Austin Slater Signed to MLB Deal

[WestEddy]

No real context. This seemed like something that would have been found before now. 

[caulfield12]

5 hours ago, Balta1701 said:

If there a narrative here it’s not that this guy is a big mistake, it’s that domestic violence enthusiast Chris Getz panics. You give him a recommendation on a player or a guy who he likes for some reason and he will ignore all other possibilities to get that player, because he’s scared of losing him. And this isn’t for elite players like Ohtani, it’s for the 28th man on his roster.

-The Bummer trade to the Braves. I get the concept of acquiring depth,  but the Braves GM literally told Getz he was going to nontender two of those players. Getz was too scared of losing them to try to negotiate lower prices on the FA market, despite the fact that there were tons of other similar options.

-The Cease trade. Getz panics, he’s too scared to hold Cease into the season so he accepts a mediocre deal.

-The Fedde trade - Getz gets a recommendation on Vargas, becomes scared he’ll lose him, and overpays to get him. Meanwhile, other teams (Florida) get better value for worse pitchers.

-the Slater signing. Could be a decent player but the odds of a RH platoon OF being available somewhere 2 months from now are 100%. Getz panics that someone else will step in, and gives him a major league deal when his profile suggests he’d sign a minor league deal with an option in a month or two.

This is an actual pattern, Getz isn’t willing to wait on any market and instead panics that he will lose a guy he thinks he must have, no matter how replaceable that guy is.

Not to mention the marginal returns on Santos due to injury returns and picking the wrong DBacks player for Mena

McCarthy could at least have been flipped for something based on last season.

And now we're stuck starting guys like Fletcher DeLoach Julks Colas in the OF...all with pretty limited upsides.

[Chicago White Sox]

Still no dollar amount here?

[WhiteSox2023]

13 minutes ago, Chicago White Sox said:

Still no dollar amount here?

He hasn’t been officially signed yet.  He probably needs to take a physical.

[PaleAleSox]

16 minutes ago, Chicago White Sox said:

Still no dollar amount here?

Are you worried about this preventing something else or something? I don't know if the guy making 1 million or 4 million really matters. 

[WhiteSox2023]

35 minutes ago, PaleAleSox said:

Are you worried about this preventing something else or something? I don't know if the guy making 1 million or 4 million really matters. 

Probably not, but he deserves about half that amount of money.

[JUSTgottaBELIEVE]

6 hours ago, Balta1701 said:

And as soon as he has any sort of hint or recommendation, it becomes “oh God what do I do if I lose this player here take Fedde and Kopech I can’t afford to lose this guy”. 

Slater could absolutely be fine, but there is zero reason to think that a RH platoon OF is a must have player in mid November. When Hahn would go after a guy in November, it would be Wheeler or Grandal, a guy who genuinely wouldn’t have a replacement in two weeks if he waited. Getz does that for guys who might make a big league roster.

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2024/11/red-sox-justin-wilson-agree-to-deal.html#google_vignette

almost a week ago the Red Sox panic signed Justin Wilson (the 36 year old with a 5.59 ERA last season). I guess other teams do it too. But who cares? If teams like certain fringe guys like this, I have no problem with targeting them and bringing them in before other teams grab them. And it’s not like the White Sox have a bunch of money to spend this winter or very few roster spots to fill anyways. 

[JUSTgottaBELIEVE]

3 minutes ago, WhiteSox2023 said:

Probably not, but he deserves about half that amount of money.

Half of $1M is less than league minimum lol

[Chicago White Sox]

39 minutes ago, PaleAleSox said:

Are you worried about this preventing something else or something? I don't know if the guy making 1 million or 4 million really matters. 

Honestly, if it’s $2M or less, then I hope it stops some of the complaints.

[WhiteSox2023]

13 minutes ago, JUSTgottaBELIEVE said:

Half of $1M is less than league minimum lol

I thought he meant 1 year at $4 million.  This guy probably isn’t worth $2 million.  Wrapping up $10+ million on Vaughn, Sheets, and Slater doesn’t seem like the greatest investment, but it is the White Sox way.  Spread out millions amongst several bad players.  One contract alone isn’t really that bad, but added all up and it’s like burning millions in a 🔥 on a known quantity of bad players.

Edited November 19 by WhiteSox2023

[Chicago White Sox]

4 minutes ago, WhiteSox2023 said:

I thought he meant 1 year at $4 million.  This guy probably isn’t worth $2 million.  Wrapping up $10+ million on Vaughn, Sheets, and Slater doesn’t seem like the greatest investment.

I doubt both Sheets and Vaughn are back.

[WhiteSox2023]

8 minutes ago, Chicago White Sox said:

I doubt both Sheets and Vaughn are back.

Hopefully not, but I’ll believe it when I see it.

[JUSTgottaBELIEVE]

16 minutes ago, WhiteSox2023 said:

I thought he meant 1 year at $4 million.  This guy probably isn’t worth $2 million.  Wrapping up $10+ million on Vaughn, Sheets, and Slater doesn’t seem like the greatest investment, but it is the White Sox way.  Spread out millions amongst several bad players.  One contract alone isn’t really that bad, but added all up and it’s like burning millions in a 🔥 on a known quantity of bad players.

If the other option is collectively paying $2M to three league min guys that are worse than Miguel Vargas I’ll take the former.

[CaliSoxFanViaSWside]

4 hours ago, Chicago White Sox said:

I doubt both Sheets and Vaughn are back.

We'll know by 6PM CT Friday Nov. 22. I'm hoping both are gone. Vaughn isn't worth the $6M price tag just to get a shot under Fuller's eyes. He still can't defend or run well enough , he's not a LH 1st baseman and he isn't tall.

