Jonathan Lucroy signs minor league deal with White Sox

[Jose Abreu]

4 minutes ago, fathom said:

I really don’t get this signing if he’s going to legitimately be their backup catcher 

I think it's just (necessary) depth and that Collins will still "win" the backup job

[Bob Sacamano]

15 minutes ago, fathom said:

Gross

I don't disagree but they apparently might go with that for a couple weeks.

[fathom]

1 minute ago, manbearpuig said:

I don't disagree but they apparently might go with that for a couple weeks.

Personally I think we see Leury in LF and Eloy at DH quite often 

[Chicago White Sox]

9 minutes ago, fathom said:

Personally I think we see Leury in LF and Eloy at DH quite often 

So gross...only the White Sox would put play two slap hitters in the corners

[Jose Abreu]

1 minute ago, Chicago White Sox said:

So gross...only the White Sox would put play two slap hitters in the corners

And neither of them are even plus defenders at those positions

[quickman]

The Collins love on this site is incredible. The guy is not exactly a front line player. He is not great defensively and what we’re his stats in the minors? He is not that great. Neither is lecroy but he probably knows how to handle pitchers and is a smart catcher. Good depth for sure , nice sign. That’s it no all star no starter just good damn depth. 

[bmags]

2 hours ago, Rowand44 said:

Sure but none of them will know who Lucroy is. 

Oh hell yes they would. They lost their damn mind when Lucroy was good and made some ad to boost his all star votes that “disrespected” Yadi and they lost their damn mind 

[tray]

Grandal had a back issue last season. It may not return but suppose Grandal sustains a serious injury

late in the season.

Then you have Collins and  Yermin as your catching duo going into the play-offs? 

 

Edited February 5, 2021 by tray

[maxjusttyped]

4 minutes ago, tray said:

Grandal had a back issue last season. It may not return but suppose Grandal sustains a serious injury

late in the season.

Then you have Collins and  Yermin as your catching duo going into the play-offs? 

 

Think about what happens if there's an injury to Madrigal, TA, Moncada, Robert, or Eloy. There's a lack of quality depth pretty much everywhere, unfortunately.

[fathom]

4 minutes ago, maxjusttyped said:

Think about what happens if there's an injury to Madrigal, TA, Moncada, Robert, or Eloy. There's a lack of quality depth pretty much everywhere, unfortunately.

Mendick can cover 2nd but it’s just scary how many slap hitters they can very easily end up putting in the lineup.  4 of the 5 you mentioned have had injury issues throughout their career.

[maxjusttyped]

8 minutes ago, fathom said:

Mendick can cover 2nd but it’s just scary how many slap hitters they can very easily end up putting in the lineup.  4 of the 5 you mentioned have had injury issues throughout their career.

Having *one* bench player that you can comfortably say would produce in the ~2 WAR range in an every day role would be massive. A player like Profar or La Stella would have raised the floor of this team significantly, but alas.

[oldsox]

Another way to keep Yermin off the final roster.

[southsider2k5]

10 minutes ago, oldsox said:

Another way to keep Yermin off the final roster.

Yermin keeps himself off the roster by not being able to play a defensive position, at all.

[Capital G]

1 hour ago, quickman said:

The Collins love on this site is incredible. The guy is not exactly a front line player. He is not great defensively and what we’re his stats in the minors? He is not that great. Neither is lecroy but he probably knows how to handle pitchers and is a smart catcher. Good depth for sure , nice sign. That’s it no all star no starter just good damn depth. 

Collins love? Haven't seen any. All I've seen is people saying based on what we've got might as well finally give him a shot. The shot he should've got a few years ago vs now

[Pal]

2 hours ago, tray said:

Grandal had a back issue last season. It may not return but suppose Grandal sustains a serious injury

late in the season.

Then you have Collins and  Yermin as your catching duo going into the play-offs? 

 

It's gonna be the fatal flaw of the team.

[BigHurt3515]

1 hour ago, maxjusttyped said:

Having *one* bench player that you can comfortably say would produce in the ~2 WAR range in an every day role would be massive. A player like Profar or La Stella would have raised the floor of this team significantly, but alas.

Problem is most players like that what to be starters and can get starter money somewhere. We weren't going to pay La Stella 8M to be a bench player and play maybe 3 times a week. If someone has a serious injury and we are struggling I would assume we would trade for someone

[SoxBlanco]

2 hours ago, maxjusttyped said:

Having *one* bench player that you can comfortably say would produce in the ~2 WAR range in an every day role would be massive. A player like Profar or La Stella would have raised the floor of this team significantly, but alas.

