The White Sox have declined their club options for designated hitter Edwin Encarnacion and left-hander Gio Gonzalez, per a team announcement. The club has picked up infielder/outfielder Leury Garcia’s $3.5MM option.
Retaining Encarnacion would have cost the White Sox $12MM, but they’ll move on from him without having to pay a buyout. Conversely, Gonzalez will receive a $500K buyout in lieu of the $7MM salary he could have earned next season. These are hardly surprising decisions by Chicago, as both Encarnacion and Gonzalez disappointed after joining the White Sox in free agency last offseason.
While Encarnacion is one of the most prolific sluggers in recent memory, having totaled eight straight 30-home run seasons before 2020, this year was a nightmare for him. He continued to show above-average power (10 home runs, .220 ISO), but Encarnacion limped to a .157/.250/.377 line across 181 plate appearances. Considering he brings no defensive value to the table and will turn 38 before next season, it was surely an easy call to cut the cord for the White Sox.
Like Encarnacion, Gonzalez fell well short of his career-long track record as a member of the Sox. The 35-year-old has eight seasons of 30-plus starts under his belt, but he spent most of this campaign in the bullpen. Gonzalez wound up with four starts in 12 appearances and a 4.83 ERA/5.50 FIP with 9.66 K/9 against 5.4 BB/9 over 31 2/3 innings.
The White Sox could have bought out Garcia for $250K, but they’ll instead keep the versatile 29-year-old. While Garcia had an abbreviated season because of a thumb injury, he did slash a respectable .271/.317/.441 with three homers and a 14.3 percent strikeout rate in 63 trips to the plate.
White Sox to sign Dennis Eckersley, Mark McGwire and Jim Edmonds.
Don’t forget Dave Stewart!
Minnie Minoso.
TWTW
Didn’t he die?
La Russa is licking his chops waiting for the Cubs to decline Descalso.
LaRussa says that Julio Franco is still a little green, but could mature into a solid player.
He’s got at LEAST 10 more years in him.
Bret Saberhagen
Bar-ry Zi-tooooooo!
Could be a reunion with Jose Canseco as well, he wore a Sox uniform for a time. And they need a DH. He’s only 56, and has World Series experience. Just sayin.
No real surprises here with EE and Gonzalez, and the Sox do seem to have a soft spot for Garcia, probably not an everyday player on a contender but a good utility and role guy.
It may be time for EE to call it a career. He batted under .160 this season and looked awful at the plate. He’s also turning 38 soon and is nowhere in the same realm as the ageless Nelson Cruz.
I think he’s good enough to get one more shot at being a starting DH.
SD may need a DH if MLB keeps the DH rule for the NL. You’re welcome to him!
I would take an Edwin/Mitchy Two Bags DH platoon…
He’s not. He no longer has the bat speed to catch up to even average fastballs, which means he has to guess right and get started early if he wants to connect with one. That leads to him chasing terrible breaking balls when he guesses wrong. He just doesn’t have it anymore, and I don’t see that changing naturally at his age.
Edwin is aging the way normal players do throughout history. The heroics of a couple of recent 40-year olds is…abnormal. It’s also worth noting that 2020 messed with many hitters (and a few pitchers, too). If he can get anyone to bite, maybe EE has a bit of a comeback in him, brief though it’s likely to be.
He was usually a slow starter. Shortened season never let hit hit his stride.
That’s exactly how I feel about his season. He runs hit and cold, and he never had a chance to hit his stride. Low cost flyer could pay out huge here
Going back to 2019 playoffs he hasn’t looked himself. I think he should still garner interest on the market of the DH remains in the NL.
come to mn edwin
Edwin and Cruz on the same team?
Cruz is a free agent as of now
They’re adding a 2nd DH in the AL.
The AL is taking away the pitcher completely and using the DH as a BP pitcher to provide more offense.
Rosters will be expanded to 35. Each team will be allowed to field an offensive and defensive starting 9. The offensive starting 9 will each bat .225 and strike out 27.5% of the time, but hit 32-34 homers a year.
“The AL will replace the ceremonial first pitch with a ceremonial first home run, and obviously it will count towards the score (the run will be scored by the home team). But to keep the scoring relatively low, since the teams are all DH’s, there will be a way to negate runs from your opponent as well. Each error made will be a run negated. This should keep the average runs per game around 9. Important rule to note: You cannot take away the ceremonial first run from the home team. This gives the home team a distinct advantage because they will always have a 1 run head start on their opponent.” – MLB CBA 2022
During one of every three innings, at the discretion of the manager, each team will be permitted to start the inning with a runner on third and a 2-0 count for the first batter.
If a pop up hits the roof of an in-closed stadium, it’s considered a home run.
When the hitter is on deck, he will get the option of hitting off a tee to warm up before his at bat.
The only way you can issue an intentional walk is via HBP.
Balks have also been eliminated… or redefined. Either way, nobody knows.
