At the time, I wrote leaving Clarkin exposed was a logical move.  At this point, it’s hard to imagine he has the durability to start, let alone effectively, limiting him to relief, and it’s not clear he will be very good in the next year or two, if ever.  Now, just a few days later losing him on waivers, the White Sox claimed Clarkin back off waivers and the 40-man roster now stands at 39.

Regardless of what you think about Clarkin in a vacuum, this makes leaving Spencer Adams unprotected look even stranger.  Everything from public evaluations to pedigree to statistics to health to age to proximity to the majors…well, Adams seems to be better than Clarkin in just about every way.  I suppose Clarkin is left-handed?  And yet here we are.

Perhaps, for whatever reason, the White Sox have decided the most important thing in the universe is now having left-handed relievers.  Hahn cited it as an area of need while he was in the process of acquiring a number of southpaw relievers in the second half of the season.

But as I originally pointed out—Clarkin is now behind at least Jace Fry, Aaron Bummer (pictured above) and Caleb Frare, arguably Kodi Medeiros, and there may be more to like about Hunter Schryver than Clarkin now.  You can never have too many relievers and there are problems with all of those other guys, but I still cannot figure out why Clarkin gets a spot and Adams doesn’t.  There must be something here we don’t know about, because with the information we have this doesn’t really make sense.

Lead Image Credit: Ray Carlin-USA TODAY Sports

So far so good.

Two things caught White Sox fans’ eye on the heels of the announcement:

1) The press release said it left the White Sox’ 40-man roster at 38 rather than the 39 fans counted.  The mystery was subsequently solved, as it was announced Ian Clarkin was claimed by the Cubs on waivers.  Clarkin was one of the supplementary pieces acquired in the Blake Rutherford deal with the Yankees.  He’ll turn 24 before the 2019 season starts, and between injuries and ineffectiveness he has yet to conquer Double-A after six years in pro ball, most recently posting a K:BB ratio just a shade over 1.00 in Birmingham.  A well regarded prospect once upon a time, it was understandable the White Sox would want to see if they could get him healthy and back on track.  The Cubs will have to see if they can pull it off.  I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s a solid lefty reliever one day, but even if you knew he could be that in a year or two, just among lefty relievers on the organizational depth chart Clarkin would come in behind Jace Fry, Aaron Bummer, Caleb Frare, and Medeiros at a minimum.

2) A notable omission from 40-man protection was Spencer Adams.  Some outlets believed the White Sox had a steal when they took Adams in the second round of the 2014 draft, and the highly athletic prep arm has climbed all the way to Triple-A, pounding the zone relentlessly along the way.  Even if the control (i.e. not walking people as opposed to command) has been very good, and that has yielded some solid ERAs along the way, he has yet to show he can miss bats consistently, and scouts said he looked stiffer in 2018.  Still, this author, at the very least, thought he would be added to the 40-man roster, given that some were very excited about him not too long ago, and his proximity to the majors.

That said, the Rule 5 draft is an easy source of fear.  It plays on all of our concerns about losing talent for the low price of a 40-man spot, particularly if a player lost in such a way were to go off and become something significant.  But, the White Sox have been good about this of late.  Some began making concerned noises when Jordan Guerrero and Jake Peter were exposed to Rule 5 last year only for neither of them to get taken.  There’s a good chance Adams makes it past Rule 5 and just returns to Charlotte next season, and hopefully he takes a step forward and reaches his potential as a back end starter with the White Sox, or polishes himself up into a nice trade chip. Or, if he does get taken, there’s reason to believe the White Sox have a basis to decide it’s a loss they are willing to stomach.

And, this leaves room for them to make other additions, or even claim someone they like even better in the Rule 5 draft themselves.

If you’re struggling to put the Beckham era in appropriate context, take note that Brett Lawrie has streaked, slumped and streaked again to a .256/.322/.430 line, which, if it holds, would be the best production the Sox have gotten from their regular second baseman since Alexei Ramirez‘s rookie year in 2008. This didn’t set out  to be an ode to Lawrie, we just got here by talking about Beckham.

2. Todd Frazier, who has admittedly struggled to do anything besides hit home runs this season, will finally be placed in a position to succeed as he defends his Home Run Derby title on Monday.

Simple statistical studies of post-Home Run Derby performance have found small but statistically significant drops in power production afterward, but that can likely be chalked up to power production being at a crest for players to get selected for the Derby in the first place.

