White Sox: Should Jerry Reinsdorf Sign Off on Chris Sale Trade?
By Matt Manetti
Chris Sale has been the topic of trade talks since the trade deadline. Will White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf finally cave and sign off on a trade?
The Chicago White Sox have reportedly been engaging in talks involving ace Chris Sale. There’s no reason a team in their situation shouldn’t listen to any and all offers that could improve the roster. However, trading someone of Sale’s stature is a risky move.
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To this point there’s reason to believe teams are just doing their due diligence on Sale. He’s a top pitcher and has a great contract. That makes him valuable to almost any team in need of pitching. But there hasn’t been any report of any solid offers. Right now, we don’t even know if the Sox are serious about trading Sale. And that might be because of one man: Jerry Reinsdorf.
He is directly holding the future of the franchise in his hands. He’ll decide where Sale pitches in 2017. Not Rick Hahn and definitely not Ken Williams. Hahn and Williams can best be described as ‘yes; men or puppets. And Reinsdorf is the guy pulling the strings. It’s hard to know what this guy is thinking, but it’s probably not what’s in the best interest of the team. Trading Sale doesn’t seem like something he would do. But he could surprise us all.
I understand the ramifications of making this trade. Suddenly you lose your best player and then you have a huge void to fill in the rotation. Jose Quintana is good but he’s nowhere near the pitcher Sale is. He could possibly get there but right now, he would have a lot of work to do. You can’t put a price tag on Sale. But other organizations are trying to. Any team able to pry him away from the Sox would definitely be the winners in the offseason.
The Sox are listening on Sale but Reinsdorf probably needs to be convinced this is what’s best. Hopefully Williams and Hahn are very convincing. Because there’s no doubt the return could be huge. And it could turn around this franchise. That’s why Reinsdorf should trade Sale. Because it gives his team the best chance to win in the future. It may not be immediate, but a solid return could propel this team to the next level.
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Just imagine the type of talent they could get. Suddenly the farm system could be stocked with talent and we could be looking at a winning team in just a few seasons. It would be tough to go through the losing seasons, but it would pay off in the end. It worked out pretty well for the Cubs. Why can’t it work for the Sox?