Chicago White Sox: Three players to trade after COVID-19
The Chicago White Sox could be looking to make some moves after COVID-19 allows baseball to resume its operations and they could trade one of these three players.
At this point, the Chicago White Sox organization is probably just hoping that they get a chance to play baseball at some point this summer. There are a lot of things to go over in order to get the sports landscape back up and running. COVID-19 has pretty much taken over our world and sports have been put on pause as a result. We are in the 70s as far as days there have been without sports but it feels like longer than that.
The White Sox saw 2020 as the year that they were going to turn the corner of their rebuild. Well, that is on pause right now but there is a lot of reasons to believe they will pick up where they were supposed to when it comes back. They seemed to be building towards something great in Spring Training before it was all canceled.
Well, the question now is how will their lineup look when the season finally gets underway? They are probably going to start with it the exact same way that you would expect. Players like Yoan Moncada, Tim Anderson, Eloy Jimenez, and Lucas Giolito are going to look to take the next step. Kids like Dylan Cease, Luis Robert, and Michael Kopech are going to look to make a big impact. Then there are new faces like Dallas Keuchel, Edwin Encarnacion, and Yasmani Grandal trying to live up to the hype.
With all of that talent ready to go, there is naturally going to be a lot of excitement. If the White Sox want to look to improve their roster or add more for the future once the coronavirus passes enough to let business resume, one of these three players could get traded:
The Chicago White Sox are in a good spot with their catching depth right now. They pretty much admitted that James McCann isn’t in the long term plans when they signed Yasmani Grandal to a four-year extension. They are going to form one of the league’s best tandem’s when baseball returns but they might be wise to move him to a team that needs a catcher if they are willing to pay a nice price for him.
The White Sox also have some decent candidates to take McCann’s role as the second catcher. Yermin Mercedes, Zack Collins, and Seby Zavala could all be one of the players tapped on the shoulder to take on that role. They likely will have limited rolls as long as the Grandal/McCann duo remains intact but they make it where it is somewhat easy to move on from McCann if necessary.
McCann was great in his one season for the White Sox. He was the first White Sox catcher to be an American League all-star since A.J. Pierzynski. He did tail off just a little bit in the second half of the season but there is no doubt that he is an above-average catcher. A team that needs one of those might be willing to give the White Sox something for him.
The Chicago White Sox have a really nice depth piece in Leury Garcia. He proved that he is a valuable asset with some of his play in 2019. However, he isn’t a guy that is considered a part of the core for the future. In fact, moving him for some prospects or cash might be something worth considering for the White Sox under a few different circumstances.
In 2019, he didn’t play much second base. That spot primarily belonged to Yolmer Sanchez. Well, Yolmer is gone so Garcia was slated to be that guy at the start of the season. The fact remains that Nick Madrigal is the second baseman of the future. Whenever he is called up, Leury is likely a full-time bench player waiting for some playing time.
Yes, he can play outfield and shortstop but those spots are also taken. Nomar Mazara was brought in to be the right fielder and Luis Robert should be the full-time center fielder for the next decade or more. Eloy Jimenez is the left fielder and Tim Anderson is at shortstop so Leury is the odd man out if they want Madrigal getting full-time reps. It might take them a while to move him or they could keep him as a nice guy to come off the bench but he is a candidate to be moved if they had to move someone.
The Chicago White Sox are a team with a lot of players in the organization looking to be full time starting pitchers with the team. Only Lucas Giolito and Dallas Keuchel are considered locks but you can assume, at least for now, that Gio Gonzalez, Dylan Cease, and Reynaldo Lopez will take up the other rotation pieces. Michael Kopech hopes to be a part of the team in the long term as well so that leaves a question mark for Carlos Rodon.
Rodon has been a really good pitcher that the White Sox have developed but he has been injured a lot. He needed Tommy John early last season which ended the 2019 campaign for him and if this was a normal season he would have missed at least the first half. We don’t know how COVID-19 will impact his return but chances are he is missing fewer man-games than we thought.
If the White Sox wanted to move him to another team for a fresh start, it wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world. They would be able to get their newer pitchers in more and give Rodon a chance with a new team. It would also be nice to see him reach his potential with the White Sox and be a part of the solution but if one of their younger pitchers were to go, it would be him.