I seriously considered not doing an OPP this year. Admittedly, I'm not particularly good at them to begin with, but I've always enjoyed the thought exercise of how to craft a successful White Sox team. Coming off a 121-loss season, the bar for "successful" has changed drastically, and it kinda sucks the fun out of the entire endeavor. Still, I don't want to shy away from the challenge, but I've had to approach this with entirely different goals.
After years of spending pretty lavishly in my plans, I've decided to undershoot Jim's limit considerably and dump as much payroll as humanly possible. The thought is that all of the money I didn't spend will be invested in organizational infrastructure, and yes, I do think they need to sink tens of millions into it to even begin to catch up with their peers. Pretty much any significant money which reasonably can be offloaded (Benintendi being an example of somebody who probably cannot reasonably be offloaded without being replaced by an equally onerous contract) I will trade or outright jettison.
Past the money, the priority is to load up on young position players and put them in a position to develop. Wins and losses can't matter; they just need to start identifying who can be relied on in the coming years and who is just occupying space until a fresh body can replace them. These players have to be given a bit of a long leash to fail, though, and some guys are already at the end of their ropes, which is fine so long as we stack up enough potential candidates behind them. I think we have a pretty good pipeline of pitching depth right now, but the position side has so much catching up to do I intend to focus on it entirely.
So, without further ado...
MANAGER
The team saved me the trouble by hiring Will Venable. I can't honestly say he would have been my choice, and I'm still lamenting them letting Matt Quatraro get away, but I applaud the hire and am hoping for the best.
ARBITRATION-ELIGIBLE PLAYERS
- Andrew Vaughn: $6.4M NON-TENDER
- Nicky Lopez: $5.1M NON-TENDER
- Garrett Crochet: $2.9M TENDER
- Gavin Sheets: $2.6M NON-TENDER
- Enyel De Los Santos: $1.7M NON-TENDER
- Jimmy Lambert: $1.2M NON-TENDER
- Justin Anderson: $1.1M TENDER
- Steven Wilson: $1M NON-TENDER
- Matt Foster: $900K TENDER
While I believe Vaughn will probably be picked up by the White Sox, it's not a move I will agree with. At that price it reminds me of when they tendered Dayan Viciedo, a very similar player, for around $5.5 million thinking they could trade him only to find no takers. Vaughn's bat has deteriorated to mournful averageness, he's a defensive liability everywhere on the diamond, he's one of the slowest players in the league, and I would rather sink his money into team infrastructure. If there's one thing this team has never been short of it's 1B/DH types with questionable bats.
Nicky Lopez is a fun guy, but just not worth retaining at that price and doesn't really check any boxes for me. I was a fan of Sheets but, like Vaughn, he has just not demonstrated enough proficiency at any facet of the game to keep giving him playing time. De Los Santos and Wilson don't look to me like they justify a roster spot, and I'm well past believing Lambert can be relied on for anything.
Crochet is as obvious as they come, but Anderson and Foster are considerably less so. With the former, I see a pretty good arsenal being somewhat undone by commond/control issues, but he still was able to give them over 50 innings and get some respectable strikeout numbers, so might as well hold on to him. In Foster's case, at that price he's another arm to keep in the mix and, since he still has a minor league option, he's not a roster nuisance. That said, he's pretty much entering the territory Lambert was in where he needs to demonstrate some sort of reliability or be sent packing.
CLUB OPTIONS
- Yoán Moncada: $25M ($5M buyout) LOL
- Max Stassi: $7M ($500K buyout) NO, SERIOUSLY, LOL
Neither of these should need to be explained. Looking back on this after finishing my roster, it's ridiculous that about 10% of my payroll is being taken up by these two.
OTHER IMPENDING FREE AGENTS
- Michael Soroka (Made $3M in 2023) Offer 1 year, $1.5 million with $1.5 million in incentives ($500k per 20 appearances)
- Mike Clevinger ($3M) OH, F*** OFF
- Chris Flexen ($1.75) Offer 1 year, $2.25 million
Soroka was a worthwhile attempt to get another starter in the 2024 mix that simply did not pan out at all, but when he was thrown into the bullpen there looked to be something there. His fastball/slider mix plays in relief and if they can hold on to him as a cheap arm there's something there worth exploring. He takes a 50% pay cut, but he can make that back if he stays healthy and reliable.
Moving on to Flexen, while I'm not dying to keep him around, the fact is he led the team in innings and pitched to a level of mediocrity that made it reasonable to hand him the ball every fifth day. He gets a slight pay raise for his performance, but nothing spectacular and I don't plan on going much beyond that if another team is anxious to add him to their roster.
