Need McCann and Grandal next year.

[AJ'S Cousin]

I rest my case for the need to keep McCann. He's Giolito's guy. Giolitti's wins at least 20 next year with this lineup and bullpen. Yasmani as a DH and McCann catches and we are set 1 through 9. Imagine if Kopech is real and we make a deal or sign someone and get a real Manager!!!! These are the 1984 Bears. With a little luck they be the 1985 Bears but probably next year. That was what the experts  predicted anyway. Can we get to the final 4?? Probably. Keuchel Tomorrow and it seems like there no jitters. We did this without Jimenez. I pity the team that starts a lefty against the Sox for the next 2 or 3 years. I Told everyone that we could live with Engel Right and no Encarnacion's abysmal batting average. Yasmani as DH and McCann  catching and we'll win this series!!!! With the money coming off the books next year we can afford to pay McCann and keep him happy.

Edited September 29, 2020 by AJ'S Cousin
forgot a few thoughts

[Green Line]

Omg lol we're not resigning McCann.  This team has major needs going into next season and signing a SECOND starting catcher is not one of them.  Listen, I love McCann.  He doesn't want to come back and share the limelight with Grandal.  The money spent on McCann needs to go to signing another good starter.

Grandal has got a lot of shit on here and much of it is undeserved.  He's an above average catcher and will be fine next year.  There are plenty of better ways to spend the money.

Edited September 29, 2020 by Green Line

[ChiSoxJon]

5 hours ago, Green Line said:

Omg lol we're not resigning McCann.  This team has major needs going into next season and signing a SECOND starting catcher is not one of them.  Listen, I love McCann.  He doesn't want to come back and share the limelight with Grandal.  The money spent on McCann needs to go to signing another good starter.

Grandal has got a lot of shit on here and much of it is undeserved.  He's an above average catcher and will be fine next year.  There are plenty of better ways to spend the money.

Why not both? Lot of fat is getting trimmed  (Gio, Cishek, Herrera, EE, likely Mazara) and JR wants to win now

[southsider2k5]

9 hours ago, ChiSoxJon said:

Why not both? Lot of fat is getting trimmed  (Gio, Cishek, Herrera, EE, likely Mazara) and JR wants to win now

A lot of that "fat" is being taken up for raises to existing contracts.  This team will also probably be looking for at least one more SP, RP in some form, even if it is something like resigning Colome, and then a RF.  I think it is fair to assume that spending will not look like a normal year, so the chances are real that these moves alone take up the spending money we do have.

[sullythered]

4 hours ago, southsider2k5 said:

 I think it is fair to assume that spending will not look like a normal year, so the chances are real that these moves alone take up the spending money we do have.

Obviously spending will look a lot different this offseason, but why would that make the Sox any more or less likely to make moves.  This thing happened to everybody, so the FA playing field is even (if not in the Sox favor, considering the way the Sox make their money compared to most teams).  The only thing that should look drastically different in FA this year is the dollar amounts. 

[Boopa1219]

The Sox shouldn’t overpay for a backup catcher. There a better ways to spend that money. 

[southsider2k5]

26 minutes ago, sullythered said:

Obviously spending will look a lot different this offseason, but why would that make the Sox any more or less likely to make moves.  This thing happened to everybody, so the FA playing field is even (if not in the Sox favor, considering the way the Sox make their money compared to most teams).  The only thing that should look drastically different in FA this year is the dollar amounts. 

How much they will spend is the obvious key here.  I think many are assuming that because the team has a high total of contracts coming off of the books that there is going to be a lot of spending this winter, and therefore resigning McCann is some kind of foregone conclusion. 

I believe there are a few things at play here that will prevent McCann in a Sox jersey next year.

1. Grandal is signed for 3 more years at a large dollar amount.  He can hit left handed in a line up where that is rare.

2. McCann isn't coming back here to be a platoon catcher.

3. DH won't be available either, as Andrew Vaughn will be on this roster next year, and will most likely be playing a share of 1B and DH with Abreu being the other part of that share.

4. While the Sox have a large amount of contracts coming off of the books, a large chunk of that is taken up by raises for existing contracts, as well as potential arb raises. Signed contracts with raises take up almost $20 million in new money next year.  That would leave us without Colome, Mazara, Dyson, Gio G, EE, to start with.  We also have arb offers to make to Giolito, ReyLo, and Rodon.  Sure maybe we cut Rodon and ReyLo, but then we need to replace them.  Engel also has his first arb year coming up.  Even if we decided to go with internal candidates for everyone but Giolito and Engel, we are probably adding another $10 million there. 

