Four years ago trade shook Sox
Sale deal brought in key pieces for future rebuild
The course of the White Sox changed drastically in about 30 hours four years ago.
The White Soxwere the talk of baseball on Dec. 6, 2016, after sending ace Chris Sale to the Red Sox for infielder Yoan Moncada, pitchers Michael Kopech and Victor Diaz and outfielder Luis Alexander Basabe.
“Given where we were as an organization entering this offseason, we knew we were going to have to make some painful decisions,” White Sox general manager RickHahn said then.
“But if we had the opportunity to acquire some high-impact talent that would be around for a number of years, it was time to start that process.”
The next day, the White Sox traded outfielder Adam Eaton to theWashington Nationals for pitchers Lucas Giolito, Reynaldo Lopez andDane Dunning.
In the time since, everyone has benefited.
TheRed Soxwon the 2018World Series with Sale on the mound for the final out. The Nationals won the World Series the next season as Eaton hit .320 with two home runs and six RBIs against the Houston Astros.
As for the White Sox, the deals kickstarted a rebuild.
Moncada is a budding star at third base and Giolito is one of the top pitchers in the American League.
The White Sox made the playoffs in 2020, losing anALwild-card series against the Oakland Athletics. They have bigger goals in 2021.
On the anniversary of the Sale trade, here’s howeach player involved in the deal has fared:
YoanMoncada
Yoan Moncada came to the White Sox as baseball’s top prospect, according to MLB.com.
“(Moncada) is a great player, and if he’s not a tremendous player, I will be very surprised,” Dave Dombrowski, the Red Sox president, said at the time. “But again, you have to give to get.”
Moncada hit .294 with 31 doubles, six triples, 15 home runs, 45 stolen bases and a .918 OPS at the high Class A and Double-A levels in 2016. He played in eight games as a September call-up for the Red Sox.
“We view Moncada as a premium position player, a guy who is going to play up the middle and be an impact player offensivelyanddefensively for us for a long time,” Hahn said in a Dec. 7 Tribune story.
Moncada made his White Sox debut on July 19, 2017.
He hit .231 in 53 games in 2017 and slashed .235/.315/.400 in 2018 while leading the majors with 217 strikeouts.
But everything clicked in 2019. Moncada finished third in the American League with a .315 average while setting career highs in home runs (25) and RBIs (79). He cut his strikeouts to 154. Defensively, he made a smooth transition from second to third base.
Moncada and the Sox agreed on a five-year, $70 million deal inMarch 2020.
But his production suffered after testing positive for COVID-19 before the start of the July summer camp. He slashed .225/ .320/.385 with six home runs and 24 RBIs in 52 games this season.
He said during a Sept. 3 video conference that the effects of the coronavirus were “like a daily battle to try to find that strength, that energy to go through the day.” But Moncada, 25, still became a finalist for the AL Gold Glove award at third base.
Asked Oct. 12 about the potential long-term impact of COVID-19 for Moncada, Hahn said: “We don’t know, but we’re optimistic based on where he is physiologically that he’ll be OK come next spring, get some rest this offseason and recover, rampup the training under a strict protocol and go get ‘em next year hopefully.”
MichaelKopech
Kopech was the No. 30 prospect in baseball, according to MLB.com, at the time of the trade. He had a 2.08 ERA with 86 strikeouts in 561⁄ innings with two
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Class A teams in the Red Sox organization in 2016.
“Weprojecthimout about aswell as just about any minor-league starter out there right now,” Hahn said at the time.
Kopech made his highly anticipated major-league debut on Aug. 21, 2018, and allowed three hits with four strikeouts in two scoreless innings against the Minnesota Twins.
Kopechmadefour starts that season but was diagnosed with a torn right ulnar collateral ligament on Sept. 6, and Tommy John surgery followed.
Kopech missed all of 2019 while recovering and made one start during spring training in 2020 before the sport went on pause because of the pandemic. In the outing, six of his 11 pitcheswere clocked at 100 or 101 mph.
Kopech, 24, opted out for “personal reasons” when baseball returned in July.
“We look forward to having Michael back with us come the start of spring training,” Hahn said after the season.
Luis Alexander Basabe
Basabe hit .264 with 26 doubles, nine triples, 12 home runs, 25 stolen bases and a .780 OPSfor twoClassAteams in 2016. He was the No. 8 prospect in the Red Sox organization.
“He’s another switch-hitting, up-themiddle talent,” Hahn said at the time of the trade. “A plus defender in center field who can run.”
Basabe made three trips to the the injured list in 2019. He was out from April 4-21 after having surgery on his left hand, while a strained left quad led to stints on the injured list June 1-10 and June 21-July 11. He hit .250 with 12 doubles, two triples, three home runs and 31 RBIs in 74 games between Class A Kannapolis and Birmingham. The 24-year-old entered 2020 as the No. 9 prospect in the Sox organization, according to MLB.com. The Sox traded him to the San Francisco Giants on Aug. 9 for cash considerations, and he went 2-for-14 in nine games.
Victor Diaz
Diazwas theNo. 28 prospect in the Red Sox system at the time of the trade. The right-hander went 2-5 with a 3.88 ERA in 37 relief appearances for Class A Greenville in 2016.
Hahn described Diaz as a “plus-plus arm who has some secondary offerings to back it up” in aDec. 7 Tribune article.
Diaz went 0-1 with a 14.25 ERA in 14 games between Class A Kannapolis and Winston-Salem in 2017. He started the season on the injured list with a strained right shoulder, was reinstated on May 25 but went back on the IL on July 25 and missed the rest of the season.
Diaz, 26, missed all of 2018 with a right shoulder injury and all of 2019 after undergoing right shoulder surgery.
Chris Sale
The lefty went 74-50 with a 3.00 ERA and 1,244 strikeouts during his seven seasons with the White Sox. He was a four-time All-Star and earned the start in the 2016 All-Star Game.
“I think he’s going to be invigorated by the chance to play meaningful games in October,” Hahn said the day of the trade.
Sale, 31, is 35-23 with a 3.08ERAand 763 strikeouts in 84starts with theRedSox. He has made the All-Star team twice with the Red Sox, earning the start in 2017 and ‘18.
Sale made 25 starts in 2019, but his season ended in mid-August after going on the injured list with inflammation in his pitching elbow. He underwent Tommy John surgery inMarch 2020 and could be in line for a midsummer return in 2021, according to reports.
Sale and the Red Sox agreed to a five-year, $145-million extension inMarch 2019.
That May, he returned to Guaranteed Rate Field with the Red Sox and reflected on the final out of the 2018World Series.
“I just kept telling myself, ‘I’ve got a four-run lead and three outs to get, don’t mess it up,’” Sale said in a May 4, 2019 Tribune story. “Itwas pretty surreal.
“It’s like, ‘All right, that’s the third out, game’s over, we justwon theWorld Series.’ The next thing I know, I’ve got everyone around me and it was just mayhem for a couple minutes.”
The White Sox hope to be a part of that type of mayhem again in part because of the steps they have taken with the trade.