are similar value players?

What's so bad about it? Relatively inactive, sure, but Vazquez is a nice fit for them and Gallo has been very comparable to Benintendi (slightly better than Beni overall, but worse lately) on a holistic (WAR) basis throughout his career

Unless I've missed something substantive, I've always thought this was just a narrative spread by people who don't like the way he plays. Nobody has ever said anything negative about him like they have with someone like Josh Donaldson. And speaking of which, the way Grandal stood up for Anderson during that weekend makes him seem like a good teammate if anything

I'm sorry

It really seems like the main reason he's down on the Sox as even contending for a wild card (aside from the 2B situation) is that he thinks Gavin Sheets is the primary DH

It's honestly been kind of weird. Literally every time a player has signed a contract worth $75 million or more this offseason, it's as if there's a scheduled Keith Law tweet 3 hours later talking about how it's such a bad decision. I know it's not his intention, but it comes off as overzealous ownership support. I generally like him too, but it feels to me like he just hasn't adjusted to the new market.

I bet they salary dump him and then he has a great year. He actually had some pretty terrible batted ball luck last season

I'm guessing 5/80 (16 AAV). From what I've read, a fifth year is what was needed from teams to separate themselves

Can a pro-Benintendi person convince me that he's a good defender aside from the gold glove? Trying to talk myself into this

I believe that he stepped down due to health issues, but it's also notable that in his final press conference, he admitted that the fan discontentment might have led him to step down regardless

I agree, but it's difficult to just bank on Eloy/Vaughn/Robert all hitting more home runs. I like the hitting coaches, but it would be nice to get a player that at least has a track record of hitting for significant power -- doesn't have to be Gallo

Btw, for all the talk of Joey Gallo's defense declining (true, but it's still average at worst), why is Benintendi automatically referred to as a good defender when the same metrics are lower on him than Gallo?

They had 3 guys hitting .300 at the top of the order for a significant stretch last season (Anderson/Robert/Vaughn, obviously injuries/regressions stopped it) and it was meaningless because nobody on the team hit for power

Mad is strong, but considering that it would probably be the biggest FA expenditure in franchise history, it would be annoying that he's not even a great fit for the roster (lefty, sure, but yet another singles hitter)

Considering Gallo’s fWAR dropped from 4.2 (2021) to 0.6 (2022), wouldn’t his forthcoming lower contract actually support WAR as an evaluation tool?

The White Sox and Blue Jays have pretty similar payrolls, at least pre-arb, but the difference is that the "bad contracts" on the White Sox are either more temporary (Grandal for only one year) or probably not as bad as people think (Moncada could feasibly return to at least 2021 levels without needing a power increase, and even if he doesn't it's only two more years guaranteed). Sox fans act like these are franchise-breaking albatrosses, but they aren't like the Blue Jays where they are stuck paying Jose Berrios (who, for reference, was markedly worse than Giolito in 2022) another $120 million over 6 years. Nevertheless, the Blue Jays are still the ones simply paying over the mistakes and making them less important as a result. Every team has bad contracts, but the bad contracts on the Sox aren't even that bad (comparatively speaking), which makes the lack of spending over the issues even more frustrating