Getting your approach jacked up from one day of gunning for home runs is obviously a case-by-case malady, and Frazier can hardly offer any assurance given that he had a stunningly awful second half last year after winning. There’s not really a positive note to glom onto this, even though this feels like the spot where it would come.

3. An actual positive note is Spencer Adams‘ injury is at least being treated initially as mild.

UPDATE: Spencer Adams is expected to miss 7-10 days with a right ankle injury. He has been placed on the Dash’s DL. pic.twitter.com/fafa9MBU3k

— Winston-Salem Dash (@WSDashBaseball) July 7, 2016

He remains tradeable and we do not need to alter our valuation of him as a prospect so long as the injury isn’t hugely serious, and it does not appear to be, so that’s good for everyone. Celebrating that a guy is not horribly injured just so he can remain viable trade bait is grotesque, but there’s no undoing the framing of this paragraph at this point. On to the next!

4. With their top prospect still in the minors being currently groomed for an immediate role in the bullpen, and Adams spending the next week elevating his ankle and also not really missing bats all season, it’s no surprise that the White Sox did not make any impact on BP’s midseason top-50 prospect list.

It would certainly be nicer if new, shiny prospect Zack Collins was not striking out in half of his Rookie League plate appearances to start, but he has a big hitch in his swing and that’s going to be a feature throughout his path through the system. At least he’s still catching!

You won’t see his name on the prospect lists, but this kinda lumbering DH for the Charlotte Knights put a charge into one Thursday night.

5. Robin Ventura is sounding awfully smug these days about his team’s relative turnaround. Scott Merkin wrote:

“When manager Robin Ventura was asked postgame if he could see this run coming, he replied, ‘Of course.’

‘You’re seeing some guys grind through some stuff. The pitching’s been great. Offensively, we’ve been getting it,’ he said. ‘Everybody seems to be contributing in one way or another, and it’s nice. We’re playing better baseball, it’s that simple. We’re playing all-around better baseball.'”

Plenty of managers can boast leading their teams to great seasons, but only Ventura can stake claim to overseeing a hot and focused start, a horrifying collapse, and a mild recovery to mediocrity. The Sox have six-straight games on tap against last-place teams, so they could very easily push their series victory streak to seven without another inexplicable dive into total incompetence, which, of course, is always on the menu.

Lead Image Credit: Mike Dinovo // USA Today Sports Images

Peace and safety to everyone.

Right now the White Sox are sitting at the blackjack table and it couldn’t be clearer that they’re out of money. Their hot start to the season was all but erased by the team’s worst stretch of play since the 2013 season (where they lost 99 games), the Cleveland Indians have caught fire and taken a 7.5 game lead in the division, there are three teams ahead of the White Sox for the last Wild Card spots, and PECOTA pegs the White Sox’ current playoff odds at 21 percent.

This leaves the team with a few options: chalk it up to a loss, sit pat or try to sell some veterans (though I don’t think you’ll get anything good for Todd Frazier or Melky Cabrera) and go into next year with essentially the same team, or go back to the farm system (the well) and try to turn their top non-Tim Anderson prospects into players that can help the team this year and beyond.

Much like going home to your significant other and trying to explain how you went to the casino with $200 in cash and have somehow lost $505 ($5 ATM fee), there’s significant risk for the White Sox if they choose to further deplete an already thin farm system. But unlike the former dilemma where there’s a lighter consequence of walking away when you run out of your initial bank roll, the White Sox could face potentially disastrous results if they simply stayed the course, or worse yet, sold some of their more talented players for pennies on the dollar*. Obviously, there’s a chance being aggressive and acquiring some better players may not be enough to catapult them into the playoffs this year or potentially next year, but when sitting on your hands offers essentially the same fate, it would behoove you to be aggressive.

Simply put, based on all of the evidence the White Sox have produced thus far in 2016 suggests they are not a good enough team to make the playoffs. If they enter 2017 with essentially the same team, the odds of them making the playoffs in that season are also marginal at best. Even with growth from Carlos Rodon and Anderson next season, the White Sox would still have serious holes in (and feel free to tune out if you’ve heard this before) the outfield, DH, catcher, back end of the rotation and the bullpen AND every other member of their core would be a year older and possibly, if not probably, a little bit worse.

There isn’t enough depth at the top of the minor league system to cover all of these issues, and even though the White Sox love to push their minor leaguers through the system as fast as possible, it would not be realistic to expect any of their top minor leaguers, Carson Fulmer, Spencer Adams, Tyler Danish etc. to make significant, positive contributions until at least 2018, and that’s not good for the 2017 White Sox.

Playing for 2018 is really unappealing because Frazier, Cabrera, and Brett Lawrie will all be gone, with no realistic in-house replacements. The very angry White Sox fan in me believes Avisail Garcia will still be patrolling RF as there’s also no internal answer for that position (Jason Coats doesn’t count), one of catcher/DH is still an issue even if you believe Zack Collins can come in and hit well, and Jose Abreu will be on the wrong side of 31 not getting any better.

The White Sox farm depth is starting to get better in the lower minors. This is a really important step in the right direction for the health of this organization, but the depth being in the lower minors means you really aren’t going to see the system bear real, talented fruit until 2019 and beyond (when the Sox lose Chris Sale, Jose Quintana, and whatever shell of Abreu is left). Sure, you could make the argument that the White Sox could venture into free agency to fill some of the holes on the 2017 and 2018 teams, but in the words of Styx, you’d be “fooling yourself.”

I think all of the BP Southside writers have bemoaned the White Sox lack of willingness to sign top tier free agents at some point, so no they’re not getting Yoenis Cespedes next year either, and the White Sox’ hit rate on second tier free agents is so incredibly ugly, to expect them to find even mediocre talent seems like a stretch. Much like banking on the infantile farm system, counting on free agency to help the White Sox in the short term is a really bad bet. Will trading Fulmer and Adams probably suck in a few years? Yeah, it will. But even with those players in the organization down the road, I don’t think the White Sox future is all that bright.

All of this adds up to one unfortunate conclusion: if the White Sox don’t make the playoffs this year or next, there is a good chance that they won’t make the playoffs for an extended amount of time. That doubly sucks when you think about how their current playoff drought is seven-going-on-eight years and they’ve already missed the playoffs for an extended amount of time. The White Sox window of contention is right now and the organization has to be willing to pay the price to make this team better during that window. Their ownership has already made clear that they aren’t willing to spend actual money on good players, so that means they’ll have to pay a prospect price instead.

Luckily for the White Sox, some good players are available on the trade market. The Brewers are a treasure trove of players that have multiple years of control that would provide a big boost to the White Sox. Will Smith and Chris Carter are still arb eligible for several more years each, Jonathan Lucroy has one of the best contract options for 2017 in the majors and Ryan Braun is expensive, but producing at such a level that he is worth his current contract. Carlos Gonzalez and Jake McGee of the Rockies should also be available, as will be the Reds’ Jay Bruce who are all under contract through next season.

These players will be in demand, there’s no doubt about that. Unfortunately, this makes it fairly murky as to whether or not the White Sox would be able to catch some of these bigger fish with their current trade chips, especially now that Adams could be hurt. The most important thing, though, is that this front office has to realize where they are at in the win cycle and make every effort to acquire more talent for the stretch run this year and the next year’s season. They already shot themselves in the foot by not being more aggressive during this past off-season and every day that passes without a move this year cripples them even further. They have to go back to their well and double down and acquire more talent; there’s currently no better choice.

*Of course they could blow everything up and trade Chris Sale and company, but when you think about how their veteran-for-prospect trades have gone, they might as well just go all Fargo on their best players. Link for those of you that don’t get that reference.

**Also, screw the All-Star game for leaving Jose Quintana out.

Lead Image Credit: Mike Dinovo // USA Today Sports Images

These are minor blips in the minor leagues, but the Sox could use some major boosts, and this was not a good day.

I’m a borderline Sox optimist at this point. They are a home series victory against a horrible Braves team from entering the All-Star break four games over .500, and a sweep away from being the thick of the moshpit for the second Wild Card spot. Given the pre-season outlook and some of the holes they broke camp with, this is a good result. They are within striking distance at the trade deadline, which is what they sought to be.

For the most part, it seems like they would rather not go to such lengths.

They have been waiting out the worst slump of Avisail Garcia‘s career (he has two extra-base hits since June 1, and hasn’t homered over 120 plate appearances) to replace him with the ultra inexpensive 35-year-old Justin Morneau coming off of surgery.

They have already waited out nearly a month of Austin Jackson‘s projected six-week recovery timeline from knee surgery with J.B. Shuck–who has at least managed to randomly slug .480 since Jackson went down–even though both have offensive profiles a more aggressive team would probably look to upgrade.

And they will almost surely will wait out Alex Avila‘s second hamstring pull, since his mid-season offensive revival will give them something to point to as help on the way.

