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AL team to watch: White Sox


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The White Sox (who are lesson for tanking) are off to an awful start. If they don’t start winning soon, they will be done by June.

They have a lot of starters who have upside. They are all off to slow starts but have a pedigree to make you think they will turn it around.

The prize would be Dylan Cease.  With starting pitching a likely area of need, the White Sox are a team to watch as the season goes on.

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Cease is controlled through 2025, so no guarantee that he’ll be moved, but he is nasty.  They also have Lucas Giolito and Lance Lynn who are only controlled through 2023, and Mike Clevinger who has a mutual option for 2024.  Lynn has struggled badly this year, but was decent last year and very good in 2021.  

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9 minutes ago, Bahama O's Fan said:

What would you be willing to give up for Cease?

They probably want Gunnar or Holliday for an ace with two plus years of control. Pretty much anyone else would be on the table for me, but I'm not sure they pick up the phone.

Not sure Lynn or Giolito move the needle for us. 

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On the Verge pod discussed the Sox yesterday. Agree with Cease as a target but the price is as always the issue. Lynn wouldn’t be a target for me - once you fall over the cliff it’s hard to climb back up.

They also mentioned Ed Rod - would definitely have interest there but I wonder what the relationship is between him and the org after trading him?

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4 minutes ago, pdiddy said:

On the Verge pod discussed the Sox yesterday. Agree with Cease as a target but the price is as always the issue. Lynn wouldn’t be a target for me - once you fall over the cliff it’s hard to climb back up.

They also mentioned Ed Rod - would definitely have interest there but I wonder what the relationship is between him and the org after trading him?

Yea, we talked about ERod on here a week ago. He is an obvious target as well.

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Well if they wanted Henderson for Cease are we a better team if  we deal Henderson for Cease and Westberg or Ortiz replace Henderson in the Lineup? So we Gain Cease and we open up an everyday spot in the lineup for either Ortiz or Westburg but we lose Henderson. I think I would be tempted but would want an extension on Cease.

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29 minutes ago, jrobb21613 said:

Well if they wanted Henderson for Cease are we a better team if  we deal Henderson for Cease and Westberg or Ortiz replace Henderson in the Lineup? So we Gain Cease and we open up an everyday spot in the lineup for either Ortiz or Westburg but we lose Henderson. I think I would be tempted but would want an extension on Cease.

Probably yes, but we're likely an even better team if someone like Cease is acquired without giving up Henderson. With so many good prospects we should be able to pull off a quantity for quality type trade (a la 5 prospects for Machado) as opposed to a one top prospect for one top MLBer type trade (a la the Jays' recent Gabriel Moreno for Daulton Varsho swap). 

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12 minutes ago, Spy Fox said:

Probably yes, but we're likely an even better team if someone like Cease is acquired without giving up Henderson. With so many good prospects we should be able to pull off a quantity for quality type trade (a la 5 prospects for Machado) as opposed to a one top prospect for one top MLBer type trade (a la the Jays' recent Gabriel Moreno for Daulton Varsho swap). 

Machado was a three month rental. Cease comes with three months plus two years of control. The price is going to be orders of magnitude higher than we got for Manny, and Manny's package included an MLB Top 100 prospect. I don't think we get Cease without Holliday. If all we are offering is Westburg and spare parts, someone will certainly outbid us. 

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2 minutes ago, Aristotelian said:

Machado was a three month rental. Cease comes with three months plus two years of control. The price is going to be orders of magnitude higher than we got for Manny, and Manny's package included an MLB Top 100 prospect. I don't think we get Cease without Holliday. If all we are offering is Westburg and spare parts, someone will certainly outbid us. 

I agree it would take a haul to get Cease.  What I think will be interesting around the deadline is our “spare parts”. I think teams are going to view our 11-30 prospects a lot different than most organizations we are much deeper.  I think our depth will be a big factor in trading for help at the deadline.

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15 minutes ago, Aristotelian said:

Machado was a three month rental. Cease comes with three months plus two years of control. The price is going to be orders of magnitude higher than we got for Manny, and Manny's package included an MLB Top 100 prospect. I don't think we get Cease without Holliday. If all we are offering is Westburg and spare parts, someone will certainly outbid us. 

Yeah, I agree it would take a better package to get Cease than it took to get Machado when we traded him, for that reason. Just pointing out that I think we're ideally set up for one of those quantity for quality type trades. 

Though, worth pointing out that 1) Machado at that point had a much longer and more consistent track record of excellence than Cease has currently, 2) There's plenty of room for the O's to make a better offer than the Machado package without including a Henderson/Holliday type-- considering that Yusniel Diaz was the only top 100 prospect in that deal, and not very high up most 100 lists if I recall. 

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I see someone like Cease as too rich for Elias. You’d definitely have to give up someone like Holliday or Henderson. I just don’t see the Orioles doing that. Elias hasn’t been known to make bold moves.

I’d say Giolito is a more realistic target. He wouldn’t cost anyone in the top ten. Someone like Prieto could do it I’m sure.

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13 minutes ago, Spy Fox said:

Yeah, I agree it would take a better package to get Cease than it took to get Machado when we traded him, for that reason. Just pointing out that I think we're ideally set up for one of those quantity for quality type trades. 

Though, worth pointing out that 1) Machado at that point had a much longer and more consistent track record of excellence than Cease has currently, 2) There's plenty of room for the O's to make a better offer than the Machado package without including a Henderson/Holliday type-- considering that Yusniel Diaz was the only top 100 prospect in that deal, and not very high up most 100 lists if I recall. 

Outside of Holliday, Gunnar, and Grayson, our next guy on the list would be Cowser #35. I doubt he would be enough for 2+ years of Cease. l

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