White Sox: Make significant offer to Zack Wheeler but still miss
The Chicago White Sox need pitching so they made a significant offer to a top-quality free-agent pitcher but he took less money to stay home.
The Chicago White Sox need some pitching. They are going to be in the market for just about all of the free-agent pitchers until they get one or two of them. The one that they were the most connected to so far this winter is Zack Wheeler. The issue is that Wheeler has signed a five year deal with the Philadelphia Phillies that is worth 118 million dollars. That is a lot of money and he is going to be a big part of what they are trying to do in the AL East.
The Phillies missed the playoffs as the Atlanta Braves won their division and the Washington Nationals took their Wild Card berth all the way to a World Series title. It is no surprise that a year after signing Bryce Harper to a massive deal that the Phillies signed a big free-agent pitcher to keep up with the rest of their division.
The thing is that the White Sox made a bigger offer to Zack Wheeler than the Phillies did. They offered him a deal north of 120 million dollars and more guaranteed money over the same five years. He was a member of the New York Mets prior to free agency so his roots are on the East Coast. His decision to take less money with the Phillies was a family decision. His wife is from New Jersey and that is the reason he chose the Phillies according to sources.
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The reason this is significant is that it shows that the White Sox aren’t being cheap. They have a history of coming up short when it comes to deals like this but that wasn’t the case here. He chose the Phillies for his wife and you can’t blame White Sox management for that. Hopefully, the White Sox are able to fill this void with someone else.