Merry Christmas from The Baseball Kid

 

'Winter with the White Sox' apparently replacing SoxFest

The White Sox haven't conducted SoxFest since 2020, and there won't be such an event this January either.

However, there will be a "Winter with the White Sox" gathering for season ticket holders on Jan. 26, 2024. I received a "save the date" email on Tuesday afternoon. 

This is a little surprising because I have not renewed my season tickets for the 2024 season, and frankly, I do not intend to renew. I do not expect to be included on emails such as this. 

Perhaps they are trying to entice me to renew by offering me access to this special event. That will not work.

It's bizarre for the Sox to send a "save the date" without telling potential attendees what the venue will be, or what the event will entail.

I mean, are they going to host this at Guaranteed Rate Field? It's a little cold there in January, right? Maybe they'll have the event in Nashville, since Jerry Reinsdorf wants to move the team there, LOL.

To be honest, even if I were invited, I don't think I want to go to this event. I'm not excited about the 2024 Sox. They haven't made any impact acquisitions this offseason, coming off a 61-101 season. And that, ultimately, is the reason I'm not renewing my season tickets. It isn't fun to be a fan of this organization anymore.

I will be interested to hear what type of activities they will be offering at this occasion. Here are a few guesses:

• Meet your ticket representative and discuss upgrading your seats!
• Purchase a spring training travel package now! See Shohei Ohtani and the Los Angeles Dodgers at Camelback Ranch (and the Sox too)!
• Buy discounted merchandise! You will never get a better deal on Ronald Belisario's game-worn pants from 2014!
• Enter a raffle to win a White Sox bobblehead! Multiple winners will be drawn! (We have to get rid of these damn Yasmani Grandal bobbles sometime.)
• Meet "White Sox legend" Ron Kittle! Sure his career WAR is like 4.7, but he won American League Rookie of the Year 40 years ago! Bring your kids for autographs, even though Ronny retired 20 to 25 years before they were born!

That's the kind of stuff the Sox generally come up with these days. They are simply out of ideas. I wish I had better things to say about the organization, but it's just a sorry state of affairs.

Notice how I managed to work Ohtani into this blog. The metrics show that mentioning him increases traffic by leaps and bounds. 

You don't think people are actually visiting this site because they enjoy reading about the Sox, do you?

Shohei Ohtani defers 97% of his $700M contract with Dodgers

It comes as no surprise that two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani has signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers. But the dollar figure gave a lot of observers some sticker shock: 10 years, $700 million.

Previously, the biggest outlay in baseball history had gone to Ohtani's former teammate with the Los Angeles Angels, Mike Trout, whose contract calls for $426.5 million over 12 years.

This deal obviously blows that out of the water, but it comes with an interesting twist: Ohtani is deferring $680 million of that money.

The two-time MVP will earn just $2 million per season from now until 2033. Then the Dodgers will owe him $68 million annually every year from 2034 until 2043.

Why do this? It's all about taxes -- the competitive balance tax and income tax. The competitive balance tax payroll for each team typically uses the average annual value of contracts, which is $70 million in this case, but there's a discount for deferred money.

I'm not a good accountant, so I'm not sure how we arrive at this figure, but media reports say Ohtani's cost toward the competitive balance tax payroll with be $46 million. Yeah, that's a lot less than $70 million.

If you add up the contracts for Ohtani and other Dodgers stars Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman, they account for about $100 million of Los Angeles' competitive balance tax payroll. The luxury tax kicks in at $237 million, so the Dodgers still have room to work to fill out their roster.

Also, presumably, Ohtani will moved back to his native Japan after he retires. I don't know what income taxes are there, but California is a highly taxed state. There might be some savings there if he defers his income until later.

What's the risk for Ohtani? Well, he's not collecting interest on these deferred dollars. With inflation, $68 million in 2043 probably won't go as far as it will in 2024 dollars. But maybe that's a ridiculous concern, given the absurd figures we're talking about here. And Ohtani is expected to make upward of $45 million per season in endorsements, so he's going to have plenty of income well beyond his base salary.

I've seen a lot of comments online from people who think this is "unfair" and "bad for baseball" and whatnot. I think that remains to be seen. Ohtani is a unicorn player, an elite hitter and an elite pitcher all in one. I'd be shocked if this sort of contract becomes common. Most players aren't going to be willing to accept these kinds of deferrals, and most teams aren't going to be willing to give them.

Mostly, I think the people who are upset are just mad that Ohtani is not on their favorite team. It's clear that Ohtani is structuring his contract to give the Dodgers a better chance to win. He wants to go to the World Series. The Dodgers are trying to win a World Series, and they've done nothing here that violates the collective bargaining agreement.

