Gordon Beckham Among Trade Targets at the Deadline

Gordon Beckham is a potential trade target. The San Francisco Giants may acquire the White Sox second baseman by the end of Thursday’s non-waiver trade deadline. The Giants find themselves in need of a second baseman as their Dan Uggla experiment has failed to solve their problem at the position. Jon Morosi from Fox Sports tweeted about the Giants’ interest Wednesday.

As stated in the tweet, there are multiple options the Giants are weighing, but there is sure to be competition in the market for those options. Emilio Bonifacio is being pursued vigorously by the Kansas City Royals, according to Mark Gonzales of the Chicago Tribune. As for Asdrubal Cabrera, Morosi separately tweeted about the Blue Jays showing interest in acquiring the young infielder.

Three teams are seriously looking to upgrade by acquiring a second baseman or infielder that can man the position. All three teams, the Giants, Royals, and Blue Jays look to be locked into tight playoff races for the remaining two months of the season. Throw in another buyer like the Orioles or Nationals and who knows what can happen today. What we do know is there appears to be an abundance of teams looking for infield help. That should help the White Sox find a landing spot for Gordon Beckham, despite his poor performance offensively.

"Gordon Beckham’s struggles at the plate have been well documented as of late, but he does have upside in a potential trade compared to the alternatives."

Beckham is a statistically better defensive player than Emilio Bonifacio. This year he boasts a .979 fielding percentage at 2B. Bonifacio, meanwhile, owns a worrisome .969 percentage at the position. In terms of salary, Beckham’s defense is a relative bargain, earning $4.18 million in 2014, according to Baseball-Reference.com. Asdrubal Cabrera, on the other hand, is earning a cool $10.0 million this season. Each candidate has their pros and cons, which will help sort out how the teams prioritize their targets.

Any potential return from a trade partner such as the San Francisco Giants will likely be modest, but I expect Rick Hahn to go after a pitching project that would benefit from a change of scenery, such as Jose De Paula. However, the real benefit to the Sox will be allowing a cheaper, younger replacement to gain some major league experience. Taking swings against major league arms and communicating with teammates on the field will provide invaluable lessons heading into next season.