I have nothing else to say about the players listed here.
FREE AGENTS
No. 1: Jacob Stallings (1 year, $4 million). Short of rushing Edgar Quero to the big league roster, the White Sox have no immediate solution at catcher, with Korey Lee and a whole host of far worse options leading the pack. Stallings is getting long in the tooth, and his offense in 2024 was probably a Coors Field mirage, but he's a solid backstop who should not be costing pitchers strikes and sanity with his blocking and framing. Beyond that, he still brings solid plate discipline, something this team could always use. If he's still viable when Quero is ready for promotion, either trade him if Lee is capable for backup duty or just send Lee packing if he's regressed to what we saw in 2023.
TRADES
No. 1: Trade Garrett Crochet to the Boston Red Sox for Roman Anthony, Ceddanne Rafaela, and Franklin Arias. Ordinarily I would say sign Crochet to some sort of extension, probably in the $60-75 million range, but I'm not entirely sure he would agree to it and I don't see a point wasting the next three years of his career in a rebuild while they try to surround him with sufficient talent to craft a winning roster. And, okay, the last time we kick started a rebuild by trading our best pitcher to the Red Sox it didn't turn out so well in the long run, but I've considered a lot of factors in this.
Any team pursuing Crochet has to have a combination of expecting to compete in 2025, a desperate need for a frontline starter, position players to spare from their farm system who are worthwhile targets, and a willingness to part with said prospects. Personally, I do not like the Yankees farm system, the Braves farm is pitching heavy, the Orioles are hoarding their prospects, and the list goes on and on. For their part, Boston finished .500 despite one of the top offenses in the league, mostly because their rotation was decidedly mediocre.
As for the players, Anthony is a top-10 prospect with serious steam in Triple-A. He's on the cusp of debuting and could be a good candidate for Rookie of the Year should the team decide to roll with him to open the season in right field. Rafaela was forced to shortstop thanks to Boston's stacked outfield mix, but with Marcelo Mayer soon to debut, he's somewhat without a home, especially if they sign a free agent outfielder. The bat is not good, though on this White Sox squad it would probably be one of the better ones despite that. The glove, however, is considered elite in center field, his natural position, and he's sure to be of value based on his defense alone wherever he winds up. Arias is a good-not-great prospect, but I was torn between him and Yoeilin Cespedes, a similarly ranked shortstop from the same international signing class. While Cespedes looks like he has a higher ceiling as a hitter, I went with Arias based on his glove and speed being carrying tools. Both are years away, so a lot could change for either very quickly, but I'm betting on Arias as he's slightly younger, a level ahead, and has already demonstrated MLB-ready skills.
No. 2: Trade Luis Robert, Jr. to the Philadelphia Phillies for Aiden Miller, Johan Rojas, and Carlos De La Cruz.
After refusing to trade Andrew Painter to acquire Crochet before the deadline, I hesitate to assume the Phillies are willing to part with Aiden Miller, their top prospect, especially for a guy like Robert coming off a down season. However, their roster isn't getting any younger and they need to strike while the iron is hot, and with Miller still a year or two from debuting, Robert can give them huge pop in center field that Rojas did not and more thunder in their already dangerous lineup. Admittedly, I am hesitant to trade Robert coming off the year he had, but the guy has played over 100 games once in his career and is in danger of losing all value he might have had rather quickly, so I'd rather try to get what I can now than hope for a healthy rebound.
(That said, this might be an over-optimistic trade given the situation.)
In return, the White Sox get Miller, who has similar offensive upside as Colson Montgomery with similar risk he will have to move to third base. Still, if you're gonna double down on a position to have top prospects stacked up, it should be shortstop, and the two combined could be a dangerous left side of the infield for years to come, with Miller's current timeline about a year behind Montgomery's. Rojas had a disappointing sophomore season after an impressive rookie year, but the speed and defense are quite good. At most he's probably a glove-first center fielder with an average-ish bat, but at worst he's a fourth outfielder with plus defense, and that's still pretty good to have. As for De La Cruz, he strikes me as a George Wolkow-type who has advanced to Triple-A. A lot of the same concerns, particularly when it comes to strikeouts, but the power potential in his 6'8" frame is legit. As the third piece, I'm really just hoping for something to click while fully understanding he may have hit his ceiling in the high minors.
