Why 2015? Well, to reduce to one player, it’s when Adam Dunn‘s contract–that the White Sox simply have no chance at getting full return on–goes off the books. It’s also when Jake Peavy and Alex Rios reach the option stages of their contracts, and the White Sox have to come to some decisions about their future.

I didn’t include all of the pre-arbitration guys, because this list is long enough, and these guys are not relevant beyond “hey, Quintana can hold down a rotation spot and still make the league minimum in 2015.”

But as you can see here, the White Sox have $34.75 million committed to four players in 2015. Peavy can force his own way on by meeting innings cutoffs and exercising his option. That has everything to do with where Peavy is at professionally after these next two years, but the Rios decision is more of a statement on both Rios holding up, and whether multiple starters have emerged from this current prospect glut of Jared Mitchell, Trayce Thompson and maybe even Courtney Hawkins by this time.

De Aza might be getting pricier in arbitration, but probably not as much as Beckham, who seems hard-pressed to provide the value necessary to avoid getting non-tendered by that point given that Keppinger and Carlos Sanchez could be sapping away his plate appearances. Considering ‘what will Angel Sanchez and Brent Morel fetch in their second year of arbitration?’ is waste of time, too.

Relevant notes:

• A starting rotation of Sale, Old Peavy (at this point), Danks, Santiago and Quintana–something that was considered multiple times just this off-season, is already under payroll potentially at under $40 million, which is not accounting for Scott Snodgress or Erik Johnson or Simon Castro or anyone at all rendering one of the first five names irrelevant.
• Thinking about that group of relievers–Nate Jones, Donnie Veal and Addison Reed–all hitting arbitration for the first time is a trap, since the likelihood of all three retaining their current standing on the team is slim. Donnie Veal is 28, has 29.1 major league innings to his name, and only 13 of them were any good. And he was the most dominant out of the three.
• There’s not much offense here. Paul Konerko is likely gone, Dunn is not here, Rios is an option. Dayan Viciedo could become a focal point the offense, or more offense could develop from the farm system, but the main thing you’re supposed to look at here and walk away with is: The 2015 White Sox–Got some pitching in place, got some money to spend still, need to figure out their offense.

Follow James Fegan on Twitter @JRFegan

The long, interminable wait between the last time the Sox suited up (and since it was an October clash in Cleveland where Dan Johnson hit three home runs in a road gray Sox uniform, it feels like it took place on an alternate universe), lends a feeling of significance to this exhibition game.

Good thing Robin Ventura is doing his best to disavow everyone of such illusions. He’s holding his starters back until March, so Dylan Axelrod is going up against Clayton Kershaw and the Dodgers, and Brent Morel is starting at 3rd base for a sore Jeff Keppinger and batting second, just in case there were any bad memories of one of A.J. Pierzynski’s off-days in April that you had effectively suppressed.

Really, what this should drive home, is that this game is not real. While it’s exciting to hear and see baseballs being thrown by people in the right uniform, with the compelling black and white contrast, this is a practice, where the results– 

Game 1 tomorrow !!!!

— hector santiago (@HecSantiago53) February 23, 2013

–Pipe down, Hector, you’re not helping to put this in perspective. 

It’s ChIcago time .

— hector santiago (@HecSantiago53) February 23, 2013

Time? Time for what? Why is the ‘i’ capitalized?

Lets go Chicago lets bring another championship to Chicago

— hector santiago (@HecSantiago53) February 23, 2013

Oh God, now there’s no way to reign this back in. Alright, it’s exciting. It is exciting. We know nothing about this team. Nothing. There are established probability levels for every event, and a pre-existing knowledge that 162 games include a lot of randomness and craziness, but very little is known, or established about the identity of this team.

CSN’s David Kaplan was being interviewed at the halftime of the Blackhawks game on Friday, and not even about anything related to the White Sox. Yet he threw out a line that one just throws out “ I was just down at their camp, the White Sox look really good.”

Even that, even that, is enough to introduce the thought in my  head “Wait, maybe Kaplan actually saw something…something tangible” even if Kaplan himself probably didn’t mean to inspire such contemplation. At this stage, just a few bits of evidence that this season can be more than expected weigh more than they do at the end of July.

All this dreaming of low-probability events finally brings me to the realization that initially got all this wide-eyed optimism started. A little over 14 months ago, the White Sox signed two minor league free agents.

In the hierarchy of unheralded signings to get excited about, minor league free agents typically reside below “washed-up veteran looking for another chance” and even behind “former top prospect who never tapped into their potential.” They’ve been bouncing around the minor leagues for more than half of a decade, and their old team decided they weren’t worthy of a 40-man roster spot. Typically not a good sign.

In this case, the minor league free agents were a 27 year-old reliever with a Tommy John surgery in his recent history, and a 22 year-old who was a little too old to provide enthusiasm for his ability to pitch effectively, but not dominantly in High-A. They were Donnie Veal and Jose Quintana, and both are entrenched and locked-in to spots on the 25-man roster for 2013.

There are ways to explain that improbable leap. Both have limited skill sets that they maximized in order to secure somewhat limited roles. But it also serves as a reminder to lessen the confidence I have that the 2013 White Sox season will unfold in a depressingly logical and reasonable fashion.

Follow James Fegan on Twitter @JRFegan

What are you excited about this season? Are you still physically capable of getting excited?

Nick Schaefer: I’m really excited (and simultaneously, dread the alternative) how Sale builds on last year. I’m excited (and dread) to see if John Danks is going to be a $60 million albatross (and whether I was right that we should have just kept Buehrle instead), or if he can get back to the hopeful career he had before last year. I’m excited to see if Dayan Viciedo is going to be more than a platoon player with poor defense.

I am also pumped to watch Courtney Hawkins murder baseballs until he is murdering baseballs on the South Side. That will be nice to see.

Kevin Wallace: The bullpen (you can link my previous post) really excites me this year.  If it completely fails, I will not blame the front office or coaching staff, because on paper, this bullpen is set up pretty well.

The aspect of this team that scares me the most is the starting pitching staff.  Sale and Peavy scare me with with injury concerns.  Danks and Floyd scare me with inconsistency.  Santiago just flat out scares me.

James Fegan: Excited might be a curious word usage for me here. I get excited every time Dayan Viciedo steps to the plate, and the daydream of his getting fully around on fastball and driving it out to left on balance is impossibly fulfilling, but the man rips my heart out. His improvement is vital, but disaster and failure are very real possibilities as he struggles to improve against right-handed pitching.

Chris Sale is obviously a much more enjoyable watch, but whether his strength and endurance improves or whether the injury bug finally catches up to him determines whether he’ll add to the anxiety or supply the rippling exhilaration of untouchable greatness.

Lesser lights include desiring to see Addison Reed in the fully-realized version that was promised at the end of 2011, Hector Santiago’s strikeout-heavy stuff spilling over into the new year, long home runs from Tyler Flowers. There was a time, before Chris Sale came along and made him look like a piece of pyrite, when John Danks jamming right-handers all day long was my favorite White Sox pitching thing.

It’d be nice if it came back.

With all of these, the interest in seeing something that indicates that there is hope for the future. Obviously, if the Sox make noise in the playoff race, that’s going to take precedent, but I’m excited to see whether the guys who will be around the next three years are going to be formidable.