In What I Hope Isn't Eventually Pukeworthy News, Leury Garcia Will Basically Be A White Sox Lifer
Leury Garcia is a Major Leaguer. Some/many of you will say, "no shit fuckface" to that comment but I am not trying to place a descriptor on Garcia. I mean it as in he's not some AAAA fringe guy bum. Leury Garcia should be on one of the 30 MLB teams, maybe even the White Sox.
What I don't think he should have gotten was this contract:
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Now I know there are Leury "truthers" out there. They'll look at the $5.5MM AAV and say, "Dave! He plays every position not named pitcher, catcher and 1B! That's a valuable commodity to have!" and to that I say, "Sure. Absolutely". If he's getting like... 250-300 plate appearances a year while spelling guys all over the field and keeping guys throughout the season, then fine. I just fear that that's not the case right now.
We all know LaRussa loves Leury. He said this about him last September:
“Leury Garcia isn’t a utility player, he’s an every day player who plays different positions”
Soooo.... a utility player. Got it. If that's the case, fine. He can slap the ball around a little bit, walked more last year, doesn't strike out a lot and if a .270/.315 hitter with a little bit of speed is your 9 hitter and is a body that can "play" just about any position... fine. FINE. I hate the fact that Garcia's a reminder of all the losing that went down in the post Sale years, but FINE. Fucking sign him as the 26th man.
But that's not why White Sox fans are worried. Our worry is that they just gave a guy - a guy who could probably be duplicated by someone cheap like Romy Gonzalez... or Danny Mendick... or whoever else - a 3 year deal to be their starting 2B because the manager simultaneously loves Garcia thanks to his 1980s baseball brain and is the only guy who has Reinsdorf's ear and because there is NO WAY Reinsdorf would pay for a stud like Marcus fucking Semien.
I slept on it though. I'm not hitting the panic button, at least not yet. I'm annoyed and disheartened because I know how good the White Sox core is and how close they are to being scary good, but I'm not quite panicking. I said over and over again to let the offseason play out. THAT IS STILL THE CASE. The White Sox main targets *should be* the following players:
1. Michael Conforto RF
2. Jean Segura 2B
3. Re-sign Ryan Tepera
4. Trade for SP (Bassit? Manaea?)
Every one of those targets make a fuck ton of sense and are still all very doable. That'd be an awesome offseason when you add in the Graveman signing. It would be MORE than adequate to stave off the up and coming Tigers who are out wheeling and dealing right now with a few super prospects ready to emerge. At that point, reassess at the deadline in July with another 5+ game lead in the AL Central.
So I still choose to wait until pitchers and catchers report to judge the offseason fully and implore other White Sox fans to do the same. The owner gets ONE (1) more benefit of the doubt and that benefit of the doubt runs through the course of this entire offseason. I have no idea what the new CBA will bring, but there's nothing in my brain that can tell me that Kenny Williams and Rick Hahn aren't sitting in their offices frustrated as fuck because they're not allowed to spend like the big market team that they are. I don't give a shit that there's a record payroll. I give a shit that they have yet to complement their incredible core with any of the superstars that have hit the market in the recent years, dating back to Machado and Harper's free agency.
Stay the course. Yes, I fucking hate watching Garcia get 400+ plate appearances a year and think it's a fucking joke that he just a got a 3 year deal, but every target that makes perfect sense on paper is still out there for the taking. If Garcia and Graveman are the two marquis signings come March, we reserve the right as fans to scream bloody murder on twitter about Reinsdorf's frugal ways. I know I will be.
Listen to this week's Red Line Radio. It was recorded prior to the Leury Garcia signing, but everything I said in there reigns true regardless.