I’m going to treat Jim like the hapless debate moderator he is. I’m the alpha here. He can ask the question he wants, but I’m only going to answer the question I wanted him to ask, which is “Cost and commitments be damned, how will you make people think of the White Sox with the same awe and reverence they have for Arnold Palmer’s penis?”
The White Sox have shattered any goodwill and trust they might’ve had with their fan base. They are a laughingstock among the national press. As far as free agent baseball players are concerned, the Sox are the vacation equivalent of a trip to Antarctica. In the absence of other incentives, only the hopeless and the desperate will come here. The Sox have ceded the Chicago market to that other team. There’s a decent chance TV coverage will harken back to those glory days of WFLD-TV or worse. Attendance is down and figures to go downer. These are the stark realities surrounding the Sox.
If Jerry wants to increase the value of the team, if he wants to successfully launch a new sports channel, if he wants to once again fill the stadium with raucous fans, if he wants to build a new stadium, if he wants to sell the team for maximum profit, if he wants to win one more championship before he drifts down the River Styx on a floating garbage dump, he needs to dream big and then act on it.
The only way for the Sox to claw their way out of all of this is to be bold. A $113 million payroll is not bold. I will be bold, but a measured kind of bold. Because the Sox have pooped the bed, rolled around in it, and then pooped some more, premiums will have to be paid in order to acquire any legitimate talent. I am prepared to do this. Let’s get started.
First, three agenda items that ought to be at the top of everyone’s OPP:
- Fire Brooks Boyer. No reason other than we all hate him.
- Offer Sergio Santos the Charlotte job and a good raise, and tell him you think he has a big future with the Sox. You don’t want a repeat of the Francona situation from years ago.
- Buy a new plane. If cost is an issue, I’m sure Boeing will work hard to seal the deal. Just hope it’s not the only thing they seal.
As the old saying goes, “The South Side wasn’t rebuilt in a day.” My plan will be to do the heaviest lifting on the first day, which will set the stage for the lifting that needs to be done the second day and beyond.
MANAGER
I started this plan a few weeks ago but had to attend to other matters. I wrote the following early in the managerial search process. I’ll just leave it here because it makes me look good.
I don’t know enough about the managerial candidates to make a truly informed decision. Managing experience is good, but simply having that experience isn’t enough and shouldn’t be why you were moved to the top of the list. Nothing about Phil Nevin screams, “Next White Sox manager!” From what I know about Venable and Lombard, I would be happy with either one. And if Venable can convince Ecker to come over and be the Brian Bannister of hitting, all the better.
ARBITRATION-ELIGIBLE PLAYERS
- Andrew Vaughn: $6.4M Tender
- Nicky Lopez: $5.1M
- Garrett Crochet: $2.9M Tender
- Gavin Sheets: $2.6M
- Enyel De Los Santos: $1.7M
- Jimmy Lambert: $1.2M
- Justin Anderson: $1.1M
- Steven Wilson: $1M
- Matt Foster: $900K
CLUB OPTIONS
- Yoán Moncada: $25M ($5M buyout) As if.
- Max Stassi: $7M ($500K buyout) He’s a young man who has had a lot going on in his life. I wish him well.
OTHER IMPENDING FREE AGENTS
I thought a long time about extending qualifying offers to all three of these guys before deciding to take my chances in the marketplace…
- Michael Soroka (Made $3M in 2024) Try to re-sign for $2M with a mutual option for $3M in ’26.
- Mike Clevinger ($3M)
- Chris Flexen ($1.75) Try to re-sign for $2M. IP matters to a team like this. Hope he was comfortable enough with his progress to give it another go in pursuit of a good contract.
I have no idea what represents a fair contract for these or any other players. Normally when I do this, there are several posted lists of anticipated free-agent contracts. All I found was Sportrac. I also have no idea which other players might be reasonable facsimiles for these two if they prove too difficult to sign. If we have to spend a little more on these slots, so be it. If we have to look elsewhere, these guys are organizational soldiers, lunch bucket types. We move on to the next one, whoever it is.
