After a wholly disappointing 2023 season, the White Sox are already looking to the offseason ahead. New general manager Chris Getz is committed to improving the team for 2024, and considering just how much went wrong this past year, he has no shortage of areas to upgrade. As Bruce Levine reports for 670 The Score, the team has identified veterans Salvador Perez and Whit Merrifield as two potential offseason targets, and the front office has discussed the possibility of trading for Perez and signing Merrifield “at length.” Getz and manager Pedro Grifol are quite familiar with both players, having worked with them in the Royals organization.
With Yasmani Grandal reaching free agency after the World Series, the White Sox will need a new catcher in 2024. The 25-year-old Korey Lee is an option, but the top prospect didn’t look ready for full-time big league action this year, going 5-for-65 in 23 games across August and September. Meanwhile, 20-year-old Edgar Quero had a solid year at Double-A, but the promising young backstop still needs more seasoning in the minor leagues. With that in mind, it stands to reason the White Sox would be interested in a veteran catcher. Perez could handle the position next year, but he could also step into a smaller role if Lee or Quero forces the issue.
However, while a veteran catcher makes sense for Chicago, Perez in particular is something of a strange target. He is coming off a rough year at the plate (.714 OPS, 86 wRC+) and behind the dish. As he heads into his age-34 season, it’s not hard to believe the eight-time All-Star is entering the decline phase of his career. What’s more, Perez is owed $42MM over the next two seasons, plus a $2MM buyout on his club option for 2026, which is a lot of money for a player who could be past his prime. If the White Sox want the Royals to eat some of his salary, they’d have to send back a more enticing return package. That would seem counterproductive for a team trying to build a contender.
For their part, the Royals are under no pressure to trade their captain. Freddy Fermin could take over behind the dish if Perez were dealt, but the Royals don’t need to part with their longest-tenured player just to get Fermin more playing time. In addition, former catcher MJ Melendez has comfortably settled into a corner outfield role. Kansas City entertained the possibility of dealing Perez at the deadline (and the White Sox were among those interested), but a deal never materialized. Presumably, it would take the perfect offer for the Royals to trade Perez, and it might take even more for them to trade him to a division rival.
Merrifield spent the first six-plus years of his MLB career with Kansas City before he was traded to Toronto at last year’s deadline. While he has an $18MM mutual option with the Blue Jays for 2024, the team is likely to turn down the option, making Merrifield a free agent after the conclusion of the World Series. The 34-year-old didn’t have as strong a season as his All-Star selection would have you believe, but he remains a productive and durable veteran player. As a versatile defender and talented baserunner, he fits the bill of athleticism the White Sox are supposedly looking for.
In 2023, Merrifield split his time between second base and the corner outfield, and he could do the same for the White Sox in 2024. Chicago needs a second baseman, but shortstop Tim Anderson has suggested he’d be willing to move into that role. If Anderson is covering the keystone, Merrifield could fill a valuable platoon role in the corner outfield, covering for one of the White Sox’s many lefty batters (Andrew Benintendi, Oscar Colás, and Gavin Sheets) against left-handed pitching. Suffice it to say, he is a better fit for Chicago than his former Royals teammate.
If you’re going to be on a lousy team you might as well stay with the lousy team you’ve spent whole career with
Is this in reference to Perez? He was a part of a squad that won a ring in 2015 and a AL pennant in 2014? But all teams that win championship are lousy especially if they only win 80 games? Let’s go back to the 1920’s huh? World series or nothing? Make it less of a crap shoot and more exclusionary?
Take all the money (aka the devil) out of it too… the kids aren’t interested in logos on sleeves Manfred? Only the players fat wallets and owners?
Nobody wants to go to the south side of Chicago and when I say nobody I mean NOBODY! Ahahaha!
Holy cow the Riddlers back. Long time no see.
Nowhere was it mentioned that Perez can veto any trade to any team and has stated that he wants to stay in KC.
IIRC, Perez told the Royals he was willing not to veto a trade before the deadline. However, I think it may have only been to Marlins or Ray’s, one of the Florida teams.
I’m not even sure why Getz is even TALKING about getting a C. It’s probably the only position in the White Sox system that is fairly well represented. One of the few prospects they had that I liked with all the Minor League games I watched was Hackenburg. Then you add in Quero and Lee to that and one of them should make it and if you didn’t believe that why the heck did they trade for them in the first place? If you want a veteran C who can’t hit but is a solid game caller get Tucker Barnhardt. The Cubs are paying him anyway and you can get him for the Minimum. This is just stupid talk.
