White Sox sign Martin Maldonado 1 year/4 million, vesting option for 2025

[bmags]

26 minutes ago, Chicago White Sox said:

To be fair, we acquired him for Kendall Graveman and at the time our near term catching situation was atrocious.  I think it was a perfectly fine move all things considered even if we don’t hand him a major league role next year.

A better move would have been to trade for a guy who didn’t need a 40 man spot and require such an immediate referendum. It will be like June and we’ll likely be in a spot where this kid is subject to waivers. It’s just garbage decisionmaking.

[Dick Allen]

Just now, TheBooneLoganEra said:

I don't think Lee is capable of .150 let alone .190. 

Everyone here has been complaining about the culture of this team and by all appearances, Maldonado and several other new additions will be great changing the culture moving forward. There seems to be very specific attention being paid to the character and preparation of these incoming players and I'm interested to see how it goes. Look at Maldonado as a player/coach. 

Great changing the culture, then leaving after 1 season. I find it hard to believe one guy can change a culture moving forward in that span of time, especially with a roster that isn't going to be there in a couple of years either.

[Chicago White Sox]

2 minutes ago, Bob Sacamano said:

The short-term/youngish guys currently here: Soroka, Kopech, Touki, relievers, etc. Can still help them. He’s only here for a year (along with Stassi) if that.

Oh no doubt having two good game-callers can help everyone, but I think the marginal value starts to erode some when you’re talking about completely sacrificing any offense out of the catcher spot while they’re handling more experienced pitchers.  I’m not losing sleep over this…just theorizing this move may be foreshadowing a Cease for pitching prospects trade.

[Chicago White Sox]

2 minutes ago, bmags said:

A better move would have been to trade for a guy who didn’t need a 40 man spot and require such an immediate referendum. It will be like June and we’ll likely be in a spot where this kid is subject to waivers. It’s just garbage decisionmaking.

I’m not sure Kendall Graveman had that much of a market to be overly picky on the return.  And regarding the 40 man, it’s hard to imagine we’ll be pushing the limit on spots this year.  I think it’s simply a minor trade that likely won’t end up providing us with any value but was worth a roll of the dice at the time.

[Y2Jimmy0]

8 minutes ago, Harold's Leg Lift said:

They're not going to take a short deal just to move him and I don't see any of these teams stepping up to pay the price.  

It’s playing with fire 

[Highland]

Appears that the Sox are signing placeholders to give younger players a time to develop. That isn't all that bad, but we know this team won't be even contending in a bad division for a time. Maybe by 2027 this will be a winning team.

[Chicago White Sox]

10 minutes ago, TheBooneLoganEra said:

I don't think Lee is capable of .150 let alone .190. 

Everyone here has been complaining about the culture of this team and by all appearances, Maldonado and several other new additions will be great changing the culture moving forward. There seems to be very specific attention being paid to the character and preparation of these incoming players and I'm interested to see how it goes. Look at Maldonado as a player/coach. 

Which is fine, but just another reason to launch Pedro to the sun.

[Chicago White Sox]

And for the record, Maldonado’s blocking and throwing was still above average last year (at least per Statcast).  It was his framing that fell off a cliff and killed his defensive value.  Be curious what happened there since he basically went from bad to worst in baseball at it.

[T R U]

12 minutes ago, Tony said:

On what? Say they spent that on one player. Who is it going to? And what difference is that player going to make over the next 2-3 years? Are they the difference between 72 and 75 wins? For what? This team is SO far away, I just can’t get too upset over a move like this.
 

It's clear what Getz is trying to do this offseason. Flush out the clubhouse, change the culture and in the case of MM, provide a veteran catcher that can be an anchor for a pitching staff, specifically one without a ton of ML experience. Is it a move that will win them more games in 2024? Good chance he has a negative WAR, but I believe there will positives that he provides internally. At least that’s the hope. And given there is literally zero chance this team competes this year, or probably next year, I don’t think it’s a terrible strategy from Getz 

Not specific to this season, just in general it seems like the MO is to sign a handful of guys that total up 15-20 million instead of signing that one guy for 15-20 million who will make a difference.

For 2024, guys like Stassi, Maldonado, DeJong, Lopez are pretty much sunk costs. The odds of any of them performing well enough to be able to be flipped at the deadline for something have to be incredibly low.

Why not spend some of that money on a potential flip candidate instead of a handful of guys who are more likely to be DFA'd than dealt. Especially with the season that's coming.

[Balta1701]

1 minute ago, Highland said:

Appears that the Sox are signing placeholders to give younger players a time to develop. That isn't all that bad, but we know this team won't be even contending in a bad division for a time. Maybe by 2027 this will be a winning team.