I wish my favorite team was trying to win the World Series.

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.

White Sox trade Aaron Bummer to Atlanta Braves for 5 players

It doesn't qualify as a "haul," but it was still surprising to see the White Sox acquire five players in exchange for Aaron Bummer.

The Sox on Thursday sent the left-hander reliever to the Atlanta Braves in exchange for pitchers Michael Soroka, Jared Shuster and Riley Gowens, and infielders Nicky Lopez and Braden Shewmake.

Why is it not a haul? Well, all five of these players the Sox acquired have some significant flaw in their games. That doesn't mean these guys couldn't help on the South Side. They might.

But let's just all understand that these players were excess on the Atlanta 40-man roster. Soroka and Lopez were non-tender candidates, in fact, so I don't think the Braves look at any of these guys as big losses.

That said, Bummer's usefulness had come to an end with the Sox. With 2024 projected as a retooling season, if not a rebuilding season, what's the wisdom in paying a relief pitcher a $5.5 million salary to protect leads that don't exist?

Here are a few more thoughts about each of the six players in the trade:

Bummer: Most Sox fans are happy to be done with the 30-year-old after he went 5-5 with an ugly 6.79 ERA in 61 appearances in 2023. Bummer issued an absurdly high 5.6 walks per nine innings, and his 1.526 WHIP isn't what you want from a late-inning reliever. 

Still, the statheads point to his 3.58 FIP as a sign that Bummer pitched in hard luck. In their tweet announcing the trade, the Braves said, "His barrel percentage of just 2.7% ranked in the 99th percentile among pitchers in baseball, while his ground ball rate of 60.1% was in the 97th."

Fair enough. It's not hard to envision Bummer performing better in 2024 with a better infield defense behind him. However, Atlanta fans should know that Bummer is a terrible fielding pitcher, so he does himself no favors when he's fumbling around some of that weak contact he induces. And his walks will drive you crazy. 

Soroka: Injuries, injuries and more injuries. Soroka finished second in the National League Rookie of the Year voting in 2019, when he went 13-4 with a 2.68 ERA in 29 starts with the Braves. However, he's only pitched 46 innings combined in the four years since. Soroka has torn his Achilles' tendon twice, which caused him to not throw a pitch at any level in both 2021 and 2022. He was 2-2 with a 6.40 ERA in seven games (6 starts) with the Braves in 2023. This is a talented pitcher, but who knows whether he'll be on the mound? 

Shuster: The 25-year-old began the 2023 season as the top prospect in the Atlanta system. But the left-hander fell on hard times last season. He went 5-6 with a 5.01 ERA at Triple-A Gwinnett, and 4-3 with a 5.81 ERA in 11 starts with the Braves. The strikeout-to-walk ratio in the majors was not good -- 30 strikeouts against 26 walks in 52.2 innings. At this point, Shuster is a reclamation project.

Lopez: Sox fans rolled their eyes at the acquisition of the former Kansas City infielder. As most everyone knows, Lopez is a local guy. He graduated from Naperville Central High School. He also played for manager Pedro Grifol with the Royals, and everyone is sick of more Kansas City people coming to Chicago. Lopez is a lousy hitter, as his career .249/.312/.319 slash line in five MLB seasons shows. However, he is a plus defender, especially at second base. He can also play shortstop or third base in a pinch, and do it competently. Unlike a lot of players on the Sox roster, Lopez has at least one high-end skill that can help a team: his glove. From that perspective, he's probably getting more crap than he deserves.

Shewmake: The left-handed-hitting shortstop was Atlanta's first-round pick in the 2019 draft. But other than a brief two-game stint in 2023, he hasn't cracked the majors. Much like Lopez, he can field his position. He's got sure hands at shortstop, but he just isn't a very good hitter. His slash line at Triple-A Gwinnett last season was .234/.299/.407. If you're a glass-half-full person, that .407 slugging percentage isn't half bad for a glove-first player. Shewmake totaled 16 homers and 69 RBIs last season. Most likely, he's a depth player. And if he helps prevent the Sox from prematurely rushing top prospect Colson Montgomery to the majors, then he'll have done his job.

Gowens: Another local product here. Gowens is a Libertyville native who pitched at the University of Illinois. The right-hander worked exclusively as a starter in college, going 9-12 with a 5.69 ERA in 37 starts over three seasons. The Braves selected him in the ninth round of the 2023 draft. He appeared in five games, three of them starts, in the Atlanta system last year. He threw the ball well -- a 1.15 ERA over 15.2 innings. Gowens is likely destined for A ball in 2024. He'll be old for the level at age 24.

