Free agent Austin Hays signs a one-year, $6 million contract with the White Sox. Other teams may have offered him a similar one-year deal but only in a platoon role, which could explain why he chose Chicago for the opportunity to get regular at-bats. However, the Guardians’ front office could counter that Hays would serve as insurance for the health of CDL and Valera, leaving open the possibility of an everyday role for him in Cleveland. Additionally, there remains a chance that Kwan could be traded(please no), which would further expand Hays’ potential role.

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  2. Considering they were in talks with Garcia at one point, who signed months ago for much more than $6m, I’d imagine this has much more to do with them refusing to budge on playing time. They want someone who only plays against LHP, no one wants to sign up for that role.

  3. short-side platoon guy who can’t stay healthy

    get a good player or play the kids. why do you want to continue the cycle of cheap veteran reclamation projects?

  4. We could have afforded his contract. It’s not an issue of the money. Hays is a corner OF, which would mean here he would likely platoon in order to get playing time for the kids we’ve been waiting to get to MLB, Valera, CDL and Kayfus. It seems likely he would choose to go where he has more guaranteed playing time. 

    He can’t play CF which is where we really don’t have good options. If he could we likely would have tried harder to get him. RF though is crowded right now with kids who need ABs. 

  5. I would have taken arraez as well he was only 1 year 12 mil and that what we paid Santana. Bazzana ain’t ready yet and arraez as our number 2 batter would set up great at bats for Jose to bring in runs. Kwan arraez Jose manzo? Yeah, I like that. Oh well

  6. “Come sign with us but you can only play if one of our young guys gets hurt”

    Ya I’m sure that went over well with his agent

  8. I’ve come to terms we are just running it back with no additions to the lineup.

  9. Nobody out there still really jumps off the page as a slam dunk game-changer

    I’d think you’d want a RH infielder to be able to take over for Arias if you decide after 250-300 player appearances that you’ve finally seen enough, would make the ideal candidate somebody with recent SS experience. Maybe Jose Iglesias? If Rocchio is comfortable switching positions mid-season again you open the door to more possibilities, someone like Ramon Urias?

    I don’t understand why they brought Nolan Jones back if they intended to sign an OF free agent, especially as they also seem pretty determined to let the young guys play. I’m probably the only person left on this sub who thinks Jonathan Rodriguez can be a productive MLB bat, would like him to get a serious look this year. Who knows with this team.

  10. We can afford a $30M RH bat and still be under payroll from last year.

    Dolan could have signed Kyle Tucker and stayed one of the bottom 5 payrolls in baseball. In other words, it’s not money that’s stopping us from signing anyone.

  11. I think the key point of most of the lack of offseason signings is that they really want to see what CDL, Valera, Kayfus, Halpin can do. Anyone they sign would have been more a platoon role. Anyone that received a large contract wouldn’t be worth it for a platoon role.

    The best bet would have been to trade Kwan for a RH power hitting OF.

  16. I mean in an interview Chris Antonetti basically said they didn’t make moves because we weren’t good enough which is insane logic.

    We could have at least made one or two moves to help us but because we weren’t good enough no moves.

    We just gotta huff the hopium that our younger guys take us to the next level now.

    I’m at least excited to see if CDL can stay healthy and play a full season of MLB ball

  17. If his best offer was the White Sox seems like the league as a whole was not interested in him. We didn’t need Hayes as he’s not a clear upgrade. Rather those ABs go to the kids. I’m not saying we can’t add a RH bat, but dont think Hayes was a team changer

  23. at some point, people need to understand that not every (lack of) signing comes down to money. hays can play every day in chicago, or in the short side of a platoon in cleveland. why would he pick cleveland?

  24. Sox are gonna be super interesting this year. I wanted to pay attention to them last year just to figure out where they are going, but didn’t lol.

    Interesting doesn’t necessarily mean good btw

  26. Suarez to the Reds, for 15 mil. I would have taken that. Even if the BA is low, he hit 49 dingers last year and that’s something we surely need. Running out of RH options to add to the team

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