No, they're blocking young players now. Note how no one complained about Stassi being picked up, it was reasonable to have 1 veteran who plays maybe 1/3 or 1/2 the time to go along with a young catcher acquired last year in a trade. Even if the young catcher isn't good right now, maybe that catcher picks up some things with a year+ of experience, and the guy you're paying to go along with him is making under $1 million.

This move is the one that has us annoyed, because now the young catcher gets buried in the minors, now there are two crappy veteran catchers who will eat up all of the available big league innings, none of the young catchers get any big league experience where they might even be able to learn enough to be backups, and we drop $5 million on top of that. $4 million of that didn't need to be spent at all, and there's a vesting option thrown in that the guy probably has a good chance to hit if he's healthy. Oh, and not to mention how they could have just kept Zavala last season - thanks Chris.

This is classic White Sox behavior. Wastes a little money - "Oh it's fine they have money to spend, that never comes back to haunt us." Blocks players or gives up on them "oh it's fine that guy isn't going to turn into anything anyway, that never comes back to haunt us". Hahn did this at the catcher's spot repeatedly, and it wound up eventually turning into a money pit.

[Chicago White Sox]

4 minutes ago, Highland said:

Appears that the Sox are signing placeholders to give younger players a time to develop. That isn't all that bad, but we know this team won't be even contending in a bad division for a time. Maybe by 2027 this will be a winning team.

Nothing wrong with signing placeholders and not over-spending on C tier free agents to multi year deals.  I think people here who are frustrated are just worried we’re making the move based on name value and not acknowledging the decline last year in his defensive performance (primarily framing).  The Sox under Hahn weren’t very effective playing in this space and more or less just lit cash on fire to “fill” holes.  Hopefully Getz does better in this tier of free agency.

[Squirmin' for Yermin]

fine.

[Balta1701]

2 minutes ago, Chicago White Sox said:

And for the record, Maldonado’s blocking and throwing was still above average last year (at least per Statcast).  It was his framing that fell off a cliff and killed his defensive value.  Be curious what happened there since he basically went from bad to worst in baseball at it.

Well, his "Throwing" was ok in terms of some stats, but his 14% of runners thrown out was worse than Grandal. He has nothing elite he did in terms of throwing, and things are trending the wrong way compared to the rest of his career. He was bad there for a reason.

[Buehrle>Wood]

It's not really good for the clubhouse when said clubhouse guy is cut on June 1st.

[T R U]

2 minutes ago, Chicago White Sox said:

Nothing wrong with signing placeholders and not over-spending on C tier free agents to multi year deals.  I think people here who are frustrated are just worried we’re making the move based on name value and not acknowledging the decline last year in his defensive performance (primarily framing).  The Sox under Hahn weren’t very effective playing in this space and more or less just lit cash on fire to “fill” holes.  Hopefully Getz does better in this tier of free agency.

Im not going to sweat it too much, because there is zero chance that Stassi and Maldonado make it through the entire season on the roster. No way.

[T R U]

2 minutes ago, Buehrle>Wood said:

It's not really good for the clubhouse when said clubhouse guy is cut on June 1st.

Yeah I don't get all this change the culture talk.

You change the culture by leadership at the top and your manager.

Signing guys to 1 year deals / stopgaps isn't going to maintain a culture.

[Balta1701]

5 minutes ago, T R U said:

Im not going to sweat it too much, because there is zero chance that Stassi and Maldonado make it through the entire season on the roster. No way.

Do you realize who our manager is? The only way they're off the roster is through the IL. 

[Chicago White Sox]

5 minutes ago, Balta1701 said:

Well, his "Throwing" was ok in terms of some stats, but his 14% of runners thrown out was worse than Grandal. He has nothing elite he did in terms of throwing, and things are trending the wrong way compared to the rest of his career. He was bad there for a reason.

But as White Sox fans should know, caught stealing percentages are heavily dependent on the pitchers as well.  Given his pop time was still in the 70th percentile, it’s not outlandish to think he handled a bunch of pitchers who weren’t good at holding runners and/or have slower than average windups.

[WhiteSox2023]

1 hour ago, T R U said:

What I hate about this is that this organization continually goes down the path of a handful of guys that aren't even good instead of going for one guy that is good.

Between Stassi, Maldonado, DeJong, and Lopez you're looking at approx. $10 million spend. There is better ways to allocate that money.

Nailed it.  The Sox will always rather spend $10 million on a handful of guys that suck and should likely be cut before the end of their deals, instead of one good player for the same money per year that would actually be productive.