What's the best-case outcome for the Sox here? It would be nice if they can get at least one back-end starter out of this deal -- either Soroka gets healthy or Shuster improves. And it would be nice if at least one of Lopez or Shewmake helps solidify the Sox's leaky middle infield defense. 

Really, if two of the five players help the Sox, call the trade a win.

White Sox rebuilding fail: A look back at the 2018 draft

Tanking has become a popular strategy across professional sports over the past decade. It probably doesn't work as well in baseball as it does in football, basketball or hockey, but that hasn't stopped teams from trying it.

In 2017 and 2018, the White Sox were rebuilding, but it's fair to say they were tanking -- setting their roster up to lose, in order to get a high pick in the next year's draft.

The Sox went 67-95 in 2017, the fourth-worst record in Major League Baseball. That meant they had the No. 4 overall pick in the 2018 draft, and drafted near the top of all the subsequent rounds.

For tanking to work, a team must make good draft picks and develop that talent. Here's a list of the 40 players the Sox took in that 2018 draft. Players currently on the 40-man roster are in all caps and bolded:

• Round 1: Nick Madrigal, 2B
• Round 2: Steele Walker, OF
• Round 3: Konnor Pilkington, LHP
• Round 4: Lency Delgado, SS
• Round 5: Jonathan Stiever, RHP
• Round 6: Codi Heuer, RHP
  
• Round 7: Cabrera Weaver, OF
• Round 8: Andrew Perez, LHP
• Round 9: Gunnar Troutwine, C
• Round 10: Bennett Sousa, LHP
• Round 11: Kelvin Maldonado, SS
• Round 12: Isaiah Carranza, RHP
• Round 13: Jason Bilous, RHP
• Round 14: DAVIS MARTIN, RHP
• Round 15: Luke Shilling, RHP
• Round 16: Ty Greene, C
• Round 17: Travis Moniot, SS
• Round 18: ROMY GONZALEZ, 3B
• Round 19: Gabriel Ortiz, C
• Round 20: Jimmy Galusky, SS
• Round 21: Nick Johnson, RHP
• Round 22: Ryan Fitzpatrick, 1B
• Round 23: LANE RAMSEY, RHP
• Round 24: Rigo Fernandez, LHP
• Round 25: Jack Maynard, RHP
• Round 26: Devon Perez, RHP
• Round 27: Ian Dawkins, OF
• Round 28: Logan Sowers, OF
• Round 29: Taylor Varnell, LHP
• Round 30: Micah Coffey, SS
• Round 31: Austin Conway, RHP
• Round 32: Aaron Soto, LHP
• Round 33: Bryce Bush, 3B
• Round 34: Alec Valenzuela, C
• Round 35: Jason Morgan, RHP
• Round 36: Adrian Del Castillo, C,
• Round 37: Cannon King, 2B
• Round 38: Matthew Klug, OF
• Round 39: Mason Montgomery, LHP
• Round 40: Kyle Salley, LHP

We always say you can't judge a draft until you get a few years down the road. Well, we're five years down the road from this draft, and I would say it was poor. The Sox didn't get a single impact talent for their tanking efforts during the 2017 season.

Fourteenth-rounder Martin made 14 appearances and started nine games for the 2022 Sox, but he missed the entire 2023 season with Tommy John surgery. That's the closest thing we've had to a success story here.

Gonzalez, the 18th-rounder, has appeared in 86 games across parts of the past three seasons and slashed .222/.239/.361. He missed most of the 2023 season with a shoulder injury. He profiles as a career utility player, if he's lucky.

Ramsey, the 23rd-rounder, made it to the majors last year after the Sox sold off half their pitching staff at the trade deadline. His ERA was 5.85 over 21 games, but honestly, anything you get out of a guy drafted that late is a bonus.

The real issue here is the top of this draft. Madrigal made it to the big leagues in 2020 and started for the Sox in 2021 before tearing his hamstring in June. He and sixth-round pick Heuer, who also made it to the bigs in 2020, were shipped to the Cubs at the trade deadline for reliever Craig Kimbrel. 

Kimbrel was a disaster for the Sox and departed in free agency after the 2021 season. Madrigal is an injury-prone utility guy for the Cubs, and Heuer has not pitched in the majors in either of the past two seasons because of injury.

Second-round pick Walker was traded to the Texas Rangers in December 2019 for outfielder Nomar Mazara. The deal did not work out for either side. Mazara slumped throughout the pandemic-shortened 2020 season with the Sox, and Walker appeared in just five games with the Rangers in 2022 -- going 1 for 16. He is no longer with the Texas organization. In fact, he spent most of 2023 at High-A West Michigan, an affiliate of the Detroit Tigers.

