PREAMBLE
Sigh. What a season huh? Although many players didn't play to their full potential, it's important to realize that these players are just people, and that people fluctuate up and down all the time. It's not quite time to give up on Moncada, Gioliti and the likes. However, I would like to see a move towards establishing a winning team this year, while keeping a healthy farm system. Obviously that's what everyone wants, but I believe best case scenario is that we maintain our minor leaguers, and also win hopefully 10-15 ish more games next season.
ARBITRATION-ELIGIBLE PLAYERS
- Jose Abreu, $16M – Tender (Trade piece? Future veteran first baseman? Who knows, but it doesn't help to have a solid offensive piece on our team until we can figure the situation out more.)
- Avisail Garcia, $8M – Tender (Not sure the Avi hate, this guy has been hurt all of 2018, but his 2017 season saw an amazing turn around from seasons past. The potential for a solid hitter has been there his whole career, I say keep him for a little bit.)
- Yolmer Sanchez, $4.7M – Tender (This might be my hardest choice, but I do think keeping him around is important, and in a controversial opinion, I think he deserves a lot of at bats at 3rd next season.)
- Carlos Rodon, $3.7M – Tender
- Matt Davidson, $2.4M – Non-tender (He's just not a polished MLB player, plain and simple.)
- Leury Garcia, $1.9M – Non-tender (I like Leury a lot. Great decent ballplayer. Problem is, I just don't think he fits on an mlb team. If we continue to trend upwards as a team, I don't see why we want him.)
- Danny Farquhar, $1.4M – Non-tender (I hope he can prove me wrong.)
CLUB OPTIONS
- Nate Jones, $4.65 million/$1.25M buyout – Pick up. (Injuries have plagued his past, but no point in letting him go when he's not incredibly expensive, has good experience, and consistently gives you decent numbers.)
- James Shields, $16 million/$2M buyout – Pick up (I'm really surprised that Shields didn't make more fans this year. He picked up his game big time, and he's been nothing but criticized. If someone like Dylan Covey would've taken his spot in the role, gone out and averaged 2 or 3 less innings per outing, just imagined how much more bleeding our bullpen would've done. I believe that Shields is deserving of another chance, and if you're gonna make a case that Abrue is a mentor and thus valuable, make the same case for Shields.)
OTHER IMPENDING FREE AGENTS
- Miguel Gonzalez (made $4.75 million in 2018) Let Go (If you asked me last year, or the year before, you'd get a different answer.
- Hector Santiago Let Go
FREE AGENTS
No. 1: Michael Brantley: I don't know if Brantley leaves Cleveland, but if he does, he's one of the best players out in the market. People keep raving about the outfield depth the sox have... well then explain why Engel is starting for us? It's unlikely Robert, Walker, Rutherford, Jimenez and more either pan out, or even remain in the outfield. If we are to start building a winning team, a great void we have is in the outfield.
No. 2: Marwin Gonzalez: Another outfielder with solid numbers, and great offensive production. I don't know if one or either of the two is attainable, but I would love to the white sox try.
No. 2: Tyson Ross (1 year – $8 million) Ross’s career has been injury prone but he was able to pitch 150 solid innings. Maybe Coop and the training staff can keep him in one piece so that he can be moved at the deadline when the Sox start bringing up starters from the minors.
No. 3: Nathan Eovaldi and/or Patrick Corbin: I'm calling it here first, the biggest downside of this future contending team is the pitching. A great hitting core is essential, but I believe that pitching is the key to a consistently good team. Find me the worse team that also had 3 great high tier pitchers, I assure you that the team you found will acutally still be pretty good. In order for a Sox team to build something great, we need at least 3 above level pitchers. The problem is, it's hard to believe Kopech, Cease, Gio/Lopez will all be above average and if they do, they'll probably not hit their stride all at once. An excess of pitching talent never hurts. Lock up Corbin and Eovaldi for three or four years and give them a shot over the AAAA/Relievers that have had a shot in years past (Covey, Danish, etc.)
No. 4: David Robertson: We traded David Robertson when our future seemed unclear. We got a decent haul for him, but now he's an aged veteran with an approx 3 era. For a cheap contract, I don't see how he can't get a spot in the bullpen.
TRADES
SUMMARY
I know my offseason plan didn't exactly express what a 2019 lineup would look like, nor how much our payroll would be. But there have been a few arguments mentioned on this podcast, other white sox podcasts, and online that I have opinions on. For example:
- I don't think Wellington Castillo has a place on this team. It's not that I'm dissapointed per se, but the fact that narvaez and Smith came out and had one of the highest offensive production from a catcher duo in the AL is impressive. Let the starters weigh in on the opinion too I suppose.
- I would very much like to see the Sox building talent and depth around the pitching. We've scrapped everything worth value in the bullpen in the last few years (Cedeno, Soria, Robertson, Kahnle, etc.) and our starters have been lackluster (not that I don't think any one of them couldn't turn it around; Giolito for example has some of the nastiest stuff in the league when he's on his game). I would like to see an emphasis on drafting and developing pitching.
- I love Delmonico, Davidson, and Engel, but they're not major leaguers. I wish we could move them out as soon as possible.
- MOVE ELOY UP. And don't give me that "it's a smart business move" shit. The rules behind it are messed up, and it's not fair to him as a person to miss out on the experience and cash waiting for him in the big leagues if he's truly earned it.
