Must make trades for each American League Central team: Chicago White Sox
Trade idea: Acquire Javier Baez
The ship is sinking in Chicago. Well, at least it is on one side of Chi-Town.
For the past few years, the Cubs were the team Chicago could count on. They took home the World Series in 2016 and spent the next handful of years amongst the league’s best. The White Sox, on the other hand, turned into the city’s best team seemingly overnight. They currently lead the Central by a wide margin over the Cleveland Indians and are efficient in roughly every statistical category.
It isn’t out of the realm of possibility that the White Sox finish the season with the best record. In order to do so, they’ll have to make a few small tweaks. It’s pretty incredible that the White Sox have done this well while being amongst the league’s worst in the home run department (86). They simply don’t hit the long ball often but they’ve been effective nonetheless.
Home runs can change a ball game in the blink of an eye but the White Sox aren’t capable of making those game-changing plays. At least not yet. To help in that department, they could pay a quick visit to their crosstown rivals, the Chicago Cubs.
The ship is sinking for the Cubs but before it goes down completely, they could attempt to get their hands on Javier Baez. His production is as great as it’s ever been. He’s tied for the eighth-most home runs with 21 and has the 16th most RBIs with 56.
Of course, defensively, he’s still as good as anyone but the White Sox shouldn’t be interested in what he brings to the table on that side of the field. They desperately need a bat like Baez. It may take something extra since they’re in-city rivals but whatever they have to do to make it happen, the White Sox need to figure it out.