Chicago White Sox: Three trade targets from Cleveland Indians

The Cleveland Indians and Mike Clevinger have been in the news since Sunday morning. This team is tied with the White Sox for first in the American League Central, has one of the best records in the Major Leagues, and has a real chance to win the World Series. With all of those positive attributes, they still seem set on trading away an ace-level pitcher that has been awesome for them and has two more years of control.

As weird as that sounds, the White Sox should absolutely be involved in these talks. The Atlanta Braves and San Diego Padres also seem to be in the mix for him along with the White Sox so they might have to battle to get him if they want him. He would come to the White Sox and fit in perfectly with the current staff.

You could argue that he would come to the Sox and be their best (or second-best) pitcher but it feels like he would slot into the number three spot behind Lucas Giolito and Dallas Keuchel. Those two are doing great pitching in that order so placing Clevinger right there in front of Dylan Cease would really make it a solid rotation. As long as the White Sox don’t give up the whole farm for one pitcher, this is absolutely something they should do.

The Cleveland Indians have had both Mike Clevinger and Zach Plesac in trade rumors ever since they broke the MLB’s COVID-19 protocol. They put their team at risk by doing that but hopefully, they have learned their lessons. This team has brilliant pitching and Plesac was a big part of that but they are good enough to deal without him. They could absolutely move him and use his talents to get them back a pretty good player.

Cleveland specifically needs an outfielder and the White Sox have a few of those that they can spare to get Plesac off their hands. Obviously, kids like Luis Robert and Eloy Jimenez are off-limits but a guy like Adam Engel or Nomar Mazara would be fine to be sent off for Plesac.

The average fan might not even be aware of how good Plesac actually is. This is only his second season in the big leagues and he looks like someone who is going to keep improving. His numbers so far this year have been very good despite him having to miss some time because of his rule-breaking. He is 1-1 in three starts but his ERA of 1.29 and WHIP of 0.667 are so impressive. If you add a guy like that to be one of the four mainstays in the Whtie Sox rotation, you improve their chances tremendously.

The Cleveland Indians are just loaded with good pitching. It isn’t limited just to starting pitching either. They have so many great arms in their bullpen as well. If they were to make a deep playoff run, it would be entirely because of their pitching. The White Sox have a really good bullpen but they could use the Cleveland Indians to make it even better if they really wanted to. Adam Cimber would be a good option for them.

Cimber is having himself a banner year coming out of the pen for this short 60-game season that we are going through. He has made 8 appearances and pitched in 7.2 innings. It isn’t the biggest sample size but a short inning reliever could really help the White Sox going forward. In those eight appearances, he has a 1.17 ERA and 0.913 WHIP. There are four strikeouts to go along with those other stats.

A bullpen can be good but it can never be good enough. In the playoffs, the deeper your bullpen, the better your chances are at going deep. He would join some pretty sweet arms and if you get to that bullpen with a lead, you have a good chance to win the game. If the White Sox find themselves comfortable enough to make a trade with their rival, they should absolutely do so because they could really improve their team.