I like these two because there’s familiarity. Katz and Banny have already established a rapport with them, and it looked like progress was made late in the year. Let’s try to build on that growth. I think Soroka and Flexen might want to re-sign for that same reason of familiarity and growth. If the growth occurs, they can cash in the following season.
TRADES
I want to keep my hands warm by sitting on them. One of my overarching principles this winter is to not trade anyone whose value is at a low ebb. If the Sox are going to sustain success, it must start with homegrown players. That means giving these young players a fair shot to see who can help in the future and who should find work elsewhere. Yes, the team should have been figuring this out last April. My hope is the organization, with Venable and a new staff, along with changes on the farm, will be better at developing talent and understanding what they have developed and how best to deploy that talent.
Garrett Crochet is the only viable trade candidate, but he’s too important to deal. Everyone else would net a degraded return or nothing at all. Yeah, I could find a way to trade some of these other guys, but to what purpose? I choose to let them either rebuild some value or crater their value further so I can just cut them and smile while I do it.
So, after 121 losses I will make no trades. No point in pretending to look busy.
FREE AGENTS
If I’m not going to make trades, I’ll make up for it by signing a lot of players. Right? Wrong. Apart from the two pitchers above that I’d like to re-sign, I intend to only go after one free agent.
1: Juan Soto (10 years, $600M, $60M each year, no deferred money, player opt-outs after years 3, 5, 7, 9; team opt-outs after years 4, 6, and 8) If I have to take it to 11, 12, or 13 years, so be it. Or give him $65M for 11 seasons, I'll do it. Why would Soto leave a pennant winner to go to the worst team in baseball? Money and ego. He would blow away the highest single season salary and the highest AAV. You can point to the fact that it could turn into a 4-year deal worth just $240M. That would put him back on the market at age 30. More likely, if he saw that as a possibility, he’d jump the gun and bail after 3 years as a 29 year old who just banked $180M.
Premium players in their prime almost always deliver premium value. Just pay the man and bask in his production.
If you can get Soto for $550M, great. I don’t think it will be enough to convince him. If you have to do it without team options, fine. Still provide the opt outs. He’ll want the insurance of being able to bail if the team doesn’t live up to its promises.
You’d have to be completely upfront about your vision for the team. You’d have to explain that the first year would be about establishing credibility and finding out which youngsters can contribute to a playoff team in 2026. You would let him know you’re not dealing Crochet and Robert. You tell him you’ll go heavy into the marketplace for positions where solutions aren’t stepping up. You’d have to sell him on Venable and all the positive management changes. You’d tell him you’re paying him to be the man who transformed the worst team in baseball. Mostly though, you're paying him like no ballplayer has ever been paid before.
I talked above about being bold. Signing Soto to the richest contract ever is what I was talking about.
SUMMARY
Before embarking on a massive overhaul of the roster, some things need to occur. Player development in all its manifestations needs to be thoroughly upgraded. It appears that process has begun, but we’ve had no chance to see if the changes can bear fruit. We need to sort through all the young players in or near the majors to plot out where to fill in.
We don’t need to round up all the usual suspects from this 121-loss team and shoot them. I’m sure there will be people clamoring for jettisoning everyone who carryies the stench of 2024 and just start fresh. That’s not prudent. I prefer to be more measured in my approach. We also don’t need to hire a bunch of veteran stopgaps in the hope of flipping them at the deadline. By and large, let the kids play. I think making an exception or two to that on the pitching side is warranted. With 13 roster spots there are still ample opportunities for the young guys to pitch and show their worth.
My plan is to grossly overpay for the best free agent on the market and the one player who can most effectively end our long rightfield nightmare. Signing Soto tells everyone – players, fans, media – we’re serious. It instantly makes the lineup better, which will make it easier for other hitters to realize their potential. Soto is making a leap of faith. If his faith is misplaced, he has opt-outs after 3, 5, 7, and 9 years. Even in those first 3 seasons, if the Sox remain dysfunctional, he’s making $180M as the highest paid player in the game.
Now, if Vaughn continues to be a league average hitter and Montgomery is just a guy and Sosa was a BABIP-fueled mirage and Robert is following the TA career trajectory and Quero is overmatched and Benintendi was just a half-season flash in the pan and Vargas really is one of the worst players to ever take a major league at bat, then next winter we can dip heavily in the free agent market for premium players. Until then, let’s find out what we have.
