bobsquad’s Laundry List of Getz Gets

PREAMBLE

State of the team: Lost 101 games in 2023.
Needs: Reassurance to fans that this is a serious organization.

To fill that pressing need, I have a laundry list of wants from Chris Getz this offseason:

1. Defense (🧤) Based on comments from Getz and Barfield, improvement in this regard is paramount.
2. Cavalry of multi-inning options (🦾🦾🦾) There isn't a surefire 6 inning guy on the roster right now, but that hasn't stopped Brian Bannister from piecing together a quality pitching staff in the past.
3. Impact bat (🦇) Even if I'm imagining miraculous seasons from Vaughn, Eloy, and a rookie Montgomery: this lineup is still short at least one impact bat. That holds true for 2025. So why wait?
4. Lefty/switch-hitting bats (⬅️) On one hand, situational lineups aren't what should be keeping Pedro up at night. On the other hand, some metrics measured last year’s team as league worst vs RHP. Is it too much to ask for upgrades over Colas and Sheets?
5. Boras client (🥱🍑) I will feel much better about the Chris Getz hire if he signs any Scott Boras client, thus demonstrating a willingness to negotiate with Boras and an ability to convince Jerry to go along with it.
6. Middle Infielder of the Long-term Future Question Mark? (MILF?) I have a hunch that the 2025 second baseman is neither on the roster nor in this weak FA class. Getz doesn't have to find that guy this offseason, but it would be wise for him to acquire a few more candidates.
7. Prospect armor (🛡️) Chris Getz should have a chip on his shoulder from Nick Nastrini's comments about how clear his path is to the majors. I believe the best developmental path forward is to avoiding repeating the Colas folly by penciling a rookie into a starting position.
8. To set the market, not jump the market. In November 2019, the White Sox set the market by reaching a 4 year pact with Yasmani Grandal. In December 2020, the White Sox jumped the market to sign Adam Eaton for 1 year. The distinction is arbitrary, but evident in how the FO conducted itself for the rest of the offseason. In 2019-20, the White Sox set themselves up to be players with some of the top names available. In 2020-21, they resigned themselves to . Of course, setting the market for any position other than reliever may require a...
9. $100MM contract (💯) The unlikeliest item on this list, but one can still hope.
10. Not Salvador Perez (🚫👑) Okay, maybe this is the unlikeliest item on this list?

I want Getz to embrace creativity this offseason. The individual moves below are less important to me than hitting the points on the list, so I've categorized my additions with the icons above.

ARBITRATION-ELIGIBLE PLAYERS

• Dylan Cease: $8.8M TENDER & TRADE
• Andrew Vaughn: $3.7M TENDER
• Michael Kopech: $3.6M TENDER (🦾🦾🦾)
• Touki Toussaint: $1.7M TENDER (🦾🦾🦾)
• Trayce Thompson: $1.7M NON-TENDER
• Garrett Crochet: $900K TENDER
• Clint Frazier: $900K NON-TENDER
• Matt Foster: $740K NON-TENDER

CLUB OPTIONS

• Tim Anderson: $14M ($1M buyout) DECLINE
• Liam Hendriks: $15M ($15M buyout, paid $1.5M annually over next 10 years) DECLINE

MUTUAL OPTIONS

• Mike Clevinger: $12M mutual option ($4 million buyout) TAKES BUYOUT

OTHER IMPENDING FREE AGENTS

• Yasmani Grandal (Made $18.25M in 2023) LET GO
• Elvis Andrus ($3M) RETAIN - $4MM
• Bryan Shaw ($720K) RETAIN - $1MM
• José Ureña ($720K) LET GO

FREE AGENTS

In descending order by contract size:

No. 1: Matt Chapman, 3B (four years, $140MM) (🧤)(🦇)(🥱🍑)(💯)

MLBTR predicts $160/6 for Chapman. My proposition to Chapman if I'm Getz: take a shorter deal to become the 2nd highest-paid 3B in the game by AAV, gamble on yourself, and hit free agency again at age 34.

No. 2: James Paxton, LHP (two years, $20MM) (🦾🦾🦾)(🥱🍑)

Like Clevinger before him, Paxton has the "name" for the top of a rotation, but enough question marks to drive his price down what the White Sox are willing to pay. There is kind of a Grifol connection here: Paxton was one of the bigger success stories of the Mariners farm system during Grifol's yearlong tenure as farm director.

No. 3: Jakob Junis, RHP (two years, $15MM) (🦾🦾🦾)

Probably a popular OPP pick this year because he ex-Royal! Bannister turnaround story! This team needs 3+ multi-inning arms at minimum!

No. 4: Tom Murphy, C (one year, $5MM) (🛡️)(🚫👑)

Murphy meets the White Sox prerequisite of "having had season-ending injury". When healthy, his upside behind and at the plate are probably the greatest of the FA catchers. Anyone but Salvy!

No. 5: Elvis Andrus, 2B/SS (one year, $4MM) (🛡️)

I'm not going to get cute here. Elvis is still a 1 WAR middle infielder with the greatest intangible of them all: he has been a very good player on very good teams spanning 3 decades.