[CaliSoxFanViaSWside]

13 hours ago, Dick Allen said:

The pri ce tag is low. I just don't see the need of adding 32 year old bench pieces to this disaster. 

 

 

 

 

 

Sox are a little short on CF depth. These are the types of signings we are going to get.

Even Sox rejects are getting signed by others teams like Deivi Garcia and Raphael Ortega.

[hi8is]

1 hour ago, CaliSoxFanViaSWside said:

6PM CT Friday Nov. 22

Great… something to look forward to in this bleak thing called life. Yay. Joy. Yahoo.

[Chicago White Sox]

1 hour ago, CaliSoxFanViaSWside said:

We'll know by 6PM CT Friday Nov. 22. I'm hoping both are gone. Vaughn isn't worth the $6M price tag just to get a shot under Fuller's eyes. He still can't defend or run well enough , he's not a LH 1st baseman and he isn't tall.

I hope both are gone, but have a bad feeling that Getz hangs onto Vaughn for another year despite zero reason to believe he’ll ever be a productive player.

[WhiteSox2023]

40 minutes ago, Chicago White Sox said:

I hope both are gone, but have a bad feeling that Getz hangs onto Vaughn for another year despite zero reason to believe he’ll ever be a productive player.

This is what I think, and it’s mostly due to not wanting to give up on a 1st round pick (#3 overall).  Keep in mind that Getz was the Sox director of player development when Vaughn was drafted.  Although he may not have been involved directly in drafting Vaughn, his lack of development over the years and having to cut him won’t reflect very well on Getz.

Edited November 20 by WhiteSox2023

[PaleAleSox]

40 minutes ago, WhiteSox2023 said:

This is what I think, and it’s mostly due to not wanting to give up on a 1st round pick (#3 overall).  Keep in mind that Getz was the Sox director of player development when Vaughn was drafted.  Although he may not have been involved directly in drafting Vaughn, his lack of development over the years and having to cut him won’t reflect very well on Getz.

When would we have developed him exactly? Drafted in 2019. Minors didn’t happen in 2020, and then Vaughn was on the team in 2021. 

[Chicago White Sox]

35 minutes ago, WhiteSox2023 said:

This is what I think, and it’s mostly due to not wanting to give up on a 1st round pick (#3 overall).  Keep in mind that Getz was the Sox director of player development when Vaughn was drafted.  Although he may not have been involved directly in drafting Vaughn, his lack of development over the years and having to cut him won’t reflect very well on Getz.

The lack of development is more on Hahn than Getz.  Having him skip all of the upper minors because our major league LF got injured in spring training was an all time stupid decision and almost certainly stunted his growth to some extent.

[Balta1701]

1 hour ago, WhiteSox2023 said:

This is what I think, and it’s mostly due to not wanting to give up on a 1st round pick (#3 overall).  Keep in mind that Getz was the Sox director of player development when Vaughn was drafted.  Although he may not have been involved directly in drafting Vaughn, his lack of development over the years and having to cut him won’t reflect very well on Getz.

[Balta1701]

8 hours ago, Chicago White Sox said:

I doubt both Sheets and Vaughn are back.

Now that I think about it, doesn’t the fact that they set the 40 man roster at 39 counting Slater imply that they’re both expected back? If someone was being nontendered, they could have filled an extra roster spot with one of their minor league relievers and still had a spot open for the rule 5 draft.

[caulfield12]

1 hour ago, Balta1701 said:

Now that I think about it, doesn’t the fact that they set the 40 man roster at 39 counting Slater imply that they’re both expected back? If someone was being nontendered, they could have filled an extra roster spot with one of their minor league relievers and still had a spot open for the rule 5 draft.

Can just imagine that thread if BOTH of them are back...especially Sheets.

They (Sox-friendly media) kind of put it out there last year that Vaughn was going to be one of the next generation of "team leaders," so would still be pretty shocked to see him elsewhere.

Edited November 20 by caulfield12

[Chicago White Sox]

7 hours ago, Balta1701 said:

Now that I think about it, doesn’t the fact that they set the 40 man roster at 39 counting Slater imply that they’re both expected back? If someone was being nontendered, they could have filled an extra roster spot with one of their minor league relievers and still had a spot open for the rule 5 draft.

I don’t think so.  The team is going to make other moves in the coming weeks and months.  Those two spots will be used soon enough and they don’t need to unnecessarily protect guys if they don’t view they as risks of being selected.  I’m not sure either of the two main relievers in question qualify as guys I’d be overly concerned about protecting.

[Chicago White Sox]

6 hours ago, caulfield12 said:

Can just imagine that thread if BOTH of them are back...especially Sheets.

They (Sox-friendly media) kind of put it out there last year that Vaughn was going to be one of the next generation of "team leaders," so would still be pretty shocked to see him elsewhere.

I just can’t see it.  The only way you can keep both is if you can find a position for Vargas outside of DH (not sure an obvious one exists) and, if so, you plan on making no other upgrades at 1B / DH this offseason.  At some point, you’re not even trying as GM if you’re willing to accept below league average production at 1B / DH for another season.

Sheets at a minimum is gone IMO.  He’s very hard to roster as a role player with the addition of Slater as a legit bench piece for the OF.  Again, unless Getz is ok with Gavin as our primary DH, I just don’t see how he fits.  And let’s be honest, Sheets wasn’t even a league average hitter against RHP last year.  He’s literally a zero dimension player at this point.

The concern with them keeping Vaughn is he is arguably our best hitter against LHP.  Paying $6M for a weak side platoon 1B would be the definition of insanity, but he is still young and maybe they think Fuller can unlock something there.  While I really want to see Vaughn gone myself, it’s not a stellar FA class for 1B and we don’t exactly have a ton of in house options (sorry Elko fans).  Ultimately it’s a tougher call to keep him vs. Sheets who is simply bad at everything.