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Kimbrel traded for AJ Pollock


Sleepy Harold

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Just now, Tnetennba said:

So Crappy Kimbrel for Pollock straight up, no cash money?  Holy Shit Snacks that makes me happy. 

It was probably the best trade available out there. 

The question is would you rather have Pollock for 1 year or somebody like Rosario at 2/$18 million in free agency? Cause that's probably who we end up with if we don't pick up the Kimbrel option. 

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I know everyone is gitty because of Kimbrel's AL performance was terrible.  So they trade a guy who hasn't really faced AL hitters for a guy who hasn't faced AL pitchers.  NL players don't have much success in a Sox uniform so I guess the expectations if for defense.

Sox have bad luck with career NL players.

Hahn's trades rarely work.

You hope that will change someday.

I would have preferred some ready to play prospects but that is long term thinking.

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3 minutes ago, Jake said:

Does Pollock have the arm to play RF?

Not really, but at this point, beggars can't be choosers. 

He's still pretty fast and he's close to average in LF according to all the metrics. His arm is actually one of his worst attributes defensively, which is why he's playing LF. 

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Just now, chw42 said:

Not really, but at this point, beggars can't be choosers. 

He's still pretty fast and he's close to average in LF according to all the metrics. His arm is actually one of his worst attributes defensively, which is why he's playing LF. 

Yeah I was mainly trying to figure out if we were going to try to do some weird thing where we DH Eloy a bunch just to keep Pollock out of RF.

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1 minute ago, chw42 said:

Not really, but at this point, beggars can't be choosers. 

He's still pretty fast and he's close to average in LF according to all the metrics. His arm is actually one of his worst attributes defensively, which is why he's playing LF. 

Yeah, his arm is weak but him and Robert should cover some ground and Robert has a ++ arm for CF and should be able to cut off the gaps so it might help negate that weakness a bit. Robert covers up for so much in the outfield.

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Balta, I was with you in that boat of it was terrible to pick up the option and they'll never get anything of value for Kimbrel.

Turns out they did. Hahn >> Ray Ray today. It's good news, not bad. Always good to be wrong when the outcome is a positive one. 

Everytime I saw people mentioned Bellinger and Pollock I thought they were crazy. Turns out, Hahn knew what he was doing with the option and he turned it into a viable talent that filled a hole on the roster. 

It doesn't change the off-season process in other areas from being poor, but Hahn won this one. Pollock has risk, but so did Kimbrel. At least Pollock wasn't a guy being paid to play a position he wasn't even going to play with the Sox.

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At 34 (35 at time of option) this is really getting a 2 year 20 million dollar deal. on a competitive team...that doesn't require him to play 600 abs, I see zero reason why he doesn't take the 10 mil to end his career. This aligns perfect with Cespedes and Colas incoming and is miles better than a 5 year Conforto deal IF those guys are good enough to be starters. 

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Just now, EloyJenkins said:

At 34 (35 at time of option) this is really getting a 2 year 20 million dollar deal. on a competitive team...that doesn't require him to play 600 abs, I see zero reason why he doesn't take the 10 mil to end his career. This aligns perfect with Cespedes and Colas incoming and is miles better than a 5 year Conforto deal IF those guys are good enough to be starters. 

Pollock probably gets $5+ million next year in a deal if he's any decent this year and plays at least half the season. From a money standpoint, he's probably going to opt-out. But if he really likes it here, maybe he stays. 

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Even though I've been one of the few poster defending what we had for the OF and thought we might not trade Kimbrel, I wholly support this move. Certainly, this vindicates the Sox for exercising their option on Kimbrel.   Below is what I posted on the Athletic. 

*****************

Excellent move for the White Sox, who get an experienced outfielder who once had CF range, and who has no platoon splits, to be their regular right fielder.

Pollack's wRC+ last year of 137 would make him the 3rd best hitter on the Sox, behind only Luis Robert and Yasmani Grandal. But he's likely to slide into the 6 or 7 hole for Chicago, which is also where he hit most often last year for the Dodgers.

Now the Sox don't have to stretch out Adam Engel to see how well his good hitting the last 2 years would work with a lot more ABs, but still have him as an excellent 4th outfielder and defensive replacement. And they don't need to use the awesome platoon of Gavin Sheets/Andrew Vaughn in the outfield much.

No one knew if Kimbrel could bounce back in a non-closer role, and we still won't know. So, even if he returns to form as a closer for the Dodgers, Sox fans won't know if he would have done as well in a setup role.

The Sox pen is still at least 5 deep (assuming Crochet wasn't hurt badly yesterday) with quality pitchers -- Hendrix, Graveman, Kelly, Bummer, and Crochet -- and have several other arms who can fill in (and also be stashed in AAA for fill-in duties). With 2 long men in Lopez and Velasquez to go with 5 starters, they only have room for 6 short guys when the rosters return to 26. If they still had Kimbrell, they might have had to cut a reliever without options.

So, for Madrigal, the Sox at least get an offensive upgrade for this season, and a player they might be able to keep for an extra year at a reasonable cost to straddle the time until Colas or Cespedes are ready.

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6 minutes ago, Jerksticks said:

Dude.  Yes, this should be the starting lineup.  Good call.  Put a hole in the wall with my stiffy reading that idea

I want Vaughn in the everyday lineup as much as possible. Think he's going to mash.

What this trade does (finally) is give the roster a little flexibility. 

I still think you can find plenty of at bats for Vaughn in LF, DH, 1B without sacrificing Eloy, Abreu. 

Pollock probably needs days off to stay healthy anyway.

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2 minutes ago, Superstar Lamar said:

Anxiously awaiting the angry 2023 off season discussion after not buying out Pollock's option.  

It’s a player option not a team option. If Pollack leaves for free agency the Sox pay him 5 million to leave. He can choose to stay for 10 million 

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5 minutes ago, Look at Ray Ray Run said:

Balta, I was with you in that boat of it was terrible to pick up the option and they'll never get anything of value for Kimbrel.

Turns out they did. Hahn >> Ray Ray today. It's good news, not bad. Always good to be wrong when the outcome is a positive one. 

Everytime I saw people mentioned Bellinger and Pollock I thought they were crazy. Turns out, Hahn knew what he was doing with the option and he turned it into a viable talent that filled a hole on the roster. 

It doesn't change the off-season process in other areas from being poor, but Hahn won this one. Pollock has risk, but so did Kimbrel. At least Pollock wasn't a guy being paid to play a position he wasn't even going to play with the Sox.

I haven't liked a lot of your posts on here, Ray Ray, but this shows that you are willing to give credit when it's due.   

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3 minutes ago, soxfan3530 said:

I want Vaughn in the everyday lineup as much as possible. Think he's going to mash.

What this trade does (finally) is give the roster a little flexibility. 

I still think you can find plenty of at bats for Vaughn in LF, DH, 1B without sacrificing Eloy, Abreu. 

Pollock probably needs days off to stay healthy anyway.

Agreed. We'll probably still see Vaughn in RF occasionally if they want to give Pollock rest at DH every now and then.

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