YOUR 2025 WHITE SOX
C – Quero/Lee – $0.8M, 0.8
1B – Vaughn - $6.4 (Sportrac suggests it will be 4.4. I’ll run with the higher figure.)
2B – Sosa - 0.8
3B – Vargas – 0.8
SS – Montgomery – 0.8
LF – Ramos – 0.8
CF – Robert – 15.0
SS – Soto – 60.0
DH – Benintendi – 16.5
Bench – Baldwin, Fletcher, some other guy – 0.8, 0.8, 0.8
SP – Crochet – 2.9
SP – Cannon 0.8
SP – Flexen – 2.0
SP – Martin – 0.8
SP – Burke – 0.8
RP – Soroka, Pallette, Iriarte, Berroa, Varland, Ellard, Shuster, Leasure – 2.0, 0.8, 0.8, 0.8, 0.8, 0.8, 0.8, 0.8
26-man payroll sits at $120M. Buyouts and deferrals add $9M more. There is room to add over the summer or next winter.
I view 2B, 3B, LF, DH, maybe SS and 1B in the same way I view a recipe for a pot of soup. When I cook, I treat such recipes as a guide, a loose framework for the dish. I have plugged in names at positions, but if the Sox want to season it differently or use some different vegetables (and vegetables might be the best word for the various players the Sox will use) by putting Ramos at 3B or 2B or 1B and trying Vargas in left or at DH, who am I to argue? Or if they push Soto to left in order to strengthen the D with Fletcher in right, then the pot gets stirred again.
They probably need to sign a handful of guys to minor league contracts with spring training invites to have some bench depth. If they went with the roster above, they’d still need someone who could cover the middle infield for that third bench spot. Maybe you slot Nishida in and see if he can be a disrupter. Then there are guys like Gonzalez or Veras. DeLoach should get a look if Fletcher plays his way to the starting lineup and Vargas plays his way the waiver wire.
Among the pitchers, any number of other names could emerge when some of these guys get hurt and/or don’t perform. If Thorpe is healthy, he goes into the rotation and the shuffling begins. Bush, Eder, Nastrini, Adams, Schultz, Smith, Schweitzer, Gowens, Carela, and probably a few I can’t recall could see time and actually be worth that time. I have no idea who might find his calling in the pen and who will still be viewed as a starter. That’s what 2025 will start sorting out.
The starting pitching could be a real strength, perhaps as soon as July. I wouldn’t be surprised if the bullpen is an asset this year, not top 3 in all of baseball, but not a source of the constant meltdowns to which we were treated this past year. The defense should again be substandard, but my hope is that a manager and a coaching staff that prepares the team to kick someone’s ass every night will keep them from making the ridiculous mistakes of this past year. If they do that, the defensive numbers will improve some.
It will all boil down to hitting. I’ve only added one player to this all-star crew, but what a player. Having Soto on base will make the hitters behind him better. Having him drive in the players who reach in front of him will provide a lift.
It goes beyond Soto’s Strat card being plugged into the lineup. I expect Robert to rebound and Benintendi to continue to hit, with or without Soto in the lineup. It’s not unreasonable to think Quero and Lee will provide more offense than Lee and Maldonado did. If a couple more guys just build a little on last year, it could be a conventionally mediocre offense.
Another factor that I hope will show immediate dividends is having the hitters all better informed and better prepared for each at bat. Just having a clear plan beyond “swing at strikes” should improve our hitting fortunes.
Getz will need to be nimble during the season. He’ll be surrounded by a brain trust of his own choosing. Some changes in how the Sox do things – scouting, player development, analytics, daily prep work on the big club - will have been implemented. Getz will have voices he trusts. There will be things that become much clearer, both good and bad, and he needs to shape the team based on that. Perhaps the pitching is a real strength and he can afford to deal a year and a half of Crochet for hitting prospects. Despite my slow-walking the overhaul, I expect the team in September to look quite a bit different than the one you see on April 15.
Now, before pitchers and catchers report in February, can I interest any of you in a round of golf?
