2024 MLB Draft Lottery results

Major League Baseball held its Draft Lottery on Tuesday at the Winter Meetings. And here is your 2024 draft order:

1. Guardians
2. Reds
3. Rockies
4. Athletics
5. White Sox
6. Royals
7. Cardinals
8. Angels
9. Pirates
10. Nationals
11. Tigers
12. Red Sox
13. Giants
14. Cubs
15. Mariners
16. Marlins
17. Brewers
18. Rays
19. Mets
20. Blue Jays
21. Twins
22. Orioles
23. Dodgers
24. Braves
25. Padres
26. Yankees
27. Phillies
28. Astros
29. D-backs
30. Rangers
31. D-backs
32. Orioles
33. Twins

The Sox had the fourth-worst record in baseball in 2023, and thus had the fourth-best odds for getting the No. 1 pick at 14.7%. Instead, they drop down to the No. 5 spot.

In addition, the Sox will pick no higher than No. 10 in the 2025 draft, because large-market teams cannot be in the lottery in back-to-back seasons, according to the terms of the league's collective bargaining agreement.

Keep that in mind next season, when casual fans excuse terrible play and justify mounting losses by saying, "At least the Sox will get a better draft pick." Actually, no they will not.

And, of course, AL Central rival Cleveland gets the top selection, even though the Guardians only had a 2.0% chance of doing so. Nobody can say it was fixed.

Source: White Sox to sign KBO pitching star Erick Fedde

The White Sox on Tuesday agreed with right-handed pitcher Erick Fedde on a two-year, $15 million contract, according to a source.

Fedde, 30, pitched parts of six seasons with the Washington Nationals from 2017-22. He appeared in 102 games, including 88 starts, and went 21-33 with a 5.41 ERA. He had a rough season in 2022, going 6-13 with a 5.81 ERA. 

Those struggles were so bad, in fact, that Fedde found himself pitching in the Korean Baseball Organization in 2023.

That turned out to be a good career move. Fedde tossed 180.1 innings for the NC Dinos of the KBO, going 20-6 with a 2.00 ERA. He struck out 209 batters and walked just 35. Fedde won the Choi Dong-won Award for his efforts, the KBO equivalent of the Cy Young. 

Knowing that Fedde stunk the last time he pitched in the U.S., why should Sox fans be optimistic about this move? Well, senior pitching advisor Brian Bannister was on the platform formally known as Twitter to explain the move to fans. 

Bannister noted that Fedde works out in the offseason with San Francisco Giants ace Logan Webb, and the two made the exact same changes to their pitching arsenal in recent times. 

Fedde has changed his slider to more of a sweeper, and he adjusted his changeup grip, as well, making the pitch have an action more like a split-finger fastball. Bannister stated that Fedde had neither of those two weapons in his arsenal with Washington. 

These adjustments worked in the KBO. Now we wait to see whether Fedde's newfound pitches will work against the best hitters in the world.

One thing I will say in Fedde's favor: I like the fact that he threw 180-plus innings in 2023. If there's one thing the Sox need, it's more innings from starting pitchers. Fedde should be well positioned to provide that. Let's just hope those innings are quality.

Jim Leyland elected to Baseball Hall of Fame

Jim Leyland

Our congratulations go out to former White Sox third-base coach Jim Leyland, who was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame on Sunday by the Contemporary Baseball Era Non-Players Committee.

The committee examines the Hall cases of managers, umpires and executives whose greatest contributions to the sport came after 1980.

Leyland appeared on 15 of 16 ballots. One needs 12 votes in order to be elected to the Hall. Former manager Lou Piniella (11 votes) and former executive Bill White (10 votes) fell just short of the threshold.

Also considered were former managers Cito Gaston and Davey Johnson, umpires Ed Montague and Joe West, and executive Hank Peters.

Leyland, of course, was the third-base coach for manager Tony La Russa when the Sox won the 1983 American League West Division championship. However, that is not the reason Leyland was elected to the Hall of Fame.