Third-rounder Pilkington was traded to Cleveland at the deadline in 2021 for second baseman Cesar Hernandez. Pilkington appeared in 16 games (11 starts) with the Guardians, but eventually was designated for assignment. Hernandez did not play well down the stretch for the 2021 Sox and left in free agency after that season.

Fifth-rounder Stiever made two starts for the 2020 Sox, and one relief appearance in 2021. His career ERA is 14.21. Injuries ruined any shot he might have had, and he was outrighted off the roster.

The sad truth for the Sox is this draft was part of their rebuilding failure. None of these players helped the team, either on the field or in trades to acquire talent. It's pretty much a disaster, as a matter of fact.

Jake Eder, Cristian Mena added to White Sox 40-man-roster

The White Sox on Tuesday added pitchers Jake Eder and Cristian Mena to their 40-man roster. The move prevents the two from possibly being selected by another team in the Rule 5 draft.

Eder, 24, is the left-hander the Sox acquired at the trade deadline from the Miami Marlins in exchange for third baseman Jake Burger. Since joining the organization, Eder has struggled. 

He made five starts at Double-A Birmingham, going 0-3 with an 11.25 ERA. After a reset at the Sox's pitching lab, Eder was assigned to the Glendale Desert Dogs of the Arizona Fall League. His results were marginally improved over six apperances, five of them starts. His ERA was 6.71, but he struck out 16 batters over 17.2 innings.

Eder is currently ranked as the No. 5 prospect in the Sox organization.

Mena, 20, made 23 starts at Double-A Birmingham this season before being promoted to Triple-A Charlotte, where he started four games. Across those 27 appearances, he went 8-7 with a 4.85 ERA. He led all Sox minor league pitchers with 156 strikeouts and 133.2 innings pitched. Those 27 starts were also an organization high.

The right-hander is currently the No. 10 prospect in the organization.

Neither of these two players is ready to pitch in the majors right now. It's reasonable to believe both will be members of the Charlotte rotation when the 2024 season starts. 

It seems unlikely that either would have been selected in the Rule 5 draft, but from the Sox perspective, why take the risk? They have the space on the 40-man roster, and typically, pitchers are more vulnerable to being plucked in the Rule 5 draft -- especially by rebuilding teams. In fact, that's a strategy the rebuilding Sox should consider.

The 40-man roster now has 37 players.

White Sox announce 2024 coaching staff; Pedro Grifol sadly still manager

There was a brief moment on Monday where White Sox fans could dream of having a competent field manager.

The New York Mets hired Carlos Mendoza to be their manager. The Cleveland Guardians hired Stephen Vogt. And Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic tweeted that Craig Counsell would manage *some team* in 2024, and while it would not be the Mets or Guardians, it would be a team with an existing manager.

Oh.

For about 15 minutes, Twitter lit up with Sox fans hoping that Pedro Grifol would be launched, and that Counsell would come to the South Side.

During that time, I tweeted the following:

Replacing Grifol with Counsell would be the sort of move that would make me reconsider buying a ticket plan. But I don’t see it happening. My first thought here was, “Bye bye, Grampa Rossy.” Either the Cubs or Yankees will do this.

Sure enough, moments later we learned the Cubs had launched David Ross and made Counsell the highest-paid manager in baseball -- five years, $40 million. 

I'm not sure any manager is worth that kind of money, but it's still a good move and a clear upgrade for the Cubs. After three straight years of either being out of the race or a faux contender at best, I expect the contention window to reopen on the North Side in 2024. 

Meanwhile, the Sox will continue their perpetual rebuilding with the following coaching staff:

• Manager: Grifol
• Bench: Charlie Montoyo
  
• Pitching: Ethan Katz
  
• Assistant pitching: Matt Wise
• Hitting: Marcus Thames
• Assistant hitting: Mike Tosar
• First base coach: Jason Bourgeois
• Third base coach: Eddie Rodríguez
• Catching: Drew Butera
• Major League coach: Grady Sizemore

If you've got any idea what a "Major League coach" does, please tell me. The most interesting name on the list, to me, is Thames, who becomes the third hitting coach the Sox have had in three seasons.

Fans have pointed out that Thames was the hitting coach for a failed Los Angeles Angels team in 2023, and while that's true, he had some success as the hitting coach for the New York Yankees from 2017 to 2021.

Assuming Eloy Jimenez and Andrew Vaughn are still on the roster for 2024, can Thames get them to start hitting the ball in the air again? Will we ever see an uptick in power and plate discipline with the Sox? Those are some of my key questions.

White Sox decline 2024 contract option on Tim Anderson

Tim Anderson

As recently as a year ago, some might have said Tim Anderson was the face of the Chicago White Sox. Now, he's off the team.

The Sox on Saturday announced that they declined the $14 million club option on Anderson for the 2024 season. Instead, they bought him out for $1 million. He is a free agent.

Anderson played for the Sox for eight seasons, and in many ways, his South Side tenure was a victory. Quite a few of the franchise's first-round draft picks have amounted to little, but Anderson was far from a bust. 

He had three excellent seasons between 2019 and 2021, batting over .300 in every one of those years. He won the American League batting title in 2019 with a .335 average. 

In the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, he won an AL Silver Slugger award after posting a .322/.357/.529 slash line. Following that season, he finished seventh in the AL MVP voting.

His game-winning homer in the 2021 Field of Dreams Game is one of the franchise's signature moments.

Anderson twice made the All-Star team -- 2021 and 2022 -- and he started at shortstop for the AL in the 2022 midsummer classic. He also represented Team USA in the 2023 World Baseball Classic.

However, professional sports is "What have you done for me lately?" Anderson slumped badly the second half of the 2022 season and had the worst year of his career in 2023.

He batted a terrible .245/.286/.296 in 2023, and unfortunately, it doesn't seem as though this is a one-year anomaly. Dating back to June 2022, Anderson is batting .246/.286/.295. At some point, it's no longer a slump, and that's who you are now.

In 524 plate appearances in 2023, Anderson hit only one home run. Injuries have mounted, as he hasn't played more than 123 games in any of the past five seasons. And his defense? Oh boy. His SABR defensive index for 2023 was negative-7.3. I don't always know how they calculate that stuff, but that figure is bad, and the eye test tells us that Anderson's glove is in severe decline.

You add all this up, and the end result is the Sox parting ways with a player who will turn 31 next season.

I know what some are saying: How could the Sox lose Anderson for nothing? Well, I don't think there's a huge market for a shortstop who is no longer playing well in any aspect of the game.

On Friday, as expected, the Sox announced they were declining their 2024 team option on Liam Hendriks. They also announced that pitcher Mike Clevinger is opting out of his 2024 contract and electing free agency.

It was notable that announcements were made about those two players at the same time, while nothing was said about Anderson.

On Friday, I thought to myself that one of two things must be true: 1) The Sox were planning to retain Anderson, or 2) The Sox were trying to trade Anderson.

Thought No. 2 was correct.

If you've been following the transaction wire, you might have noticed the Milwaukee Brewers traded outfielder Mark Canha to the Detroit Tigers for a prospect. The Brewers decided they did not want to pick up Canha's $11.5 million option for 2024, so they moved him to the Tigers, who were willing to pick up the option.

I believe the Sox spent Friday trying to work out a similar deal for Anderson, but they found no team willing to take him at a price of $14 million. So, they chose to cut ties.

Honestly, that's the right thing for general manager Chris Getz to do if he wants someone other than Anderson to be his shortstop in 2024. The whole idea of picking up Anderson's option and then trying to trade him is an accident waiting to happen.

It takes a willing trade partner to swing a deal, and there's a strong chance that there is no such partner, especially given the contract involved. Then you run the risk of going into next season with an unhappy player who knows he isn't wanted. That's the worst-case scenario.

There's always a chance that Anderson will re-sign in Chicago for less money later in the offseason, but the guess here is this is a permanent goodbye. I expect someone else at shortstop for the Sox when the 2024 season begins.

Rangers beat Diamondbacks in 5-game World Series

Our congratulations go out to the Texas Rangers, who are the 2023 World Series champions after beating the Arizona Diamondbacks, 5-0, in Game 5 on Wednesday night.

The Rangers took the series, 4 games to 1, and this is the first time in team history that they have won the World Series.

Sure, the ratings sucked, but so what? I don't work for Fox, and I'm happy to see a different team win for a change.

The Rangers won it with their stars. Shortstop Corey Seager was named World Series MVP after homering three times in the five-game series. He had 16 total bases and a 1.137 OPS during that span.

Marcus Semien had five RBIs in two swings in Game 4. He had a two-run-triple and a three-run homer in the first three innings as the Rangers raced out to a 10-0 lead in an eventual 11-7 win. Semien put the clinching Game 5 out of reach with a two-run homer that took the score from 3-0 to 5-0.

American League Championship Series MVP Adolis Garcia strained his oblique in Game 3 and did not play again. But he won the Rangers the first game of the series, 6-5, with a walk-off homer in the bottom of the 11th inning. That blast came after Seager hit a two-run homer to tie the game in the ninth.

