The White Sox made the biggest splash of the young free agency season on Thursday, signing the best catcher available, Yasmani Grandal, to a long-term contract. The four-year, $73MM guarantee the White Sox handed Grandal stands as the largest deal in franchise history, but it might not be long before the team doles out an even richer pact. The White Sox remain among those after free-agent right-hander Zack Wheeler, per reports from Bob Nightengale of USA Today, Jon Morosi of MLB.com (video link) and Andy Martino of SNY. They first showed interest in Wheeler well before signing Grandal.
If MLBTR’s five-year, $100MM prediction proves accurate, Wheeler could become the first nine-figure player in White Sox history. The longtime Met and former Tommy John surgery patient made a case for that type of payday during the previous two seasons with 8.9 fWAR over 377 2/3 innings, thereby putting three straight injury-ruined years behind him. Along the way, Wheeler recorded a terrific 3.65 ERA/3.37 FIP with 8.91 K/9 against 2.5 BB/9 and averaged a blazing 96.8 mph on his four-seam fastball.
Now, should Wheeler end up on the South Side of Chicago, he’d give the club at least two frontline-caliber starters from the get-go. Although 2019 was yet another dismal season in the standings for the White Sox, they did see Lucas Giolito emerge as a star atop their rotation. And Giolito’s hardly the lone promising starter on hand, as Chicago also boasts Reynaldo Lopez and Dylan Cease. Meanwhile, Michael Kopech could factor into the club’s rotation from the outset of next season after missing 2018 because of a Tommy John procedure, and fellow TJ patient Carlos Rodon figures to return at some point in 2020.
Considering the 29-year-old Wheeler is the third-best starter on the open market, trailing only Gerrit Cole and Stephen Strasburg, there’s predictably substantial interest in him so far. The Angels, Padres and Twins are also among those who have been connected to him thus far. Anybody that signs Wheeler will have to surrender draft compensation, as he rejected a $17.8MM qualifying offer from the Mets a week ago. The White Sox and Angels would each give up their second-highest pick in 2020 and $500K of their international signing bonus pool, while the Padres and Twins would lose their third-highest selection.
“Considering the 29-year-old Wheeler is the third-best starter on the open market, trailing only Gerrit Cole and Stephen Strasburg…”
From what I’ve read here on MLBTR comment boards, a lot of people would argue that third behind Cole and Stras should go to MadBum or Ryu.
Go get him Rick !!!
I always feel like pitchers who come from the NL to the AL always struggle and are not worth the money. Maybe just bad experiences as a pale hose fan, but if we are going to spend 9 figures on a guy I would prefer Cole.
As a Mets fan I’ll be disappointed but not surprised if he leaves. But to Chicago? Blah.
When I say this it’s not a dig at you. I wish more fans paid attention to what the Sox are doing. They have all this young talent and zero payroll commitments. They could spend 100 mill this off season just on 2020 and have a lower payroll than the Mets. And I’m a die hard Mets fan but the Sox should be in on every free agent.
I think they’ll do Wheeler or MadBum plus some second tier short signings like resign Nova and maybe chase a Roark.
Yeah sure, White Sox will sign them all. Reinsdorf loves spending money lol. They don’t spend much on scouting and player development, so maybe they’d spend on FA. Don’t count on it. They’d have to overpay to get a decent player.
Yeah. They really blew it with Robert and Madrigal. What losers! And who is is Grandal they signed today?
You do realize that since 2000 the White Sox have had top 10 payrolls 6 times, including four times in the top 5. Reinsdorf also spent way over the tax in the 1990s for the Bulls when they were winning titles. He’ll spend when needed and when he can be convinced that the championship window is open.
The White Sox made bad signings and draft picks to injuries for a long period of time where it put the organization in a mess! Hahn has been doing what he said he was planning to do back in 2013. This Dogbone character is a moron!
Reinsdorf spent that NBA tax because he made that money back several times over with the most marketable athlete on Earth.
Brian Scalabrine?
Wrong era. It was Bill Wennington.
Big paychecks and the loss of team’s 2nd draft pick, but Wheeler gets us over the hump into contention.
Maybe for a wild card….maybe… in a couple years
Call me crazy but I’m trying to figure out which team is going to give up a draft pick and guarantee $100 million over five years to a pitcher with zero 200 inning seasons and a career 3.91 xFIP.