This is sox talk baby!!! Let’s get one of the most aggressive hitters out there because this team has a problem w taking too many pitches. We double down on our weaknesses to make them super weaknesses that will in turn turn into a strength.. this is why we got Getz for this right here.
This team will either MAKE or BREAK Getz is my guess
@thunderroad19: It doesn’t need to be mentioned. He’s played 12 years with the Royals, which gives him 10-5 trade veto rights.
As a Royals fan I certainly realize that but I found it odd that it wasn’t mentioned as a possible speed bump in a trade. I follow other teams to some extent but have no idea how many players have 10/5 rights at the moment.
OMG IT’S A BASEBALL TRADE RUMOR!!!
Merrifield is one of the better free agents in such a weak class. Therefore he will have plenty of offers and one would think he would prefer to sign with a contender unless they are gonna throw stupid money at him. Trading for Perez on the downslope sounds like a White Sox move though.
Whitfield can only sign with a contender that needs a 2B, as I don’t see him being a fit as a regular OF. I also think most contenders have a 2B. If he wants a bench job, sure. If he wants to actually play everyday, CWS are a possibility. As to Perez, he’s much like Grandal in that he is no longer much of a C, and is expensive (but he is cheaper than Grandal). As to Melendez being a “former” C, having settled into a corner OF role, is a bit of a stretch. His bat doesn’t play well in the OF, and defensively, neither does he. He is playing out of position and needs to go back to his natural position. KC can definitely afford to listen to offers on Sal. I don’t think he would be the answer in Chicago, but they will continue to White Sox until they bring in outside voices.
There are several contenders that need a 2B, so Merrifield should be in demand, even at 34. The Mariners, who need both a 2B and a corner OF, come to mind.
Whits not that good.
White Sox brass identifying a player who’s had opportunities ad nauseam to leave his home club and hasn’t. He’s also stated repeatedly that he will finish in KC. Pale Hose off-season is off to a ripping start
Whyyyyyyyy??? Whyyy? Whyyyyyyyyyhhathefuk
TLDR: Why
MmmmMmmmm donuts
Why?
Why?
Why ask why?
Drink Bud Dry.
Of course trade for nearly over-the-hill players from the Royals. Isn’t that where Grifol and Getz come from? 7 years Getz has been involved with the minor leagues of the White Sox and to think he would be willing to part with young talent for 2 nearly done and declining ex-all stars defines what I believe to be the beginning of a few 100 loss seasons in a row.
Trade Cease and Roberts now! Baltimore will over-pay for Cease as they needed him in the playoffs and Robert Jr, could be used to pick the pockets of another ball club like the Yankees. Neither of them deserve to be on a team destined for 100 losses in the next few years and little chance of being anything other than bad.
We need a real GM with success and experience building a competitor, not a pretty-boy GM kowtowing to a very ancient & cheap owner with bad taste in GM’s……
Donny- All I thought Hahn ever needed was to be without Kenny Williams above him. Unfortunately- He went out the door with him.
Talk about falling further down trading Cease & Robert. Robert will be a generational player b4 he’s done. Cease needs confidence to throw any pitcher at any time especially his slider that hardly ever thrown for a in the zone strike. Hitters more often than not don’t swing at his slider than previous years
Getz has to realize that there are other teams to deal with besides KC. His plan seems to be to turn the team into the Chicago Royals. It used to be the As that had a pipeline to KC. Good riddance to Grandal who should have been dfa’d three years ago, but we don’t need to rebuild with older players no matter what team they play for. Perez is better than Lee, who Getz seems to like even though he didn’t even hit .100 this year. No idea what Quero can do. The only reason to get Merrifield is to stop him from hitting clutch HRs against the Sox. If Anderson moves to 2b, it will be four years since we’ve had a true 2b man. It’s a moot point anyway since there’s no way Reinsdorf is going to pick up his $14m option.
Nah Grandal was probably the BCIB coming into 2022
Getz has to realize that there are other teams to deal with besides KC.
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Am I missing something? Has Getz had even one deal with KC. I thought he was only hired a month back.
Best part is Merrifield isn’t even a Royal.
Best part is Merrifield isn’t even a Royal.
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That’s the oddest part. A writer writes a story about the WS, maybe true, maybe speculation, and mentions someone on the Royals.
Avenger extrapolates that into Getz only deals with the Royals, notwithstanding the fact that he has never once had a deal with the Royals.
John Wathan is next in line to sign with Sox if Perez don’t come over
I believe Avenger65 is talking about the front office moves of the White Sox of which are two former KC execs (nevermind Getz briefly played for the Royals as well)… Not a good sign when it appears they are fishing in the bottom of the barrel…. Perez was a good player. Key word WAS. If he is so good in the clubhouse then he should become a manager or coach at this point.
