Chicago White Sox: Will anyone but Jeff Samardzija be traded?
By Brian Draus
While the main assumption is that the Chicago White Sox will trade Jeff Samardzija, the question remains will anyone else on the White Sox pack their bags?
Emilio Bonifacio could be moved, however I don’t think there will be a lot of action from the South Siders. There are a few reasons for that, which I will discuss below.
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First, they don’t want to trade their players that have a lot of value (Chris Sale, Jose Quintana, Jose Abreu). On top of that, any trade involving those players would be difficult due to the fact that a big return would be necessary.
That would not be easy in Quintana’s case, due to the amount of pitching on the market this year. Sale and Abreu would both bring back a lot, however they are the players the Sox are building around.
If either are to be dealt, it would all but signal a rebuild which is something the Sox are not doing. The Sox core is still fairly young, and has more young pitching coming, not to mention Avisail Garcia and Abreu can be a solid middle of the order for a few years.
Second, outside of Samardzija the Sox don’t really have anything of significance to deal before July 31.
Adam LaRoche is another option, but due to the fact that he is having a poor season he could be moved in August. Since he is having a poor season, LaRoche could be moved in the offseason or just kept on the roster for 2016 (two-year deal).
LaRoche may just be adjusting to a new league this year, therefore I might take a chance on keeping him for next year. If not he can be moved next summer.
Thirdly, the Sox don’t need to tear down the team when they are still building. Just because they went out and spent a lot of money in the offseason doesn’t mean they can’t try to win next year after tweaking the roster a bit.
It is not the same situation as 2011-13 when the team had a bunch of aging veterans, this team is much younger and the window to win will remain open for a while. Not to mention the farm is in better shape than it has been in years, therefore they will have more and more options internally.
I don’t think this year was a one shot deal, the Sox should have an opportunities to compete for the next few years.
Again, I understand this year has been a major disappointment. I believe the Sox have the ability to be better next year, due to the fact that there is young talent on the MLB roster now not to mention coming up.
They will need to make some changes, such as adding a power bat or two, however it wouldn’t surprise me at all if the Sox were in the race in 2016.
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