It is being reported that the Chicago White Sox are attempting to make a trade with the Oakland A’s to acquire pitcher Frankie Montas. Under no circumstance should they even consider doing this as it would cost them important prospects for a mediocre payoff.
The first reason the Sox shouldn’t do this is Frankie Montas isn’t that great of a pitcher. The second reason is that the White Sox shouldn’t panic when they’re clear AL Central favorites.
Lastly, they shouldn’t make a trade with baseball genius Billy Beane who is sure to steal the most underrated prospects in the White Sox system as he has done many times before.
In 2008, the White Sox got absolutely schooled in a trade with Billy Beane’s A’s, trading future ace Gio Gonzalez for one year of Nick Swisher who proceeded to put up a negative WAR in his lone year with the Sox while annoying everyone with his personality.
Ever desperate to get rid of the toxic Nick Swisher and his personality, they traded him to the Yankees who won the World Series in 2009, meaning the Sox lost 2 trades in a row.
Seven years later in 2015, the Chicago White Sox had yet another catastrophic trade with the A’s. In one of the worst moves in franchise history, future all-stars Chris Bassitt and Marcus Semien were dealt for one year of the mediocre pitcher in Jeff Samardzija.
Samardzija had an ERA of nearly 5 for the White Sox while giving them 0.3 WAR, while Semien and Bassitt combined to put up roughly 30 WAR for the Oakland A’s meaning the Chicago White Sox lost about 30 wins in that trade. To make matters worse, Semien and Bassitt dominated the White Sox in the heart-breaking 2020 AL Wild Card series.
The Chicago White Sox needs to avoid making trades with the Oakland A’s.
If history is to repeat itself, the White Sox will make yet another bad trade with the A’s in 2022 as they seem to do so every seven years. Unfortunately, history could be repeating itself if the reports are accurate. The good news is that they aren’t.
At a certain point, Kenny Williams and Rick Hahn need to realize that they shouldn’t be trading with Billy Bean who might be smarter than both of them combined. Beane is a relentless genius who will use every scouting ability available to make sure he wins each and every trade by a landslide.
Why would you make a trade with a guy you know is going to destroy you? Because this time it will be different? Yeah right.
Not only do the White Sox have a bad history trading with Oakland they have a bad history trading prospects in general. This is a team that has traded away both Fernando Tatis Jr. and Nick Madrigal and then had to find cheap stop-gaps for the second base position. Just stop it.
One thing we can say is that the White Sox love Tim Anderson and are willing to trade away just about every infield prospect as long as they have him. Tim Anderson is a great player so this would be fine except there’s more than one middle-infield position.
Also, Tim Anderson will be a free agent after 2024 and will be seeking big-time money. Do we seriously expect the White Sox to pay him his value on the market? They’ve never given a contract more than 73 million and were too cheap to keep ace pitchers Mark Buehrle and Carlos Rodon around. But this time it will be different, huh?
When Anderson likely bolts in free agency, the White Sox will need a replacement shortstop and the best chance is top prospect Colson Montgomery. They can’t afford to trade him. Nor can they afford to trade slugger Andrew Vaughn who has the makings of the next Paul Konerko.
They also can’t afford to trade Jared Kelley or Garret Crochet who I expect would become aces in Oakland. I wouldn’t even trade Gavin Sheets with Jose Abreu approaching free agency and the White Sox without another powerful lefty bat.
As long as Billy Beane is the GM of the Athletics and the White Sox are owned by the thrifty Jerry Reinsdorf, they can’t afford to be making these kinds of trades. The White Sox should be building up their farm system, not tearing it down.
Trading all your future pieces just to win a championship in one year makes no sense in an increasingly randomized playoff system with 12 teams. The White Sox were a better team last year than the 88-win Braves but the Braves won and the Sox didn’t.
Plus the White Sox already won the World Series in 2005. The curse has been broken already. Go for long-term sustainable success and not a one-hit-wonder championship. We already have one of those.
We all have seen how owner Jerry Reinsdorf spends money, as this is not a team that can afford to replace its prospects with free agents. Keep the prospects and for now, ride with the starting pitchers we have. Lance Lynn will come back from injury as will Lucas Giolito.
They’re not gone for the season. If you get both pitchers back you’ll have one of the best five-man rotations in the league. If it’s not working out by the 2022 trading deadline, then maybe consider making a move but under no circumstances should it be made with Oakland and Billy Beane.