Chicago White Sox Are Heading into the Winter Meetings Stuck in Neutral

As we prepare for Major League Baseball’s annual Winter Meetings, the Chicago White Sox seem to be stuck in neutral on their rebuilding efforts, and risk heading into 2017 in no better position than they were at the end of 2016 unless they become more flexible.

Just days after the Chicago Cubs defeated the Cleveland Indians in a thrilling Game Seven of the 2016 Fall Classic, Chicago White Sox General Manager Rick Hahn finally gave the fans on the other side of town the news that they have been waiting to hear when he outlined the team’s direction this winter.

While attending the Major League Baseball GM Meetings after the World Series in November, Hahn had the following to say about the state of the team in relation to the upcoming offseason:

“I think our goal is to put ourselves in a position to win on a sustainable basis,” Hahn said with a strong sense of purpose in his tone. “We have taken the approach for a number of years that we were focused on a short-term success. We have gotten to the point when we have had our conversations internally with Jerry (Reinsdorf) and Kenny (Williams) where we realize a better position for the long-term is a more prudent path.”

That quote straight from the mouth of the man who is supposed to be at the helm of building the White Sox roster, gave so many White Sox fans a huge sigh of relief after another season littered with disappointment and underachievement. White Sox fandom was finally able to look forward to something new, something trendy and most importantly a plan that if executed could actually have some substance behind it.

Sure, liquidating the team’s current assets is a scary idea at first mention. Players that hold the key to the return investments that will make rebuilding the roster possible are very well-liked around the south side of Chicago. Each one of the players that have been mentioned have a strong following of White Sox fans.

That being said, with the current roster that the White Sox have, coupled with the lack of free agent talent available, and the lack of depth in the Chicago farm system, there is no fathomable belief that the White Sox can compete for a playoff berth in 2017. I know there is a portion of the fan base that would like to see the White Sox go for it again next year, but that is just not going to work for the White Sox.

If a large market club that invested more money into their annual payroll had the current White Sox roster, going all-in for 2017 could be a potential option. Unfortunately, that’s not the case; the White Sox front office has a middle of the road payroll expectation year after year, and expect more than middle of the road success to come to fruition. Has anyone ever told you that someone has “champagne taste on a beer budget”? That perfectly sums up the White Sox front office direction as long as Jerry Reinsdorf has been the man signing the pay checks.

But this winter was finally going to be different according to General Manager Rick Hahn. This time the White Sox were going to come to terms with their payroll capabilities and make the shift to, as Hahn says, a more prudent path for the long-term.

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But for some reason, to this point we have seen more of the same from Hahn and company leading up to this week’s annual Major League Baseball Winter Meetings in Washington D.C. So far, the White Sox have cashed in on none of their young controllable assets in an effort to rebuild the farm system, and have also stood pat while the 29 other clubs reached deals with nearly all of the potential free agents that might help them fill some holes on the current roster.

What’s troubling at this point is that the White Sox have set the asking price at a premium that is turning off potential suitors as we head into the equivalent of a baseball flea market, the MLB Winter Meetings, this week. The last known asking price for Chris Sale was something along the lines of each team’s number one prospect, in addition to 3-4 top-10 prospects from the respective potential suitor.

That’s a relatively fair starting asking price; after all, the Rangers gave the Yankees Dillon Tate, the fourth overall pick in the 2015 MLB Draft, to rent Carlos Beltran for two months, while the Cubs shipped Gleyber Torres, a top-25 prospect in all of baseball, to the Yankees for Aroldis Chapman last summer.

As recent as last week we heard that the Astros, Nationals, Braves, Rangers, and Dodgers have had some extent of discussions with the White Sox about a potential deal for the All-Star southpaw Chris Sale. After it seemed very possible that the Astros were going to sign Edwin Encarnacion in an effort to make youngsters Alex Bregman and George Springer available to move in a deal for Sale last week, the Astros went in a different direction on Saturday morning and signed Carlos Beltran.

Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports reported on Saturday that the Astros and Rangers were out on Sale at the current asking price, and the Dodgers were more interested in adding their desired pieces via free agency, leaving just the Nationals and Braves in the mix for Sale at this point. The Braves have acquired three starting pitchers thus far, and don’t have the depth behind their top prospects to deplete their farm system in an effort to meet the White Sox’s current asking price.

The White Sox seem to be standing behind their current asking price, and also do not appear to be willing to move any of their other assets before Sale, because some of those players might need to be included in a potential Chris Sale trade.

So where does that leave the White Sox heading into this week’s Winter Meetings? It leaves them with two options: soften the asking price to make a deal and move forward with their plans with the rest of their valuable trade assets, or stand firm and risk not being able to trade Sale and potentially not move the players behind him on the roster.

The White Sox Cannot Afford an Idle Offseason. Improving the Farm Should Be the Priority.

A large contingent of fans are of the belief that the White Sox should hold firm on their asking price at all costs. I can’t agree with that entirely. Holding on to the likes of Sale and Jose Quintana achieves absolutely nothing for the White Sox. An idle offseason would be an absolute waste of time and cost the White Sox time and value on these same players down the line.

Let’s say they refuse to budge, trade no one, and head into 2017 with the current roster. The White Sox will have the same holes on their roster that they did in 2016, they will still be out of contention for a playoff spot, and come July when they try to sell off the same players again they will have eaten up half of a year of their team control and lowered their return value to just about what they would likely receive if they were more flexible this winter. All while wasting half of a year sitting in neutral in their plan for the future.

I think that the White Sox should make a move, even if it means changing the return demands slightly. Changing doesn’t necessarily mean lessening, rather shifting the focus pieces of the deal. For example, if the Astros refuse to give up Bregman, take a deal entirely of prospects that haven’t yet reached the major league level. After all, they are allegedly aiming for the future in this rebuild effort, right? Alex Bregman or Trea Turner shouldn’t be deal-breakers. Rather, demand a deeper return of prospects in exchange for Sale.

People have become fixated on a certain name within each of the mentioned suitors like Bregman, Turner, Yoan Moncada, Julio Urias, etc. All of those teams have deep levels of talent at the minor league level, players who aren’t factored into the respective teams’ current plan for success but still hold high levels of talent that should be major league ready in the next two to three years.

The idea of a rebuild, or more specifically as Hahn said, building a more prudent path for the long-term, shouldn’t hinge on an individual player whose MLB service time has already started. The White Sox would need to acquire seven top-100 prospects in return for Chris Sale, Jose Quintana, Todd Frazier, Adam Eaton, and whomever else a potential trade partner deems valuable, to have the league’s top-rated farm system.

Even without a Moncada or a Dansby Swanson, that is the plan according to Hahn. The White Sox currently have only two top-100 prospects. Adding seven more (which is highly possible with the amount of talent that the White Sox can move as of today), and having the best farm system in baseball just a couple months after embarking on the rebuilding process is absolutely a successful outcome for this offseason.

Next: Chris Sale Talks Cooling Off?

The reason that the likes of the Cubs have had such successful rebuilds is that they acquired a plethora of youthful talent that they could develop and have major league ready all around the same time.

The goal shouldn’t be to acquire the opponent’s biggest-name youngster, but rather to acquire as many of their talented youth players as possible, while ensuring that the acquired talent all has a similar window in their developmental track to Major League Baseball. The White Sox cannot afford to remain idle this offseason – they need to just become better. The White Sox need to drastically improve their minor league system, even if that means softening up initial expectations for their tradable assets.

The upcoming week will be a big test for the White Sox as far as their ability to effectively lead a rebuild is concerned. Let’s hope that the wheels don’t fall off of this bus before it takes off.

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