I'd say the White Sox need to give Ken Rosenthal something, but he broke the Mike Clevinger signing (which still isn't official, by the way), so he shouldn't be jonesing for a White Sox bulletin the way he did in his Thursday notebook.
Rosenthal engaged in idle speculation about a White Sox connection...
Salvador Perez is close with new White Sox manager Pedro Grifol, his former catching instructor and bench coach with the Royals — so close, it stands to reason that the Sox might at least think about asking for Perez in a trade.
... only to spend the rest of the segment showing why it's not worth thinking about.
Perez, 32, dealt with left-hand issues and regressed offensively last season from his spectacular 48-homer, .859 OPS campaign in 2021. He will earn $20 million next season, occupying about one-fourth of the Royals’ payroll. He also is guaranteed $20 million in 2024, $22 million in 2025 and a $2 million buyout on a $13.5 million club option in 2026.
And:
As a player with at least 10 years of service, five with the same club, Perez would have the right to veto any trade. Teams are not even bothering to ask the Royals about him, major-league sources say.
But you gotta admit it'd be pretty funny if the White Sox's idea of spending past the final year of a four-year deal for a catcher in his 30s is by trading for a catcher in his 30s with three years on his deal.
Spare Parts
The White Sox are giving away an Eloy Jiménez bobblehead (May 13), a Luis Robert bobblehead (July 8), and hockey (April 29), basketball (June 24) and football (Aug. 12) jerseys, among other things.
Matthew Boyd is getting $10 million for the 2023 season even though he hasn't thrown 100 innings since 2019, and managed just 13⅓ innings over 10 appearances for the Mariners last year, so I'm going to hit "pause" on what Clevinger is worth next year.
Maybe every team getting an extra $30 million for completing the same of what used to be MLB BAMTech is causing some kind of inflation.
The city of Chicago issued a buiding permit that will transform two sections of the 500 level by removing eight rows of seats. My guess is that it'd be on the third-base side, because the skyline would be a big draw.
The Royals are about 20 wins or so from having a legitimate shot at the postseason, but it seems like the talent up top is still consolidating, and the pitching part of the equation is lagging behind.
