Perfect Time to Rebuild

[Dunt]

I know the rebuild is a bittersweet moment for the fans of this franchise, but I applaud the foresight of the front office to get this done now. The 3 main reasons for this being:

 

1.) Cleveland firmly owns this division right now, but outside them, the Central is kind of a dumpster fire. The Tigers are old, expensive, and their farm system is empty. They are at the very end of their window and have some brutal ends of contracts over the next 5 years. Minnesota, while having a relatively stacked farm system over the last 5 or so years, hasnt really seen a lot of their homegrown talent pan out and is sorely lacking marquee talent. The Royals cupboard is pretty bare and are still talking like they want to give it one last try with this core. Be our guest. The Sox will be a punching bag for the division next season, and maybe again in 2016, but they are looking like they will have a window when this core reaches the majors that could last awhile.

 

2.) The CBA and draft pick compensation. For a team like the Sox, it has been especially painful to pursue top end FAs because, not only are they incredibly expensive, but the draft pick compensation absolutely ruins any chance at sustaining success through homegrown talent. With the way the new CBA is structured and the improvements made in the scouting/drafting department, I think the Sox are in a pretty good position to really start developing players in their system that can supplement a good core moving forward.

 

3.) The payroll flexibility we will have with this core and the upcoming free agent classes. As it stands, the Sox currently have $35M on the books for 2018 and $2.25 for 2019. Jerry has never been one to hand out big contracts, but they are positioned so well to make a play at a Machado or Harper or Donaldson during that 2018-2019 offseason. Ideally they wouldnt need to spend mega dollars on those guys, they would just need to add guys that compliment the core. To have that type of flexibility is insane though.

 

 

Seeing Sale and Eaton go really sucks and the guys they got for them could end up busting, but the future is incredibly bright right now for the White Sox. For the first time in as long as I can remember, I am impressed at the vision and direction of this front office.

[TheFutureIsNear]

You're kidding yourself if you think there's any correlation at all to this rebuild and the '18 free agent class. Those guys are probably going to be getting $300M+ easy. Never going to happen for this team.

 

And the perfect time for a rebuild was probably 3-4 years ago before we traded prospects and wasted $ on crappy old FA's only to still suck. But hey, better late than never right? At least they seem to be doing it the right way too instead of a 1/2 assed retool like I was afraid of.

[Panerista]

"The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now." -Chinese Proverb

[Panerista]

You're kidding yourself if you think there's any correlation at all to this rebuild and the '18 free agent class. Those guys are probably going to be getting $300M+ easy. Never going to happen for this team.

 

And the perfect time for a rebuild was probably 3-4 years ago before we traded prospects and wasted $ on crappy old FA's only to still suck. But hey, better late than never right? At least they seem to be doing it the right way too instead of a 1/2 assed retool like I was afraid of.

The only correlation I can find is that teams realize they need to draft and develop young talent in order to compete with those mega-contracts.

[bmags]

Meh, I have us signing Machado until some other team does

[GGajewski18]

http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/CH...-salaries.shtml

 

The payroll for the next few years. If we trade Robertson and Frazier, we will have a payroll of around 65 million. In 2018 probably around 40 million once Melky, Lawrie and Avi gone. This is without even trading Quintana.

 

We will have plenty of money to spend for the future in that massive FA class.

[Panerista]

http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/CH...-salaries.shtml

 

The payroll for the next few years. If we trade Robertson and Frazier, we will have a payroll of around 65 million. In 2018 probably around 40 million once Melky, Lawrie and Avi gone. This is without even trading Quintana.

 

We will have plenty of money to spend for the future in that massive FA class.

Sounds like a good way to fail. If our rebuild is there in 2018, maybe we can mess with that class, but I wouldn't count on it.

[caulfield12]

The last two or three months of the 2018 season will be key.

 

How close are you to contending? Do you "jump start" the rush for competitiveness by spending into that huge 2018-19 market...or patiently wait it out another year and then really set yourself up even better for 2020-2022/23 (see the rush to sign Robertson two years ago)?

 

Left unspoken is the obvious point that a huge name like Harper/Machado/Donaldson, etc., can basically be signed with a backloaded deal with money essentially being "borrowed" against the new broadcasting rights/t.v. deal.

 

Then the question becomes for those running the team whether the franchise has MORE value with a huge marquee name added (thus securing an even better media rights deal), or whether they're better off allocating that money in the traditional White Sox way of contracts under 5 years and definitely under $100 million.

Edited December 9, 2016 by caulfield12

[CaliSoxFanViaSWside]

I know the rebuild is a bittersweet moment for the fans of this franchise, but I applaud the foresight of the front office to get this done now. The 3 main reasons for this being:

 

1.) Cleveland firmly owns this division right now, but outside them, the Central is kind of a dumpster fire. The Tigers are old, expensive, and their farm system is empty. They are at the very end of their window and have some brutal ends of contracts over the next 5 years. Minnesota, while having a relatively stacked farm system over the last 5 or so years, hasnt really seen a lot of their homegrown talent pan out and is sorely lacking marquee talent. The Royals cupboard is pretty bare and are still talking like they want to give it one last try with this core. Be our guest. The Sox will be a punching bag for the division next season, and maybe again in 2016, but they are looking like they will have a window when this core reaches the majors that could last awhile.

 

2.) The CBA and draft pick compensation. For a team like the Sox, it has been especially painful to pursue top end FAs because, not only are they incredibly expensive, but the draft pick compensation absolutely ruins any chance at sustaining success through homegrown talent. With the way the new CBA is structured and the improvements made in the scouting/drafting department, I think the Sox are in a pretty good position to really start developing players in their system that can supplement a good core moving forward.

 

3.) The payroll flexibility we will have with this core and the upcoming free agent classes. As it stands, the Sox currently have $35M on the books for 2018 and $2.25 for 2019. Jerry has never been one to hand out big contracts, but they are positioned so well to make a play at a Machado or Harper or Donaldson during that 2018-2019 offseason. Ideally they wouldnt need to spend mega dollars on those guys, they would just need to add guys that compliment the core. To have that type of flexibility is insane though.

 

 

Seeing Sale and Eaton go really sucks and the guys they got for them could end up busting, but the future is incredibly bright right now for the White Sox. For the first time in as long as I can remember, I am impressed at the vision and direction of this front office.

I was wondering today about the timing of the rebuild also. My question is how it lined up with the talent in the last, hmmm let's say ,4 draft classes. Is there a concensus on how strong the draft classes have been in that time ? Maybe some of our minor league experts can help me out here.