blackhawksfan wrote:
Losing 2 games to the A's should be enough for Rick Hahn to throw in the towel.
Being in the AL Central will continue to allow them to wait until they are forced to make a decision at the end of this month. Losing a series to Oakland is very bad though. They are a very bad road team and are now 6 games behind Minny and 7 behind Cleveland in the loss column (5.5 overall). I believe fangraphs have them with a 4% chance of making the playoffs.
At some point, this is who they are and Hahn needs to start thinking about how he will retool this roster.
I don't expect a full rebuild so players like Robert and Cease won't be moved, but I would expect that any moves with Giolito has to bring back young pitching given how thin they are heading into the off-season. Lance Lynn can't be brought back at his current option so it's basically Cease and prayers that Kopech/Crochet can actually contribute in the rotation next year. Even if those two are able to start the year in the rotation, neither can be trusted to pitch into games and will have inning restrictions. They could really use someone just like Giolito, but I doubt he'd sign without testing free agency. They need to get 2 highly regarded prospects for Giolito and they will want them to be able to contribute next season.
One benefit of the trade deadline will be to get out of some of these reliever contracts. I think Graveman is owed $8M, Kelly $9.5 (club option) and Bummer $5M for next season. Bummer is not likely to be moved, but maybe some team wants a lefty.
They still need to find help at C, 2B, possibly SS/3B and RF. The only spots I think they would be set at is Vaughn (1B), Benintendi (LF), Robert (CF) and Jimenez (DH/RF). Moncada will be on the roster next season, and he'll likely be the 3B (assuming his back doesn't require some surgery that puts him out) with Burger. I don't think trading Anderson makes sense on a down season and he will be back at $14M (club option), but we don't know the state of their relationship. Colas will probably be the RF next year also. I don't believe they have an answer at 2B, but don't doubt they will continue to try and find one from their group of internal candidates, but they really need to shake things up offensively much more than I am guessing they will.