PREAMBLE
Longtime reader. First time poster. Figured I toss my delusional 2 cents into the mix.
The White Sox are a good team with bad flaws, a front office with no clue and an owner with "no money". What more could you ask for?
ARBITRATION-ELIGIBLE PLAYERS
- Lucas Giolito: $7.9M Tender
- Reynaldo López; $2.8M Tender
- Evan Marshall: $2.3M Nah
- Adam Engel: $2.2M Tender
- Brian Goodwin: $1.7M Nope
- Jimmy Cordero: $1.2M Nope (resign to minor league deal)
- Jace Fry: $1M Bye
CLUB OPTIONS
- Craig Kimbrel: $16M ($1M buyout) Stuck with this bum...for now.
- César Hernández: $6M Bye
OTHER IMPENDING FREE AGENTS
- Leury García (Made $3.5M in 2021) Resign 2yrs/$10M
- Carlos Rodón ($3M) Too rich for JRs blood
- Billy Hamilton ($1M) Let go
- Ryan Tepera ($950K) Resign 1yr/$1M. He's blah at best.
FREE AGENTS
Jorge Soler 4yrs/$100M.. Chances are he stays with ATL but he's the only hitter I'd want here. He will become the everyday RF, hopefully.
Jon Gray 4yrs/$68M.. A good #2/3 guy to strengthen the rotation and take Rodon's vacancy.
TRADES
Craig Kimbrel to PHI for Mick Abel... Philly needs help with their bullpen. Kimbrel is probably not the answer, but he's their problem now. And with Abel the Sox get a good young pitcher that hasn't crashed and burned yet.
Dallas Keuchel to NYM for James McCann... This is the swap of vets on bad contracts. Mets get a guy to throw the ball and the Sox get the McCanon back.
Yermin Mercedes, Zack Collins, Micker Adolfo and Romy Gonzalez to MIA for Edward Cabrera... Miami gets some hitters to fill out their 1B/C/RF mix and potentially DH if the NL gets it. For the Sox they get another flame thrower. And even though he wasn't great in his debut, he has as much potential as any young pitcher out there.
SUMMARY
The 26 man would be as follows
DH Big Baby
1B Pito
2B Legend (at least to start the year)
3B YoYo
SS TA7
C Yaz
LF AV
CF Pantera
RF Soler
bench
McCanon
Man of Steal
Burgatron
Yolbert (that's Mr. Sanchez to you)
Pitchers
Gio
Lynn
Gray
Cease
Cabrera
pen
ReyLo
Burr
Ruiz
Bummer
Tapera
Kopech
Crochet
Hendriks
No idea how much the opening day payroll will be. But it's probably not enough. This is largely the same group from last year, which is to be expected. The additions of Gray, Cabrera, McCann and Soler should cover up the weak spots. As far as second base goes.... I'm a big fan of both Yolbert Sanchez and Jose Rodriguez, both of which should see substantial time in the show next year. I see Yolbert breaking camp with the team and eventually becoming the everyday second baseman. Rodriguez probably doesn't come up until June-ish, but I think he is the second baseman of the future and he should assume that role by mid summer.
The bullpen still leaves much to be desire, but if the whole Kimbrel situation taught us anything it's that money doesn't solve everything. The Sox have some decent in house options that should be as good as a high priced vet looking to play out the string.
With all of these moves the Sox can now look forward to potentially forcing a game 5 in the ALDS in 2022. yay.