Lee had a whole 65 abs. Don’t write him off yet.
I wonder if they would be interested in Contreras and Donovan from the Cards? For Cease?
The White Sox would be crazy to not take that offer. I believe the Cards would love to find a taker for the Contreras contract – and he’d fit right in with the Chisox crew. He might even be a good influence on that group.
This is a terrible deal for sox….no thanks
The Sox would be crazy trade Cease for Contreras. The Cards would get nil in a trade for Contreras (unless the Cards paid for his contract in full.) Cease even though he had a off year would require the team trading for him to offer some good prospects in a trade. Dream on!
I heard Paul Splittorff, Dan Quisenberry and Darrell Porter can be had for a song!
They will be 34 (Perez) and 35 (Merrifield) early next year. Why not see if Johnny Bench and Joe Morgan will come out of retirement?
You’d have to dig Morgan up.
Throw in Babe Ruth’s underwear, Ty Cobb’s wooden teeth, Joe Jackson’s shoe… forget the last one.
They don’t got enough young talent. They gotta rebuild again.
The White Sox need to go full rebuild.
Pretty weird that’s these two would be the guys you target. Aging, declining vets…
@Simm
Oh, for a second there, I thought you were talking about Reinsdorf.
This Royals fixation is one of the stupidest things I’ve ever seen in sports. They’ve won like 40% of their games over the last several years so we need to be more like them? WTH?!?!
Of all the things the White Sox need, I can think of nobody they need less than those 2 guys. If this is any indication of how the off season is going to go we all should just hibernate now, Wake up in the Spring, And then go back to sleep. I can only hope Getz totally fails in this quest for failure.
If the Sox were just a couple players away from solid contention, and you were going all in for ‘24, this makes sense. Unless Getz feels like these are the guys to come in and overhaul the culture immediately, it makes zero sense. Isn’t that what a manager and coaching staff are supposed to do anyway?
Isn’t this tampering??
They are still under contract to their respective teams.
No. If the GM had a press conference and said he was interested in targeting these two specifically, it would be. But this is just a writer speculating who the team will be targeting.
New GM? Owner wants to get wins quick? Here’s a success story you can model your organization on: the Kansas City Royals.
Those two feel like such an odd fit that I get the feeling that this is some sort of misdirection.
The White Sox need Mike Veeck and a modern equivalent of Disco Demolition Night.
Dubstep demo night where they blow up i-pods and mp3 players.
Would be very White Sox to kick start their rebuild with a pair of old guys who have seen better days
Dodgers are in an elimination game and they let Lance Lynn give up four home runs in an inning. You have a bullpen. After three home runs, you should change pitchers to anyone else.
Things happen so fast in the heat of competition. Dave Roberts can literally blink twice and all of a sudden Lance Lynn has given up 4 consecutive homeruns. Brian Snitker can spit twice before he realizes he should have intentionally walked Bryce Harper. It’s a fast game sometimes. As Yoda once said : “Life moves pretty fast, if you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”
Excellent response. However, I think the team needs to take consequential action. It isn’t Roberts fault because pitching decisions come from upstairs, but I think it is probably still time for a change at the helm. If I was one of twenty other teams, I would hire Andrew Friedman, but he needs to know that his job is also on the line next year. It is not so bad that the Dodgers were swept in three games as it is that had they played three games more, they still probably would have lost them. Starting Lynn rather than Pepiot or even a bullpen game was an obvious mistake. The Dodgers have a juggernaut offense they need to drop fantasies of signing Ohtain and sign about three starting pitchers: One among Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Blake Snell and Aaron Nola. Two among Kershaw, Sonny Gray and Jordan Montgomery. Bobby Buehler and Miller gets pole positions for a spot, and Pepiot and May are depth or relievers.
Starting Lynn rather than Pepiot or even a bullpen game was an obvious mistake.
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There was nothing wrong with starting Lynn. He had a 3.38 in his previous 4 starts. I don’t see anything that suggests that he wouldn’t do a good job.
Merrifield has a good chance of reaching 1,300 hits and 100 home runs in 2024, he’s currently at 1,184 and 90, respectively.
Additionally, he ended 2023 with 201 stolen bases, so he could get to 225-230 next season.
Why go after aging stars? Shouldn’t they be rebuilding?
Why would Perez waive his no trade rights as a 5 & 10 player to go to the train wreck that is the Chicago White Sox organization? Don’t see that happening.
Girfol and Perez are close supposedly. Grifol needs an ally and leadership in the clubhouse. While this move isn’t likely, there is good intentions on Chicago’s part.
