Sale trades Sox, heads to Boston
Red Sox grab ace to heat up hot stove
Get the duck boats warmed up.
The Boston Red Sox might need them for their 2017 World Series parade.
And considering the haul the Chicago White Sox received in return for ace Chris Sale, well, they just might be your 2019 champs.
The White Sox can have the future and all of their new shiny prospects.
For the Red Sox, they shouted out to the world Tuesday that their future is right now.
Red Sox President David Dombrowski brought back some old school baseball with the biggest trade we’ll have all offseason.
“When you have a chance to win,” he said, “you go for it.” And, baby, are they going for it. Sale, 27, is one of the most dominant pitchers in baseball, and he will thrive in the frenzied market of Boston, savoring the opportunity of pitching in October and leading the Red Sox to
the World Series title.
You know the Red Sox have a star-studded rotation when the 2016 Cy Young Award winner, Rick Porcello, is now their thirdbest pitcher. They have Sale, Porcello, David Price, Clay Buchholz, Drew Pomeranz, Steven Wright, Eduardo Rodriguez and more on the way.
By the way, they have the best offense and finest outfield defense in baseball, too.
“Wow,” New York Yankees general manager Brian Cashman told reporters, “Boston’s like the Golden State Warriors now of baseball.”
Sure, the price for Sale was steep. It cost them their $31.5 million bonus baby, Yoan Moncada, the No. 1 prospect in baseball. And one of the game’s elite pitching prospects in Michael Kopech, who throws 101 mph and is viewed as a future No. 1 starter. And power righthander Victor Diaz, who likely will be a setup man. And speedy outfield prospect Luis Basabe.
The last GM in Boston, Ben Cherington, who hoarded his prospects to build for the future was fired.
Dombrowski reminded us why he’s one of the last old school gunslingers in a game that’s been taken over by computer nerds and analytic spreadsheets.
“Anytime you get there, short of a total giveaway of your system, I think you go for it,” he said. “In baseball, four years down the road is like an eternity. So you need to try to take advantage of that opportunity. ... I think if you take a chance and you go for it as much as you possibly can, hopefully it works for you someday.” Amen. Sure, Moncada could emerge as the infield version of Mike Trout. Kopech could anchor the White Sox rotation. Diaz and Ba- sabe could have brilliant 10-year careers. Yet for the chance to win now, with a roster mostly under club control for four years, you can’t be afraid to trade prospects.
Dombrowski traded future Hall of Famer Randy Johnson when he was the Montreal Expos GM in a package deal for Mark Langston. He sent future All-Star closer Andrew Miller to the Florida Marlins in a deal for Miguel Cabrera while with the Detroit Tigers. Now he gives up the heart of his farm system for Sale, the only starter he pursued, not caring about what these prospects will become one day.
What concerns Dombrowski is winning now, knowing he just acquired the modern-day version of the Big Unit without touching a soul on his 25-man roster.
“It’s a very difficult deal to make, but the ability to get a Chris Sale doesn’t come along that often,” Dombrowski said. “This is one of the best pitchers in baseball. We’re trying to win.
“There will come a day when Moncada is putting in his 15-year career that we will be saying, ‘The Red Sox, geez, I can’t believe we traded that guy.’ So yes, it does complicate it. He’s a great player. If he’s not a tremendous player, I’ll be very surprised. But you’ve got to give to get a guy like Sale.”
White Sox GM Rick Hahn knows it will be painful watching Sale pitching in October the next three years for the Red Sox, but this was necessary. The White Sox weren’t going anywhere. They were caught in no-man’s land, mired in mediocrity.
They decided three weeks ago they had no choice but to conduct their first rebuilding project in a quarter-century, but no one really believed them. Now that Sale is gone, well, everyone is up for grabs. The White Sox still have No. 2 starter Jose Quintana on the market, slugger Jose Abreu, center fielder Adam Eaton, third baseman Todd Frazier and closer David Robertson. You want ’ em? The White Sox are listening.
“This path doesn’t fit with how we have acted over the last several years,” Hahn said. “We’ve been in a more of a ‘win now and patch and play’ type of situation. … In the past few years, we’ve been aggressive in trying to patch some of those holes, and unfortunately they haven’t played out the way we anticipated. You don’t want to be a club that’s not good enough, not capable of winning a championship, and just sort of mediocre or stuck in the middle.
“We realize the way we had been approaching this the last few years wasn’t bearing fruit. We’re going to have to make painful decisions. But given where we are as an organization, and our resources, it doesn’t make sense to continue to try to stopgap this thing. It’s time to take a longerterm view and broader approach to building this club.”
Really, the blueprint is sitting right in front of them, on the north side of town, where confetti still can be found on the streets from the Cubs’ parade.
That confetti could fall on Dombrowski next October.