The Twins will field an entire team of DHs. They have calls in to Harold Baines and Julio Franco as we speak. 🙂
Yes, please. Please go to MN, Edwin.
Sincerely,
White Sox fans
Phillies should buy low on Gio as a placeholder until Howard is ready.
That will set the Sox up perfectly to trade for Gio for a third time.
Odds of Edwin ending his career as a Dodger?
0%
Maybe a 2% chance if the NL adopts the DH slot (which they should).
No surprise here. The White Sox 40-man roster is now at 35 as I post. We’ll all know their final decision regarding QO’s to either James McCann or Alex Colome no later than this Sunday. Most likely neither will receive one despite the wishes of more than a few White Sox fans who wouldn’t mind seeing their return or at least compensation.
@Aaron Sapoznik
“Ditto” is probably the appropriate response from me, since that was pretty much what I was going to post.
I’m not nearly as disappointed about the LaRussa signing as I was yesterday. I think the initial shock of the signing combined with some of the many idiotic posts that I started reading on here (way too many to read all of them) got me frustrated. I know he was the rumored favorite, but I thought they would at least interview someone else before making the decision. He still wouldn’t have been my first choice, but maybe it will work out after all (I still say with skepticism).
I did see on CSN Chicago’s website that Bochy was the #2 choice had LaRussa declined. But I thought I saw that Bochy wanted to wait until after COVID-19 passes before managing again.
I’m curious to see who they pick as pitching coach, and obviously what player moves they make these next several weeks. I’m curious to see if they have the stones to make some more long term deals with their own–especially Giolito. Might not be a bad move to get guys like Madrigal, Cease, and Dunning (and even Vaughn, if they truly are that sold on him) on cheaper long term deals also.
Looking forward to the next several weeks, now that the shock of the LaRussa signing has passed.
I was disappointed with the LaRussa hiring too. But then got thinking there has to be some sort of agreement between Reinsdorf and TL that the team will spend to get that last World Series for both of them. They can get the stud pitcher, right fielder and maybe closer they need.
No chance of either getting a QO. McCann ought to get a contract in the $7-8M range, Colome about what he was getting. Neither is close to a QO and I wouldn’t want them to get one because they need to spend that money to upgrade RF and the rotation.
I’d rather see the Sox sign McCann to a 3-year deal, then trade Grandal for a starting pitcher.
Smoke some more crack
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe that makes Leury Garcia just the third player to have their option picked up so far. Free agency is going to be a rough one.
Maybe, but in the White Sox’ case, even if baseball had record revenues, they would have done the same thing. Both EE and Gio struggled mightily, while Leury had a very nice year and fills an important role. Don’t know how Covid has changed other teams’ actions on options, but it’s had no effect for the Sox.
Lefty Gio will be back somewhere in MLB next year.
Brewers.
How does Roark get 2/24 and Gio gets 1/5 with an option?
Agents?
Gotta be location, He must’ve held out for an extra year to come to toronto ,similar to what happened with Kendys Morales getting a third year back in 2017.
EE is done, great career but time to hang them up.
I think Edwin could be a good dh option for the cards if the dh sticks in the nl. Hes better than most of their other options
Watched all his ab’s this year. He’s toast.
No surprises. I’m interested to see how hard they try to bring back Colome and McCann, though I’d bet both are on new teams next year. Losing them, along with these declined options, would free up payroll to go after Springer and a rotation upgrade.
As a long time blue jays fan i must say EE was a notoriously slow starter. I truly feel he has some left in the tank. I bet he could still slash 250/350/475 over 400 PA with 20-25 homers.
I remember hearing that about him, but the Sox are now contenders. They can’t afford to wait half a season for a veteran slugger to remember how to hit every year.
I hope Encarnacion catches on somewhere and has a few good seasons left in him. Would be awesome to see him get to 500 bombs. Crazy that he has 424 after (sorta) never being regarded as one of the best 3–4 hitters in the game.
I mean anything is possible but I can’t see EE having another good year left in him at 38, after hitting .160 and looking horrible all season in 2020. I can’t see any team offering him more than like 1 million plus incentives, but he just flat out did not look good enough to be in the major leagues in 2020. He may just retire, or be forced to.
The White Sox brining in La Russa is a sign that Hahn is going after a big name free name free agent. I do remember Hahn saying something during this shorten season with getting the green light with spending money this off-season. This is why the White Sox are not picking up Encarnicon’s 2021 option to free up money. In the meantime, Encarnicon’s 2020’s numbers don’t justify his potential 2021 salary while the White Sox can bring up Vaughn where he can play first base to give Abreu a day off to DH.
Next season’s spending has absolutely nothing to do with why they aren’t picking up EE’s option. They aren’t picking up his option because he is no longer good, and they have better, cheaper options in-house. Hopefully they’re willing to use the freed up money elsewhere.
Did you read my entire post?