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Red Sox Name Chaim Bloom Chief Baseball Officer

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Oct. 28: The Red Sox have announced the hiring via press release.

“We believe Chaim is exactly the right person to lead the Boston Red Sox baseball operation based on a number of attributes we sought in this process,” owner John Henry said in a statement. “We had done exhaustive work narrowing down candidates. That work led us to Chaim, who was the first executive invited to Boston for an interview. He made a strong impression on all of us and validated our initial research that he was the one to lead our baseball operation.

“We particularly want to thank Raquel Ferreira, Brian O’Halloran, Eddie Romero and Zack Scott for their extraordinary leadership over the past two months in guiding our baseball operation forward without missing a beat and ensuring we had a very strong start to this offseason.”

Oct. 25, 4:54pm: Brian O’Halloran will be promoted from assistant general manager to general manager, per MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand (Twitter link).

4:01pm: The Red Sox have “finalized” an agreement to bring aboard Chaim Bloom as their next baseball operations chief, according to Joel Sherman of the New York Post (via Twitter). Bloom will take the title of chief baseball officer, Mark Feinsand of MLB.com tweeted. Financial details remain to be seen.

It’s a fascinating hire for the Boston organization, which cut loose veteran exec Dave Dombrowski late in a disappointing 2019 season. Though Dombrowski helped deliver a World Series title, ownership decided it wanted a new direction — and went on to steer into a decidedly new-school course by hiring Bloom.

The Red Sox certainly got an up-close look at Bloom’s handiwork with the Rays. His Tampa Bay outfit ran past the 2018 World Series champs, pacing them by a dozen games despite carrying a payroll into the season that was barely more than a quarter of the war chest deployed by the Sox.

Boston’s last run with an analytically minded front-office leader didn’t end quite as hoped, with the Ben Cherington-built rosters delivering gloom as much as glory. But the allure is obvious. One of Bloom’s predecessors in Tampa Bay, Andrew Friedman, has since moving to Los Angeles shown convincingly that an efficiently managed large budget can produce perennial high-end performance at a profit-minded price.

It was a rather tidy hiring process for the Red Sox, who trusted a four-person executive team with many notable decisions this winter while lining up Bloom for the job. No doubt the organization already knew at least its general direction with the hiring. Bloom long seemed a clear possibility, particularly after narrowly missing on a few top baseball ops gigs last winter. The 36-year-old comes with an impeccable resume and widespread respect in the industry. Interestingly, he was the only outside candidate to interview for the post, per MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand (via Twitter).

Bloom will jump into an organization that already has a built-out, modern front office infrastructure. No doubt he’ll tweak the organization to suit his preferences, but this isn’t a fixer-upper situation. That’s also the case on the roster, which features the sort of talent that … well, the kind that won a World Series just one year ago.

There’ll be plenty of work to do for Bloom and his new charges, right out of the gates. He’s not going to blow things up or drop the bottom out of the payroll. But there are plenty of clear signs that the organization will task the new baseball ops head with paring salary — which means making some tough choices about who stays and who goes.

One big question will be answered without input from Bloom and the Sox: the status of J.D. Martinez, who can opt out of his contract. Good as he is, the club surely would love to regain a whole lot of financial flexibility in one fell swoop. Otherwise, Bloom will need to look hard to some of its spendier pieces — Jackie Bradley Jr., perhaps even Mookie Betts — as trade candidates.

It doesn’t appear that Bloom will have much free capital to work with to add talent. But that’s precisely the challenge he was brought in to take on. Bloom will be working to fill needs — on the right side of the infield and in the bullpen, at a minimum — in a creative manner. Fortunately, there are loads of veteran free agent options in both areas, many of whom figure to be had for relatively low cost. And Bloom will no doubt take a long look at other cost-efficient possibilities. If he does a particularly good job of supplementing an immensely talented core that could still rise back up, a return to serious contention in 2020 cannot be ruled out.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Pirates Fire General Manager Neal Huntington

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9:18am: The Pirates have announced Huntington’s dismissal.

“I greatly appreciate Neal’s dedication to the Pirates organization and our city over the past 12 seasons,” owner Bob Nutting said in a press release. “His time with the Pirates should always be remembered for ending a long stretch of futility and bringing Postseason baseball back to Pittsburgh.”