No. 6: Jesse Winker, 1B/OF/DH (one year, $4MM) (⬅️)

Call him Gavin Sheets Deluxe. Like Sheets, Winker is coming off of an awful season where was unfathomably bad in low-leverage situations (-3 wRC+) but delivered good ABs in the clutch (171 wRC+ in high-leverage). And unlike Sheets, Winker was actually an All-Star caliber bat prior to injury. He wouldn't be one to jump the market for, but the power/OBP combination from the left side equates to cleanup potential in this lineup.

No. 7: Ricardo Sanchez, LHP (one year, $2MM) (🦾🦾🦾)(🛡️)

But wait, bobsquad, isn't Ricardo Sanchez already in the White Sox minor league system? Apparently, he was let out of his contract with Charlotte to play in Korea, where he posted a 3.79 ERA on a 66% ground ball rate. I'm not sure if he plans to come stateside, but if so, he is a familiar face as a budget sinker-slider lefty.

No. 8: Bryan Shaw, RHP (one year, $1MM) (🛡️)

Chris Getz is trying to make this easy for Grifol, no? Give the manager one less inning to worry about and let him send Bryan Shaw out there 162 times next season.

TRADES

No. 1: Trade RHP Dylan Cease to Toronto for RHP Alec Manoah (🦾🦾🦾) and SS/OF Addison Barger (MILF?)(⬅️).

I find it unlikely that Cease is traded this offseason. But if he can be moved for prospects without leaving a clear hole in the 2024 rotation, I would pull the trigger. I think this is an easy one to sell given that both pitchers were excellent in 2022, and Manoah managed to miss out on Super Two status, giving him 2 years more control. Manoah’s lost 2023 has inspired even more takes on how he can rebound than Cease from his – I am not a pitching expert, so perhaps a commenter can point me towards some. Barger fits the athletic mold of the guys to come out of the D-Backs farm system.

No. 2: Trade DH Eloy Jimenez and cash ($3MM) to Tampa Bay for OF Manuel Margot (🧤) and UTIL Vidal Brujan (MILF?)(⬅️).

I fully expect Eloy to hit 40 HRs in Tampa Bay. When that happens, none of us should feel bad about it because that was never going to happen with this organization. Margot is a real outfielder, and Brujan is an out-of-options former prospect whose name was batted about in White Sox deadline rumors.

No. 3: Trade 2B Lenyn Sosa to Boston for SS David Hamilton (⬅️)(MILF?).

Love a good challenge trade. In this one, the White Sox exchange raw talent for sought-after attributes. Hamilton is a fringier prospect than Sosa, but he ticks the boxes that the White Sox can ask for: lefty, uber-athletic, high OBP. I don't hate Sosa, and I wouldn't even mind the redundance of a bunch of all-or-nothing middle infielders if this team didn't have so many actual needs that aren't being met.

SUMMARY

I doubt I need to give much of a defense for the desire to improve bottom-tier offense and defense. I think most of us are on the same page as Chris Getz & co on the what to accomplish, and where, and I trust that some level of effort will be made. This offseason will be most interesting where we will get to see the how of Chris Getz, both in strategy and how much.

My OPP isn't the only one taking a quantity over quality approach with the pitching staff, and that is ultimately what I think Getz will do. I am putting quite a bit of faith in Bannister, Katz, and the individual talent on this roster by thinking this team can spend less on pitching and still improve overall. If I am a GM, I am taking a radically high-level view of that staff and leaving it to the coaches to sort out:

Michael Kopech and James Paxton may not be the tandem that Max Scherzer and Jordan Montgomery were for the Rangers in the World Series, but on any day they give the team a better chance of winning than a 6 IP start from Lance Lynn.

Now, to reiterate my preamble, the players who fill these spots are not as important to me as addressing the individual items. But no matter how they address those position-wise, if the FO is as serious about addressing defense as they say, I am curious to see how players previously entrenched in their positions will move around the diamond. The lineup I produce from this plan:

For instance, If there is a better 3B than Moncada, like Chapman in this exercise, then sign him and move Moncada elsewhere. Even if his defensive value is devalued, he would surely save runs vs Vaughn. If Vaughn isn't DHing, stick Benintendi there because just about anyone else might save runs there.

A notable omission from my list of needs is OBP. The Marcus Thames hire suggests an aggressive hitting philosophy that may well be one of the league's worst in BB%. I can stomach that if the team isn't also again league worst against fastballs.

It goes without saying that approach will be of the essence this offseason. After Rick and Kenny were fired, John Bitzer of Baseball Trade Values expressed some surprise given that the White Sox hadn't made many bad moves value-wise to warrant the dismissal of the front office. But that braintrust was always too smart, exercising a genius approach with a timing and frequency that didn't do the team any favors. Getz has been able to inspire some confidence with his vision and his connections around the league. At this point I’m still a skeptic on his ability to play with the big boys.

(payroll $154MM)