The Offseason Plan Project is upon us, and the 2023 White Sox gave us the most miserable exercise to date. There's the burnt-out shell of a contender, a farm system that has some intriguing prospects, but none ready to step up right away, and a handful of limited players -- whether in terms of defensive utility and durability -- who either need to step up or be phased out.
Oh, the starting rotation might have two pitchers if it's lucky.
This is the situation Chris Getz inherited, and Jerry Reinsdorf didn't interview anybody else because he preferred an internal candidate who wouldn't need a year to assess everything. Getz initially said he could hit the ground running, but in subsequent interviews, he's said he's still in the information-gathering stage, such is the morass.
This is also the situation you'll get to inherit as you consider your offseaosn plan.
If you’re new to the OPP, it’s a staple of our late Octobers and early Novembers, in which Sox Machine community members attempt to chart out their best vision for how the White Sox should proceed. In previous years, the task was to strengthen a postseason contender. This year, the task is a lot more open-ended.
To participate in the Offseason Plan Project, here are the steps:
- Copy the template below
- Paste it into the text editor on this page
- Fill it out* and submit it. Here is a good example from last year.
(*In case it isn’t etched into your memory like it is mine, Andy Gonzalez’s number is 26. You will need to know that.)
Here's how the White Sox payroll breaks down:
- Obligations: $71.5M to six players
- Club options: $29M to two players ($2.5M in buyouts)
- Arb-eligible: $22.04M to eight players
- Mutual options: $12M to Mike Clevinger ($4M buyout if he declines)
- Retained salaries: $5.5 million to Leury García
- Deferred salary: $1M to José Abreu
Bring back everybody under team control and fill in the rest of the 26-man roster with players making the $740,000 league minimum or thereabouts, and the maximum incumbent payroll is $148M.
That gives you about $37 million to play with at the very least, because I'm setting the budget at $185 million. It's only a $5 million drop from the budget from the last two Projects, and $190 million was a decent call both times. The White Sox finished with a 26-man roster payroll of $193.4 million in 2022, and $181.2 million in 2023.
With TV ratings and attendance plummeting, chances are the actual number will be considerably lower. So why am I staying put this year? Because if Chris Getz is really supposed to fashion a quick turnaround from this group, then $190 million is what Jerry Reinsdorf seems to consider generous support. You're free to spend less if you think this team needs a rebuilding or retrenching, and you're free to spend more if you can make the case for it, but the challenge is staying within the constraints.
Some last points before we get to the template:
*Cot’s Baseball Contracts has the White Sox’ payroll obligations, as does Spotrac for a more granular, sortable approach to finances.
*MLB Trade Rumors has the list of 2023-24 free agents. Note the players with club options and exercise common sense when it comes to their potential availability.
*Spotrac has a rough MLB market value estimator if you're attempting to hash out fair contracts, and it's worth running trade ideas through Baseball Trade Values to see if it's in the neighborhood of fair.
*There are such things as dumb ideas, but the threshold is fairly high to cross it. Even an unworkable plan might have a great suggestion contained therein, which works for our goal of generating the highest number of feasible ideas possible.
*If you’re critiquing, try to make it constructive, even for the leakier proposals. A fair percentage of the Sox Machine community joined the fray sharing an offseason plan. We’re among friends here.
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PREAMBLE
Establish where you see the White Sox at this point, and your mindset/philosophy/strategy in putting together the roster for the upcoming season.
ARBITRATION-ELIGIBLE PLAYERS
Write “tender,” “non-tender” or “rework/extend” after each player and their projected 2024 salaries. Feel free to offer explanation afterward if necessary.
- Dylan Cease: $8.8M
- Andrew Vaughn: $3.7M
- Michael Kopech: $3.6M
- Touki Toussaint: $1.7M
- Trayce Thompson: $1.7M
- Garrett Crochet: $900K
- Clint Frazier: $900K
- Matt Foster: $740K
CLUB OPTIONS
Write “pick up” or “decline” or “rework” after the option.
- Tim Anderson: $14M ($1M buyout)
- Liam Hendriks: $15M ($15M buyout, paid $1.5M annually over next 10 years)
MUTUAL OPTIONS
Write “exercised” or “takes buyout.”
- Mike Clevinger: $12M mutual option ($4 million buyout)
OTHER IMPENDING FREE AGENTS
Try to retain, extend qualifying offer, or let go?
- Yasmani Grandal (Made $18.25M in 2023)
- Elvis Andrus ($3M)
- Bryan Shaw ($720K)
- José Ureña ($720K)
FREE AGENTS
List three free-agent targets you’d pursue during the offseason, with a reasonable contract. A good example of a bad idea:
No. 1: Eric Hosmer (one year, $740,000). The White Sox continue to add all the Royals, hoping one of them remembers how to win.
TRADES
Propose trades that you think sound reasonable for both sides, and the rationale behind them. A good example of a bad idea:
No. 1: Trade Yoán Moncada and Michael Kopech to Boston for Chris Sale. This trade is still miserable on both sides!
SUMMARY
If you finish up with a fairly firm 26-man roster, roll it out here. If you don’t, at least offer a sense of the payroll required, but more detail is always welcome.
What’s more important is describing how you settled on your plan — how or whether it resolves key positions, and what kind of position the White Sox occupy heading into 2024 and the following offseason.
Every plan may not be comprehensively sound, but even the shakiest ones may have one name or argument that hasn’t crossed the minds of the rest of the community. The point of this exercise is to generate as many possibilities as possible, to see which players are the most popular, and how it ends up comparing to Chris Getz's actual moves as he begins to build a body of work.