The Pirates “will pause” their search for a new manager while seeking out a new GM, per Nutting. Assistant general manager Kevan Graves will serve as interim GM while the club looks for a replacement for Huntington.

Mackey further tweets that the decision to move on from Huntington was driven by Nutting (as opposed to incoming president Travis Williams). Nutting informed Huntington of the decision yesterday.

8:15am: The Pirates have already dismissed their manager and two of their coaches in addition to parting ways with team president Frank Coonelly, but they’re not done with changes yet. Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that Pittsburgh will also announce the dismissal of general manager Neal Huntington later today (Twitter link).

Huntington, 50, is one of the sport’s longest-tenured executives, having been hired at the conclusion of the 2007 season. His ousting represents perhaps the final step in a total overhaul of the organization that began when manager Clint Hurdle was fired on the final day of the season. Like Hurdle, Huntington had two years remaining on his contract.

Neal Huntington | Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports

The parallels between Hurdle’s firing and today’s firing of Huntington don’t stop with the pair’s contractual status, however. Both dismissals were preceded by public assertions to the contrary; Hurdle told The Athletic’s Rob Biertempfel that he’d received assurance of his 2020 return just days before being let go, and Huntington is now out the door a month later despite a clear vote of confidence from owner Bob Nutting.

“While we felt it was time to make a change at the managerial level, I strongly believe that Neal Huntington and the leadership team that he has assembled are the right people to continue to lead our baseball operations department,” Nutting said in a press release announcing the decision to move on from Hurdle. The extent to which Huntington’s departure is tied to incoming president Travis Williams isn’t clear, but the move is nevertheless a glaring contradiction to Nutting’s end-of-season assessment of his front office.

That the move comes with the organization’s managerial search now well underway is all the more confusing; one would imagine that an incoming GM would want say over who’s writing out the lineup card on a daily basis, but unless the plan is to put that search on hold, the Pirates are much further along in that process than in the process of naming a new GM. And, presumably, Huntington has been involved in all of the interviews conducted to this point.

Huntington took over the Pirates at a time when Jason Bay, Freddy Sanchez and Adam LaRoche were among the club’s most notable names and ushered in a new era at PNC Park, turning over the roster and developing stars such as Andrew McCutchen, Starling Marte and Gerrit Cole. But despite qualifying for three consecutive postseasons (2013-15), Huntington and his staff never saw the club win an NL Central title or advance beyond the National League Division series. It’s now been four full seasons since the Pirates’ last playoff berth, and the 2019 season was a particularly disheartening year. Pittsburgh finished with a 69-93 record, falling to last place in the division.

There’s been no shortage of criticism over recent moves made by the Pirates, with the trade that brought right-hander Chris Archer to Pittsburgh among the more widely panned deals in recent memory. Huntington agreed to part with longtime top prospects Austin Meadows and Tyler Glasnow in addition to highly regarded pitching prospect Shane Baz. The move was designed to bring an affordable, high-end starter with three-and-a-half seasons of club control to Pittsburgh, but Archer has struggled in the Steel City while Glasnow and Meadows now look like foundational pieces for the Tampa Bay organization.

Of course, the very fact that Archer is so affordable could very well be what prompted him to hold such appeal to Huntington and his staff in the first place. Pirates ownership has only thrice green-lighted a payroll north of $90MM, constantly leaving the front office scrambling to find bargains and patch together rosters with rebound candidates and the leftovers of the free-agent market. Without the type of annual payroll constraints they face, perhaps Huntington & Co. wouldn’t have been so drawn to Archer in the first place. There’s no way to know for sure, however, and the end result still speaks loudest of all.

Other recent moves have been more of a mixed bag. The trade that sent McCutchen to San Francisco brought Rookie of the Year candidate Bryan Reynolds and reliever Kyle Crick to Pittsburgh. The trade of Cole to Houston in that same 2017-18 offseason netted six years of a useful rotation piece in Joe Musgrove, but the others in that swap (Colin Moran, Michael Feliz and Jason Martin) have yet to bring much value to the Pirates. As with the Archer trade, finances were a major consideration in both the McCutchen and Cole trades; it was clear at the time of the moves that neither would fit into the Pittsburgh budget any longer despite a lack of additional spending.

Pittsburgh’s reluctance to spend, in fact, was concerning enough to the union that the MLBPA brought their concerns to the Commissioner’s Office and requested an investigation of how the team allotted its funds from revenue sharing. The league responded with a statement that it had no such concerns regarding the Pirates organization.

