White Sox Reportedly Offered Multi-Year Deal to Yasmani Grandal
White Sox among other teams reportedly offered veteran catcher four-year deal. The catcher ended up signing a one-year deal with the Milwaukee Brewers.
The Chicago White Sox have added players this offseason that addressed their many needs going into this upcoming season. While they addressed one of their needs at catcher with the signing of James McCann, they could have also signed another catcher in Yasmani Grandal.
According to Robert Murray of The Athletic (subscription required), Grandal had multiple offers of four-year deals from many teams. However, Grandal would settle on signing a one-year, $16 million deal with the Milwaukee Brewers for the 2019 season.
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Grandal’s deal includes a $16 million mutual option for the 2020 season with a $2.25 million buyout. There were reports earlier in the offseason that linked the Sox to being interested in Grandal, but they were unable to sign the veteran catcher. Murray mentioned in his article for The Atheltic that Grandal had multi-year offers from the White Sox, New York Mets, Los Angeles Angels and Minnesota Twins.
While Grandal did have some multi-year offers from other teams, he felt he would have been doing a disservice to other catchers before him by taking some of the deals that were offered. Grandal mentioned he wanted to set a bar for younger players coming up and to hopefully ensure that they know what they’re worth.
"“I had a lot of good deals,” Grandal said. “One of my responsibilities as a player is also to respect the guys going through this process before me like Brian McCann, Russell Martin, Yadier Molina, to mention a few of them. These are guys who have established a market and pay levels for a particular tier of catchers like myself. I felt l would be doing a disservice taking some of the deals that were offered even though they were slightly more long term.” Yasmani Grandal"
It appears that although Grandal had multi-year offers from other teams, they weren’t enough to sway him into signing over just a one-year, $16 million deal with the Brewers. It’s not clear what the Sox offered Grandal, but it wasn’t enough to sign the veteran catcher. Although the Sox didn’t sign Grandal, there’s a chance they could target him heavily next offseason if he becomes a free agent.
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Sox fans might be upset that the front office couldn’t get a deal done. Without Grandal, the Sox still have a solid catching tandem in Welington Castillo and McCann for 2019. Grandal signing with a contender in Milwaukee shouldn’t damper the progress made by the Sox this offseason.