Chicago White Sox: Nelson Cruz trade is not a good thing

Not even 24 hours after finishing their second to last series of the year with the Chicago White Sox, the Minnesota Twins decided to trade Nelson Cruz to the Tampa Bay Rays. He single-handedly defeated them in game one of Monday’s doubleheader but now he is out of the AL Central. Outside of Aaron Rodgers, nobody is a bigger thorn to the side of a Chicago sports franchise than Nelson Cruz to the White Sox.

With all of that in mind, this is terrible news for the White Sox. As nice as it will be to not have to face him anymore when they play the Twins, it is bad that he is with the Rays. The White Sox have three more games with each team in the regular season this year. The problem is that the Rays are a team that the White Sox could face in the playoffs and the Twins will not be there.

The Rays could win the AL East or they could fall short to the Boston Red Sox and play in the Wild Card Game. Either way, there is a chance that the White Sox and Rays meet up for postseason play. If that happens, it won’t be fun to see them face Nelson Cruz in the biggest moments. The White Sox took 2 of 3 from them earlier this year but they obviously didn’t have Cruz.

If you want to look on the bright side, you can think about how the Twins having Cruz didn’t help them beat the White Sox very much this year. He had his personal success because he loves playing them but the team didn’t take advantage at all. Hopefully, that continues to be the case as the season progresses.

More good news is that the Rays are about to play the Cleveland Indians this weekend. Cruz and the Rays can help the White Sox take an even bigger lead in the division if the Sox play well against the Milwaukee Brewers. The good teams in the league are always going to make big deadline acquisitions to bolster their rosters.

All we can do now is hope that Rick Hahn does the same for his ball club. They could use another reliever and a second baseman. They are also going to get Yasmani Grandal, Luis Robert, and Eloy Jimenez back from injury which is better than any trade deadline acquisition this year. It is going to be a lot of fun watching these teams compete down the stretch.