Such payroll restrictions will persist for whoever is hired to run the club’s baseball operations outfit moving forward. Owner Bob Nutting has never indicated any plans to sell the team. The Pirates recently extended their television contract with AT&T SportsNet, but terms of the deal remain unclear. Their previous agreement was one of the least-lucrative contracts in the game, though, and whatever increases in annual rights fees are included in the new deal will be baked into the contract in the form of gradual increases. In other words, a payroll hike in the near future doesn’t seem likely.

To the contrary, it feels more likely that the Bucs will instead be looking to shed payroll this winter. As I noted in previewing the club’s offseason a few days ago, this seems like the ideal time to market Marte to other clubs, and it’s worth wondering whether the Pirates would look to deal Archer as well after a disappointing season and a half (and with an increase in his salary looming). Problematic setup man Keone Kela is also a candidate to be shipped out.

All of those roster decisions will be at the forefront of the offseason questions facing whoever takes over Huntington’s now-vacant chair at the PNC Park offices. For the time being, Nutting and Williams will be frantically trying to assemble a new front-office staff and field staff as they look to usher in a new era of Pirates baseball. That process will very likely linger into the offseason, although with the Pirates unlikely to play for any notable free agents anyhow, perhaps a late entry into the market won’t really be an issue.

Dale Sveum Not In Running For Royals Managerial Opening

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The Royals are believed to be looking internally for their next manager, but it probably won’t be bench coach Dale Sveum, reports Jeffrey Flanagan of MLB.com. Instead, Sveum has expressed a desire to take on a “different role” within the organization, which Flanagan reports is being “worked out.”

Special advisor Mike Matheny still appears to be the favorite for the manager job in Kansas City, although Sveum would have been a logical target in his own right. He’s spent the past six seasons with the organization, including the last two as Ned Yost’s bench coach. He’d served as KC’s third base and hitting coach prior to becoming Yost’s right-hand man.

Sveum also has MLB managing experience on his resume. Somewhat ironically, Sveum’s first MLB managerial job came after a Yost departure. He took over in an interim capacity for the Brewers in 2008 after Yost was fired amidst a September swoon. Milwaukee righted the ship and made the postseason, where they were bounced in the NLDS. Sveum is probably more famous for his two years at the helm of the Cubs from 2012-13. Those teams combined for a woeful 127-197 record, although he hardly had much on-field talent with which to work, with Chicago in the early stages of the large-scale rebuild that paid off in the latter half of the decade.

Nevertheless, it appears Sveum will not return to the top step of the dugout in Kansas City. It isn’t clear from Flanagan’s report whether Sveum will stay on the coaching staff in 2020, although it does appear he’ll remain in the organization in some capacity.

In addition to Matheny, bullpen coach Vance Wilson and quality control coach Pedro Grifol have garnered consideration, with Wilson known to have already interviewed. While the internal candidates are the favorites, Flanagan notes that the organization hasn’t completely closed the door on external hires, either. The hiring process has been a slow one, perhaps related to the franchise’s ongoing sale, although GM Dayton Moore apparently has free reign to make a hire whenever he so desires.

You can keep track of all the managerial news and rumors around the game here.

Joe Espada To Take Second Interview With Giants

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Astros bench coach Joe Espada is set for a second interview for the Giants’ managerial vacancy, as first reported by Ken Davidoff of the New York Post (via Twitter). He’ll meet with San Francisco brass after the conclusion of the World Series. Espada’s first interview with the organization came on Thursday’s travel day between Games 2 and 3 and lasted a little more than four hours, as Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic details (subscription required).

Espada expressed optimism to Rome about his chances of securing the Giants’ position. After meeting with GM Farhan Zaidi, CEO Larry Baer and members of the organziation’s analytics department Thursday, Espada anticipates his second interview will include more involvement with ownership. The 44-year-old has been a popular candidate for interviews the past two seasons, and he was reportedly on the radar for the Cubs’ and Pirates’ jobs this month. It appears, though, that San Francisco offers Espada’s best hope of landing a head position this offseason, as he tells Rome he has no other interviews on tap. The Cubs have since tabbed David Ross, but Pittsburgh’s position remains unresolved.

