Chicago White Sox: Three trades that define the rebuild
The Chicago White Sox started their rebuild at the end of 2016. They got it all going well thanks to three major trades that the made.
The Chicago White Sox had a very top-heavy lineup in the 2016 season. It allowed them to get off to a very good start but once depth needed to come into play the bottom started to fall out. They declined big time because of it and missed the playoffs by a long shot. As a result, Rick Hahn decided to undergo a big rebuild. They basically stripped the roster down to the bone in order to create a lineup that was deeper and younger.
In sports, when you get younger you set yourself up to be better longer. That is what the White Sox have done since that season. They have made free-agent signings, drafted well, and made significant trades to better their chances of finally becoming a contender again. The White Sox got the rebuild going by trading away their best player and then capped it off with one of the most one-sided trades in team history.
Drafting and developing is the biggest key in most sports and Rick Hahn has been doing that relatively well. He has also signed Luis Robert as an international free agent and that has worked out amazing. With that said, Rick Hahn has done wonders with trades and that has allowed this team to have an enhanced rebuild. It helped that they were a top-heavy group so they had the ability to trade away some high-end players but the returns have been awesome. These are the three trades that define the rebuild of the Chicago White Sox:
Trade 1
The Chicago White Sox got off to a nice start with the rebuild on December 6th, 2016. During the MLB’s Winter Meetings, the White Sox sent Chris Sale to the Boston Red Sox in exchange for Yoan Moncada, Michael Kopech, Luis Alexander Basabe, and Victor Diaz. Chris Sale was a Hall of Fame talent in his prime when Boston acquired him so you know that they were going to pay a steep price to get him.
Chris Sale went on to win the World Series as the ace of the Boston staff in 2018. For that reason, you could never say that the Red Sox lost the trade. However, the White Sox can easily make it an even trade. Yoan Moncada is already a superstar third baseman and Michael Kopech is looking to become a front of the rotation starter. Adding two guys like that to the organization is significant when you are rebuilding it from scratch as the White Sox were.
This trade will always feel extra significant because it was the first sign of change. It had to be hard to trade Sale because he is probably the most talented player to play for this organization in a decade or longer. There were other pitchers that had more team success but Sale’s stuff was second to none. Trading him made it clear that Rick Hahn meant business.
Trade 2
The Chicago White Sox made another huge splash just a day later. They traded Adam Eaton to the Washington Nationals for Lucas Giolito, Reynaldo Lopez, and Dane Dunning. They went from a not so great farm system to one of the best in baseball in less than a day’s worth of time. They added baseball’s number one, three, 30, and 38 prospects in one day between two trades.
Giolito was the number three prospect mentioned before. He struggled big time when he first made it up to Major League Baseball. Well, in 2019, he bloomed into one of the very best pitchers in all of baseball. He has assumed the role as the ace of the White Sox staff and should be that guy for the foreseeable future. He dominated in 2019 and the White Sox are excited to see him potentially get even better.
Reynaldo Lopez has also been a decent pitcher for the White Sox as well. It is still a question as to whether he will be a starter for the Sox in the long term but he might be a really good bullpen piece someday. This trade took what the White Sox did in the Chris Sale trade and made it even better. They added three good starters and an elite position player in such a short amount of trade. Their rebuild was officially off and running after this trade.
Trade 3
The White Sox were far from done rebuilding when they made those two previously mentioned trades but they were well on their way. Well, the season got underway in 2017 before the White Sox made another franchise-altering trade. The Chicago White Sox and Chicago Cubs made a crosstown trade that helped one franchise immensely and put one that much closer to falling off.
The Sox sent Jose Quintana to the Cubs in exchange for Eloy Jimenez, Dylan Cease, Matt Rose, and Bryant Flete. The Cubs were expecting Quintana to come in and be the missing piece of their rotation as the defending World Series champions. Well, Quintana never got back to the level he was at with the White Sox when he was with the Cubs. Meanwhile, Jimenez and Cease were given up as the Cubs’ top two prospects.
They have developed just as you would imagine top prospects would. Cease still has a lot to prove at the MLB level but he has all of the tools in the world. Jimenez is a different story. He legit might become one of the best power hitters in the world. He hit 31 home runs by accident in a rookie season that saw him on the IL twice. This is the third high-impact trade in the rebuild to round out what has been a very successful rebuild.
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There is still a lot to be done on the south side. They need to go out and prove it now but they are well on their way. The roster gets better and better each day and these three trades have a lot to do wit that. Hopefully, these three deals are looked back on as the beginning of a championship producing rebuild.