Comparing rebuilds: San Diego Padres vs. Chicago White Sox

Free agent signings

After rebuilding the farm system, both teams have started to surround that young talent with established veterans through free agency.

Two offseasons ago the Padres started that by signing Eric Hosmer to an eight-year deal. And then the following offseason they beat out the White Sox for Machado with a 10-year deal.

Chicago missed out on Machado last offseason, but this offseason they’ve really gone out and started spending money to finish off this rebuild.

They signed Dallas Keuchel to a three-year deal, Yasmani Grandal to a four-year deal, and they signed Edwin Encarnacion to a one-year deal.

As things stand right now, the Padres have the 13th highest payroll in baseball for the 2020 season at around $145 million, according to Spotrac.

While the White Sox rank 17th at $118 million.

That’s a far cry from where the two teams finished the 2019 season at $104 and $91 million respectively. Although, I’m sure the Padres would love to bring their 2020 total down a little bit to around $140 million.

That would certainly indicate that both teams are ready to come out of their four-to-five year rebuilds and compete.

The big difference here is that San Diego has put a lot of longterm deals on the books, while the White Sox don’t have anything longer than a four-year deal.