Espada succeeded Alex Cora as A.J. Hinch’s bench coach after the 2017 season. Prior to that, he’d worked with the Marlins and Yankees in various coaching and front office roles. His only prior managerial experience came in 2012 in Puerto Rican winter ball, although teams certainly value his recent coaching experience with successful teams in New York and Houston.

The Giants have cast a wide net in their search for Bruce Bochy’s replacement. Royals quality control coach Pedro Grifol, former Phillies manager Gabe Kapler, A’s quality control coach Mark Kotsay, Rays bench coach Matt Quatraro, Cubs first base coach Will Venable, and internal candidates Hensley Meulens and Ron Wotus have all joined Espada in interviewing.

You can track all of the league’s managerial news and rumors here.

Max Scherzer Scratched From Game 5 Start

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5:54 pm: At a pregame media session, Scherzer told reporters (including Mark Zuckerman of MASN) that he is also dealing with nerve irritation in his neck. The ace added that he underwent a cortisone shot that will take approximately 48 hours to kick in, seemingly putting to rest any hope he could return in Tuesday’s Game 6. He remains on the Nationals’ World Series roster, but those in attendance at this evening’s media session (including Todd Dybas of NBC Sports) seemed less than optimistic about his chances of returning by Wednesday’s potential Game 7.

3:36 pm: Nationals starter Max Scherzer, who was slated to start Sunday’s World Series game five, has been scratched from his start, according to Chandler Rome of the Houston Chronicle. In his place, Joe Ross will take the mound for the Nationals. Per Jesse Dougherty of the Washington Post, Scherzer has been dealing with spasms in his neck and right trapezius.

Manager Dave Martinez told reporters that Scherzer began experiencing spasms last night, and woke up this morning in worse condition, rendering him unable to go tonight. Martinez also said that the Nationals will keep Scherzer on the roster in hopes that he shows enough improvement in the next couple of days to pitch in either game six or seven (if necessary). As of now, the Nats plan to start Stephen Strasburg in game six on Tuesday, with the possibility that Scherzer could be available in relief, or as the starter for a potential seventh game.

Martinez noted that Scherzer’s injury influenced his bullpen management in last night’s loss: he refrained from using Joe Ross, bracing for the possibility that Scherzer may not be able to start Sunday’s game. It’s also notable that neither Sean Doolittle nor Daniel Hudson, the Nats’ two most reliable relievers, has pitched since game one last Tuesday, meaning that Martinez might be able to stretch them out if he can’t get sufficient length from Ross.

Scherzer’s injury is a crucial development in a virtual must-win fifth game. With Gerrit Cole on the hill for the Astros, it was already going to be a tough game, but without their ace on the mound, the Nationals will have to count on Joe Ross, who found his stride in August and September. The freshness of the bullpen will help the Nats’ cause, with the possibility that both Doolittle and Hudson could be asked to get six outs each.

Pat Murphy In Consideration For Mets’ Managerial Opening

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With the Mets casting a wide net in the search for their next manager, another name has come to light as the rumored “mystery candidate.” Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reports that Brewers bench coach Pat Murphy has already had multiple interviews with the team and is in the mix for the job.

Whether the talk of a “mystery candidate” elicits an eye-roll or curiosity, prepare to hear more of the same: Andy Martino of SNY reports that there are more unnamed candidates in the running, and that Murphy is not the “bombshell” candidate that has attracted so much speculation.

Murphy, 60, has worked as Craig Counsell’s right-hand man since the 2016 seaosn, a job he earned after a six-year tenure managing in the Padres’ minor-league system and serving as the interim Major League manager for 96 games in 2015. He has extensive experience coaching in the college ranks, serving as the head coach of the Notre Dame baseball program from 1988-1994 and coaching at Arizona State from 1995-2009.

Murphy will join a narrowing pool of candidates for the Mets job, though that pool is certainly being narrowed down. Eduardo Perez has been rumored as a “front runner” while Tim Bogar, Carlos Beltran, Luis Rojas, and Derek Shelton have all been brough back for second interviews. If that group indeed comprises the finalists, it appears the Mets will once again turn to a manager with no prior Major League managerial experience—depending on how one counts Murphy’s interim stint with the Padres. The team has considered candidates from a wide range of backgrounds, and after missing out on Joe Girardi, it’s a bit of an unusual group. However, the search seems to be nearing its conclusion, though a third round of interviews likely remains.

