The Chicago White Sox reached a deal with the Boston Red Sox on Tuesday afternoon that will send the All-Star southpaw to Boston in exchange for a package of prospects headlined by infielder Yoan Moncada.
The White Sox have made the first move in their rebuild plans for the current offseason on Tuesday afternoon as they struck a deal with the Boston Red Sox that will send Chris Sale to Boston in exchange for a package of prospects.
Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports first reported the deal just after Noon (CT) today, first reporting that the White Sox would receive second-baseman Yoan Moncada and right-handed pitcher Michael Kopech from the Red Sox in return for Chris Sale. Rosenthal later reported that the White Sox will also receive right-handed pitcher Victor Diaz and outfielder Luis Alexander Basabe in the deal with the Red Sox.
The White Sox receive the Red Sox number one, number five, number eight, and number twenty-eight in the deal, with Moncada being rated the number one prospect in all of baseball according to MLB Pipeline. Michael Kopech is also one of the Top-100 prospects in baseball, currently listed at number 67 according to MLB Pipeline.
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The Red Sox obviously gain a bona fide ace to squeeze into their already packed starting rotation for the next three seasons in Chris Sale. Sale has spent his entire seven year career with the White Sox. Sale, 27, was the White Sox first round selection in the 2010 MLB Draft, taken at number 13 overall in that draft.
Sale pitched to a career record of 74-50 record with the White Sox while posting a 3.00 ERA with 1,244 strike outs compared to just 260 walks over the course of 1,110 innings pitched during his seven season tenure with the White Sox.
The White Sox have been shopping Chris Sale to some extent since at least this past July when they first began to dance with the idea of tearing down what they have on the south side and rebuilding from the ground up. In July, and initially in the weeks leading up to the MLB Winter Meetings in Washington, D.C., it was rumored that the White Sox’ asking price for Sale was beyond what any club interested would be willing to meet.
The Rangers, Astros, Braves, Dodgers, and Nationals were all also involved in discussions to acquire the five time American League All-Star, with the Nationals nearly reaching an agreement with the White Sox as recently as late Monday evening when multiple sources reported that the Nationals had a “legitimate” deal in place, and that the two clubs were “just haggling over the final pieces in the deal”.
The Nationals deal reportedly would have had top pitching prospect Lucas Giolito and outfielder Victor Robles among those going back to Chicago for Sale.
White Sox Begin Their Rebuild with a Bang, Acquire Top Prospect in MLB.
The White Sox receive Yoan Moncada, the number one prospect in all of baseball according to MLB Pipeline. Moncada was long sought by the Rick Hahn and the White Sox front office, and up until this morning, the Red Sox deemed him “untouchable”.
Moncada, 21, was a highly touted Cuban prospect when he signed with the Boston Red Sox as an international free-agent, and has lived up to the hype thus far. Moncada is profiled as a offensively gifted middle-infielder by scouts, with exceptional evaluations in all of the five tools. Moncada has drawn comparisons to Robinson Cano by many, and has the chance to be an explosive player with a keen eye for the strike zone.
Not to be overlooked is Moncada’s well above average speed and base stealing ablity, Moncada posted back-to-back 45 steal seasons in the Red Sox minor league system, stealing those bases at an 86 percent success rate. During his two seasons in the Red Sox system Moncada has a combined batting average of .287 with 23 home runs, 100 RBI, 50 doubles, nine triples and 94 stolen bases.
Yoan Moncada seriously has a chance to be one of the better all-around positional players that the White Sox have had in recent memory with all of the tools that he possesses and has displayed to date.
Ken Rosenthal also reported on MLB Network this afternoon, that the Red Sox will be paying all of the $31 million dollars remaining owed to Moncada in the deal that they made to sign him as an international free agent out of Cuba.
Chicago White Sox
The White Sox also get another Top-100 Prospect in Michael Kopech, the Red Sox fifth rated prospect. Kopech, 20, is a 6-foot-3 right-hander that the Red Sox selected out of high school with their first round pick in the 2014 MLB Draft.
Kopech possesses a fastball that holds a 75 rating on the 80/20 rating scale, and has been described as a fastball that is better than most in the minor league level, that sits at 95-97 mph with late “nasty” life. Kopech also possesses a slider that “can make hitters look bad”, reaching the low 90’s. Kopech also developed a changeup that looks promising as a solid third-out pitch with a late drop before reaching the plate.
Over the course of 134.2 innings pitched in the Red Sox farm system Kopech has posted a 2.61 ERA to go along with 172 strike outs and 69 walks over that same span.
Kopech has risen from the ninety-eight overall prospect in baseball, to the mid-sixties in just one year’s time in the Red Sox system. The young right-hander is profiled as a front-line starting pitcher who will move through the minor-league’s quickly as he works on his control. Expect Kopech to spend the 2017 season developing at the minor league level, before debuting sometime in 2018.
Luis Alexander Basabe, 20, is was the Red Sox eighth rated prospect and brings the White Sox somewhat of a project, in the sense that Basabe is only 20-years-old and will need another year at least to polish his approach at the plate. The ceiling is high for Basabe though, profiled as a “switch-hitting centerfielder with five tool capabilities”.
Basabe generates impressive power from his strong wrists, forearms and impressive bat speed according to scouts, and shows early signs of plate discipline and good pitch selection at just 20-years-old.
In 2016, Basabe hit .264 with 12 home runs, 53 RBI, 26 doubles, nine triples and 25 stolen bases in the Red Sox system. Basabe is expected to see the major league level sometime in 2018 like Kopech.
The final piece that the White Sox will receive from Boston in the deal is 22-year-old Victor Diaz, a right-handed pitcher. Diaz was the Red Sox twenty-eighth rated prospect, and will have the longest stay in the White Sox minor league system.
Diaz is expected to be a high-leverage reliever, who has struggled to harness his stuff due to his high effort delivery. Diaz struggled for the most part in high-A ball in 2016 with the Red Sox, going 2-5 with a 3.88 ERA in 37 appearances. Opponents his .277 versus Diaz over that span as well. Diaz struggled early, but did not allow a run during his final 16 outings in 2016.
I’ve said it many times over the last few weeks, the White Sox base goal should be to end the winter having added seven Top-100 prospects to help turn around a long neglected farm system. Today the White Sox acquired two of those seven prospects, giving them a total of four (Including Zack Collins and Carson Fulmer).
The seven Top-100 guys would give them the most in baseball come spring training if they achieve the feat. In addition to the two Top-100 prospects acquired today they get a very talented outfielder in Luis Alexander Basabe as well as a potentially high ceiling reliever in Victor Diaz, both of whom will provide depth behind the crop of top prospects that the White Sox will aim to acquire this winter.
According to MLB Pipeline Yoan Moncada, baseball’s number one overall prospect will assume the top spot in the White Sox farm system rankings, with Kopech assuming the second spot in the White Sox farm system rankings.
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With Sale now being moved, look for Rick Hahn to become very active in the coming weeks as he looks to maximize the remainder of high-value assets that the White Sox have on their roster including the likes of Jose Quintana, Jose Abreu, Todd Frazier, David Robertson, Nate Jones and Adam Eaton.