MLB free agency begins now and the hot stove season is officially upon us, so allow us to open the proceedings with a White Sox rumor that is truly a White Sox rumor both technically and spiritually.
Now that they've created a vacancy at shortstop by declining Tim Anderson's option, we've heard that the White Sox are starting the winter with a pursuit of shortstop Paul DeJong.
Setting aside his 30-homer season in 2019 -- the year basically everybody hit 30 homers -- DeJong's been a decent glove-first option at shortstop with the Cardinals over the years, but he was traded to the Blue Jays at the deadline, and his production spiraled, even by his standards. Toronto released him after three weeks, and although he signed with the Giants shortly after, it was more of the same:
- Cardinals: .233/.297/.412
- Blue Jays: .068/.068/.068
- Giants: .184/.180/.286
You're reading those lines correctly. DeJong went 12-for-93 after the trade, and his OBP is lower than his batting average because he hit one sac fly against zero walks and HBPs.
Yet it shows how far Anderson has fallen over the last year and a half, because DeJong's 2023 still represents an improvement over Anderson's, both at the plate ...
- DeJong: .226/.281/.393, 13 HR, 4 SB, 21 BB, 103 K over 356 PA
- Anderson: .245/.286/.296, 1 HR, 13 SB, 26 BBB, 122 K over 524 PA
... and in the field:
- DeJong: 9 OAA, 0 DRS, 3.0 SDI
- Anderson: -1 OAA, -16 DRS, -7.3 SDI
(SDI is SABR Defensive Index, which accounts for nearly a quarter of voting points in the Gold Glove Awards. SDI also had Kevin Kiermaier over Luis Robert Jr. in center field, and that's how the voting shook out for the Gold Glove in center field this year.)
The open market only has placeholders to offer in the middle infield, and the White Sox need help on both sides of second base. That could be fine for the White Sox if 1) they're no longer set on fashioning a contender in 2024, and 2) Colson Montgomery is indeed a shortstop. Montgomery just won the Fall Stars Game MVP on Sunday thanks to his no-doubt homer off a lefty ...
... but his defense has lagged behind his offense. If he can somehow raise his shortstop play to acceptable over the next few baseball months, the White Sox will be happy to shuttle aside a replacement-level player with a replacement that will generate actual, authentic excitement.
DeJong was Josh's choice for shortstop in his offseason plan, but Josh won't be getting his choice of manager. The Cubs instead swooped in to hire Craig Counsell away from the Milwaukee Brewers, and they set a new bar for managerial compensation in the process.
Counsell had been linked to the vacancies with the Mets and Guardians, but he landed with a team that didn't have an opening until they booted Ross (his seat wasn't hot, but it turns out it had an eject button). The Cubs signed Counsell for five years and $40 million, which breaks new ground for financial commitments to managers, and with quite a bit of room to spare.
(It'd also resonate in the White Sox's history of compensating anybody. A $40 million contract would rank 11th on the team's all-time largest contracts.)
The Mets and Guardians also hired new managers who weren't Counsell. The Mets hired Yankees bench coach Carlos Mendoza, while the Guardians went with the inexperienced Steven Vogt, who has one year of being a bullpen and quality control coach for Seattle under his belt. Hopefully this will be their Robin Ventura move after years of thriving under Terry Francona. That'd just require the White Sox to make a countermove a year from now.
Now that the deadline for contract options has passed, the complete list of free agents has been set. If you'd like to see all those free agents -- or at least two score of them -- ranked, here are a couple of resources at your disposal:
