Despite the best efforts of the Milwaukee Brewers, the teams with two of the three highest payrolls will meet in the World Series.
The Red Sox will start Chris Sale against the Dodgers in Game 1, as Sale has fully recovered from his stomach ailment.
Sale doesn't have a social media presence, and he continues to take advantage of that fact by occasionally indulging in serious BS when he won't really hear about it.
The AP's version is remarkably straightlaced:
First, though, the ace left-hander had some fun with reporters when asked about the ailment, saying it was caused by irritation from a belly-button ring.
Although Sale remained deadpan during the comment, he has not been observed with a pierced navel.
It doesn't quite rate as high on the sketchometer as "jumping off a truck," but regardless: Should Sale help his team get to the World Series and fare well on the game's biggest stage, Boston will have achieved its objective in the trade. Yoan Moncada, Michael Kopech and Luis Basabe still have work to do.
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A couple of quick follow-ups ...
No. 1: Matt Davidson is spending serious time this winning working on his pitching.
That's according to Bruce Levine, who relays that Davidson is seriously pursuing the idea of becoming a two-way player.
"I know I can help the team in this area," Davidson said of pitching. "It's not an ego thing. I am a position player and hitter. If I can help the team pitching and be an asset for the organization, that would be great."
Back in July, Patrick outlined all the ways Davidson's flexibility could be useful. Back in August, I recapped Davidson's second outing, when he worked over Giancarlo Stanton, but also looked gassed before getting to 20 pitches. That underscored the caution the White Sox needed to exercise, and fortunately, nobody got carried away.
A full offseason of conditioning and a plan in spring training is the only way to go about it without risking injury or embarrassment. I'm looking forward to following this story when February rolls around.
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No. 2: Nate Jones won't be making the minimum.
Scott Merkin talked to Nate Jones, who hopes to stay in Chicago with a rebound from another injury-ravaged season. The White Sox hold a $4.65 million option for 2019 (with a $1.25 million buyout), and that will indeed be Jones' salary figures.
Cot's Baseball Contracts led us astray by saying Jones' 2019 option could be knocked down to the league minimum if he needed elbow surgery by the end of the 2018 season. It turns out that ulnar repositioning surgery does not count, so the White Sox will indeed have a more difficult decision to make.
The White Sox should have room for him on the payroll, but it's probably better to think of him as somebody who could get outs at a decent rate, rather than potential trade bait. He'll be 33 next season, which is a larger number than his average innings total over the last five seasons (27).
Still, with Zack Burdi stuck at 93-95, Ian Hamilton needing to show a little more and Ryan Burr needing to show a lot, a healthy Jones can at least keep one of these guys on a more developmentally-friendly role. An unhealthy Jones is more or less normal these days.
