Levine: Chris Sale Trade Just The Beginning For White Sox
By Bruce Levine--
NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. (CBS) -- Let the floodgates open for the rest of baseball to storm into the White Sox's pre-Christmas mega sale, which isn't to be confused with the Sale who now pitches for the Red Sox.
Tuesday marked the start of a surefire rebuild for the White Sox when they traded ace left-hander Chris Sale to the Red Sox for four prospects, headlined by 21-year-old second baseman Yoan Moncada and 20-year-old right-hander Michael Kopech. This is an approach in which the White Sox envision vaulting them from having a bottom-third farm system in baseball to one that's top-tier.
General manager Rick Hahn admitted Tuesday was a painful moment, and there will be more ahead as the White Sox build for the long term. Of the four players acquired, only Moncada will have a chance to break spring training on the big league roster.
"Moncada was the centerpiece of the trade," Hahn said. "We like the other players very much, but Moncada was essential. We view him as a young, controllable, premium position player. We imagine him helping us offensively and defensively for a long time. If you do a Google search, you will see some pretty good names compared to him. We share that kind of view of his future."
The de facto welcoming message to the White Sox's suite at the Winter Meetings continues to be "Come on in and make us an offer we can't refuse. Hahn will continue to talk to many clubs -- including a few that lost out on Sale -- about 27-year-old left-hander Jose Quintana and many of the team's other assets. The Nationals could be in on Quintana for a smaller-but-still-significant price that they wouldn't quite give up for Sale.
"This trade did not dominate all of our time," Hahn said. "While we were doing the medical review on this deal, we had a couple of meetings with other clubs on different fronts. Whether you are close or not on deals, you never know. You always feel like you are a phone call away from something coming together. More often than not, that phone call doesn't come."
The smoking lamp is lit for the new direction and rebuild of the White Sox. Don't expect them to go halfway and stop, but even with that in mind, know that this is a long process that could wind its way through the next two seasons as the White Sox look to procure the talent they want to start over with.
"We are talking on a handful of different fronts," Hahn said. "It's possible something else happens while we are here. If not, we will revisit it at the end of the week."
The next wave of deals could include some combination of Quintana, first baseman Jose Abreu, third baseman Todd Frazier, outfielder Adam Eaton and clsoer David Robertson.
"That is a decent assumption," Hahn responded after being asked if the teams that he has talked to are still ready to deal for Quintana and others. "We do still have other players that fit that description. We are open-minded on all of them."
Bruce Levine covers the Cubs and White Sox for 670 The Score and CBSChicago.com. Follow him on Twitter @MLBBruceLevine.