Quick Hits: JDM, White Sox, Rays, d’Arnaud, 2011 Draft

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As we all look forward to Game 5 of the World Series, let’s run through some noteworthy items from around the baseball world…

  • Should Red Sox slugger J.D. Martinez elect to opt out of the three years and $62.5MM remaining on his deal, the White Sox look like the “consensus” top suitor for the 32-year-old’s services, Rob Bradford of WEEI relays. At this juncture, it seems unlikely that NL teams would enter the Martinez sweepstakes given his shortcomings as a defensive outfielder. Of course, the lack of an NL market severely restricts the potential market for Martinez, a factor that he’ll surely consider as he weighs whether to enter free agency. What’s more: if he does, he’ll come with a qualifying offer attached, meaning that a signing team would have to surrender a draft pick to sign him. All those things make it markedly more difficult to identify realistic landing spots for the hitting virtuoso, though the White Sox may stand above the rest.
  • As the Rays prepare to embark on the offseason, they’ll have to evaluate Travis d’Arnaud’s role in their 2020 catching situation, writes Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. The ex-Met emerged as a surprising offensive contributor after he was acquired in a nondescript May trade, ending the season with a .782 OPS for the Rays. Fellow catcher Mike Zunino’s fate might depend on what happens with d’Arnaud, who has a chance to earn a two-year deal at a $6MM or $7MM AAV. If the Rays choose to keep him around at that price, Zunino may become expendable after a disappointing offensive season. Meanwhile, letting d’Arnaud walk would put pressure on Zunino to improve on the dreadful .544 OPS he posted in his first season with the Rays. Otherwise, the team could once again turn to external options.
  • When it’s all said and done, the 2011 first-year player draft may go down as one of the best in baseball history, writes Dan Connolly of The Athletic. It’s a timely retrospective, with the stars of the class on full display in this year’s World Series: the Astros’ George Springer and Gerrit Cole, as well as the Nationals’ Anthony Rendon, all came from the 2011 first round (Cole and Rendon, it’s worth noting, will also be the offseason’s two most sought-after free agents). Trea Turner, meanwhile, was a 20th-round choice the same year. And that’s not to mention the bevy of stars that play elsewhere in the Majors: Mookie Betts, Trevor Bauer, Francisco Lindor, and Javier Báez all come from the ranks of the 2011 draft, which also featured “what-if” stories like Dylan Bundy and the late José Fernández. Connolly also considers the pivotal selection of Danny Hultzen by the Mariners, which could have had a profound effect on the rest of the draft had they instead opted for Rendon, their second choice. The 2011 draft has already earned its place among the all-time great draft classes, which is doubly impressive considering that it’s collectively still in its prime years.

Organizational Notes: Falvey, Red Sox, Washington, Padres, Royals

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Some front office and dugout items from around the game…

  • Twins chief baseball officer Derek Falvey turned down a request to interview for the top baseball operations job with the Red Sox, La Velle E. Neal III of the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports.  There wasn’t much public news about Boston’s search prior to the hiring of Chaim Bloom as the new CBO earlier this week, though there had been rumors that the Sox might have interest in Massachusetts native Falvey, and Neal indeed writes that Falvey was “high on their list of candidates.”  Reports from earlier this month suggested that Falvey and the Twins could be close to a contract extension, in the wake of Minnesota’s 101-win season.
  • Braves third base coach Ron Washington was the runner-up in the Padres’ managerial search and also won’t be taking on a bench coach job with San Diego, Dennis Lin of The Athletic reports (subscription required).  There had been speculation that Washington could provide a veteran counsel to first-time manager Jayce Tingler, though it appears that Washington will remain in his current job in Atlanta.
  • Lin’s piece also details the risk GM A.J. Preller is taking in hiring another first-time skipper in what seems like a must-win year for the Padres.  Going into such a pivotal season, however, Preller “preferred to take his chances with a candidate he clearly knows and has long held in high regard.”  Lin also notes that Preller originally tried to hire Tingler away from the Rangers when Preller first became San Diego’s general manager back in 2014.
  • The general consensus has been that the Royals would wait to hire their new manager until John Sherman officially took ownership of the franchise, though GM Dayton Moore tells Lynn Worthy of the Kansas City Star that this isn’t the case.  “We have been given full autonomy to hire the next manager of the Kansas City Royals when we feel that we are ready and the process is complete.  That could be today, tomorrow or sometime prior to the winter meetings,” Moore said, noting that Sherman has already been involved in the search process.”  Since Moore described the front office as still being “in the middle of a very thorough process,” however, a new managerial hire doesn’t yet seem near.  Royals special advisor and former Cardinals manager Mike Matheny has been widely seen as the favorite for the job, and to date, the only other publicly known candidates are also internal names, though the club has spoken to some external candidates.