He went on to manage the Pittsburgh Pirates (1986-96), Florida Marlins (1997-98), Colorado Rockies (1999) and Detroit Tigers (2006-13) over a period of 22 seasons. His final career record stands at 1,769 wins and 1,728 losses.

Leyland guided Pittsburgh to three straight National League East Division championships between 1990 and 1992. The Pirates won 95 games or more in each of those seasons, but they could never break through and get to the World Series, losing in the NLCS three years in a row.

In 1997, Leyland moved to Florida and guided the Marlins to the World Series championship in his first season there. Florida made the NL playoffs as a 92-win wild card. They swept the San Francisco Giants in the NLDS, won a six-game NLCS from the Atlanta Braves, then defeated the Cleveland Indians with a memorable comeback in Game 7 of the World Series.

Marlins ownership broke the team apart in a series of cost-cutting moves the following offseason, and Leyland endured the worst year of his managerial career in 1998, going 54-108.

After another losing season with Colorado in 1999, Leyland was out of the game until he resurfaced with Detroit in 2006. He had the most sustained success of his career with the Tigers, guiding them to AL pennants in 2006 and 2012. Detroit won AL Central championships in each of Leyland's final three years as manager, from 2011-13.

In eight years with the Tigers, Leyland went 700-597, good for a .540 winning percentage. He retired after the 2013 season.

Leyland, 78, will be inducted into the Hall of Fame on July 21 in Cooperstown, N.Y.

Minnesota Twins lose 40% of their starting rotation to free agency

The Minnesota Twins were not the strongest division champion in 2023. They won the American League Central with an 87-75 record. That's nothing special, but nobody else in the division managed to finish above .500.

Well, the Twins might not even be that strong in 2024, with their ownership deciding a cut in payroll is in order.

And now Minnesota has lost 40% of its starting rotation in free agency within a period of about 36 hours.

Kenta Maeda on Sunday agreed to terms with the Detroit Tigers on a two-year, $24 million contract. On Monday, Sonny Gray joined the St. Louis Cardinals on a three-year, $75 million deal.

The Cardinals' projected rotation of Gray, Lance Lynn, Miles Mikolas, Steven Matz and Kyle Gibson probably averages about 35 years old, which is weird, but we're not too worried about St. Louis here.

We're looking at the Twins, who still have Pablo Lopez, Joe Ryan and Bailey Ober in their rotation. The other two spots, who knows right now? Is that good enough to repeat as division winners? Possibly.

The Tigers added Maeda to a rotation that likely includes Tarik Skubal, Matt Manning and Reese Olson. Will Detroit be able to keep free agent lefty Eduardo Rodriguez, who was their team leader in starts (26), wins (13), strikeouts (143) and ERA (3.30) last season?

If yes, maybe Detroit, which was 78-84 a year ago, is positioned to take control of the AL Central.

And isn't it pathetic the White Sox aren't in this conversation? There is still a lot of offseason left, but you're again looking at a division that could be won with a mid-80s win total. Yet 85 wins feels like the unreachable star for the Sox.

Happy Thanksgiving from The Baseball Kid

 

Sources: Paul DeJong to sign one-year deal with White Sox

Paul DeJong

Give White Sox general manager Chris Getz credit for this: He said he would improve the middle infield defense this offseason, and he has acquired two plus defensive players before Thanksgiving.

According to sources, the Sox are signing 30-year-old veteran shortstop Paul DeJong to a one-year deal. The contract is pending a physical, which reportedly will occur Monday.

Much like second baseman Nicky Lopez, who was acquired from the Atlanta Braves last week in the Aaron Bummer deal, DeJong is going to make the plays. He totaled 9 outs above average in 2023, as did Lopez. But much like Lopez, he can't hit.