5.  The Sox have Starting Pitching, Relief pitching, and right field as more immediate needs than McCann.  If they let guys like Colome, Rodon, Gio G, and ReyLo go, that makes a great need for guys who will be playoff ready next year.  if they resign them, it will be less money to spend next year.

6. The Sox spent around $130 million in salary expectations for 2020.  With COVID realities, if the team decides to hold the line even (and not even if they decided to cut) they don't have much left to spend to fill their holes. 

[sullythered]

22 minutes ago, southsider2k5 said:

How much they will spend is the obvious key here.  I think many are assuming that because the team has a high total of contracts coming off of the books that there is going to be a lot of spending this winter, and therefore resigning McCann is some kind of foregone conclusion. 

I believe there are a few things at play here that will prevent McCann in a Sox jersey next year.

1. Grandal is signed for 3 more years at a large dollar amount.  He can hit left handed in a line up where that is rare.

2. McCann isn't coming back here to be a platoon catcher.

3. DH won't be available either, as Andrew Vaughn will be on this roster next year, and will most likely be playing a share of 1B and DH with Abreu being the other part of that share.

4. While the Sox have a large amount of contracts coming off of the books, a large chunk of that is taken up by raises for existing contracts, as well as potential arb raises. Signed contracts with raises take up almost $20 million in new money next year.  That would leave us without Colome, Mazara, Dyson, Gio G, EE, to start with.  We also have arb offers to make to Giolito, ReyLo, and Rodon.  Sure maybe we cut Rodon and ReyLo, but then we need to replace them.  Engel also has his first arb year coming up.  Even if we decided to go with internal candidates for everyone but Giolito and Engel, we are probably adding another $10 million there. 

5.  The Sox have Starting Pitching, Relief pitching, and right field as more immediate needs than McCann.  If they let guys like Colome, Rodon, Gio G, and ReyLo go, that makes a great need for guys who will be playoff ready next year.  if they resign them, it will be less money to spend next year.

6. The Sox spent around $130 million in salary expectations for 2020.  With COVID realities, if the team decides to hold the line even (and not even if they decided to cut) they don't have much left to spend to fill their holes. 

All valid points, but I don't think anybody here thinks us being able to hold onto McCann is anything close to a foregone conclusion.  I think it's gonna be really, really hard to keep him, and that's a huge problem.  I am happy that we got Yaz, and he does a bunch of things that are extremely valuable, specifically to this team: the pitch framing thing (at least until we finally get robot umps), he sees a ton of pitches and gets on base, he aggravates the hell out of the pitchers he faces, and he occasionally hits a walk-off bomb harder than Captain America could hit a baseball.  He is a huge asset, but McCann is a much better catcher, and more importantly, his weird mind-meld thing with Lucas turns our ace into freakin' Gerritt Cole.  That alone is worth A LOT of money, and I hope the Sox recognize that.  Lucas is an atypical athlete, as far as emotional and intellectual makeup is concerned.  I really don't want to take the gamble that taking McCann away from him won't short circuit him.

[AJ'S Cousin]

On 9/29/2020 at 10:04 AM, southsider2k5 said:

Not to mention, why would McCann give up a year of free agency in that situation to sign an undermarket extension? 

James McCann will be a free agent.  He will sign an impressive free agent deal to be a starting catcher and play 130 games somewhere else, because we can't offer that to him.  Finally his numbers will regress to the norm once he isn't getting cherry picked to start for ideal match ups.

Nice job asshole, calling a new member a complete moran. personal blog???  We all have opinions. I start a conversation, correct?? You have the option to give an opinion or ignore it. Not name call. I've been active for about week, started 3 conversions and YOU are the only one to insult me.   

[sullythered]

1 hour ago, Joshua Strong said:

The Sox shouldn’t overpay for a backup catcher. There a better ways to spend that money. 

They would be paying for an ace pitcher more than a backup catcher, IMO.

[southsider2k5]

3 minutes ago, AJ'S Cousin said:

Nice job asshole, calling a new member a complete moran. personal blog???  We all have opinions. I start a conversation, correct?? You have the option to give an opinion or ignore it. Not name call. I've been active for about week, started 3 conversions and YOU are the only one to insult me.   

Hey genius, if you are new to a website and you want to start calling people names, you should probably quote the right post.  Seems like a pretty "moran" move there.