The Chicago White Sox don’t have much time to make moves before the lockout is official. They have only added Kendall Graveman and resigned Leury Garcia so more moves are needed. Those two moves will certainly have their benefits in 2022 and beyond but the bar is set higher than a division title going forward. This is an organization that wants to win a World Series.
One thing that might need to happen is for the Sox to trade Craig Kimbrel. They acquired the superstar closer from the Chicago Cubs in exchange for Nick Madrigal and Codi Heuer at the 2021 MLB trade deadline.
Unfortunately, the trade didn’t work out as well for the White Sox. We don’t know what Madrigal or Heuer will ultimately become but they will likely be serviceable MLB players at minimum. Kimbrel wasn’t very good with the White Sox which makes this trade favor the cubs just a bit more as of right now.
The White Sox did not use Kimbrel the way that he should be used. For whatever reason, they didn’t want to use both Liam Hendriks and Kimbrel as a duel closer duo. Instead, they mostly used Kimbrel as a setup man for Hendriks and that is probably why he struggled. Craig is meant to be used in save situations and nothing else.
The Chicago White Sox might have to trade Craig Kimbrel this offseason.
There have been a few teams in rumors to acquire Craig Kimbrel since it became known that the White Sox wanted to move on. There are a lot of different teams that could use a closer. If the Sox do actually move on from him, they might be able to get something nice in return if they give up something else as well. These are three players to package in a Kimbrel trade: