Report: White Sox make formal offer to Manny Machado

Manny Machado

As of 9:40 p.m. Thursday, the lead headline on mlb.com reads, "Report: White Sox make formal offer to Machado."

For this blog, I've tweaked that headline a little bit, just in case anyone out there believes the Sox are trying to sign Dixon Machado. (You can never have enough utility infielders, right?) Or maybe the Sox are trying to bring back Robert Machado as a roving catching instructor or something.

Nah, this article actually talks about the Sox's interest in superstar free agent Manny Machado. I believe the report because it comes from USA Today's Bob Nightengale, who has more credible Sox information that most national reporters.

Nightengale reported the long-term offer is serious, but closer in value to $200 million over the life of the deal than $300 million. If that's the case, then maybe Bruce Levine's report that the Sox want to give neither Machado nor Bryce Harper more than seven years is accurate.

Personally, I still think it's going to take a 10-year offer worth $300 million to lure Machado to the South Side, and I won't believe that the Sox are willing to do that until I see it. If the Sox are going to offer only seven years, then they will finish third in the pursuit of these high-end talents.

Robertson to Philadelphia

Former Sox closer David Robertson has signed a two-year contract with the Philadelphia Phillies. The deal is worth $23 million and contains a club option for $12 million for 2021 with a $2 million buyout.

Robertson probably becomes Philadelphia's closer at this point, unless the Phillies decide to add either Craig Kimbrel or Zach Britton. Of course, Philadelphia also is in the running for both Machado and Harper, so I'd be surprised if the Phillies do anything else significant before they get an answer from the two superstars on the market.

White Sox trade Joakim Soria to Brewers for two pitching prospects

Joakim Soria

Since May 21, Joakim Soria has a 0.74 ERA and has converted 12 of his 13 save opportunities.

I've been surprised that there wasn't more trade chatter surrounding him, given that he's been better lately than some of the other relief pitchers who already have been dealt this month (Zach Britton, Jeurys Familia).

The only Soria talk I've heard, frankly, has come from the Chicago press, which has been pleading with the Sox to help the Cubs out. The North Side closer, Brandon Morrow, is on the disabled list for the second time this season, and naturally, that leads the local writers to believe there was a "natural trade fit" between the two Chicago teams.

Meh. Not so much. The Cubs don't have a deep farm system, but the Brewers do.

And for that reason, the Sox on Thursday traded Soria to Milwaukee for left-handed pitcher Kodi Medeiros and right-hander Wilber Pérez.

More prospect pitching depth, to me, is what the Sox need most of all, so I can't object to this deal.

Medeiros, 22, was the Brewers' first-round pick (12th overall) in the 2014 draft. He's appeared in 20 games this season (15 starts) and has gone 7-5 with a 3.14 ERA.

Perez, 20, is 5-1 with a 2.01 ERA in eight starts with the Dominican Summer League Brewers. The native of the Dominican Republic was signed by the Brewers as an international free agent in 2017.

It will be a few years before we know whether Perez will amount to anything, but Medeiros being left-handed and 22, he could help the Sox as soon as late 2019. Not sure that he projects as a starter, although he's still pitching as a starter, but there's always a need for left-handed bullpen guys.

We'll see. I think Soria will help the Brewers. He's been throwing the ball well for two months, and that's not a small sample size. He's having a good season. The Sox were hoping he would be good enough to be a midseason trade piece, and indeed he was.

In that regard, this was a plan that came together.

'You don't use your closer in a non-save situation'? Nonsense

Buck Showalter (left) and Terry Collins

Biggest takeaway from the wild-card playoff games this week: One manager lost because he failed to use his closer in a non-save situation; another manager lost because he did use his closer in a non-save situation.

Countless times through the years, I've heard fans and even some media members remark that you're not supposed to use your closer in non-save situations. The argument for this is the idea that closers are successful only because of the adrenaline rush that goes along with a save situation, so they can't pitch effectively if that carrot isn't dangling in front of them.

Nonsense.

I'm of the school of thought that it's never a bad play to bring your closer, who is presumably your best or second-best reliever, into a tie game. Does it make sense to save your closer for a save situation that might never present itself? I don't believe so.

That means I will join the chorus of people who have criticized Baltimore manager Buck Showalter for bringing in Ubaldo Jimenez to face the top of the Toronto batting order with one out in the bottom of the 11th inning in a 2-2 tie Tuesday in the AL wild-card game.

Jimenez, he of the 5.44 ERA, needed just five pitches to blow the Orioles' season. Devon Travis and Josh Donaldson singled for Toronto, setting the table for Edwin Encarnacion to hit a three-run homer and send the Blue Jays to the ALDS with a 5-2 win.

Meanwhile, Zach Britton sat unused in the Baltimore bullpen. Britton is the best reliever in baseball this year, and he's a legitimate candidate for the AL Cy Young award. He was 47 for 47 in save opportunities, has a ridiculous 0.54 ERA, and has held right-handed batters to a .155 average this season. Travis, Donaldson and Encarnacion are all right-handed.

In the face of these facts, does anyone want to argue that Jimenez was the right choice? Does anyone want to argue that you don't use your closer in a non-save situation? I wouldn't think so.

Incredibly, Showalter's move is now conventional wisdom in the game. MLB Network's Brian Kenny had a useful discussion on the air Wednesday, where his research showed that managers used their closer in situations such as Baltimore's on Tuesday just 27 percent of the time in 2016. We're talking about spots where you're on the road, the game is tied in the ninth inning or later, and you need your pitcher to put a zero up in the bottom of the inning to force an extra inning.

So, 73 percent of the time, managers are using non-closers in those spots. That seems like a very high number, and to me, that's not smart baseball.

In contrast, I cannot blame New York Mets manager Terry Collins for his club's 3-0 loss to the San Francisco Giants in Wednesday's NL wild-card game.

The situation was a little bit different, of course, because the Mets were playing at home. The game was scoreless into the ninth inning, and there was no chance at that point for a save situation to arise for New York closer Jeurys Familia.

With everything on the line in the ninth, Collins wisely went to his best reliever, Familia, who screwed the pooch. Familia gave up a double to Brandon Crawford, a walk to Joe Panik and a three-run homer to former White Sox third baseman Conor Gillaspie.

That was all San Francisco ace Madison Bumgarner needed, as the left-hander continued his postseason mastery by throwing a complete-game, four-hit shutout.

From the Giants' perspective, credit goes to Bumgarner and Gillaspie, and from the Mets' perspective, Familia is wearing the goat horns. Collins made the right move. It didn't work.

You see, I like to judge a manager's moves on the philosophy and logic behind the decision more than the result. Baseball is a game where the right move still can lead to a bad result, and sometimes a move that makes no sense comes up aces.

Philosophically, from my perspective, it's never wrong to use your best reliever with the game on the line. If that reliever fails, it's on him. However, it is wrong to leave your best reliever sitting in the bullpen while a lesser pitcher flushes your season down the toilet.