White Sox: Is Christian Yelich Worth the Price of Admission?
By Matt Manetti
Phil Rogers took a look at a potential Christian Yelich trade to the White Sox. Would Rick Hahn have to give up too much to make it happen?
The Chicago White Sox are in the midst of a rebuild and it shows. Outside of signing Welington Castillo, they have been very quiet this offseason. Unless you count the press they generated in their pursuit of Manny Machado. The Sox reportedly contacted Miami about Christian Yelich. Phil Rogers of MLB.com wrote about Yelich’s fit with the White Sox.
In his article, Rogers wrote a possible package could be Lucas Giolito (or Tim Anderson), Blake Rutherford, Dylan Cease and Zack Collins. Yelich is a great player and all but that is just too much to give up for a career .290 hitter who averages 15 home runs and 74 RBIs over 162 games.
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I understand that Rogers explained that is what the final package could look like. And he did mention a lot of other possible names. But I personally wouldn’t be giving up four of my top prospects for Yelich. Don’t get me wrong he’s a good player, but you could argue Boston didn’t even give that much up when they acquired Chris Sale.
This is clearly a scenario where a team trading for Yelich would have to pay for the sins of the new ownership. They made a lot of questionable trades and didn’t get much in return. Now any other team who wants to make a trade with them is going to have to overpay because of it. That team doesn’t have to be the White Sox.
Yelich would definitely look good in a Sox uniform. As a matter of fact, so would Machado. That doesn’t mean management should overpay. Yelich is different because he has five years of control and there’s no denying he’s a good player. However, he’s not a top five player and going off the packaged suggested by Rogers, you better be getting a top five player.
The White Sox would be mortgaging their future for a center fielder. A position they may have covered in the minors by one Luis Robert. Bottom line, Yelich is a good player but he’s not an elite player and thus, the thought of giving up four of your top prospects is just ridiculous.
If Derek Jeter is willing to be realistic, which he probably won’t be, I think a good starting point would be Anderson, Rutherford and a pitching prospect, maybe someone like Spencer Adams. That gives Miami a MLB-ready middle infielder with control, a top 100 prospect and a decent pitching prospect. I think a trade like that takes into account the value and production Yelich would bring to the club.
Next: White Sox Still Need to Address Starting Pitching
I wouldn’t be against trading for Yelich. He is a good player and would really help this team. But first, Jeter and the Marlins need to come back to Earth.