Today marks one of the major deadlines of the offseason as far as the White Sox are concerned. Jose Abreu, along with a few free agents the White Sox might be tracking, have to decide whether to accept the $17.8 million qualifying offer.
Bruce Levine, no stranger to sentences that befuddle the baseball world, put together a couple of paragraphs that let us know where we are with all the not-knowing (numbering mine):
One area of need that should be addressed soon is first base, as Jose Abreu and the club have a mutual desire to reach a new deal. A three-year deal for Abreu seems likely to get done soon(1).
"There is a lot of love and mutual admiration and desire on both sides going right up to (chairman Jerry Reinsdorf)," Hahn said of bringing Abreu back. "Jose knows how we feel, and we will remain in contact until Jose figures out where he wants to play next year(2)."
The first one is Levine, as he mentioned previously in a radio appearance on Monday that he expected Abreu and the White Sox to sign a three-year deal. The super-passive voice here doesn't lend confidence.
The second one is Hahn, noting that Abreu has control of his destination for the first time in this middle-school slow dance. The qualifying offer probably isn't what he wants in terms of commitment, but it's likely as good as he's going to do in terms of average annual value, so it's not punitive ... if he signs it.
It's the weak open market response to non-premium players with a qualifying offer attached to them that puts ice in the air, making this the first formal acknowledgment of the business side in a relationship that has been as pure as it gets for somebody paid eight figures this decade. It seems like Abreu should accept it, but if there is a three-year deal in the works and Rick Hahn is revealing nothing, then who knows.
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For those of you with time-travel capabilities, clip 'n' save the next two paragraphs and surprise a friend:
Lucas Giolito finished seventh in American League Cy Young voting.
And that's a little bit disappointing.
The seventh-place finish puts a BBWAA-certified label on Giolito's breakout season, as he earned eight fifth-place votes. He wasn't going to break the stranglehold Houston pitchers had on the top two -- Justin Verlander edged Gerrit Cole in first-place votes, 17-13 -- but there was a chance he could fight his way further into the top five before a lat strain ended his season a couple of starts short.
For the first time in eight years, the Cy Young finish list doesn't include Chris Sale, so that remarkable run is over. He's recovering from a plasma-rich platet injection in his left elbow as he attempts to avoid Tommy John surgery, and as he begins a five-year, $145 million extension, his salary will finally reflect his previous excellence. Whether he has any future excellence in the tank remains to be seen.
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Outside of a half-hearted pursuit of Bryce Harper, the White Sox refused Scott Boras' advances last year, but between their need to add bats and Boras' need to add suitors to the pool, the overlap in interests could lead to a brief, fleeting moment of codependence.
Boras, who likened baseball to a zoo where half the bears are sleeping, might have more clients than teams angling to add. James Fegan wrote up the White Sox-related portions of Boras' annual summit at the general managers meeting.
“They have talent,” Boras said. “It’s a great city. Certainly the players look at the White Sox in a very different way than they did two years ago.
“Certainly the White Sox need veteran players, because they have such great young players. You try to create that mix all the time in doing that. I readily foresee there’s a lot of fits that could go in there and really advance what they’ve built to date.” [...]
“I think the relationship between Rick and Jerry [Reinsdorf] is more relevant,” Boras said. “Rick is obviously operating a process there. His design and plan, and Jerry putting a stamp of approval on it, that’s what I think is most relevant to the advancement of the White Sox. Jerry’s a very competitive guy. I think he wants his people and his team to really be the decision-makers at this point. I think he certainly gives them authority, but in the end I think he wants to win now.”
Fegan noted that Hahn was asked about Reinsdorf's alleged comments that second place is first place for management, and Hahn dropped the "seven championships" defense as primary evidence against it. The problem is that six of those championships happened last century, and even if they were more recent, they're irrelevant to this particular cause. Perhaps Reinsdorf would be more willing to spend if everybody described him as an owner who has overseen only five playoff appearances in 38 years.