Their bullpen however, is currently David Robertson, Nate Jones, Zach Duke and then just hopes and prayers on any day where those three need rest. Given the state of Burdi, Zach Putnam playing catch with his wounded elbow, and a now thinned out crop from which to trade for help, the Sox appear set to turn to Fulmer for relief help, but with Dan Jennings, Michael Ynoa, Chris Beck and Matt Albers all floating around replacement-level performance or, in Albers’ case, worse, they’ll run out of internal options well before they run out of need, and their willingness to make another move, and in turn, take on more salary will be tested, or their lack of willingness will be exposed.

The White Sox cannot be straight-up accused of apathy, or inflexibility. James Shields is a bigger move than many contenders will swing all season, regardless of whether not their league scouts botched the assessment or not. Adam LaRoche was at least supposed to offer another half-viable option to toggle between beyond just watching Garcia’s career go in the tank, but the Sox still left their intriguing turnover and transformation of the roster so unfinished, with so many spots that had the potential to need mid-year adjustments, so that it was always going to necessitate a wealth of activity to patch things up, let alone land a major bat like Carlos Gonzalez, Ryan Braun, or even a resurgent Jay Bruce that would vault them above the pack competing for the second Wild Card.

One of the amusing elements of watching the Bulls stagger confusedly through free agency, is the constant conspiracy theorizing from their fans that money and resources are being siphoned off to lavish on the White Sox. It’s like they’re inmates in a prison whose only windows face that of another identical prison across the street, and can only rationalize their hardships by speculating how much better it must be on the other side. It helps that the average Bulls fan doesn’t watch the Sox.

In reality, both are stubbornly avoidant of utterly fan-murdering, but focused rebuilding efforts, while also being adverse to outspending the field. And for both, building a mid-tier contender for cheap and remaining flexible for upgrades at the peak of the win cycle seems promising until that flexibility is never used, the throttle is never really pushed all the way down, and we’re left wondering if the general manager was unable to recognize their needs and seize a major opportunity to improve, or wasn’t allowed to.

Lead Image Credit: Mike Dinovo // USA Today Sports Images

That’s a silly thing to care about, in reality. The point of your minor league system is for players to do well enough to eventually reach the majors. If that thins out your system, well, that’s OK. If Anderson were abducted by aliens, THAT would put a glaring hole in the White Sox system. Him coming up to the majors doesn’t. Well it does, but in a good way. Does that make sense? Let’s move on.

The White Sox entered 2016 with two legit Top 100 prospects in Anderson and Carson Fulmer. There are one or two other “hey, he’s kind of interesting” guys like Spencer Adams or maybe Jordan Guerrero, but Anderson and Fulmer were and are the realest of deals.

Now that Anderson is in Chicago and we can watch him in glorious high-definition on a regular basis, how does the rest of the system look? The answer isn’t very pretty. Let’s take a look at the next five, after Anderson who was No. 1, on BP’s organizational rankings coming into the season.

Carson Fulmer

Before the season started, there was speculation that Fulmer, the White Sox’ first-round pick in 2015, could perhaps help the big league club as early as mid-season as either a bullpen arm or even in the rotation if reinforcements were necessary in either department.

Reinforcements have, indeed, been necessary, but the learning curve for Fulmer has been steeper than some might have expected. After tossing all of 22 innings in High-A Winston-Salem a year ago following the draft, Fulmer started the season in Double-A Birmingham and struggled with his control out of the gate and has a 5.82 ERA to show because of it.

Things seem to be progressing nicely.  Even if he’s still walking more batters than the White Sox would probably prefer, he’s been stronger of late. After posting 36 strikeouts against 34 walks in his first 10 starts of the season, since the month of June began he’s struck out 32 batters with just eight walks in his four most recent starts, including a 6.2 IP, 10 K, 1 BB outing on June 9. (Note: this was written before Sunday’s start).

It’s unclear whether or not Fulmer’s slow start will also slow the White Sox’ plans of advancement for him. They traditionally promote players aggressively, and one would expect them to do the same with Fulmer, but whether or not we see him in a White Sox uniform in 2016 remains unclear.

Spencer Adams

After finishing the 2015 season at High-A Winston-Salem, Adams has spent the entire first three months of this season there with solid results.

