Offseason Targets

[Balta1701]

8 minutes ago, Timmy U said:

The available lefty-hitting rightfielders leave a lot to be desired.  I suppose you could take a crapshoot at Eaton, Joc Pederson, or Reddick, but they all have just as big of bust potential as Mazara.  I like both Conforto and Nimmo, but I live in New York and I do not believe the Mets will be sellers.  In fact, with their new billionaire owner, I would not be shocked if they made a play for Lindor.  I could see the Sox keeping their powder dry considering we're talking about their #8 hitter, then maybe making a move at the deadline.

I know the Mets ones look like great fits, but I figure a new owner there will also prevent them from selling. But...I'm guessing there will be some surprisingly big names who are available for trades cheaply in late November prior to the arbitration deadline from teams that are actually trying to cut payroll. If it wasn't for a new owner, I would have thought the Mets would be one of those teams. You might even get some guys of that quality who are non-tendered.

[Dick Allen]

Frankly with how the owners are crying poor, and really no idea how 2021 will go, If I was an agent of a free agent that wasn’t a top guy, and they had reasonable offer early, I would advise him the offers probably aren’t going to go higher as the winter progresses.

[caulfield12]

4 hours ago, JUSTgottaBELIEVE said:

Thought he had a club option still?

Are the Marlins willing to pay $12.5 million for a veteran in his final contract year for a full season?  Without fans?

[hi8is]

Did we sign anyone yet?

[GreatScott82]

Any chance Philly floats Harper out there or the Brew Crew floats Yelich? I’m assuming the asking price would have to be astronomical... but wondering with COVID impacting every teams budget, if it would be a possibility?

[Vote4Pedro]

17 minutes ago, hi8is said:

Did we sign anyone yet?

? Hot stove can’t start up soon enough 

[hi8is]

7 minutes ago, HahnsKiddieTable said:

? Hot stove can’t start up soon enough 

Did we sign anyone yet, now?

[iWiN4PreP]

For RF: Starlin Marte, George Springer

Possible: Mike Yastrezmski (LHB), Nimmo, Conforto (unlikely), Garret Hampson (ehhhh), David Dahl (hm), 

Off the wall possibilities: Nolan Arenando (Move Moncada to RF, eck), Kris Bryant (to the OF), 

I've had enough of the B.S. with shitty players. It's time to win. Get us quality. Enough of the journeymen trying to find their way, bring in elite talent. 

IDK who else might be available. But the W'Sox either need to sign one of those first two guys or get creative.

 

[GreatScott82]

Another interesting nugget out of Philly, their GM Klentak just stepped down... ? 

If I’m Hahn I’m kicking the tires on Harper... 

[GreatScott82]

https://twitter.com/phillies/status/1312482866849181696?s=21

[Jack Parkman]

17 minutes ago, GreatScott82 said:

Another interesting nugget out of Philly, their GM Klentak just stepped down... ? 

If I’m Hahn I’m kicking the tires on Harper... 

Idk if I wanna know the price on that after the season Harper just had. 

They need pitching more than Harper. 

Edited October 3, 2020 by Jack Parkman

[YouCanPutItOnTheBoardYES!]

Doesn’t Harper have a no trade clause anyway?

[HaroldSouthside]

3 hours ago, VAfan said:

I'm guessing this will get lost in all the posts, but I'll just put this here for posterity.

1. Sign a stud starting pitcher. Bauer has been mentioned. If he only wants 1-year deals, perfect. It makes him easier to acquire. The Sox need 3 reliable workhorse starters.

2. Create a combination of major league and minor league pitching depth that will be needed to manage the back end of the rotation. For example, when Kopech makes the rotation, he won't be good for an entire season. So you have to have someone ready to fill the balance of that workload. But they can't just sit on the bench. They may need to be in the minors where they aren't using up a roster spot. The Sox have all these pitchers - Cease, Dunning, Lopez, Stiever, Crochet - who aren't likely to be 200 inning starters, but may be able to contribute. This is going to be the hardest part of the team to figure out.  The Sox need to keep the best of these guys, and to have a lot of depth, as I expect they'll use as many as 10 starters next season. 

3. Re-sign Colome if it doesn't break the bank. 

4. Bring up Andrew Vaughn as the full time DH/1B platoon with Abreu. The Sox would have been much stronger this year if they'd done that instead of signing Encarnacion. Vaughn will give us a power bat who can also take pitches and draw walks in the middle of the order. 