The Rangers also had some unsung heroes. How about relief pitcher Josh Sborz? During the regular season, Sborz was mediocre at best -- he went 6-7 with a 5.50 ERA in 44 appearances. But in the playoffs, Sborz tossed 12 innings across 10 appearances. He allowed only one run. He capped it off with a seven-out save in Game 5, striking out Ketel Marte looking for the final out of the season.

For Seager, it was his second World Series MVP. He also won it with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2020. He becomes only the fourth player in baseball history to win multiple World Series MVP awards. The others are Sandy Koufax, Bob Gibson and Reggie Jackson. All three of those players are in the Hall of Fame.

Texas manager Bruce Bochy captured his fourth World Series championship. He won three of them with the San Francisco Giants -- 2010, 2012 and 2014. Bochy's clubs are now 17-4 in games where they have an opportunity to clinch. He's 6-0 lifetime as a manager in Game 7s, including the Rangers' win over the Houston Astros in the ALCS this season.

The Rangers finished the postseason an astonishing 11-0 on the road. They were only 2-4 at home in the playoffs. They'll be remembered as a team that capitalized on "road team advantage." The previous record for road victories in a single playoff run was eight. I'm thinking the new record of 11 will stand for a while.

2023 World Series schedule: Rangers vs. Diamondbacks

Here is the 2023 World Series schedule, featuring the American League champion Texas Rangers and the National League champion Arizona Diamondbacks. 

All games are on FOX. All games start at 7:03 p.m. Central:

• Friday, Oct. 27: Diamondbacks at Rangers
• Saturday, Oct. 28: Diamondbacks at Rangers
• Monday, Oct. 30: Rangers at Diamondbacks
• Tuesday, Oct. 31: Rangers at Diamondbacks
• Wednesday, Nov. 1: Rangers at Diamondbacks (if necessary)
• Friday, Nov. 3: Diamondbacks at Rangers (if necessary)
• Saturday, Nov. 4: Diamondbacks at Rangers (if necessary)

Wow, a potential Game 7 on Nov. 4. Good thing they aren't playing in a northern city, huh?

Diamondbacks prove that nobody knows anything with Game 7 win

So, the Arizona Diamondbacks are in the World Series after their 4-2 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies on Tuesday in Game 7 of the National League Championship Series.

I'll admit it: I didn't think there was anyway in hell that Arizona was going to win two games in a row at Philadelphia to close that series, but that's exactly what happened. 

This once again proves that the only thing I know about baseball is that I know nothing about baseball.

But, good for the Diamondbacks. They are an improbable underdog story. They won only 84 games in the regular season, and they were the sixth and final team to qualify for the NL playoffs.

Arizona had a minus-15 run differential during the regular season, which pencils out to an 80-82 Pythagorean record. The Diamondbacks become the first team to qualify for the World Series with a losing Pythagorean record since the 1987 world champion Minnesota Twins.

This has created quite a debate among baseball people. Is an 84-win league champion proof that too many teams get in the playoffs? Has the postseason become too watered down? Has the value of a good regular season been disregarded?

Honestly, these debates are as old as time. I've heard them in some form for my entire 47 years on the planet. The nature of baseball inevitably leads to upsets in a short playoff series. There's a tremendous amount of variance in small sample sizes.

The Diamondbacks are hardly the first team to advance this far in the playoffs with a rather pedestrian record. Remember the 2006 St. Louis Cardinals? Yeah, they were 83-78, the champions of a weak NL Central. They also won the World Series.

But let's go back a generation or two farther, to an era when only four teams were allowed in the playoffs. 

Remember the 1973 New York Mets? They were 82-79, the champions of a weak NL East. They beat the Cincinnatii Reds -- the Big Red Machine of the 1970s -- in a five-game NLCS. Then they took the Oakland A's to seven games in the World Series before losing. 

Mind you, that was a dynastic Oakland team. The A's won the World Series three years in a row from 1972-1974, but they needed a seventh game to swat away an 82-win team to take the title.

Were the playoffs watered down in 1973 too? You see, there's no perfect system. I see both positives and negatives in the Diamondbacks' story.

The Good: This shows that a smaller-market team has a chance. Why should fans in New York and Los Angeles have all the fun? Even teams that don't get a lot of media attention have an opportunity if they get into the playoffs and peak at the right time.

The Bad: This disincentives teams to strive for greatness. If you have a 92-win team, why bother adding to it to try to become a 100-win team? We've seen this year that regular-season success is just that. It guarantees nothing in the playoffs.

Like I said, no perfect system. But this excitement and intrigue is what we watch baseball for, right? Let's just enjoy the World Series. Neither the Diamondbacks nor the Texas Rangers have been on baseball's biggest stage in a while. Good for them. I'm looking forward to watching.

Rangers slay Astros; Diamondbacks for Game 7

So, is it time to start talking about road-field advantage?

