3. Money
The Chicago White Sox have lots of money. They are nowhere near the luxury tax threshold and haven’t been near it for a really long time. That doesn’t mean that they can’t be at or near it in the near future if they are not careful. They are likely not done spending this offseason with rumors of some more free agents to be signed and trades to be made.
Jose Abreu was given a large contract here. This is largely thanks to what he has done in the past as it is hard to guess what he will do in the future. The deal is 50 million dollars over the span of three years. That is a lot of a 32-year-old power hitter but he deserved to be paid big. They got the deal done after he already accepted his qualifying offer the week prior. Some people think they should have just rolled with that and seen what happens but that is not the case as they went for it.
Obviously, it is a reach to say they will even trade Abreu at all during the three-year deal but some of these factors might come into play someday. There is no doubt that if Abreu stays on the White Sox for the duration of the entire three-year contract that he will see some winning times. Abreu is a player who has been so good for so long without experiencing the playoffs. Hopefully, that changes really soon.