Thursday was...not a good day for Cespedes to the White Sox optimism. The suddenly aggressive Nationals bid for Yoenis' talents (where were they the first two months of this damned war of attrition??) took up the mantle of the team that would egregiously outbid the Mets, and the Mets continued to be a sentimental pick for some reason.
Read MoreAccording to Ken Rosenthal, the White Sox have re-signed RHP Matt Albers to a 1-year, $2 million deal with a team option for $3 million or a $250K buyout in 2016. Albers was very good in 37.1 IP with the White Sox in 2015, posting a minuscule 1.21 ERA with a 6.75 K/9 and a small 2.17 BB/9.
While this deal has minimal risk and stabilizes the bullpen, Yoenis Cespedes isn't a White Sox yet (and is being linked heavily to the Nationals, who apparently are willing to go five years), so who really cares anyway.
Ethan Spalding is a statistics major at UW-Madison and lifelong White Sox fan. Follow him at @SpaldingBalls
Another day passes, and the possibility that the White Sox have not stood idle while the last of the upper crust of free agent outfielders were snatched up by more aggressive suitors remains alive. ESPN's Jim Bowden went so far as to say on MLB Network that the White Sox are one of three finalists in the bidding for Yoenis Cespedes--a process with no formal stages--along with the Mets and Nationals, with the Mets seeming like the franchise Cespedes would be more obliged to take a short-term deal for, and the Nationals more willing to shell out a long-term commitment, and the Sox somewhere in the middle.
Read MoreIn the wake of Justin Upton finally coming off the board, much of the baseball news world spent Tuesday trying to drill down the mysterious market for Yoenis Cespedes, and mostly came up with...eh?
Read MoreOne benefit of the outfield market moving like a particularly unmotivated glacier is that by the time the gut-punching news hit of Justin Upton coming to the AL Central for the perpetually spending Tigers, all hope of the White Sox actually reaching out and signing the best free agent hitter left on the market had all but evaporated.
Read MoreChris Davis signed a contract--a very large, seven-year, $163 million contract--over the weekend to return to the Baltimore Orioles. In the end, the Orioles were able to win out over the competitive bids from...surely someone, at some point.
Read MoreIt is going to be awfully weird to see Alexei Ramirez in another uniform. Luckily, he's headed to San Diego, which means he'll most likely never be seen again. Ramirez is reportedly headed to the left coast on a one-year deal with undisclosed terms, pending a physical. Even without the terms, it's looking pretty clear that the market for Ramirez did not exceed, and likely not even meet the heights of his one-year, $10 million option.
Read MoreThe stagnant outfield free agent market really needed something to give it a kick. Someone or something wild enough to just run up and do something that would alter the calculus of the whole market. Someone like...
Read MoreNick, Ethan and James gathered together to try to piece together what on Earth is happening, or is not happening in the markets for Justin Upton and Yoenis Cespedes. There are no tangible answers, so things get existential quickly.
Read MoreMid-January 2016, where minor clarifications on the White Sox seemingly incomprehensible public stance on free agent target are the juiciest rumors over the whole weekend.
Read MoreWe're going to look back at this and laugh. Laugh at how confusing this moment of the White Sox offseason was, when both primary and secondary options were being plinked off the board at an equally disconcerting pace, and the only reports of their activity is a sort of maddening and incoherent posturing.
Read MoreAlex Gordon was never the ideal target for the White Sox. He's far older than the rest of their core, more of an immediate boost to the 2016 team than a long-term solution, more of an all-around stud than the pure offensive injection the lineup desperately needed, and more than anything, just plain-old more essential to the Royals than to anyone else.
Read MoreOftentimes the only useful and complete view of how a team approached a free agent pursuit is after the fact, possibly years later, in a book perhaps, written by Jonah Keri. Reacting to incomplete and often intentionally strategically released information and trying to paint a larger picture is a minefield.
Read MoreIt's not done yet, and they seem curiously abandoned the pursuit of the best option, but by all reports the White Sox have at least recognized their moment of opportunity, deftly identified their flaws, traded brilliantly to shore up holes in their roster while holding onto their top prospects and navigating within ownership's payroll restrictions, and are steps away from expanding their payroll beyond previous limits to secure a top four option in an incredibly strong market for corner outfield help.
Read MoreTransactions have trickled in slowly since the close of the Winter Meetings, but there have been a few non-White Sox transactions (or very-close-to-transactions) this morning.
Read MoreThe dark shadow hanging over Jose Abreu's first in-depth interview with Chicago Magazine before the 2015 season, was the revelation that he had been unable to bring his two-year-old son with him from Cuba when he defected
Read MoreHeyman reaffirming that the White Sox are still in on Todd Frazier talks was probably the most juicy Monday news update, but since I already used it for yesterday's morning update....
...it's Hector Sanchez's day!
Read MoreIn recent years, the Winter Meetings have been a time of much activity for the White Sox, especially since Rick Hahn filled the GM seat. In the last tow years, Hahn has acquired Adam Eaton, Jeff Samardjiza, Melky Cabrera, and David Robertson all during baseball’s annual December assembly, moves that have been, for better or worse, some of the most consequential of the Hahn regime. What the White Sox plan to do at this year's Winter Meetings seems to be completely up in the air.
Read MoreThe most recent juicy White Sox offseason rumor is that they took in a presentation by Yoenis Cespedes' agent that Jon Heyman says was "very impressive," and even contained a musical element. Hell, maybe the Sox aren't even remotely interested. Maybe they just wanted to take in the show.
Read MoreThe Catbird Seat is a White Sox blog by White Sox fans that focuses on intelligent and humorous baseball commentary. Brought to you by ESPN's SweetSpot Network.
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