The White Sox Could Have A Problem At The Trade Deadline
Despite the three game winning streak and the series sweep against the Tampa Bay Rays, the White Sox are still 6-22 and likely to be major sellers at the trade deadline. But, the major question is who exactly will be traded at the deadline? There are a lot of factors that could lead to an underwhelming deadline for the White Sox.
The main reason why the White Sox are bad is because their main players who are supposed to be contributing aren’t playing well. The main culprits are Andrew Vaughn and Andrew Benintendi, among others. If they had gotten off to a good start and were playing well come the trade deadline, I would imagine Chris Getz would have listened to offers for both of them. This extends into the pitching as well, but overall, if players are significantly underperforming, it will be hard for the White Sox to move them at the deadline, making this a tough situation, as the White Sox will want to be active at the deadline.
But, despite the recent resurgence from some of the hitters on the White Sox, in the overall body of work, most have underperformed significantly. Unless they get on a hot streak, they will be hard to unload at the deadline, as teams won’t want to trade anything of value for them.
Now, ideally the White Sox would like to trade Eloy Jimenez and Yoan Moncada at the deadline, as their options are likely to be declined in the offseason, making them free agents. However, Moncada might not make it back before the deadline, so a team might not want to make an offer for him if they don’t think he is healthy.
Eloy on the other hand has the opportunity to be the most valuable hitter the White Sox can unload. He just needs to stay healthy and continue to play like he has of late, and he could get the White Sox a solid prospect in return. In his last seven games, he has hit .357 with two home runs and five RBIs. If he has 10-15 home runs at the deadline, a team could be interested. But, if the White Sox are planning on declining his option, they should take the best deal they can, rather than let him go in the offseason for nothing.
Besides Eloy, the only other core hitter that could interest a team the deadline would be Luis Robert Jr., but he is still hurt, so that could hamper the chances of a trade, especially if he is not back before the deadline.
Tommy Pham could be traded, as the Mets traded him to the Diamondbacks at the deadline last year, but he will have to continue his solid play for the next few months. If he does, the White Sox could get a solid player. The Mets got a top-12 prospect in their farm system for Pham last deadline, so a trade moving Pham could very much benefit the White Sox.
On the pitching side, the White Sox are hoping to get more out of Mike Soroka, as he is an upcoming free agent and they would ideally like to move him if possible. But, he has not pitched well enough for a team to want to take a chance on him. The same can be said about Chris Flexen, as he was brought in on a one year deal, likely with the intention to flip him at the deadline if he pitched well. Unfortunately, he also hasn’t pitched well, which could hamper the White Sox at the deadline.
Erick Fedde will be the most valuable trade piece on the White Sox, as they could get a similar haul like they did for Lucas Giolito. It will stink to see him go, as he is by far the White Sox best starter, but if he can fetch a top-100 prospect, I’m sure Getz won’t hesitate to trade him.
In the bullpen, they will definitely look to move a lot of arms. John Brebbia, Tim Hill, Dominic Leone, and others on one year deals will likely be shopped, but the latter two will need to pitch much better if the White Sox want to get anything of value for them.
Michael Kopech could be traded, but he would likely cost a bit more than most of the other arms in the White Sox bullpen. I would imagine that everyone not named Jordan Leasure is on the table for trades, they just need to pitch well so people will make offers.
There are few, if any, untouchables on the White Sox roster. The bad news is most of the players on the White Sox are not good or are not playing well as of right now, which could seriously hamper the White Sox plans at the deadline. Ideally, if most of these players play around average, they will be able to get something for them at the deadline, as teams are desperate for any help they can get. The only problem is getting a significant amount of players on the White Sox to play average baseball.