He’s trending up…..
Acutally as one that has watched him quite a bit…..
Wheeler’s last 2-2.5 months of 2018 were exceptional – nothing like what he’d ever done.
In 2019 he reverted back to an up and down, inconsistent pitcher. Some of his overall numbers might be argued, but he is what he is – a veteran #3 starter; on a good staff the #4. Has nice stuff at times, thus far no one has gotten it to play consistently. The type of guy at gets a multi-year high contract, has one exceptional year, one decent one, and then is a drag on the payroll, so his team tries to find someone to unload his contract on.
The Phillies according to my contest entry.
Nobody really knows what these players are thinking other than their families and their agents. It’s all speculation and anybody’s guess. But that’s what makes MLB hot stove so intersting to us baseball fans. I love it
BREAKING NEWS: White Sox just signed all the free agents. Owners are upset and claiming collusion on behalf of the MLBPA. More on this later…..
The relatively low White Sox payrolls of this decade kind of surprised me. It’s a big market. I don’t know anything about them. Is their TV contract low paying?
New contract as of next season. Old contract was $50-60M/year. New one is closer to $160-170M/year.
So, going from mid-tier to mid-high tier. The issue has more been that their owner has held them back from signing a lot of top free agents. They’ve finished 2nd or 3rd in the running a lot of times and ended up with mid and low tier signings.
Actually the White Sox new NBC contract pays them $750,000 per game broadcasted … so about 120 million per year.
They both went with prolonged rebuilds. That means no high-priced free agents.
The Cubs were also low spending until a few years ago. Never understood why two Chicago teams behaved as if Chicago is a small market. And the ChiSox continue to do so. Just ripping off the captive audience?
The Cubs aren’t acting like a small market club. They have one of the top 3 largest payrolls in baseball.
If you read my comment you would have noted that I said “until a few years ago.” Yes the Cubs are a big spender the past few years. Before that, though, not so much. Read the comments before you respond to them.
To some degree this is true but the Hendry era did include some heavy spending at times. Hendry fell into the trap mid to later in his tenure to overspend to try and chase playoff runs.
The cubs were not a big spender until the Hendry era and mid-way into his time became one. After and the beginnings of this current regime, they stalled spending for a bit (coinciding with the transition from Tribune ownership to Ricketts). Now they’re back to spending.
– diehard cubs fan.
Wake up Twins we need some pitching. Don’t sit on your hands and hope they return your calls. Be the aggressor and maybe you can show your fan base you know what’s going on.
They would have a young nice rotation: Wheeler,Giolito,Kopech,Lopez and Cease
Agreed. The White Sox are going to be competitive this year, especially in that division. Just put a dub on them to win the WS haha
Meh. He’s good, but not front line guy.
If they go for Wheeler, hope White Sox go after another pitcher as well.
As a life long Angel fan now living near the enemy I would like Cole, but seems 5 years of Wheeler and maybe 3 of Keuchel and 2 of Miley might be good to bridge that gap to a few of their younger pitchers.
Go get him Hahn! Let’s keep it going! Don’t stop now boys! Go sox!
Angels needs to back off these high end FA. They’re not a Cole or Wheeler away from contending. So, why would you throw away your high end draft picks?
@Mr.Ward14 – well they’d still their first round pick. But they really gotta hit on that.
@Mr.Ward14–You don’t want to base all your thinking on the draft picks. In the case of the Angels, the 2016 2nd Round pick was Brandon Marsh (from all indications, a mid-to-big MLB talent), in 2015 Jahmai Jones (struggling to be relevant, but the team did put him on the 40-man the other day to protect him), ad in 2014 it was Joe Gatto (drafted as SP, moved to bullpen in AA last season).
So that is one hit, two maybes for the 2nd round pick over three successive seasons. If the offset to a “maybe” is 4 years (or more) of Cole or Wheeler, then there is no hard choice to make.
Ryu without question is at least the third best pitcher available. His only negative has been his health. Healthy last year he started the All-star game and won the MLB ERA title. His career ERA is under 3.
But given his and health, what kind of a contract would you give him? And would you rather sign him or Wheeler?