SUMMARY
STARTING LINEUP
1B/DH - Miguel Vargas ($760,000)
2B - Lenyn Sosa ($760,000)
SS - Ceddanne Rafaela ($760,000)
3B - Bryan Ramos ($760,000)
LF - Andrew Benintendi ($17,100,000)
CF - Johan Rojas ($760,000)
RF - Roman Anthony ($760,000)
C - Jacob Stallings ($4,000,000)
DH/OF/1B - Oscar Colas ($760,000)
Ugh, this lineup is terrible, but whatever, I'm not changing it. The hope is that Anthony is the real deal, Rafaela and Rojas can solidify the up-the-middle defense and get some improvement out of their bats, Benintendi can keep up his late season resurgence, Stallings can still be a decent OBP guy, and Ramos, Sosa, Colas, and Vargas can get their heads out of their asses long enough to actually morph into average or better MLB caliber players. Vargas at first might seem an odd choice, but he's a nightmare at every other position he's played and we have other guys for those. Let's see if he can actually be a plus fielder at a less demanding position and hope his bat reaches the potential we thought it had.
BENCH
IF - Brooks Baldwin ($760,000)
OF - Dominic Fletcher ($760,000)
C - Korey Lee ($760,000)
UT - Zach Remillard ($760,000)
Nothing particularly exciting here. A lot of defense-only guys with very limited offensive profiles, though in Fletcher's case the defense appears pretty awesome. Also, while Fletcher can be slotted in center field in a pinch, Rafaela can also be shifted there with Baldwin taking over at shortstop.
ROTATION
RHP - Jonathan Cannon ($760,000)
RHP - Chris Flexen ($2,250,000)
RHP - Davis Martin ($760,000)
RHP - Drew Thorpe ($760,000)
LHP - Jared Shuster ($760,000)
RHP - Jairo Iriarte ($760,000)
"Jonathan Cannon, Staff Ace" is definitely not a harbinger of good times, and neither is Chris Flexen making almost as much as any three other members of the rotation. Iriarte might seem like a bit of a surprise but there's just not enough innings built up among the group without him, and he managed over 120 innings in the minors before getting double promoted, and I'll take that even if it means managing a six-man rotation. I don't know what's going to happen with Sean Burke, Ky Bush, Nick Nastrini, Jake Eder, and so many other potential possibilities, but I think all of them could stand to start in the minors to iron out the kinks for now.
BULLPEN
RHP - Justin Anderson ($1,100,000)
LHP - Tanner Banks ($760,000)
RHP - Mike Soroka ($1,500,000)
RHP - Matt Foster ($900,000)
RHP - Jordan Leasure ($760,000)
LHP - Fraser Ellard ($760,000)
RHP - Gus Varland ($760,000)
Okay, not an impressive group here, but probably stronger than any other area of the team, sadly. It says a lot that this group is at least somewhat credible when they're collectively making roughly Andrew Vaughn's arbitration amount and half of them were scrap heap pickups from last season. Kinda shows the folly of Hahn's over-investment in the bullpen all those years.
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Overall, this team looks like it could easily lose 130 games, but the truth is we're just biding our time and hoping for midseason callups to help push us towards something resembling respectability and avoid making dubious history a second year in a row. Roman Anthony and Aiden Miller join Colson Montgomery and Edgar Quero as the next position player core, and if we're lucky one or two other guys like Vargas or Ramos can take that next step. Noah Schultz and Hagen Smith are aces on the rise, Sean Burke might finally be healthy and ready to contribute, and a host of other pitchers are all in the mix to varying degrees. Peyton Pallette is looking ready to take over as closer any time now. There is reason to believe concrete steps can be taken towards being competitive again.
More importantly, 20 of the 26 players on the roster are making the league minimum. Total payroll, to include nearly $10 million in dead money, comes out to around $50 million, which I'm not even sure is allowed! Okay, fine, I'm sure I could find a starting pitcher to chew up some innings for under $10 million if I need to, and if I need to go a bit higher to sign Stallings, Flexen, or Soroka I can, but I'll just leave it here for now.
From there, I'm investing TONS of money into international scouting and infrastructure while maxing out every signing bonus I can without being penalized. I'm either adopting or founding another rookie level affiliate and stacking it with all the fringe talent I can find. I'm building new facilities in Latin America and investing heavily in Korea and Japan to start mining as much international talent as possible. And with payroll this low, I can make a real impact off the diamond.
It doesn't stop there. Pro scouting has been terrible for the White Sox and clearly needs massive investment as well. Collegiate scouting seems improved of late, but could also use an infusion of its own. The newly-christened R&D department needs to be expanded fivefold. Like John Hammond, spare no expense.
There's no Juan Soto around the corner for us. These are changes and improvements Jerry Reinsdorf neglected for decades but were necessary if he was gonna avoid premium free agents all along. Yeah, I'm gutting the major league squad to an absurd degree, but when I say that money is getting invested elsewhere, I mean it.