Adams has never profiled as an elite strikeout pitcher, which is one of the reasons he’s hovered on the brink of several Top 100 prospect lists but outside of it in most pubs (Baseball America had him at No. 100 pre-2015 but no pub had him in their Top 100 this season). He’s striking out 6.2 batters per nine this season in the Carolina League, but what’s more impressive is his walk rate is 1.7 and he’s given up just six home runs in a league-leading 94.2 innings.

Adams just turned 20 at the start of the season, so there’s obviously a long way to go, but one has to imagine the White Sox are happy with his development.

Micker Adolfo

It’s hard to believe it’s already been three years since the White Sox inked a 16-year-old Adolfo to a $1.6 million contract as one of the top international prospects in baseball. Now 19, Adolfo is finally getting his first taste of affiliated ball this season at Low-A Kannapolis.

Unfortunately for him, he has yet to get his feet more than wet as an injury sidelined him just a few weeks into the season until Saturday, when he returned to Kannapolis following a rehab assignment in the AZL.

He hasn’t yet seen enough action to fully judge, but Adolfo remains raw as hell and the fact that he’s finally getting a shot at a more advanced level than he had ever seen previously is a good sign.

Trey Michalczewski

An over-slot signing after being drafted in the seventh round in 2013, the White Sox have promoted Michalczewski aggressively, as after spending the entirety of 2015 at High-A Winston-Salem, the 21-year old started the season at Double-A Birmingham and has adjusted fine, putting together a .245/.336/.396 line in 283 plate appearances.

Questions still remain, however, about where he’ll wind up IF he makes the majors — some say first base or right field while he’s spent his career to date at third base.  He certainly has the arm for third, but everything else is an open question.

Jordan Guerrero

Guerrero was a 15th round pick in 2012 who entered the prospect conversation a year ago when he struck out 148 batters against just 31 walks in 149 innings combined between Low-A Kannapolis and High-A Winston-Salem.

That, of course, prompted a promotion to Double-A Birmingham for the start of this season, and the results have been, well, less-than-promising for the 22-year old. In 80 innings thus far, he’s struck out 66 while walking 46, a massive leap in his BB/9 from 1.9 a year ago to 5.2 this season.

Guerrero never profiled as much more than a possible back-end starter, but if he doesn’t adjust to the struggles he’s seen in Double-A, he may fall back into obscurity.

Others of note

• Adam Engel became a thing briefly last fall when he was named the MVP of the Arizona Fall League, posting a 1.165 OPS and stealing 10 bases. Those numbers brought him to Double-A Birmingham for 2016, where he’s hitting .233/.345/.381 with 22 stolen bases.  Hardly terrible numbers, until you remember he’s already 24 years old.
• Former first-round pick Courtney Hawkins, in his second go-around with Double-A Birmingham, missed the first month of the season with an injury and has returned to hit .221/.282/.351 in 170 plate appearances, with a K% of 33, which is about where he’s stood for the duration of his minor league career.
• Corey Zangari, like Michalczewski, excited people because he was a rare high schooler the White Sox paid above slot to sign when they drafted him in the sixth round a year ago. He’s hitting .166/.247/.316 with 106 strikeouts in 248 plate appearances at Low-A Kannapolis.

As you’ve probably gathered by now, the White Sox farm system is seriously lacking in players who are expected to make an impact at the next level, especially positionally. Recent draft picks like Zack Collins and Zack Burdi making their pro debuts and being added to this list will certainly help, but the team clearly has a long way to go in terms of getting their system up to snuff with more successful organizations.

Spend less time and attention focusing on the value that the position implies. 2080 Baseball’s Mauricio Rubio said Collins has a nominal chance to stick at catcher, and while the Sox are likely to commit to giving him a chance there at the start, he is being drafted for his bat.

It’s a good bat, and a loud one. The six-foot, two-inch 21-year-old hit .358/.534/.631 with 13 home runs in 57 games in his junior year at Miami, and has plus natural power with a hit tool that grades out at average according to both Rubio and Baseball Prospectus’ Chris Crawford.

His athleticism is less exciting and first base is the most likely final destination for him once the catching dream is set aside, but for a system lacking anything resembling a polished potential above-average lurking around, Collins and his advanced plate approach are the cure.

With Carson Fulmer struggling in Double-A, Rubio says Collins slides in immediately at the second-best prospect in the White Sox system.

Shoutout to Tim Anderson for the White Sox avoiding the embarrassment of having their draft pick immediately becoming their best prospect.

