You could make the case that the offseason doesn't start until Bob Nightengale ambles into the room to breezily delivery a potentially controversial White Sox scoop.
Last October, he leveraged his position as Jerry Reinsdorf's favorite reporter to be the first to correctly identify the White Sox's eventual choice for replacing Rick Renteria as manager.
The Chicago White stunned the baseball industry Monday morning when they announced the firing of manager Rick Renteria.
They could shock the world with their next hire.
The White Sox plan to reach out to one of the greatest managers in baseball history, who managed his last game in 2011, who was inducted into the Hall of Fame six years ago, and who is 76 years old.
The name: Tony La Russa.
And while his confidence in his White Sox front office sources sometimes leads him to state things that haven't happened as already done, only to see them never actually materalize ...
Eduardo Escobar, 4-for-5 with a double and homer, and 5 RBI, and soon on his way from the #Dbacks to the #WhiteSox, is about to end the #Dbacks’ 24-game road losing streak before he departs. They are up 10-0 in the 8th over the #Padres.
— Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) June 27, 2021
... he's correct enough that this tweet probably sets the expectation for the most expensive club option they have to consider:
The Chicago #WhiteSox are expected to pick up reliever Craig Kimbrel's $16 million option and then trade him during the winter. He badly struggled as a setup man, allowing 31 baserunners in 23 innings, including a 5.09 ERA. There will be plenty of teams looking for closers.
— Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) October 13, 2021
Nightengale is saying the quiet part loud, but it probably doesn't matter. Everybody saw the same thing. The question is whether people really believe his struggles stemmed from pitching in the eighth inning, or it was more because his velocity peaked in June, and as it sagged throughout August and September, the contact increased, much of it louder.
Kimbrel also exacerbated his own issues. His WHIP with the White Sox was a respectable 1.217 -- not elite, but better than that of Aaron Bummer and Garrett Crochet. It felt worse because of his tendency to give away 90 feet freely, whether with stolen bases (five in six attempts) or wild pitches (five in 23 innings). He hasn't had to worry about traffic on the basepaths for a large part of his career, and the lack of training shows.
Add in the entirety of Kimbrel's Cubs career, and it seems like he's somebody whose success is delicately constructed. When everything is calibrated and fully powered, he's damn near impossible to hit, but any problems can snowball on him rather quickly. He might not be the worst gamble for a team, especially if they're able to get a contract that's outlived its usefulness off their books. If he can put it together for a half-season, he might be just as flippable next July, even if the return is less than an injured Nick Madrigal.
The Sox just have to make sure they understand the interest, because they can't afford Kimbrel's $16 million to get in the way of solving greater issues. Liam Hendriks is on that kind of AAV and earned it in 2021, and we can still debate whether the first year was worth the White Sox's while, because the rest of the team couldn't get him an inning that mattered when it counted the most.
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As for the other dollar amounts the White Sox have to consider immediately, the White Sox have a $6 million option for César Hernández (lol), as well as a qualifying offer to weigh for Carlos Rodón, which MLB Trade Rumors says will be an $18.4 million decision this year.
MLBTR also issued the projections for the arbitration-eligible White Sox:
- Evan Marshall – $2.3MM
- Brian Goodwin – $1.7MM
- Lucas Giolito – $7.9MM
- Adam Engel – $2.2MM
- Reynaldo Lopez – $2.8MM
- Jace Fry – $1.0MM
- Jimmy Cordero – $1.2MM
Rodón's situation will come up first, as a team has to make a qualifying offer in the five-day period between the end of the World Series and the start of free agency. When it comes to the arb-eligible players, the White Sox don't have to make those calls until Dec. 1, which is also the day the current collective bargaining agreement expires. The CBA situation might overshadow every other procedure by then.
(Photo by Matt Marton/USA TODAY Sports)