The Texas Rangers lost all three of their home games in the American League Championship Series, but they went 4-0 on the road. They knocked out the Houston Astros and advanced to the 2023 World Series with a 11-4 victory Monday night.

I have to admit, I wasn't feeling too good about Texas' chances after they lost Game 5 in dramatic fashion. Jose Altuve's 3-run homer in the ninth inning of that game lifted the Astros to a 5-4 win  -- and a 3-2 series lead.

But the Rangers answered big time as the series shifted back to Houston. They used a five-run ninth inning to blow open a tight game in Game 6, tying the series with a 9-2 victory. Adolis Garcia was 0 for 4 with four strikeouts until that ninth inning, when he delivered a grand slam that put the game out of reach.

Garcia continued his heroics in Game 7, going 4 for 5 with two homers and five RBIs. So, in his last six plate appearances of the series, he had five hits -- including three homers -- and nine RBIs. That's clutch.

Corey Seager and Nathaniel Lowe also homered for the Rangers in the deciding game. Texas scored three runs in the first inning, added one in the third and four in the fourth. The Rangers had an 8-2 lead by that point and never relinquished control.

Diamondbacks force NLCS Game 7

After the Philadelphia Phillies won Game 2 of the National League Championship Series, 10-0, I thought the Arizona Diamondbacks were dead.

I was wrong.

Arizona has since taken three of four games. The Diamondbacks tied the series at 3-all with a 5-1 victory in Philadelphia on Monday.

Phillies starter Aaron Nola had been 3-0 with a 0.96 ERA in these playoffs, but the Diamondbacks got to him for three runs in the second inning, highlighted by back-to-back home runs by Tommy Pham and Lourdes Gurriel Jr.

Arizona's Merrill Kelly tossed five innings of one-run ball, and four Diamondback relievers limited Philadelphia's offense to three singles over the last four innings. For a change, the Phillies did not homer, and that's the key to beating them -- keep them in the ballpark.

Game 7 is Tuesday night. Brandon Pfaadt is pitching for the Diamondbacks. The Phillies will counter with Ranger Suarez.

Philadelphia Phillies looking tough in NLCS

Anyone else feeling as though the Arizona Diamondbacks have run into a buzzsaw in the National League Championship Series?

The Diamondbacks have two quality starting pitchers in Zac Gallen and Merrill Kelly, and they had them lined up to pitch the first two games in Philadelphia against the Phillies.

The Phillies did not seem impressed. In Monday night's Game 1, Philadelphia hit three home runs in the first two innings off Gallen. Kyle Schwarber, Bryce Harper and Nick Castellanos all went deep, and Gallen walked off the mound after five innings with his team trailing, 5-0.

The Diamondbacks, as they have done throughout the season, fought back with two runs in the sixth and one in the seventh, but the Phillies walked away with a 5-3 win.

Game 2 on Tuesday? It was no contest. 

Kelly didn't pitch poorly. He gave up only three hits over 5.2 innings, but the hits were all homers. Schwarber went deep twice, and Trea Turner homered in the first inning. And once Kelly left the game, Philadelphia absolutely pounded the Arizona bullpen and went on to an easy 10-0 victory.

The Phillies have two pretty good starters as well. Zack Wheeler pitched six innings of two-run ball to get the win in Game 1. Aaron Nola tossed six shutout innings to win Game 2.

I was thinking all along that the winner of the Division Series between Philadelphia and the Atlanta Braves would end up as the NL champion. The Phillies won that series, and now they head to Arizona up 2-0 in the NLCS.

The only saving grace for the Diamondbacks is they get to play at home now. However, they've already lost with their two best pitchers on the mound. They face a tough climb against a Philadelphia team that looks awesome right now.

Texas Rangers take 2-0 series lead in ALCS

Coming into the American League Championship Series, the Texas Rangers were 8-32 in their previous 40 games at Houston.

That doesn't matter much now, does it?

The Rangers won each of the first two games of the ALCS in Houston, beating the Astros, 2-0, on Sunday night and following it up with a 5-4 victory on Monday.

Texas left-hander Jordan Montgomery outpitched Houston ace Justin Verlander in Sunday's matchup. Montgomery tossed 6.1 shutout innings, while Verlander gave up two runs over 6.2 innings.

On Monday, the Rangers jumped on Houston starter Framber Valdez for four runs in the first inning, then held on for dear life in the late innings. 

Nathan Eovaldi improved to 3-0 in the playoffs. He gave up three runs over six innings, but his big achievement was pitching out of a bases-loaded, no-outs jam in the bottom of the fifth. That was the moment you felt as though it was the Rangers' night.

