PREAMBLE
Sox Math. Here’s your question: How do you fill the White Sox holes, add pitching, get rid of dead weight and screw the Cubs while building a championship team?
Baseball is changing but good pitching still wins. The Sox had the pitching throughout the year but they fell apart during the playoffs. Whether it was bad matchups or tired arms due to the Vid Year of 2020, we’ll never know. What we do know is we have to clear some salary because somebody gave us a ridiculous figure of $170M for the payroll. I'm looking at you, Jim. Oh, and we still have to find our second baseman and elusive right field starters. I’m amazed how many people want to trade Vaughn, Eloy, Moncada, Crochet, or any of the young prospects. As the late great Doug Buffone used to say, “Stop yourself”.
ARBITRATION-ELIGIBLE PLAYERS
- Lucas Giolito: $7.9M Tender
- Reynaldo López; $2.8M Tender
- Evan Marshall: $2.3M Non-Tender. Minor league deal?
- Adam Engel: $2.2M, Tender
- Brian Goodwin: $1.7M, Non-Tender. Bye Bye.
- Jimmy Cordero: $1.2M, Re-work to 575K
- Jace Fry: $1M, Tender
Result: 14.575 Million owed to five players
CLUB OPTIONS
- Craig Kimbrel: $16M ($1M buyout) Pickup for Trade. We’ve checked and teams are interested! Hard to believe but we’ll be tendering and trading. I’d like to trade him back to the Cubs' division just in case he regains his form in the NL. We were ripped off!
- César Hernández: $6M Decline and kick to the curb.
OTHER IMPENDING FREE AGENTS
- Leury García (Made $3.5M in 2021) (retain at $3.5)
- Carlos Rodón ($3M) The naysayers tell you that Boros will not let Rodon sign a contract. Rodon only knows one home and quite frankly, nobody is going to treat him better. Here’s the deal and it’s based on the Boros’ negotiated contract for Yusiel Kickuci. 3 years for $43 million guaranteed. Additional four year option for club for a total of $66 million. If team doesn’t take option, fourth year for $13 million becomes a player option. Total guaranteed is 56 mil and total K is 109 Million for 7 years. Sorry naysayers but nobody is paying Mad Carl 100 million without some opt outs for the team. If he can't carry a full load, Mad Carl will have to become a multi-inning reliever in the future.
- Billy Hamilton ($1M) Let Go and let him be Billy the Cheerleader. If he wants to sign a minor league deal, I’ll reluctantly say ok.
- Ryan Tepera ($950K) Retain at 2 years for 5 million. This may be low but as a former Cub, he may have a stench on him still.
Total for 3 own free agents 19M
FREE AGENTS (Add 14 mil to yearly payroll)
No. 1: Seiya Suzuki 27 year old RF from Japan (Three years 24 million: 2022 at 6 mil, 2023 9 mil and 2024 9 mil. Options of 12 mil/12 mil). Suzuki has been described as a five tool player who plays RF. The last two Japanese players received 21 mil for 3 years and 12 mil for 2 years. Suzuki has better stats, however. He’s had 28, 25 and 38 HRs the last three years while batting over .300 with an OBP between .409 and .436. He led the league in assists. I’d prefer Castellanos but somebody has their hand in the pocket so we take a flyer on a Japanese player called a Mini-Trout. I'd settle for a mini-Castellanos. At least Suzuki can field so even if hitting takes a while, he’ll be better than our normal defense. He has a low strikeout rate so he’s the guy to take a chance with on a limited budget, I hope.
No. 2 Either Kodai Senga, International Japanese Free Agent P (29) or Tomoyuki Sugano, International Japanese Free Agent P (32). Sugano was posted last year and couldn’t come to terms with an MLB team. He signed a four year deal in Japan for four years with an opt out each year. I prefer Senga because of his age and allegedly his better stuff but I make the offer and whichever takes it wins. Sugano reportedly wanted 3 years for 43 million last year. I offer each the same thing to Senga with the first year pegged at 8 million.
TRADES
No. 1: Trade Dallas Kuechel to Mets for Jeff McNeill and James McCann. McNeil had an off year and we’re assuming that 2B for Mets will be manned by Baez. He’s a career 298 hitter with an impressive OBP of .364. I wanted to keep McCann last year but the sox let him walk, now the Mets will let him walk. Keuchel is making 18 mil and McNeil is projected to make 2.5 Million and McCann is owed 8 million in 2022. (Obligations 126.85 minus 18 plus 10.5=Net savings 7.5M) Obligations 119.35
No. 2: Trade Kimbrel to Reds for two relief pitchers, Dauri Moreta and Cionel Perez both of which will probably be in AAA. It’s a vindictive move but screw the Cubs. (Net Savings 16M)
Payroll at 166.925 before adding Sheets, Burger, Ruiz, Burr each at 575K for a total of 169.225 for the 26 man roster.
SUMMARY
If you’ve been doing the “Sox Math” you probably noticed that we have too many pitchers. Fear not, because you can never have too many pitchers. We need to go with a modified six-man rotation. Giolito, Lynn and Cease can continue on a regular five man schedule. However, Japanese pitchers usually pitch once a week so we don’t want to overload our new guy, let’s say Senga is that guy for argument sake. We also can't overload Rodon, who is most effective when he’s pitching on extra rest. The sixth man is Kopech, who also needs to be brought along slowly. Kopech can swing into starting by also being used as the multiple inning guy to relieve Cease, Rodon, or Senga. I worked out the math and with extra rest for everyone at designated times, you have the following breakdown:
33 Starts: Giolito
32 Starts: Lynn
26 starts: Cease
24 Starts: Senga
24 Starts: Rodon
23 Starts: Kopech
Everyone should be fresh. But you’re probably saying that with Kopech starting and Kimbrel playing in Cincy this plan will decimate our bullpen. Fear not, because we are counting on Hendriks to close with Bummer, Tepara, and Lopez to pitch when we are winning from the sixth till the lights go out. Ruiz, Burr, and Fry fill the rest of the pen. Jerry will have to pony up for relief help or Crochet can come up near the end of the year.
What happened to Garrett Crochet? I’ve assigned him to the AAA team to become a future starter. If needed, we know he can come up at the end of the year and pitch out of the bullpen. Vaughn is also at AAA to become all that he can be as a hitter. Everyone player on the team can contribute so even Tony can’t wreck the lineup. I’m hoping Katz can control Tony’s urge to screw up the pitching sequences. Best part is we aren’t trading our young players. Please Fellow Sox fans, stop suggesting trades of our young assets.
Here’s your 2022 Lineup, subject to TLR jacking it up:
- Anderson SS
- Moncada 3B
- Robert CF
- Abreu 1b
- Grandal c
- Jimenez LF/DH
- Suzuki RF
- Burger DHSheets
- McNeil 2B
Bench: Garcia, Engel, McCann
Go forth and cheer for a championship.
