Austin Flipper

To keep the hot stove stoked over SoxFest weekend, the White Sox are expected to announce the signing of outfielder Austin Hays to a one-year deal. GM Chris Getz must like his Austins. Last year, Getz went out and got outfielder Austin Slater and then flipped him to the Yankees at the trade deadline for minor-league pitcher Gage Ziehl. Now, here’s how you can measure progress. Slater had eleven RBIs for the Sox while Hays hit fifteen homeruns with 64 RBIs for the Reds last season. Bigger signing, bigger flip, most likely. This can go one of three ways—Slater does really well on a really surprising team and stays; he does really well on a blah team and gets traded; or he stinks, and it doesn’t matter. I’m hoping for number one, though I wouldn’t mind if Slater had to fight for at-bats because of the emergence of Brooks Baldwin, Braden Montgomery and Sam Antonacci. Hey, it’s almost February. A guy can dream, can’t he?