I do not care for this rebuild. Especially the losing on purpose part. Thankfully that part should be over with. While the White Sox might not be contenders in late September in 2019, I believe it is time to start to put some veterans in place at positions that are obviously not going to be filled by a quality prospect anytime soon.
ARBITRATION-ELIGIBLE PLAYERS
- Jose Abreu, $16M Tender
- Avisail Garcia, $8M Tender
- Yolmer Sanchez, $4.7M Tender
- Carlos Rodon, $3.7M Tender
- Matt Davidson, $2.4M Non-tender
- Leury Garcia, $1.9M Non-tender
- Danny Farquhar, $1.4M Non-tender
I decided against tendering Matt Davidson and Leury Garcia. I found someone better to take Davidson's role as a righty DH/first baseman and as much as I wanted to keep Leury, I want to do him a solid and let him explore free agency as he will be the odd man out once Eloy comes up in late April.
CLUB OPTIONS
- Nate Jones, $4.65 million/$1.25M buyout- pick up.
- James Shields, $16 million/$2M buyout- decline.
The Sox already made these moves. I'm not comfortable with the Jones move but whatever. If he's healthy he'd be better than anyone else at that price.
OTHER IMPENDING FREE AGENTS
- Miguel Gonzalez (made $4.75 million in 2018): Gone
- Hector Santiago (made $2 million in 2018 — added): Resigned to same deal.
FREE AGENTS
Manny Machado (10/300 mil) I am going to follow the Brewers plan. They acquired a superstar through trade in Christian Yelich. We will acquire ours in free agency. Machado is a remarkable third baseman and he fits right in with our supposed window. You want people to take you seriously? You find a way to get it done. I believe Machado will go to the highest bidder. So be the highest bidder.
Andrew McCutchen (3 years/51 million) In that Brewers plan, they acquired an over 30 outfielder in Lo Cain. The White Sox will do that as well, bringing in one of my favorites, The Cutch. The man gets on base at a rate that will make the rest of the team blush. Maybe his approach will rub off, maybe it won't, but in any case it would be spectacular to have the former MVP and fan favorite in our lineup doing big things.
Adam Ottavino (4/44 million) The Brewers have a reliever that can dominate for multiple innings. The White Sox need one of those, too. So I am inking Ottavino. He's got nasty stuff. 112 strikeouts in 77 innings in 2018. Hoping he can do more of that for our ball club.
Dayan Viciedo (2/8 million) The Brewers brought in a guy from a foreign league that used to play in the states but struggled in Eric Thames. So will the White Sox with our old pal Dayan Viciedo! He will be the Robin to Palka's Batman in the DH platoon. The Tank dominated the Japanese League in 2018 and is still only 29 years old. He hit .349/.421/.557 and walked 51 times with only 61 strikeouts. Oh man the ropes that will be hung out from our DH platoon!
Ervin Santana (1/8 million) He had an awful 2018 with a hurt middle finger. Assuming that is recovered in time for spring training, I think Santana can be a nice pick up on a short deal. He was 16-8 in 2017.
TRADES
I'm going to stay away from the trade market at this point in time and will attack it at the deadline if possible. Even if we are not in it, a nice trade for a starter at the deadline will be like when the great Kenny Williams went out and acquired Freddy Garcia in 2004.
SUMMARY
C: Welington Castillo, Omar Narvaez
INF: Jose Abreu, Yoan Moncada, Tim Anderson, Manny Machado, Yolmer Sanchez, Dayan Viciedo, Jose Rondon
OF: Adam Engel, Andrew McCutchen, Avisail Garcia, Daniel Palka
SP: Carlos Rodon, Reynaldo Lopez, Lucas Giolito, Ervin Santana, Dylan Covey (Or someone from the minor leagues that wins the job).
RP: Adam Ottavino, Nate Jones, Ian Hamilton, Jace Fry, Hector Santiago, Juan Minaya, Jose Ruiz
My payroll is sitting at 125 mil or so dollars. I went over. I always do. I wish the cheapo White Sox would do that once in a while. Abreu, Santana, Castillo, Garcia, Santiago are all on one year deals though. So money can come off the books next year if need be. However, this is a team that needs to make some noise quickly and I think my moves put us back on the map and get us closer to October baseball. It's time to step up. A lineup that looks like this once Jimenez comes up is dangerous:
- Andrew McCutchen
- Yoan Moncada
- Manny Machado
- Jose Abreu
- Eloy Jimenez
- Daniel Palka
- Avi Garcia
- Tim Anderson
- Welington Castillo
