Halfway between learning he didn't win a Gold Glove at second base and arriving at the deadline to offer him a contract for 2025, the White Sox let Nicky Lopez reach free agency via waivers.
The White Sox announced on Tuesday that both Lopez and Sammy Peralta cleared waivers and elected free agency instead of accepting an outright assignment. Lopez was projected to make $5.1 million in his fourth and final year of arbitration, which never seemed like a figure the White Sox would meet after watching him hit .241/.312/.294.
Lopez has his uses, bringing plus defense at second base and the ability to cover shortstop, and he's not terrible at getting on base, either. It's just that between the lack of power and the greatly diminished effectiveness on the basepaths -- he went 5-for-12 in stolen bases last year -- there isn't a way to see a regular, even when squinting.
As for Peralta, this is the second time the White Sox outrighted him and the third time they placed him on waivers in 2024, so he probably greeted the news as just another Tuesday.
The White Sox have updated their 40-man roster page to remove Lopez and Peralta, as well as Yoán Moncada, who at least lasted on the page long enough to provide a hook for Tuesday's post about him. But he's evidently quite on his way to moving on, with Francys Romero reporting that Moncada has a collection of suitors, albeit with the level of commitment yet to be specified.
Spare Parts
After delaying the direct-to-consumer part of the rollout in hopes of getting Comcast aboard, Jeff Agrest says CHSN is supposed to launch it this week. As for Comcast, Agrest says that the cable giant is issuing monthly credits for the absence of NBC Sports Chicago from their sports tier, which is more encouraging for the future of seeing CHSN on Comcast than a permanent adjustment of the regional sports fee.
- The Bears are reconsidering the Michael Reese site for new stadium -- Crain's Chicago Business
- Could bad performance on the field affect plans for taxpayer-funded stadiums for Bears, White Sox? -- CBS News
Because the Bears and White Sox are tied at the hip when it comes to figuring out the best public financing options for a new home, here's the latest on Kevin Warren's wanderings.
Dick Allen is one of three candidates with significant White Sox ties eligible for election into the Hall of Fame via the Classic Baseball Era Committee, along with Tommy John and John Donaldson. He fell one vote shy last time, so this year would be the first that a snub would register as a real shock.
It was pretty safe to assume that the Rays would have to find a temporary home for a good chunk of the 2025 season due to the damage Hurricane Milton inflicted on Tropicana Field, but the assessment report effectively rules out all of next season. The question then becomes whether the city is interested in investing $55.7 million -- or whatever amount isn't covered by insurance and FEMA reimbursements -- for just a couple seasons of use before the Rays open a new stadium, assuming that project remains on track.
Scott Boras enters yet another hot stove season with the biggest portfolio of premier free agents, but this time he's on a little bit of a losing streak. His four biggest clients last year didn't start signing until late February, all for disappointing contracts, and then the Yankees won their standoff with Gerrit Cole's opt-out.
Roki Sasaki is one A-level free agent the White Sox should technically be in on, if only because his contract demands are limited to the size of the biggest international bonus pool. There's no reason for Sasaki to consider the White Sox, but that's besides the point.
The degradation of Twitter makes me skeptical that any social media site is worth investing real sweat equity in for a text-based site, and every attempt at declaring Twitter's death has proven premature, so basically my approach is to make sure Sox Machine always has a functioning commenting platform, and everything else is secondary.
Still, by defaulting to a reverse chronological feed and not suppressing posts that link to external sites, Bluesky seems better suited for independent sites than Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, etc., so that's where I'll be spending more of the time that isn't on here.