Is it the Rangers' year? Well, they are 7-0 in the playoffs, including 6-0 on the road, and now they get to go home with a commanding lead in the ALCS. 

Texas beat the 101-win Baltimore Orioles in the Division Series as part of a remarkable group of upsets. The 90-win Philadelphia Phillies slayed the 104-win Atlanta Braves, while the 84-win Arizona Diamondbacks defeated the 100-win Los Angeles Dodgers.

It's been a crazy playoff year so far, and that's sparked some calls for changing the playoff format. Supposedly, the regular season has been "devalued" by these results.

Thing is, none of this is all that surprising. Baseball is unlike other sports in the sense that in a short series, a weaker team can beat a stronger team. It happens every week during the regular season, and we don't say a thing about it. When it happens in the playoffs, it's the end of the world.

Honestly, if you want to "reward the regular season," you can't have an expanded playoff. If you have 12 postseason teams, then every one of those 12 teams has at least a puncher's chance.

Right now, the Rangers are playing their best baseball, and they've got the defending champion Astros on the ropes.

Wild card round lacks drama, produces 4 sweeps

When the Tampa Bay Rays started 20-3, who would have thought their season was destined to end in the American League wild card round?

The Texas Rangers swept Tampa Bay in the best-of-three series this week, winning 4-0 on Tuesday and 7-1 on Wednesday.

It was one of four sweeps during the wild card round, but the Rays were probably the most disappointing quick exit of the four teams that lost.

Tampa Bay didn't really blow the AL East -- it won 99 games. You have to give credit to the Baltimore Orioles, who won 101 games and came from behind to take the division. 

That left the Rays matched up with the Rangers in the No. 4-vs.-No. 5 series. Granted, this is a very different Tampa Bay team than the one we saw in April. Starting pitchers Shane McClanahan, Drew Rasmussen and Jeffrey Springs are all out for the season. The Rays were also missing their starting middle infield -- Wander Franco (administrative leave) and Brandon Lowe (leg injury).

However, it's still has to be considered a face-plant when a 99-win team gets outscored 11-1 on its home field during a playoff series. 

I'm envious of the Texas lineup -- Marcus Semien, Corey Seager, Adolis Garcia -- these are star-level players, and I think you win with stars in the playoffs. I'm not sure the Rangers have enough pitching depth, starters or relievers, to beat the Orioles in the next round. However, that lineup gives them a chance.

The Rays weren't the only AL East wild card to exit early, as the Minnesota Twins defeated the Toronto Blue Jays by scores of 3-1 and 2-0.

Minnesota has two good starting pitchers in Pablo Lopez and Sonny Gray, but the Toronto lineup was absolutely terrible with runners in scoring position in this series. The Blue Jays stranded 18 runners in the series, nine in each game.

For the Twins, this is their first playoff series win since 2002. They had lost 18 consecutive postseason games before they won Tuesday. Now, they've won two in a row. I guess they were due. Minnesota faces AL West champ Houston in the next round.

National League

No National League Central Division team has won a postseason series since 2019. In fact, Central Division clubs have lost 20 of their last 22 playoff games.

The 92-win Milwaukee Brewers added to that misery by getting swept in two games by the 84-win Arizona Diamondbacks. The Brewers had an early 3-0 lead Tuesday. They lost 6-3. The Brewers had an early 2-0 lead Wednesday. They lost 5-2. 

The Diamondbacks are an athletic team, good defensively, and they showed some power in this series. Corbin Carroll, Ketel Marte and Gabriel Moreno all homered off Milwaukee ace Corbin Burnes in Game 1. Alek Thomas started the Arizona comeback with a homer in Game 2.

Now the Diamondbacks will try their luck against the NL West champion Los Angeles Dodgers.

On the other side of the bracket, defending NL champion Philadelphia overwhelmed the Miami Marlins, defeating them 4-1 on Tuesday and 7-1 on Wednesday.

That sets up a rematch between the Phillies and the NL East champion Atlanta Braves. Atlanta won a MLB-best 104 wins in the regular season, but Philadelphia upset the Braves in this same round last season.

Without a doubt, Braves-Phillies is the series to watch in the days ahead. The general wisdom says the NL champion will be either the Braves or Dodgers, but the Phillies are the team best positioned to upset that line of thinking.

As I mentioned before, you win with stars in the playoffs, and Philadelphia has some great players -- Bryce Harper, Trea Turner, heck, you gotta throw Kyle Schwarber in there given the way he raises his level of play in the postseason. The Phillies have the stars to match the Braves' guys -- Ronald Acuna Jr., Matt Olson, Austin Riley, etc.

That series is going to come down to which stars on which team step forward. It should be better theater than this anticlimatic wild card round.