“But given his AGE and health…”
Depends on expectations. Chicago has nice young pitching still developing. I see no problem doing 3 years for Ryu as a veteran bridge and mentor while the youngsters mature, knowing he is not an innings eater. But the innings you get are quality. And there is no draft pick attached. Doesn’t seem overly risky to me, compared to throwing 9 figures, a draft pick and 6-7 years at someone else.
That’s a huge negative. He’s 79th in Innings pitched the last two years.
his age, injury history and those great seasons were all contract seasons. have seen many more ‘crazy’ seasons on contract years!
And there are just as many misses on contract years.
The last two years Wheeler is 12th in IPs. Tenth in WAR. 1th in FIP. I’ll take my chances with this guy over MadBum an Ryu.
In my mind he’s clearly the 3rd best pitcher on the market.
I would to see the White Sox bring in Wheeler and Nova. Wheeler is looking for five to six years while bring in Nova for one more year. Nova was a work horse this season for the Sox. With the White Sox having Nova in the rotation it gives Kopech a few months to work out of the bullpen to earn a spot in the rotation if Nova or Lopez start messing up.
Wheeler is looking for 5-6 years?
LOL
He surely will get 4, and maybe the 5 or 6.
That is insane. You can be assured that a smart, consistently good FO such as the Dodgers, Astros, Indians, Rays, A’s, and now the Red Sox along with a few others would never get suckered into something like that for a pitcher like Wheeler. Crazy.
my god, the crazy contracts those teams have all signed! astros exception though, unless league punishment prohibits them, they will soon lock themselves into those insane contracts!
of course, liquor store night cleaner won’t ever get those crazy contracts!
Vizionaire;
List the long-term crippling contracts the Dodgers have signed under Friedman; the Astros under Luhnow; the Indians under Antonetti / Chernoff; the Rays under Friedman and Neander / Bloom……who’s now with the Red Soxl and the A’s since Beane has been there.
Especially the pitchers. Please list the ineffective pitchers with high salaries they had to carry on their roster for more then a year.
do your own work!
You did make a claim, I thought you’d want to back it up.
the long term crippling contracts the Astros signed were when they signed Brandon Taubman and AJ Hinch. Those two’s legacies will outweigh the team’s performance for a long, long time.
A young team like the Sox should be thinking about keeping there draft picks and signing players who don’t have draft picks attached a guy like keachel and some bullpen arms make more sense.
Good grief 100 million contract for Wheeler. Huh hard pass on that one.
Arghh his articles are painful. Worst writer on MLBTR.
No one forces you to read them.
Maybe, if you ask nicely, you can get your money back?
Maybe he thinks you are the worst commenter on MLBTR (you arent: CPAP, Crew Brew or Themed get that honor)
HaloShine might have something to say as being the worst commenter
Whoever signs Wheeler will be making a Darren Dreifort like mistake.
Why would anybody sign with the Stink Sox
To piss off FloridaMan 1988. I hear he and Jerry don’t het along too well.
I think with all this talk of Wheeler being worth 5 years/$100M that a) he’s probably really only worth 2-3 years but an extra 2.5 years is what it takes at this level of interest from the league wide. And b) I think if he is gonna get 5 years it’s gonna get pushed up to $23M+ AAV with so many similar offers.
If I had my way I’d love to see the Yankees sign him 1 year/$25M see what happens…
I like Zach for 4/60. I think he could ascend. Bumgarner could decline and you would still have about the same pitcher.
U might like it but that’s not close to what reality
100 mil for Wheeler whoever does that needs head coach examined sounds right up Preller’s alley he loves unmovable bad contracts
How is a 3.65 ERA in the National League terrific?
FYI
Its terrific when you consider the idiot former Met’s manger Giveaway would always leave him in over 100 pitches to get shelled in his last inning of work.
A(nother) J(ackass) Preller: we are waiting. What is taking you so long? You are the smartest guy in the room. You have wowed your bosses with “I never sleep” and “I have no life”. Don’t confuse motion with movement. You have more prospects than you can protect. Boycott Petco until this punk is gone. Down with brown. You get no more of our $ until the product is fixed. No seasoned manager is going to work for this punk.
Bingo how Hipster Preller has kept his job is mystery. But but the prospects