I'm Happy The White Sox Won't Trade Chris Sale To The Cubs


Buster Olney meant to write a column about how the Washington Nationals match up as a great trade partner for the White Sox when it comes to Chris Sale. Olney's headline said that due to Washington GM Mike Rizzo's track record when it comes to trade, the Nats could swing a deal for Sale.

What Olney never did was explain what makes Washington a match. All he did was highlight all the trades Rizzo has made that have been good for the Nationals. He never mentions what the White Sox would want from Washington, other than saying the Nats have "a large group of pitching prospects."

That's great, but considering the word is that Rick Hahn is looking for position players, that would seem to go against the whole idea that Washington would be a good fit.

There was something else that Olney mentioned inside the column that was of a lot more interest to Sox fans, however, as hearing Chris Sale trade rumors is nothing new to us. It mentioned other teams that are interested in Sale or Jose Quintana, and it featured this little nugget.

"The White Sox have told the Cubs they won't deal with them."

This doesn't come as a surprise. Anybody that's ever paid attention to Jerry Reinsdorf and the way he operates already knows he's not going to be enthusiastic about the idea of trading with the Cubs. In fact, ever since Reinsdorf bought the White Sox in 1981, the Sox have made 10 trades with the Cubs.

The first one came right after Reinsdorf bought the team, a blockbuster that sent Ken Kravec to the north side for Dennis Lamp. And that's really been the theme of the 10 deals in 35 years, all of them have been minor except for one.

The "blockbuster" was when the Sox sent Ken Patterson and Sammy Sosa to the Cubs for George Bell, and I assure you that Reinsdorf thought he was fleecing the Cubs in that deal. We all know how it turned out.

Anyway, the whole philosophy of "we won't trade with the Cubs" has always been one that bothered me, because I don't care who the other team is. If they have the best offer on the table for a player, that's the deal you should be making.

When it comes to Chris Sale, however, I'm 100% fine with it.

It's not a stance based on logic, but one based on emotions. If the White Sox are going to go into a rebuild, I would be fine with trading just about anybody to the Cubs because they have a lot of strong prospects.

If the Cubs want to trade for Jose Quintana, Jose Abreu, Adam Eaton, or anybody else, the White Sox should listen. They'd be irresponsible not to.

But not Chris Sale. I'm sorry, Cubs, he's off the table.

It's going to hurt enough to see Sale traded because he's been the best thing about this team for a while now. He may be the best pitcher to ever put on a White Sox uniform. It's going to kill me when (if) he's traded.

The idea of seeing Sale pitching in a different uniform makes me cringe. The vision of him finally reaching the postseason, but with another team, makes my knees wobble. Both are hard to take.

But Sale finally reaching the playoffs and possibly winning a World Series in a Cubs uniform? I'm sorry, but I just don't even want to deal with how that would make me feel.

So if Reinsdorf won't let Rick Hahn send Sale to the Cubs, he has my full support in this instance.

My heart just couldn't take it.

Comments

  1. Well, the Sox kinda got revenge for the George Bell trade by (eventually) fleecing them in the Jon Garland deal.

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    Replies
    1. Definitely, but that wasn't exactly a big trade at the time it was made.

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    2. Well, yeah. But I have take what I can get sometimes, y'know?

      Delete
  2. I think it's silly to make it known though. It's a leverage piece that is now shot.

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  3. Completely agree with you on every aspect. As a fan who disagrees with the loud mob screaming for a rebuild anyway, the emotional toll of Sale leaving, as one of our only heroes, is already going to be devastating enough. I also don't think the Front Office realizes how devastating it's going to be to the fanbase in general. At a time when we're already hemorrhaging fans to the growing bandwagon, dumping our number one jersey seller and the guy who dramatically boosts attendance when he pitches is going to do a lot of financial damage alongside the emotional.

    Anger that denying the Cubs hurts leverage is also nonsensical to me. Its a single team, and a team that was refusing to ever give up worthy value to begin with. Especially because I don't think anybody would say a peep if the Front Office had said they wouldn't trade him within the division. That would have been somehow acceptable, even though it would cut out four teams instead of only one.

    ReplyDelete

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