Lead Image Credit: Steve Lanscombe // USA Today Sports Images

1. John Danks‘ wave of mutilation continued Wednesday with six more shutout innings against the Padres, which now gives him 11-straight scoreless frames; a bizarre accomplishment for a No. 5 starter who can’t keep the ball down and is playing in a launching pad. How is it that Danks twirling shutouts and Jimmy Rollins clocking oppo-dingers existing in the same space?

Possibly unrelated, since Spring Training results only have tangential relation to reality, Bruce Levine reports that Dioner Navarro alerted Danks to a tell in his delivery, which he has since fixed.

“’Dioner has been around awhile,’ Danks said. ‘He has seen me and faced me. If he says something, I don’t need to look at it on video. He told me exactly what I was doing. We fixed it, and it has not been an issue since.’

Danks was holding his glove in different positions for grips on fastball and breaking balls, tipping his pitches to hitters, sources said.”

-Bruce Levine.

I would bet on Danks’ tell developing this Spring rather than carrying over from last season, but better to have a catcher noticing these things than not. Moreover, Navarro doesn’t project to be an asset as pure defender or as a pitch-framer, so some evidence of his experience providing value is a minor relief. Between Jeff Samardzija and Chris Sale, White Sox catching did not distinguish themselves for their observance in this area in 2015.

On top of that:

“Scout who saw John Danks said Weds. was best his fastball has consistently been in while. Velo often at 90, helps w/ changeup differential.”

-Dan Hayes.

It’s John Danks, so we should put a reasonable ceiling on the optimism, but here’s on back-end starter actively trending up for a change.

2. Tim Anderson was reassigned to minor league camp Thursday, ending his Spring session in regular Cactus League action that only saw him get 14 at-bats stuck behind Rollins and Tyler Saladino.

Anxiety that the Sox would be forced to break camp with Anderson pretty much died when Rollins came aboard, and transitioned to hope that Rollins would mentor and mold Anderson into his own image. The 22-year-old new father posted an .838 OPS in extremely limited exhibition action.

Anderson will almost certainly start the year in Triple-A Charlotte, while Rollins’ 37-year-old frame and Saladino’s shaky bat will be tasked with keeping him in the minors.

3. Friend of the blog Mauricio Rubio and the 2080 Baseball crew released their top-125 prospect list on Thursday, where Anderson came in at No. 24 overall–with notes that his future could very likely end up in center field–while Carson Fulmer came in No. 43.

2080 actually gave Fulmer a slightly higher OFP, but Anderson’s proximity to the majors, and baseline as an elite athlete and plus defender in the outfield (should he end up there) likely gives him a higher floor than Fulmer.  I.e. Anderson’s floor (barring worst-case scenario disasters) is as an average center fielder, which is more valuable than Fulmer’s floor of being a solid reliever.

Spencer Adams didn’t make the list, but Rubio noted he was in consideration for the back end of the list and was dinged for command issues and inconsistent velocity reports.

4. Forbes franchise value estimates came out this week. They exist in a weird time zone for applying to the current state of the franchise because they reflect realities from a year ago, but it remains safe to say that the White Sox are in perfectly good financial straits, with an estimated franchise value of $975 million, (after being bought for $20 million 35 years ago) and a 10-year high of $31.9 million in operating income after Forbes pegged them for a small loss the year before (The 99-loss season).

On the whole, league is generating more revenue and profit than ever before, and player payroll is up 27% since 2011, even though the Sox Opening Day payroll crested in 2012 and has now fallen to essentially league average ($113 million).

5. Arizona is the site of the latest front in the battle between teams and municipalities about who is responsible for maintenance and upkeep of stadiums clearly built primarily for a private franchise.  The Diamondbacks are threatening to try to get out of their lease with the 18-year-old Chase Field unless they can get the county to agree to take more responsibility for maintenance and repairs.

At this point it reads more as posturing for financial leverage than an imminent threat of a $354 million facility getting abandoned before its 20th birthday, but with the way the tide is slowly turning–in some hopeful cases at least–against municipalities bending over backwards to satiate the desire for sports franchises to minimize their costs, that posturing could just wind up in the Diamondbacks looking unreasonable and seeking to get Maricopa County to invest in their product because they refuse to do it themselves.

I love baseball, and society loves their sports, and the way we prioritize it in our lives is always going to a step removed from seeking a fair return on our financial investment, but there’s enough research out there by now for Maricopa County officials to know they are not getting back money they spend on Chase Field.

Lead Photo Credit: Joe Camporeale // USA Today Sports Images