White Sox stay the course at the non-tender deadline, but change is still coming

Going into the non-tender deadline, the Chicago White Sox had a couple of decisions left to make. Their roster is pretty full at the moment in the wake of their trade with the Braves on Thursday and there was a decent chance that guys like Touki Toussaint and Matt Foster could have gotten the axe yesterday to make room for better, more reliable options.

However, Chicago decided to stay the course for now as Foster agreed to a one year, $750,000 contract for 2024 and all of the rest of the White Sox arbitration eligible players were tendered contracts yesterday. While Friday's deadline went by without incident, it does seem clear that Chicago is far from done making moves this offseason.

The White Sox may be very busy this offseason

Coming off the colossal failure that was the 2023 season, the White Sox are an organization in need of wholesale changes. They already cleaned house at the top of the front office, but this is a White Sox roster that is deeply flawed despite having significant raw talent on it.

White Sox general manager Chris Getz seems to agree with that assessment. When asked recently about the availability of Chicago's young stars, Getz was unequivocal in saying that the White Sox are willing to listen on ANY of their players this offseason.

That does not mean that the White Sox are going into full teardown mode necessarily. Chicago may know that they need to make moves, but a guy like Luis Robert Jr. who is coming off a career year and who is on a team friendly that gives the White Sox club options for 2026 and 2027 would require a king's ransom to snag in a trade. Teams are certainly going to call about him, but the White Sox aren't going to give a guy like that away.

What it could mean, though, is that the White Sox may be more keen to move guys like Eloy Jimenez and Dylan Cease than originally thought. Eloy's talent and upside is through the roof, but he has struggled to stay healthy and is limited in what he can provide in the field. Dylan Cease has been a favorite trade rumor for a long time now and he may be worth more as a trade asset during this roster retooling period than he would be on the mound during the next two years of his team control.

In short, the non-tender deadline did pass without incident yesterday, but don't expect the White Sox to be quiet this offseason. If all of this smoke in the trade market is any indication, Chicago could end up being even more popular this offseason than they were at the trade deadline this year.

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