White Sox : Three updated trade ideas to acquire for Kris Bryant
The Chicago White Sox should consider trading for Kris Bryant this offseason.
The Chicago White Sox have some great players that they are building around. They are very young and exciting which makes people believe they will be a contender for years to come. They have almost everything you need to win a championship but are always trying to get better. They went into the offseason with some holes in the lineup but have since tried to patch them up. Additions like Lance Lynn and Adam Eaton are looked at to be ones that help them fill those holes.
Of course, there is always room for improvement. There are plenty of other players out there via trade of free agency to still consider that would really help the White Sox out. Kris Bryant of the Chicago Cubs would certainly be one of those guys for the White Sox. Of course, we have been down this road before but a lot of things have changed since then.
The White Sox would absolutely not give up prospect capital like that for Bryant anymore. He had a terrible 2020 season and only has one year left on his deal. The Cubs are not going to get anything near what they would have gotten for him back in March but they might try now to get anything they can.
Despite the tough 2020 season, Bryant is still a great player that can help the White Sox (or any team) win. He would be a great candidate to be their new right fielder while letting Eaton be a bench player. They can also make Bryant the new left fielder and move Eloy Jimenez to designated hitter. It wouldn’t cost as much as it once would have so these are some updated trades for Kris Bryant:
Trade One
The Chicago Cubs are not going to get any team’s top prospect anymore for Bryant. There is no way that the White Sox would give up a player like Michael Kopech, Andrew Vaughn, or Nick Madrigal for a guy like Bryant. They might have made a trade like that a few years ago but that isn’t the case anymore. They need to supplement their core that they have built but they can’t ruin the farm for just anyone.
Bryant would be nice to have but he wouldn’t necessarily move the needle at this point. He also might but he would have to prove himself. Jonathan Stiever and Jake Burger are great young prospects who can become good players someday but they aren’t locked to become that. Jonathan Stiever is the White Sox number six prospect and Jake Burger is the number 13 prospect in the organization.
If the Cubs wanted to get rid of Bryant, at this point it would be smart to do a trade like this. Stiever is a great young pitcher who should be able to help them in the present and future. Their pitching is starting to get thin so adding a young guy like that could really help. As for Jake Burger, he is still a project. He was drafted as a big power bat but some injuries have derailed his development. If the Cubs fixed him up, it could reap a big reward.
Trade Two
The White Sox, by all accounts, should be willing to give up players like Micker Adolfo and Seby Zavala for a guy like Kris Bryant. They have a lineup that is loaded with talent that they have at the Major League level. They are ready to go for it really soon and giving up some prospects might have to happen in the process. Each of them is a good player that could become really good MLB players but the Sox have to do what it takes to go for it.
If the Chicago Cubs added Micker Adolfo, he could begin to trickle into the MLB sooner than if he stayed with the White Sox. Ian Haap feels like the only one that is more than likely going to be there in the long term so Adolfo could fill in their outfield at any time. He has a really high ceiling that the Cubs could find attractive now before he shows anything at the MLB level. He is currently listed as the White Sox number eight prospect.
Seby Zavala could be an interesting player if he was sent to the Chicago Cubs. He is currently listed as the White Sox number 22 prospect. The reason he is listed so low is because of the fact that he doesn’t really have star potential. He has already played in the MLB with the White Sox but his stint hasn’t lasted very long. If the Cubs wanted to trade Willson Contreras at some point, using Zavala could be an option.
Trade Three
The Chicago White Sox have a lot of pitching in the pipeline. They have, despite being a worse team in recent memory, been better at developing pitching than the Chicago Cubs. The Theo Epstein group won a World Series with the Cubs and that came with the development of almost no pitching. All of it came from other organizations for the most part which is an impressive feat in its own right. Now, they might be looking to add some pitching of their own.
The White Sox would absolutely be willing to let some mid-level prospects go for Kris Bryant. The Cubs probably won’t get much more than that so they might consider it themselves. Andrew Dalquist is a right-handed pitcher who still has a lot of development left to go. He was taken in the third round of the 2019 MLB Draft and is currently listed as the White Sox number ten prospect.
As for Jimmy Lambert, he is already in the MLB. He made his debut during the 2020 season and had two appearances. It was a short two-inning stint but he was effective in those two innings. He was drafted by the White Sox in the 5th round of the 2016 MLB Draft and is currently listed as the number 14 prospect in the organization.
Hot. Three Minnesota Twins free agents for the White Sox to consider. light
We don’t know if the White Sox would even be willing to give up this much for a player like Kris Bryant but it is worth at least considering. The Cubs are in a weird spot with him because of his past success, his recent failure, and his contract situation. All of this makes him hard to value as a player which makes it hard to predict where he will land. Hopefully, the White Sox do whatever they have to do to get over the hump with or without a trade like this.