I’d say Leury Garcia is pretty darn close to what you are describing. 

[maxjusttyped]

1 hour ago, BigHurt3515 said:

Problem is most players like that what to be starters and can get starter money somewhere. We weren't going to pay La Stella 8M to be a bench player and play maybe 3 times a week. If someone has a serious injury and we are struggling I would assume we would trade for someone

It's a lazy comparison, but the Padres are a perfect example of that not being the case. They have arguably the best SS in the sport, one of the best utility players in the sport (Cronenworth), yet were still able to sign Kim & Profar in free agency. If the Padres were able to sign *two* players in the mold I'm talking about, it doesn't make sense why the Sox wouldn't have been able to add one. Building a team with the expectation of everyone being healthy and not having a slump just isn't realistic. There's no such thing as having too many good players. Depth is a very underrated aspect of team building.

[Balta1701]

8 hours ago, Capital G said:

Collins love? Haven't seen any. All I've seen is people saying based on what we've got might as well finally give him a shot. The shot he should've got a few years ago vs now

A few years ago he wasn’t close to ready. It wasn’t until 2019 after he was sent down from a brief big league stint that his minor league numbers took a real jump. He should have gotten a few more big league ABs last year, but that’s because the big league DH was so bad, not because they needed catching help.

[bmags]

5 hours ago, maxjusttyped said:

It's a lazy comparison, but the Padres are a perfect example of that not being the case. They have arguably the best SS in the sport, one of the best utility players in the sport (Cronenworth), yet were still able to sign Kim & Profar in free agency. If the Padres were able to sign *two* players in the mold I'm talking about, it doesn't make sense why the Sox wouldn't have been able to add one. Building a team with the expectation of everyone being healthy and not having a slump just isn't realistic. There's no such thing as having too many good players. Depth is a very underrated aspect of team building.

I do wonder if part of this is where the division we're in makes Jerry the worst version of himself. 

If we are instead staring at the Dodgers or the Yanks/Rays every year does it change? When you have the dodgers in your division you can't say "well an injury here or there".

The Indians overwhelmed with star power most of these years. Same with DET. Sox haven't had to face the teams that try to hack the regular season with that kind of depth. Instead we are recreating the star model. And we have a lot of em. But a few injuries could crush this season.

[hogan873]

This is nothing more than a guess, but I wouldn't be surprised if Lucroy makes picking the backup catcher a tough decision.

On a side note (and I didn't want to start another thread for this), remember that the Sox signed Tim Beckham to a minors deal?  Any chance he makes the roster?

[oldsox]

9 hours ago, southsider2k5 said:

Yermin keeps himself off the roster by not being able to play a defensive position, at all.

Yeah.  Kinda like EE last year.  And a couple other guys the year before.  All Yermin can do is hit.  Don't let him near the roster.

[Bob Sacamano]

1 hour ago, hogan873 said:

This is nothing more than a guess, but I wouldn't be surprised if Lucroy makes picking the backup catcher a tough decision.

On a side note (and I didn't want to start another thread for this), remember that the Sox signed Tim Beckham to a minors deal?  Any chance he makes the roster?

He got hit with an 80 suspension in August of 2018 that he still hasn't fully served (didn't get any credit towards serving it last season since he wasn't with a team).

[Dominikk85]

12 hours ago, quickman said:

The Collins love on this site is incredible. The guy is not exactly a front line player. He is not great defensively and what we’re his stats in the minors? He is not that great. Neither is lecroy but he probably knows how to handle pitchers and is a smart catcher. Good depth for sure , nice sign. That’s it no all star no starter just good damn depth. 

Collins has an 840 career ops in the minors which is very solid for a catcher (or better yet good, in the majors 840 is about a 120 wrc+). Yeah he was bad in the majors but we are talking about 120 PAs which is absolutely nothing, you can't really say anything before a player at least has like 700 career PAs.

Maybe he can't catch but he has absolutely hit in the minors (even with a bit untraditional profile with higher K and BB rates).

Not giving Collins 400+ PAs in 2019 when the sox still were tanking was a huge mistake.

Edited February 5, 2021 by Dominikk85

[Dick Allen]

Lucroy got into 1 game I think last year. I would be surprised if he made the team. But it doesn't hurt to bring him in. You need catchers at spring training.