They’ve also inquired about the availability of Cookie Rojas, Freddy Patek, Steve Busby & Willie Mays Aikens…
And Joe Keough, Ellie Rodriguez, Al Fitzmorris and Tony Solita.
What about George Brett? He’s still around. And let’s not forget about Dennis Leonard, Frank White, and Willie Wilson!
This comment section had me rollin’ …oh man , my sides hurt
Isn’t going to happen, Perez will retire a Royal. He’s one of the few players that KC won’t move, purely out of respect
He’s one of the few players that KC won’t move, purely out of respect
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That’s the same reason why they didn’t move Merrifield, out of respect. Until he had no more value, and then they gave him away.
They could get Hosmer and Moustakas too, a real reunion, Royals ran Getz crappy bat out there for years, he’s used to losing teams, Grifol is used to it too, let’s get our buddies here……haha
How about Greinke, Shields and Alex Rios?
This would be a classic JR move: sign big names about 3-5 years past their prime. Jerry lives that far in the past with players and apparently 10 years in the past with teams. It’s the only explanation for their infatuation with poaching from one of the only teams worse than they are.
Let’s mix in some other old ALC favorites…
Coco Crisp, Grady Sizemore, Brandon Inge, Joe Mauer.
This is such a ME move! Copy Cat Getz
Leo wanted to hire a fall guy during the white sox rebuild bc they know this is gonna take the better part of a decade to rebuild. And what Leo wants Leo Getz
(I see what you did there meme)
Perez is not being traded to the White Sox.
Why oh why is this WhiteSox organization stuck in the stupid mode? Although Korey Lee has yet to hit he probably threw out more base runners trying to steal in his short stint with Sox than all other catcher’s combined. His defense was so much better than any catcher they had. I’d love to have Merrifield……10 years ago. If they gonna go old player route why not just stick with Remillard & Sosa until at least next trading deadline if neither of them prove worthy. I’m in a camp that Sosa can be a 15-20+ HR capability. Right or as wrong as my opinion it’s just opinion
And 99% of WhiteSox fans blamed Tony LaRussa for 2022 season. That proves that more than Jerry Reinsdorf is clueless. A manager is as good as the teams players are. Ask Aaron Boone, Terry Francona & Bob Melvin
Maybe Eric Haase finds his home run stroke at the current stand-in for Comiskey Park. It’ll sure be more hospitable than Comerica, plus Haase knows a plurality of the pitchers and hitters in the Division. You can do worse if you’re looking for someone as a “bridge” to a new generation of catchers…
Perez: “You want me to waive my no trade clause to go where?” Followed by endless laughter.
Both guys fit the profile of players the White Sox target. Overpriced and over the hill.
Looks as though I’ll be following the Cubs again next year. They kept me interested until the second to last day of the season.
Won’t waste time on the Sox until Reinsdork signs accomplished ballplayers who know how to win.
I’m sure the White Sox (or any other team) won’t really miss a fair weather fan like yourself.
Reinsdorf well on his way to going full Mr. Burns it seems.
Mr Burns is a lot more charming and likeable than Jerry.
Lol and a lot better at buying a good roster once smithers informed him that his first choices were dead and/or retired.
How is it possible that we somehow end up with a WORSE catcher than Grandal, AND he’s more expensive?
Reinsdorf sucks.
Dumpster Divin’ Chris!
You could not make up more ridiculous ideas. That’s what you get when you promote dumb people who were working w/in your franchise when this mess was created instead of smart people from elsewhere who might not have exclusively terrible ideas.
I think most will agree that Getz is not really the guy that should be in this position and that any move he is looking to make so far appears silly… Mostly due to his lack of experience (at least with building anything good in this org) and who his ‘mentors’ were in this dysfunctional org. Could we be wrong? Sure, but when you have a team that was built for a ‘window’ of success, and that most players have laughably (so far) failed to reach that level, the last thing you need is a new guy floundering around to find his groove. They should have gotten any number of GMs (or those who have been around in winning orgs) that are looking for a position who have successfully built an org up. My guess is they didn’t because the chairman’s hand needs to fit perfectly up his GM’s ass and most self respecting GMs (especially those successful in the past)who not appreciate that, metaphorically or not.I would not be surprised if this guy tries to bring back Grandal either. Also to bring back Lance Lynn, and bring Giolito back as a FAs signings.. Yea, ridiculous I know, but after this past season, and Getz being promoted, nothing would surprise me at this point. .
Finally the end of the Yoyo experiment. I can’t wait to see George Brett and third.