The Chicago White Sox should be in on Juan Soto right now

If there’s one player who can turn around the season for the Chicago White Sox, it’s current Washington Nationals star Juan Soto. Soto is hitting .247/.399/.488 this season with 3.4 WAR and can play both corner outfield positions.

He’s still only 23 years old and has hit well in the post-season. After Soto rejected a 440-million-dollar extension, the Washington Nationals decided to explore trading him but they want a lot in return.

Why would Juan Soto go to the Chicago White Sox? Because it’s the perfect baseball fit. At 48-48, the Chicago White Sox have been a mediocre team all season but they’re still just a handful of games out of first place. Acquiring the right player could make all the difference.

Some might say that the White Sox should just stick with what they got and make some minor moves to get better. Sorry, but that’s not going to cut it. This team has been waiting to get better all year, yet they’ve remained mediocre through and through.

Waiting around isn’t going to win the division nor will acquiring more relievers. To make this team good enough for first place, they’re going to have to make a big splash. They also can’t just “wait till next year” as they’ve made too many promises to fans to win at this point in time and the division is too weak to not take advantage of.

Soto touches all the bases for the White Sox. Young Superstar? Check. Can play right field? Check. Left-Handed bat? Check. High on-base percentage? Check. He’s the perfect player for this team in every way. With a chance to acquire him, the Chicago White Sox can’t miss this opportunity and pass it up.

The Chicago White Sox should be all in on Juan Soto of the Washington Nationals.

If the White Sox don’t get Juan Soto, where will he go? The Yankees and Mets reportedly don’t want to give up their top 3 prospects for him. The thought of Juan Soto on the LA Dodgers is just gross as the rich don’t need to get any richer.

The St. Louis Cardinals got handed Nolan Arenado and Paul Goldschmidt in lopsided trades for basically nothing and the thought of them being given another superstar is just disgusting.

Another team needs to step in. It doesn’t make much sense for the Washington Nationals to keep him as they have no chance of competing in the near future and can’t extend him.

Possibly the worst option would be him going to the San Diego Padres. After stealing Manny Machado and Fernando Tatis Jr. away from the Chicago White Sox, they can’t let them steal Juan Soto away from them as well.

From a baseball perspective, Juan Soto going to the Chicago White Sox is the best option. Now the real question is whether they can pull off the trade or if the organization has the guts to do it. If Rick Hahn is half the GM he thinks he is, he’ll do what it takes to make Juan Soto a member of the Chicago White Sox.

Now acquiring Juan Soto isn’t going to be easy but everyone in the Major or Minor leagues could be on the table with some exceptions. Obviously, Dylan Cease, Luis Robert, Jose Abreu, and Tim Anderson can’t be part of this trade, as they are too important to the 2022 team in order to part with.

You also wouldn’t necessarily have to give up one of those guys to get a deal done. The White Sox simply has to make the best offer and that is something they are capable of doing without giving up one of those players.

The Chicago White Sox has a lot of players that could interest the Washington Nationals. For one, they could really use some help in the infield, and young prospects Colson Montgomery and Lenyn Sosa could be of great interest to them.

I would hate to give up Montgomery because I think he’ll be a future star at shortstop which is someone the Sox will need if they don’t re-sign Tim Anderson. However, for Juan Soto, it would be worth it.

The Nationals also need to rebuild their pitching staff and former first-round pick Garret Crochet is a great place to start. He has no value to the White Sox this season as he is injured but he can provide a lot of value for the Washington Nationals in the future with all his years of control.

The White Sox did trade Nick Madrigal under a similar circumstance last year so why not try it again? Of course, it would have been nice to trade Madrigal for a player worth acquiring and not Craig Kimbrel because then they could have used Madrigal in this trade instead.

Other players of interest could include former first-round draft pick Blake Rutherford who is currently blocked at the Major League Level but continues to improve. Gavin Sheets is a good option too as he hasn’t done much for the White Sox this year but still is a young power bat that the Nationals could possibly develop as well.

Would the Nationals want Lucas Giolito back? It would be a lot easier for the Nationals to pay him long-term than Soto and he would immediately improve their rotation. If that’s the player that can get this trade done, the White Sox should consider dealing him.

An article from The Athletic suggests the Chicago White Sox might have to give up Andrew Vaughn and/or Eloy Jimenez to get Juan Soto in a trade and I definitely would not want them to trade both.

The White Sox need to be adding great hitters and not subtracting them so at most I would only give up one of those guys at most. Preferably it would be Jimenez, mainly due to his struggles this year and inability to play first base.

Ideally, you’d keep Eloy Jimenez, and have an outfield of Eloy, Luis Robert, and Juan Soto, then have Jose Abreu at first and Andrew Vaughn at Designated Hitter. That would be a great team.

With home runs in back-to-back games, Eloy seems to be turning it around so hopefully, the deal would not include him but rather revolve around Garret Crochet and the Chicago White Sox’s top 3 prospects. Giving up those players for a likely future Hall of Famer would be worth it.

There is no better move the White Sox can make this trading deadline than to get Juan Soto and they need him a lot more than the Padres or Cardinals do. Even if the White Sox were not able to resign him and he bolted for free agency in 2 and a half years, this is a trade worth making.

There are other players that would be useful to the White Sox this trade deadline, like Ian Happ or Andrew Benintendi, but neither of those players provides the kind of power or overall value Juan Soto has.

The biggest need for this team is the corner outfield position, as Andrew Vaughn and Gavin Sheets are not real outfielders, Eloy Jimenez has struggled to stay healthy, and A.J. Pollock has struggled to hit.

If they want to win this year like they promised fans, they need to address their biggest need and get a left-handed bat who can hit for power and play corner outfield, and Juan Soto is the man.