Has this not been the case forever?  Kenny, Hahn, and now Getz.  Maybe they just have no other option due to Jerry.  God knows, Jerry loves this strategy.  He basically telegraphed it when he announced Getz as the new GM.

Edited December 27, 2023 by WhiteSox2023

[Balta1701]

5 minutes ago, Chicago White Sox said:

But as White Sox fans should know, caught stealing percentages are heavily dependent on the pitchers as well.  Given his pop time was still in the 70th percentile, it’s not outlandish to think he handled a bunch of pitchers who weren’t good at holding runners and/or have slower than average windups.

Except...those were mostly the same pitchers he was dealing with the previous year, at least one of the new ones had a better than league average CS rate, and their other catcher, Yainer Diaz, threw out 15/50 baserunners. 

Read this again because I like it. Yainer Diaz threw out 15/50 base stealers. Martin Maldonado threw out 14/100 base stealers. In 1/2 as many chances, Diaz threw out more baserunners than Maldonado. 

[TheBooneLoganEra]

32 minutes ago, Dick Allen said:

Great changing the culture, then leaving after 1 season. I find it hard to believe one guy can change a culture moving forward in that span of time, especially with a roster that isn't going to be there in a couple of years either.

Right, which is why, as mentioned, of the players Getz has brought in they all seem to be decent dudes, with good work ethic and desire. Maldo is just one. I'm not saying this is all ideal but I get what he's trying to do and I'm at least curious. I'd be more sold with a new manager, but that may come by June. 

[WhiteSox2023]

39 minutes ago, Tony said:

On what? Say they spent that on one player. Who is it going to? And what difference is that player going to make over the next 2-3 years? Are they the difference between 72 and 75 wins? For what? This team is SO far away, I just can’t get too upset over a move like this.
 

It's clear what Getz is trying to do this offseason. Flush out the clubhouse, change the culture and in the case of MM, provide a veteran catcher that can be an anchor for a pitching staff, specifically one without a ton of ML experience. Is it a move that will win them more games in 2024? Good chance he has a negative WAR, but I believe there will positives that he provides internally. At least that’s the hope. And given there is literally zero chance this team competes this year, or probably next year, I don’t think it’s a terrible strategy from Getz 

I guess the problem is, this is always the Sox strategy, whether they are competing or not.

[ChiSox59]

39 minutes ago, Chicago White Sox said:

Because where are all these young pitchers that we need two veteran SPs to handle?  I think it’s very clear that this focus on defense is to help a young pitching staff, but right now it’s not like the projected Opening Day roster is overflowing with a bunch of promising young arms.  That tells me that when Cease goes out, near major league ready pitching is coming back.  Obviously this is all me speculating, but it’s the only way the broader set of moves make any sense.  

Not terribly promising, but even if the Sox don't get a pitching heavy return for Cease the rotation will include probably 50-75+ starts from Schuster, Nastrini, Eder, Mena, Martin, Burke, Thompson.  Those guys could theoretically benefit from a guy like Maldonado too.  Even if Cease doesn't go to ATL, the Sox will likely add at least one guy to that group via the Cease deal. 

I am fine with Maldonado.  I feel like $4M is probably $1-1.5M rich, but on a team that has a $116M payroll INCLUDING him, its hard to get too up in arms about it. 

[CaliSoxFanViaSWside]

10 hours ago, YouCanPutItOnTheBoardYES! said:

I would understand this move if Maldonado’s defense didn’t decline drastically this past season. I’d also understand it more if they hadn’t already traded for Stassi. How many old catchers who can’t hit do they need?

I had forgot they also signed Chuckie Robinson. Maybe some of these guys are being hired to mentor the young catchers in the finer points of singing kumbaya.

[Balta1701]

1 minute ago, TheBooneLoganEra said:

Right, which is why, as mentioned, of the players Getz has brought in they all seem to be decent dudes, with good work ethic and desire. Maldo is just one. I'm not saying this is all ideal but I get what he's trying to do and I'm at least curious. I'd be more sold with a new manager, but that may come by June. 

How much of this is these guys coasting on their reputation as veterans? 

I doubt it was true, but even if literally everyone on the Astros hated Maldonado last year, no one was going to whisper a thing because Dusty loved him. Every pitcher HAD to learn to throw to Maldonado, because it didn't matter if Diaz was on pace for 90 home runs over the year he was getting benched in the playoffs because Dusty said so. No one on the Royals is going to say a bad word about getting benched for Naperville Nicky because the manager and GM will support their veteran.