5. Upgrade RF with a lefty power bat. Not sure who this should be. I think Mazara had an off year and will be better. But he's too risky to rely on.

6. Make an offer to James McCann to see if he'll take it. 

7. Re-sign Leury Garcia

Overall, the Sox offense should be lights out in 2021.

1. Anderson has proven he's not a one-year fluke. 

2. Moncada should bounce back with Covid behind him.

3. Abreu had an MVP year. He's unlikely to match it, but should continue producing.

4. Eloy Jimenez is getting better. Great protection for Abreu.

5. Grandall wasn't a monster hitter, but was the most patient hitter, and found his power stroke as the season went on.

6. Andrew Vaughn could make the biggest difference in this lineup in place of Encarnacion. Higher average, OBP, and power. 

7. Luis Robert. Will he push his way up the lineup? Or will he just do tremendous damage here with plenty of guys on base ahead of him?

8. Mystery left-handed RF/Engel. 

9. Nick Madrigal. You could make a case for him hitting second with his .340 batting average, ability to hit with two strikes, and ability to hit-and-run. If Moncada doesn't bounce back to 2019 form, maybe you should do this. But he's got plenty of value at the bottom where he turns over the lineup and gets on for the boppers behind him. 

Starters: Giolito, Bauer, Keuchel, Kopech, fill-in-the-blank (Crochet, Cease, Dunning, Lopez, etc.)

Bullpen: Colome, Bummer, Marshall, Heuer, Crochet (if he's not ticketed to starting), Foster, etc. 

Bench: McCann? or Collins, Garcia, Engel, etc. 

If the Sox sign a TOR like Bauer they’ll only have the money to sign a closer and that’ll be it. There is no need of posterity. 

[JUSTgottaBELIEVE]

3 hours ago, caulfield12 said:

Are the Marlins willing to pay $12.5 million for a veteran in his final contract year for a full season?  Without fans?

Couldn’t they sign him and trade him? Wouldn’t he have some trade value?

[Jnooch]

On 9/3/2020 at 9:21 AM, Squirmin' for Yermin said:

Grandal has .7 WAR already.. On pace for 1.4ish WAR.. Which in a normal year would be about a 4.2 WAR season... He doesn't have a high batting average and never will.. I see you use that as the be all, end all.. Stop it.

Encarnacion, Cishek and Gonzalez were cheap deals so absolutely nothing is/was hurt by signing them...

 

On 9/28/2020 at 2:27 PM, oneofthemikes said:

Truthfully, I haven't paid an exceptional amount of attention to baseball outside the Central this season. So I started looking into the A's a bit. It became clear very quickly that the West was dreadful this season. The A's played 54 of their 60 games against teams that finished below .500. And in the 6 games that they played against teams over .500, they were 2-4. I'm sure part of that can be attributed to the fact that the Dodgers and Padres were bludgeoning everyone all season long, but 54 is excessive. It feels like a just a couple weeks ago the White Sox record was being called into question for loading up wins against the Tigers, Royals, and Pirates, but all that only amounted to 28 games.

 

[Jnooch]

There is no perfect candidate for RF but Michael Brantley may be the best option for several reasons.

1) He's a good contact hitter with a low strikeout rate. 
2) He could probably be had on a 1 or 2 year deal.
3) His defense id not great but we could spell him with Engle /Leury

 

if we pursue Springer there wont be funds for a TOR starteR

if we pursue Joc we will be in the same situation as Mazzara

At the end of the day I think we will have to go with Mazz,Joc, or Brantley.

 

 

[Jnooch]

Why would we pursue Harper for 300 million?? Get real!

[Dominikk85]

Yeah no way Jerry takes on the almost 300 mil that are still left on Harper's contract. The sox will spend more but not THAT much more.

[striker]

Conforto is not going anywhere. He is the cornerstone of that team and they just landed a new billionaire owner. 

Yas is not going anywhere. He too is a cornerstone to that team and the Giants don't rebuild.

Not sure if any of them are available, but I like Verdugo, Marsh or Stevenson via the trade route. Who knows what the Red Sox plan to do. Marsh is blocked by Upton/Trout/Adell. Angels and Nationals might both be interested in our pitching prospects. If the Red Sox go into sell mode, then maybe we could land Vazquez and use him like we did McCann at CA and DH.

