100 losses to 100 wins? Sure, why not? Phillies have talked about spending big and Reinsdorf accepts the challenge with a....."hold my beer".
ARBITRATION
Jose Abreu, $16M TENDER
Avisail Garcia, $8M TENDER
Yolmer Sanchez, $4.7M TENDER
Carlos Rodon, $3.7M TENDER
Matt Davidson, $2.4M NON TENDER
Leury Garcia, $1.9M NON TENDER
IMPENDING FREE AGENTS
Miguel Gonzalez LET GO
Hector Santiago LET GO
TRADES
Welington Castillo for Alex Colome (Sea) - Sox can sweeten the deal to make this happen. Seattle fills a need at catcher and the money is projected to be close to even. Both players can be controlled for 2 more years with Castillo's team option and Colome having two more years of arbitration remaining.
FREE AGENTS
Manny Machado (10yr/$315m) Opportunities to sign 26 yr old superstars don't come around often...capitalize!
Bryce Harper (11yr/$330m) Just do it....don't think, just do it.
Daniel Murphy (2yr/$20m) Professional hitter at DH instead of AAAA players.
J.A. Happ (2yr/$30m) Sox pick up a lefty veteran for the rotation.
Lance Lynn (1yr/$10m +team option/$10m) Innings eater and hopefully more. 29 or more starts every year since 2012 except for one (2016). He posted a 2.17 FIP, 10.0 K/9, 2.5 BB/9 once moving to New York this past year.
Cody Allen (2yr/$16m) I like Allen as a bounce back candidate and he had a nice track record previous to this past year.
Zach Britton (3/$30m) Relievers are trade season gold and the Sox are stocking up on it..
SUMMARY
C Narvaez, 1B Abreu, 2B Moncada, SS Anderson, 3B Machado, LF Jimenez, CF Harper, RF Garcia, DH Murphy
Bench Zavala/Sanchez/Engel
SP - Happ, Rodon, Lopez, Lynn, Giolito
RP - Colome, Britton, Allen, Jones, Fry, Minaya, Hamilton, Banuelos
LINEUP:
DH Murphy (L)
3B Machado (R)
1B Abreu (R)
CF Harper (L)
LF Eloy (R)
2B Moncada (S)
RF Garcia (R)
C Narvaez (L)
SS Anderson (R)
White Sox have a legitimate chance at competing for AL Central titles and possibly more with this lineup. The payroll jumps through the roof (I've added about $117m for 2019) for the next 2 years but then $40+ million will come off the books and the prospect waves start to fill in the gaps. This also happens just in time to begin considering Rodon's looming free agency.
There is SOOOO much money in baseball right now it's not even funny. JR can land two superstars this offseason, jump his ballclub from a 100 loss team to a playoff contender, and fill up the stands without touching his much hyped farm system that will help sustain success. Sox won't have one player expected to shoulder the load as Harper and Machado will join along Abreu and future leaders Moncada/Jimenez.
This franchise could move into the top tier NOW!!!
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