White Sox pursuing Wheeler

Guns N Guitars said:

He signed with the Phillies.

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You had a semi posting this didn't you?

I bite my thumb at you sir.

podsox said:

I don’t care that they didn’t land him but embarrassing they released what they offered him to the media immediately. Good luck trying to negotiate with other free agent pitchers now

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Why would that hurt, other than maybe the price gets driven up a bit? If anything, it shows the Sox are trying to sign top talent. And as was stated in one of the local rags, this was probably done in part to head off what would have been loads of pundits and fans (like me) who would have again accused the Sox of lowballing an offer in an attempt to look like they were in the game. Besides, it would have just been a matter of time before the word leaked out by any number of sources that the Sox actually outbid the Phillies.

And to me, therein lies a potentially much bigger problem. If we can't land the big names even when we offer a better contract, what does that say about our ability to acquire top talent without having to spend prospect capital. In a strange sense, I almost wish the Sox underbid in their attempt to land Wheeler.

Lake Shore Drive said:

Why would that hurt, other than maybe the price gets driven up a bit? If anything, it shows the Sox are trying to sign top talent. And as was stated in one of the local rags, this was probably done in part to head off what would have been loads of pundits and fans (like me) who would have again accused the Sox of lowballing an offer in an attempt to look like they were in the game. Besides, it would have just been a matter of time before the word leaked out by any number of sources that the Sox actually outbid the Phillies.

And to me, therein lies a potentially much bigger problem. If we can't land the big names even when we offer a better contract, what does that say about our ability to acquire top talent without having to spend prospect capital. In a strange sense, I almost wish the Sox underbid in their attempt to land Wheeler.

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IF it's true. let's not swallow this just because it's there.

seriously ... if the sox actually wanted to compete in 2020 they could. they could afford to overpay for the best players available if that's what it took. they won't!
i'll be amazed if they spend more for anyone else now that they threw away a small chuck on a used catcher. they did that for their fan's sake! just to say "look how much we spent on this used catcher!". reinsdork is doing exactly what he's been accused of doing for years. keeping the sox just good enough to rake in the dough. if he wanted to win, he could afford to do it.

sox fans must have been very bad in their lives to deserve this horror of an owner for so long.

ok, here's the kind of skeptic i am:

wheeler signed for $118M. supposedly the sox offered $120M. now, did the sox KNOW of his family situation and believe that less than 1.5 percent more would sway their thinking? wouldn't that be a pittance? we don't know what, if any, other particulars were involved. aside from the wife thing would he even really want to switch leagues for a paltry 2M?
did they offer it KNOWING it wouldn't be accepted so it would APPEAR they're trying?

yeah, speculation i know. but to think they sox would be above this type of cloak & dagger operation is not realistic imo. the above scenario is not far-fetched ... not with this owner.

$120m may have been the max Hahn was able to offer, who knows. Would another 2m or 3 or 5 have done the trick? Again, who knows. We have to remember that his original market value, I believe placed by Fangraphs, had him at 4 years/68M or something close to that. But as I pointed out a while back, it was obvious that his price point was going to be driven up simply by sheer demand. No pitcher, not even Cole or Strasburg, was drawing as much attention as Wheeler. He was going to get overpaid, the only question was how much.

Would you, or any other salary-conscious fan, been happy if the Sox would have been able to sign him to a 5/125m contract? What if it would have taken a 5/130m effort to ink him? Where do we draw the line? I said before I'm much more concerned about not being able to sign a high end pitcher despite offering the largest amount. I'm more worried that maybe the next targeted pitcher shirks our offer and signs for less with another team.

Gaaaawd damn, the early reports out there have the Yankees offering Cole a 7/$245m package.

Lake Shore Drive said:

Would you, or any other salary-conscious fan, been happy if the Sox would have been able to sign him to a 5/125m contract? What if it would have taken a 5/130m effort to ink him? Where do we draw the line?
.

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certainly there has to be a line and remember, i wasn't as high as you on wheeler to begin with but since it was obvious they weren't going to go for cole or stras, wheeler became the next best available (imo). the sox stopping at $120M knowing about his family situation and knowing philley's bid (and this is just an assumption) was not serious. i would have drawn the line at $26M a year for 5 years ($130M). that's $12M more than he took and yes, may have made a difference. as it is they offered him $24M a year (vs 23.6M). you think they could afford an extra $2M a year for 5 years? i think so. i'm sure it's possible they didn't know what philly was bidding and they had just one shot at making an offer .... but i'm doubting it.
at this point i meant what i said about not even going for a starter now.

idseer said:

certainly there has to be a line and remember, i wasn't as high as you on wheeler to begin with but since it was obvious they weren't going to go for cole or stras, wheeler became the next best available (imo). the sox stopping at $120M knowing about his family situation and knowing philley's bid (and this is just an assumption) was not serious. i would have drawn the line at $26M a year for 5 years ($130M). that's $12M more than he took and yes, may have made a difference. as it is they offered him $24M a year (vs 23.6M). you think they could afford an extra $2M a year for 5 years? i think so. i'm sure it's possible they didn't know what philly was bidding and they had just one shot at making an offer .... but i'm doubting it.
at this point i meant what i said about not even going for a starter now.

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I know you weren't as high on Wheeler as I was. Not sure I was $120m high on him and definitely not $130m high, which is what it might have taken to woo him away from Philly. I guess we can't know for sure if the Sox were aware of Philly's offer, but I'm will to wager that they knew. It's even possible they learned of the offer and only then came back with what turned out to be their own final offer. Unless the story comes out at some point as to how it went down, we'll otherwise never know.

As I said a couple of times now, I'm more concerned that we failed to land a key FA with the largest contract offer. If this situation repeats itself with another key player, the Sox will start to be that team no key FA wants to play for. Losing Wheeler sucked, but having the rep of not being the player destination of choice no matter what has way more ramifications. We need to sign a name player and soon at that.

Lake Shore Drive said:

I know you weren't as high on Wheeler as I was. Not sure I was $120m high on him and definitely not $130m high, which is what it might have taken to woo him away from Philly. I guess we can't know for sure if the Sox were aware of Philly's offer, but I'm will to wager that they knew. It's even possible they learned of the offer and only then came back with what turned out to be their own final offer. Unless the story comes out at some point as to how it went down, we'll otherwise never know.

As I said a couple of times now, I'm more concerned that we failed to land a key FA with the largest contract offer. If this situation repeats itself with another key player, the Sox will start to be that team no key FA wants to play for. Losing Wheeler sucked, but having the rep of not being the player destination of choice no matter what has way more ramifications. We need to sign a name player and soon at that.

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you know why that is, do't you?

You guys can have eovaldi.

free of charge.