Mets
The Mets are a strange team to figure out what they could do this offseason. After a spectacular implosion in 2023 that saw the most expensive roster in baseball finish 12 games below .500, the Mets seem to be shifting their focus to building for the long-term and are, at least publicly, not concerning themselves too much with short-term gains to try and go for it again in 2024.
However, we all know that Steve Cohen can help himself and guys like Cease, Jimenez, and Robert Jr. are big-time talents who also could help New York beyond next season. There are rumors that the Mets are going to be involved at the top of the free agent market yet again, so why would they close themselves off to big trades as well? Given all the prospect capital that acquired at the trade deadline like Luisangel Acuna, Ryan Clifford, and Drew Gilbert along with existing minor leaguers like Kevin Parada, Jett Williams, and Ronny Mauricio, there are more than enough pieces here to make a trade interesting from the White Sox perspective.
Red Sox
The Red Sox are arguably the biggest wild card this offseason. They have an ownership that does seem to put pretty clear guardrails up when it comes to spending and roster moves in general, but they are also have a brand new front office that is talking a big game in terms of wanting to win and be aggressive this offseason. Assuming Craig Breslow is given a long enough leash to actually get deals done, Boston could be the trade partner the White Sox are looking for.
The Red Sox's needs line up with Chicago's best trade chips as they need starting pitching badly (Cease) and improving at DH (Jimenez) and potentially in the outfield (Robert Jr.) are all on the table. More importantly, they have the trade chips of their own to make a big deal happen. While Boston doesn't have much to offer in terms of pitching prospects, they have a TON of quality position players in their minor league ranks with Marcelo Mayer, Roman Anthony, Miguel Bleis, and Blaze Jordan being some of the highlights.