Another White Sox Trade Target: Dellin Betances?
By Matt Adams
According to MiLB writer Josh Norris, the White Sox are ”zeroing in” on Yankee pitching prospect Dellin Betances. The answer to all the White Sox pitching problems: another rookie!
If the Sox are, in fact, looking to make a deal for Betances, the question becomes, “why?” Why, at this point in time, is Kenny Williams spending time working on a deal that has the appearance of being for the future? The 6’8 right hander is 24 years old and has 2 games worth of service time received during a September call-up last season. His minor league numbers reveal a high strikeout pitcher, his K/9 over parts of 7 seasons in the Yankees system is over 10. He’s also walking nearly 5 batters per 9. Those big body pitchers do take some time to get their mechanics in alignment with so many moving parts in order to gain some control. Sometimes they succeed and end up Randy Johnson, more often they do not and end up Daniel Cabrera, a pitcher Don Cooper did once try to fix, without success.
The bad: It will take time, and he won’t be likely to see MLB time in 2012. Making a move for Betances means moving pieces that could be used to help attain starting pitching that can address current White Sox needs.
The good: being that he is an unproven MLB commodity, he shouldn’t cost the organization too much, and better not, as existing assets are very thin.
There are a couple of more far-fetched possibilities…
It could be that scouts, or even Cooper himself, have seen something that can be fixed right now, Making Betances ready to take a stab at facing big league hitters without too much concern about him walking every other batter he faces.
As is always a suspicion when Kenny Williams is making deals, this could be a “part one” trade. This could be a move KW is looking to make because Betances can be packaged along with a current Sox prospect to fit the needs of a team he is working on to attain a more immediate solution for the Southsider’s pitching issue. Smirking Kenny Williams won’t tell you for sure until he’s already done.