Do you have a friend or relative that can’t help himself or herself when it comes to making outlandish claims? People often make claims about what they can and will do only to fall short. It’s usually pretty harmless. Nobody really loses when I guy falls short of his claim to polish off a pizza or reach the green with a 7-iron. After listening and watching for a while we know their forays into grandeur are just talk.

How does this relate to baseball and the free agent market, you ask. I have learned not to trust what ML front offices tell the fans through the media. Nor do I expect them to divulge company secrets. However, I do expect them to be honest after the fact.

The biggest free agent deals this winter are centered in and around NYC. The Yankees landed Aaron Judge and Carlos Rodon while the Mets have signed Edwin Diaz, Justin Verlander, Brandon Nimmo and Kodai Senga to significant contracts. Currently, the Mets are trying to hook up with Carlos Correa for even bigger bucks.

Closer to home, the Cubs and White Sox have made significant free agent additions, but not of New York’s magnitude. The Cubs signed Cody Belinger to a one-year $17.5 million deal and Dansby Swanson to a 7-year, $177million contract.

The Swanson deal is comparable to two other multi-year deals with position players; Jason Heyward -8 years/$184M, and Alfonso Soriano-8/$136M. Cub fans and ownership can debate whether either deal was a good one and whether they should have any bearing on signing future players.

The White Sox surprised everyone when they signed outfielder, Andrew Benintendi to a franchise record 5-year, $75 million deal. Does everyone notice a difference in scale here? Same city, presumably different market.

Given that the previous high-water mark was the 4-year, $73 million contract awarded to Yasmani Grandal. That deal has proven to be a clunker, no matter what set of goofy analytics one uses to justify the deal. It’s pretty bold for GM Rick Hahn to make such a move with the reminder staring him in the face.

While the big spenders are throwing hundreds of millions around, the Sox are competing with tens of millions, but expect their fans to believe they made a serious offer to Manny Machado before he signed with the Padres. They also pretended to be in on the Bryce Harper derby.

We’ll never know what the White Sox really offered either player, but we have an idea that they weren’t willing to go far enough to secure either of their services.

In the long run, they might have been more prudent than the teams that spend hundreds of millions without championships, but their fans have every reason to question their desire to win it all.