Free Agent Stock Watch: Jose Abreu

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It isn’t uncommon for any free agent and team to profess some level of mutual interest as the player approaches the open market.  Still, given the amount of connection between the White Sox and Jose Abreu, it still seems a bit surprising that the first baseman is still slated for free agency here in late October rather than already locked up to a new contract extension.

GM Rick Hahn said back in May that “it’s certainly very likely that [Abreu will] be here” once the Sox emerge from their rebuilding phase.  Abreu himself has expressed his desire to remain on the South Side on multiple occasions, and even said in August that White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf had unofficially promised to keep him in the organization.  So, while the two sides didn’t discuss an extension during the season, it still wouldn’t be a shocker to see Abreu and the Sox reach a new deal while the club still has exclusive negotiating rights (Abreu won’t file for free agency until five days after the end of the World Series).

That said, the lack of known movement towards a new contract could be some due diligence on the team’s part, as they weigh the pros and cons of re-signing a player who will turn 33 in January, and has only been pretty good rather than great over the last two seasons.

After Abreu’s first four MLB seasons resulted in a .301/.359/.524 slash line and 124 homers in 2660 plate appearances, the slugger’s production took a step backwards in 2018 and 2019.  Injuries played a role in Abreu’s relative struggles in 2018, though it’s worth noting that his 2019 wRC+ (117) was only a touch higher than his 2018 production (115 wRC+).

Abreu’s 40.7% hard-hit ball rate in 2019 was the highest of his career, and he finished in the 94th percentile of all hitters in exit velocity.  He also ranked in at least the top 18 percent of hitters in xwOBA, xBA, and xSLG, and had a career-best 12.8% barrel percentage.

On the down side, Abreu has only a .328 on-base percentage over the last two seasons, and his 21.9% strikeout rate was the highest of his career.  He has never been much of a baserunner, limiting his ability to beat out grounders despite the fact that opposing teams rarely deploy a shift against him.  However, opposing pitchers have been feeding Abreu an increasingly large number of sliders over the last two seasons, with increasing success — Abreu had only an 89 wRC+ against sliders in 2018 and a 66 wRC+ against the pitch this year.

Beyond the Statcast numbers, there’s also the simpler lefty/righty split, as the right-handed hitting Abreu has been increasingly less-effective against right-handed pitching.  2019 marked the first time that Abreu was a below-average 99 wRC+) run producer against righties, dropping down from an also so-so 107 wRC+ in 2018.

There are enough question marks here for interested suitors to be wary of signing Abreu to a pricey multi-year pact in free agency.  Despite the fact that Abreu looks like the clear best option (unless the Cubs inexplicably cut Anthony Rizzo free) in a relatively thin market of free agent first basemen, teams have shown that they are increasingly unwilling to pay big money for anything less than an elite production from the first base/DH positions.

Plus, the White Sox hold some significant leverage on Abreu’s market in the form of the qualifying offer.  If Abreu was to reject Chicago’s one-year/$17.8MM offer, a new team would have to give up a draft pick in order to sign him, which could give even more clubs pause.  Issuing the QO results in three potential scenarios, two of which are good for the White Sox — either the draft pick compensation depresses Abreu’s market to the point that they can re-sign him at more of a club-friendly price, or perhaps Abreu simply accepts the qualifying offer and the Sox retain a player they like but not at a multi-year commitment.

The third scenario, of course, would be that the Sox recoup a draft pick via the QO but Abreu signs elsewhere, which would be no small loss given Abreu’s mentorship role on a young White Sox team.  As Hahn himself said, “It’s sort of that more touchy-feely, emotional side of things in terms of knowing the value that he has in this clubhouse and the leadership skills, the softer benefits that he brings to the club, that affects your valuation of a guy like that.”  Perhaps moreso than most teams, the White Sox are a bit more old-school in their approach, and thus are more prone to go out of their way to keep a player who continues the Frank Thomas/Paul Konerko tradition of a franchise cornerstone first baseman, especially as the team looks to finally get back into contention in the AL Central.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

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