White Sox: Gerrit Cole news is good and bad for Chicago

The Chicago White Sox are not getting Gerrit Cole as he is going to the New York Yankees on a record-setting deal for nine years.

The Chicago White Sox aren’t getting superstar Gerrit Cole. It wasn’t ever like it was going to happen for the White Sox but it was a nice dream to have for sure. The star pitcher is headed to the New York Yankees on a nine-year, 324 million dollar deal. Cole has an opt-out clause after the fifth year with the Yankees. This is a massive deal that will make him the highest-paid pitcher in the history of Major League Baseball.  It is the second-highest free-agent contract in MLB history behind only Bryce Harper‘s 330 million dollar contract with the Philadelphia Phillies.

Cole is 29 years old as he enters this nine-year deal. This is good and bad news for the Chicago White Sox. It is good news because that is a lot of money for a pitcher. He is the highest-paid pitcher of all time now and he has to go out there and be worth it. There is a good chance that he is not worth it for all nine of the years so that is where this deal will eventually hurt the Yankees. The White Sox avoid having a bad contract on their team five years from now.

This is bad news for the White Sox for two reasons. The first reason is it would be so sweet to add a player like Gerrit Cole. He would come in and be the ace of the staff right away. Even if he did fall off in a few years there is no doubt that he would help them get over the hump in the contract’s first few years. It is also bad news because if the White Sox want to make a deep playoff run over the next half-decade they are going to have to go through Cole and the Yankees in the American League.

The White Sox has some other options out there and they still can go get them. There is a lot of buzz surrounding this team so hopefully, they go out there and get it done. This is going to be a good team in short order so not getting Cole shouldn’t discourage anyone.