As the White Sox roster currently stands, they'd enter next season with a catching tandem of Korey Lee and Carlos Pérez, which leaves everything to be desired. Lee did next to nothing with his late-season audition after coming over from the Astros in the Kendall Graveman deal, hitting .077/.143/.138 over 70 plate appearances. Pérez has posed more of a threat at the plate, but the White Sox haven't been inclined to give him any similar sort of run behind it, as he's amassed just 71 plate appearances over his two seasons in the majors.
So it would make sense that the White Sox would seek catching help over the course of this winter, especially since there are a bunch of credible veteran backups who are used to fluctuating amounts of playing time on the open market.
But given that the White Sox have acquired defense at the expense of offense with their position-player moves, it makes sense that the first catcher rumor of the offseason would tie them to the guy who might have the least to offer.
Courtesy of Chandler Rome, Houston Astros beat reporter for The Athletic:
There remains mutual interest between the Astros and Martín Maldonado in a reunion, but Houston has competition to retain him. The San Diego Padres, Miami Marlins and Chicago White Sox are among the teams to check in on Maldonado, a person familiar with his market said this week.
Maldonado, 37, is coming off a season in which he hit .191/.258/.348, which is what Maldonado has done for the last three seasons. He also appeared in over 100 games, which is something he's done in each of the last three seasons. The Astros usually have enough offense to hide Maldonado in the ninth spot, but a couple of things changed last season:
No. 1: Yainer Diaz arrived and gave the Astros a legit bat-first option to usurp Maldonado.
No. 2: Maldonado's receiving fell off a cliff.
These became points of contention between Dusty Baker and everybody else watching the Astros, because while a lot of managers don't like to suddenly turn to a rookie catcher if a comfortable option is available, Maldonado didn't have anything to supplement the intangibles arguments except throwing and blocking. He's above-average in both of those areas, but Diaz also did those things well, and while his receiving lagged behind everything else, it graded out better than Maldonado's.
It's hard to imagine Maldonado reversing course as he enters his late-30s, but I don't think it's worth dwelling on those fears too much at this point, if only because the report seems like it's coming from the player's side, and it's in the White Sox's interest to canvas the entire catching market to understand the going rates for skills.
The counterpoint is that when you look at Maldonado's Statcast profile, it fits in very well with Paul DeJong and Nicky Lopez in accepting a lot of blue for a very specific kind of red.
It'd be cool if this rumor faded, because choosing cheap defense to fill every gap is a strategy any Offseason Plan Project participant could execute. They just wouldn't pick so many guys who overlapped with Pedro Grifol at previous stops.
As for the other half of the battery, Daryl Van Schouwen threw out some names in his winter meetings preview:
The rotation would look thin and iffy even with Cease at the top, but with two years left of controllable salary and the Sox not in contention mode in 2024, chances are greater than not that Cease gets traded. Look for the Sox to pursue a starting rotation candidate or young major league ready position player, and at least two top prospects. A starter such as Michael Lorenzen, Hyun Jin Ryu, Sean Manaea or Wade Miley, on one- or two-year deals, would afford needed veteran presence.
The Blake Snell, Eduardo Rodriguez, Jordan Montgomery, Yoshinobu Yamamoto shopping aisle is off limits for Getz.