Free agents, I like JBJ and Profar. I could see Bauer happening since we have all of these inexpensive young guys.

[Flash]

13 hours ago, GreatScott82 said:

Any chance Philly floats Harper out there or the Brew Crew floats Yelich? I’m assuming the asking price would have to be astronomical... but wondering with COVID impacting every teams budget, if it would be a possibility?

Yelich is the interesting one. Awful season and due @$25M/yr. for a while. Brewers might want to offload that burden enough to consider packaging him with one of their stud pitchers so we can maybe solve for a couple areas of need in one transaction . 

[Dominikk85]

8 hours ago, striker said:

Conforto is not goig anywhere. He is the cornerstone of that team and they just landed a new billionaire owner. 

Yas is not going anywhere. He too is a cornerstone to that team and the Giants don't rebuild.

Not sure if any of them are available, but I like Verdugo, Marsh or Stevenson via the trade route. Who knows what the Red Sox plan to do. Marsh is blocked by Upton/Trout/Adell. Angels and Nationals might both be interested in our pitching prospects. If the Red Sox go into sell mode, then maybe we could land Vazquez and use him like we did McCann at CA and DH.

Free agents, I like JBJ and Profar. I could see Bauer happening since we have all of these inexpensive young guys.

The giants are totally in rebuild mode. They were decent but with a roster of 30 year old stopgaps except for bart, and the prospects like bishop, Luciamo, ramos and bailey are still in the minors.

Yas is 30 next year and if the sox offer Rutherford,  sheets and maybe a lotto ticket pitching prospect the giants might want to do it.

[iWiN4PreP]

9 hours ago, striker said:

Yas is not going anywhere. He too is a cornerstone to that team and the Giants don't rebuild.

Yas is not a young dude, he is a late bloomer -- I really expect the Giants to explore trading him. 

[Chicago White Sox]

22 minutes ago, Dominikk85 said:

The giants are totally in rebuild mode. They were decent but with a roster of 30 year old stopgaps except for bart, and the prospects like bishop, Luciamo, ramos and bailey are still in the minors.

Yas is 30 next year and if the sox offer Rutherford,  sheets and maybe a lotto ticket pitching prospect the giants might want to do it.

There is zero chance the Giants would accept that deal for Yas.  He may be 30 years old, but he’s coming off a monster season and is controllable for five more seasons.  The Giants may move him, but they’ll be looking for top 100 talent and not C tier prospects.

[Chicago White Sox]

One thing I think worth reiterating is our young core is going to continue getting more and more expensive in the coming years.  So while we should have payroll flexibility in the near term, we do need to find some spots where we can go cheap to help offset future rising costs.

I keep seeing people saying let’s trade for Conforto, Yelich, Harper, etc. and those deals are highly unlikely IMO.  I truly believe the Sox will sign one of Oscar Colas or Yoelkis Cespedes to be the long-term answer to RF this winter.  With a lineup a lineup that should be amongst the best in baseball come the 2022 season, we can afford to go with a young RF in the 8th spot and not impact our ability to compete.  Getting a one year stop-gap like Joc or Brantley makes way more sense than taking on a massive contract that will prevent us from filling other holes.

IMO, if we have the ability to add one impact free agent or take on a big contract this offseason, it should definitely be for a TOR starter.  If this post season showed us anything it’s that we are at least one arm short in our rotation and can’t afford to rely on all three of Kopech, Cease, & Dunning at the same time.  Go fairly cheap with RF, get creative with the bullpen, and spend your financial resources on the rotation.

[Two-Gun Pete]

As I look at the rotation, I think this is a scenario where there is a need for quantity moreso than having a single TOR SP.

Don't get me wrong, if a TOR SP is available, and the FO is able to land him, Ill be pleased. However, there are 3 gaping holes in the rotation, and Cease/Lopez/Kopech all appear to be allergic to throwing strikes. For this reason, I think there is a need for 2 SPs, not just 1 TOR SP.

 

Insofar as the RFer, everyone focuses on having a LH bat. But, i don't think this is necessary, so much as having a bat that is effective vs. RHP. So, even if the next RFer is a RH bat, I'd be OK with that, provided that whoever it is has a good track record vs righties.