Report: Sox unlikely to pick up Youk's option

[TaylorStSox]

If the money were equal, I'd go with Flowers/Youk over AJ/Morel for a number if reasons.

[Bruce_Blixton]

You just keep ignoring that there are no other good options. You yourself pointed out, Napoli may be the only good one available, and he will cost a fortune. AJ won't cost a fortune. Youk probably will, and he is also a guy who was fading fast before the Sox got him. That may have been injuries or a blip, or maybe it was the start of a trend for him.

 

At 3B, there is usually more good talent available at any given offseason, than at C. And all else equal, having stability at C is much more important than at 3B.

 

Of course, I'd love to see both of them back in 2013 on short, reasonable deals. I just am not sure Youk will sign for a short, reasonable deal. AJ, I think, would.

 

I don't think the Sox are necessarily limited to the free agent market for a C to replace AJ, KW could try to deal Floyd in the offseason for some major league ready catchers. I could see two possible trade partners that have a need for Floyd and flexibility at the catcher position: the Dodgers and the Blue Jays.

 

Plan A: The Dodgers deal AJ Ellis + some lower minor league prospects for Floyd + Flowers. Ellis is having a decent year putting up a similar line to what AJ has done the past few seasons and would serve as a solid stop-gap until we can develop a catcher from within (Phegley, Smith, etc.), Floyd would serve as a decent 3/4 in the Dodgers rotation for the next two years and Flowers can serve as a solid back-up to Tim Federowicz.

 

Plan B: The Blue Jays trade J.P. Arencibia + Deck McGuire or Travis d'Arnaud for Floyd. Toronto has expressed interest in Floyd before and need all the starting pitching they can get considering how fast they burn through them plus they would be dealing from an area of strength with Arencibia and d'Arnaud both viable options behind the plate.

 

I agree that the need for a viable 3B is more important than re-signing AJ.

[spiderman]

with all these free agents, the sox really need to find someone to take on thorntons contract. 5.5 mil is way too much for him

 

Correct - Thornton and Floyd make a combined $15 million (or so) next season. I think they need to clear both of these deals off their books. That gives them some flexibility to sign one (or two) of their free agents.

[hammerhead johnson]

Considering he cleared the entire NL on waivers, and the majority of the AL before getting claimed by the White Sox? Yes, that would be exactly what it is saying. Either that or about 25ish GMs passed on starting CF, because of why now?

 

Based on his track record, it's pretty absurd to think that Kenny knew something that others didn't. He more or less just took a flier on the dude.

 

I'm glad that it worked out. It's nice to have a guy at the top of the order who can post a .350 OBP.

[southsider2k5]

Based on his track record, it's pretty absurd to think that Kenny knew something that others didn't. He more or less just took a flier on the dude.

 

I'm glad that it worked out. It's nice to have a guy at the top of the order who can post a .350 OBP.

 

The facts tell different. Either Kenny saw something the other GMs who could have claimed him did not, or the other GMs knew they were passing on a starting CF. Which one is it?

 

For me, his record at finding guys in the minors tells me they knew exactly what they were doing.

[Quin]

Based on his track record, it's pretty absurd to think that Kenny knew something that others didn't. He more or less just took a flier on the dude.

 

I'm glad that it worked out. It's nice to have a guy at the top of the order who can post a .350 OBP.

 

His record says he's good at finding scrap heap guys.

[The Ultimate Champion]

The facts tell different. Either Kenny saw something the other GMs who could have claimed him did not, or the other GMs knew they were passing on a starting CF. Which one is it?

 

For me, his record at finding guys in the minors tells me they knew exactly what they were doing.

Maybe most if not all teams saw De Aza as a potentially good 4th OF type and Kenny was the only one who felt he was worth a roster spot, which would say more about the Sox minor league depth vs. other teams than anything else. Maybe other teams would have taken De Aza too if they didn't feel they had better players in their own organizations to protect from the Rule-5. And maybe Kenny would have kept those same other players over De Aza.

 

De Aza has been an overachiever here and it has to be pretty hard to "find" those types of players. De Aza is far from a flashy athlete and IMO his success has a lot more to do with his work ethic, attitude, overall baseball aptitude, durability, and ability to make adjustments as necessary. I imagine it's very hard to scout for those kinds of qualities and I highly doubt Kenny knew he'd end up with such a good everyday player when he made that waiver claim.

 

Also, for every De Aza there are probably 10 more Danny Richars, D'Angelo Jimenez's, Armando Rios' etc. who KW scouted from other farm systems and then traded for or claimed, only for things to not work out in the end.

[Balta1701]

Maybe most if not all teams saw De Aza as a potentially good 4th OF type and Kenny was the only one who felt he was worth a roster spot, which would say more about the Sox minor league depth vs. other teams than anything else. Maybe other teams would have taken De Aza too if they didn't feel they had better players in their own organizations to protect from the Rule-5. And maybe Kenny would have kept those same other players over De Aza.

 

De Aza has been an overachiever here and it has to be pretty hard to "find" those types of players. De Aza is far from a flashy athlete and IMO his success has a lot more to do with his work ethic, attitude, overall baseball aptitude, durability, and ability to make adjustments as necessary. I imagine it's very hard to scout for those kinds of qualities and I highly doubt Kenny knew he'd end up with such a good everyday player when he made that waiver claim.

 

Also, for every De Aza there are probably 10 more Danny Richars, D'Angelo Jimenez's, Armando Rios' etc. who KW scouted from other farm systems and then traded for or claimed, only for things to not work out in the end.

No...the problem was that most teams saw De Aza as extremely unlikely to be worthy of a 40 man spot due to the catastrophic leg injury he'd suffered previously.

[The Ultimate Champion]

His record says he's good at finding scrap heap guys.

Mostly pitchers and bench types, but Uribe was kind of in that mold. I wouldn't consider buy low types like AJ and Pods 'scrap heap.' Dye, Thome, Youkilis, etc. were all more of the buy low past proven performer types.