White Sox: What staying put at trade deadline means

Aside from moving Nate Jones to Houston, Rick Hahn and the Chicago White Sox decided to have a quiet 2019 trade deadline.

Of late, Chicago White Sox fans have found themselves almost expecting to blow up the roster as much as possible every deadline in order to acquire more pieces to expedite the rebuilding process. However, rather than stockpiling assets, the Southsiders decided to stay put. So what does this mean for the team going forward?

In short, the White Sox clearly feel that this rebuild is over. When merely looking at the team’s record, this idea seems quite radical. However, upon more thinking, this irrational thought actually makes a bit of sense.

Let’s start by looking at the current Chicago core. Two years from now, the locks for the starting position players appear to be Yoan Moncada at third, Tim Anderson at shortstop, Nick Madrigal at second, Eloy Jimenez in left, and Luis Robert in center. Andrew Vaughn will absolutely be somewhere in the starting lineup as well, either at first base or designated hitter. In the starting rotation, the team has many options in Lucas Giolito, Michael Kopech, Carlos Rodon, and Dylan Cease.

Either currently or at one point, all of the before mentioned players were considered one of MLB Pipeline’s top 100 prospects, and all are still very young players. With a core such as this, is it too crazy to believe that success is just around the corner in 2020? Rick Hahn doesn’t seem to think so.

By this logic, the only needs for the White Sox going forward outside of the young group are right field, first base/DH, catcher, starting pitching, and bullpen depth. Right field is something that is going to need to be addressed in free agency, as well as more pitching. However, by staying put at the deadline, the White Sox appear to have their catcher and first baseman of the future in James McCann and Jose Abreu. In addition, Alex Colome appears to be the closer going forward on the South Side.

In a nutshell, Rick Hahn appears to believe that this team will be ready to make a playoff run in 2020. At first glance, this proposal seems a bit preposterous. The Sox are currently not even close to a Wild Card berth and have a lot of holes on the roster. However, considering the insane amount of free agent money the Sox will have to spend in the offseason and the development/calling-up of young pieces, Chicago could be a contender in the American League.

Indeed, the team could have looked to get even more young pieces to add to its repertoire, but if Hahn truly believes that he will land marquee free agents this summer and will be ready to start competing, this is absolutely the right call. If Hahn fails to have a big free agency in 2020 as he did in 2019, this move may be a bad one. However, only time will tell how the pieces will fall together for the Southsiders.