Here is DeJong's OPS+ over his seven-year career:

• 2017: 121
• 2018: 102
• 2019: 99
• 2020: 87
• 2021: 85
• 2022: 52
• 2023: 66

DeJong was an All-Star in 2019 when he hit 30 home runs, but that was the year of the juiced baseball. The decline is clear in the years since. 

Over the past three years, DeJong is batting .192/.265/.353 in 302 games. In 2023, he bounced from the St. Louis Cardinals to the Toronto Blue Jays to the San Francisco Giants. He batted .207/.258/.355 with 14 homers and 38 RBIs.

Not promising, right? But here's the funny thing. Actually, it's not that funny, but DeJong was a better player than Tim Anderson last year. He out-homered him 14-1. He had a higher OPS than Anderson, .612 to .582. As mentioned, DeJong's OPS+ was 66. Anderson's was 60. DeJong's WAR was a terrible -0.5, but Anderson's was a disgusting -2.0.

None of this is an endorsement of the DeJong signing. The guy isn't very good, but these numbers show just how bad it got with Anderson last year.

The best you can hope for here is that DeJong holds shortstop down for long enough that top prospect Colson Montgomery is able to complete his development in the minor leagues.

Reynaldo Lopez, Lance Lynn headed to new teams

Lance Lynn is going back where he started.

Two former White Sox pitchers agreed to terms on new contracts with new teams Monday.

Reynaldo Lopez is headed to the Atlanta Braves on a three-year, $30 million contract. Meanwhile, Lance Lynn is going to the St. Louis Cardinals. He's got a one-year deal worth $11 million, with incentives that could earn him as much as $14 million. The contract also includes an option for 2025 that could increase the value to $25 million.

Lopez, who turns 30 in January, bounced from the White Sox to the Los Angeles Angels to the Cleveland Guardians last season. After a rough start with the Sox, his final season numbers don't look too bad -- 3-7 with a 3.27 ERA in 68 games, with six saves. Lopez fanned 83 batters in 66 innings.

Feel free to insert the joke here about the Braves wishing to re-create the Sox bullpen. Lopez rejoins his former teammate Aaron Bummer, whom the Sox traded to Atlanta late last week.

But in a different twist, it appears the Braves are interested in possibly making Lopez a starter. According to a tweet sent Monday by Ken Rosenthal, Lopez will prepare this offseason as if he will be a member of the rotation, and Atlanta will explore the option in spring training.

Lopez hasn't been a full-time starting pitcher since 2019. That didn't work out for him in Chicago, but if he makes it work in Atlanta, that would justify the investment the Braves have made here. If Lopez is just going to be a seventh-inning reliever or something similar, you can find guys to do that role for less than $10 million AAV.

Lynn, 36, made 32 starts last season -- 21 with the Sox and 11 with the Los Angeles Dodgers -- but that's one of the few positives he can take from his 2023 campaign. He went 13-11, but had an unsightly 5.73 ERA. He had a -0.8 WAR and gave up a league-high 44(!) homers over 183.2 innings. 

The Cardinals know Lynn well. He pitched in St. Louis from 2011-17 and won a World Series there in 2011. No doubt, the club is hoping the veteran has at least one decent year left in his arm.

In other starting pitching news, a major name agreed to a contract over the weekend. Aaron Nola is staying with the Philadelphia Phillies for seven years and $172 million.

What might this mean for White Sox right-hander Dylan Cease, whose name has been mentioned in trade rumors? 

There are still some good free agent pitchers out there, including NL Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell, World Series champion Jordan Montgomery and Japanese import Yoshinobu Yamamoto.

Nola has set the market for those guys by agreeing on a contract worth $24.5 million AAV.

Meanwhile, Cease is not a free agent. He's arbitration eligible with a suggested salary of $8.8 million. He has two years of team control remaining.

If Lynn can pull in $11 million in free agency coming of a rough year, then Cease is a tremendous value in this marketplace. Sox general manager Chris Getz should keep that in mind, if he is indeed entertaining trade offers for Cease.