PREAMBLE
The White Sox need to capitalize on not only the improvements from Moncada/Giolito/etc… but also on the insane amount of salary they have free this offseason. There are enough pieces available in free agency that we can eliminate most of the black holes that plagued this roster last season. We won’t be a favorite to win the World Series, but the playoffs should be a reasonable goal this season.
ARBITRATION-ELIGIBLE PLAYERS
- Alex Colomé, $10.3M - Tender
- Yolmer Sánchez, $6.2M – Non-Tender
- James McCann, $4.9M - Tender
- Carlos Rodon, $4.5M - Tender
- Leury García, $4M - Tender
- Evan Marshall, $1.3M - Tender
- Josh Osich, $1M – Non-Tender
- Ryan Goins, $900K – Non-Tender
CLUB OPTIONS
- Welington Castillo: $8 million/$500,000 buyout - Buyout
OTHER IMPENDING FREE AGENTS
- Jose Abreu (made $16M in 2019)
- Iván Nova (made $9,166,167 in 2019)
- Jon Jay (made $4M in 2019)
- Hector Santiago (made $2M in 2019 on split contract)
The only player I’m interested in re-signing in Abreu. 2 years/$18 million for a bat only player in this market seems about right.
FREE AGENTS
No. 1: Yasmani Grandal (4 years, $70 million). McCann was fine and Collins may end up being an okay catcher but Grandal checks a lot of boxes for the Sox. He hits homers, he takes walks, he knows how to call good games for his pitching staff. This might be a bit of an overpay but whatever.
No. 2: Jake Odorizzi (4 years, $70 million).
No. 3: Madison Bumgarner (5 years, $85 million). I’m putting these two together. We need better pitching and I don’t think we are going to be able to get Cole or Strasburg so this is the fall back. Even in a down year, MadBum is still a solid pitcher and we have a dearth of lefties available for the rotation. Odorizzi is just a good pitcher and has been fairly consistent in his career which is something we could desperately use.
No. 4 Yolmer Sanchez (2 years, $8 million). Yolmer at $6M+ is a bad idea. Yolmer at $4M is a solid bench player who can hold down 2nd if Madrigal is forced to stay down to start the year. I don’t plan on it but sometimes Kenny and Jerry don’t leave that as an option.
No. 5 Michael Wacha (Minor League Deal). Again, not sure if this feasible but if there aren’t any guaranteed options on the table for him, I’d love to take a flyer on Wacha. He’s been good in the past, can be an option in the rotation until Kopech is ready, and can move to the bullpen later in the season. If he’s toast, so be it.
TRADES
No. 1: Lopez, Dunning, Basabe for Starling Marte. Is it enough? I don’t know. Would they accept? Maybe. The Archer trade shows they have a thing for big fastballs so maybe they didn’t learn their lesson and like what they see in Lopez. It gives them two more pitchers and an interesting outfield piece that’s not far off. Sheets would also be an option in addition to or in place of Basabe.
SUMMARY
Opening Day Lineup:
C: Grandal
1B: Abreu
2B: Madrigal
SS: Anderson
3B: Moncada
LF: Jimenez
CF: Robert
RF: Marte
DH: McCann
Bench: Sanchez, Garcia, Engel, Collins
Rotation:
Giolito/Odorizzi/Bumgarner/Cease/Kopech
Bullpen:
Colome, Fry, Bummer, Herrera, Marshall, Hamilton, Cordero, Ruiz
This is not a huge departure from last season’s roster. The big thing is we now have major league hitters throughout the lineup and flexibility at DH. Engel can rotate through the outfield to give guys days off or let Eloy DH. Grandal and McCann can alternate catching and DHing to reduce the wear and tear. The pitching staff gets solidified but can still be iffy depending on Kopech and Cease. Better to only have 2 question marks in the bullpen than 4 though. The bullpen still concerns me but I didn’t see a realistic way of improving it other than relying on improvements internally. My math puts this team right around $120M and I have no idea how to do the math on wins but it should definitely go up.
