Chicago White Sox Rumors: Trade targets identified

The Chicago White Sox are expected to be active in the trade market with one week remaining until the start of the Major League Baseball winter meetings.

There is a growing expectation that the White Sox will move starting pitcher Dylan Cease and designated hitter Eloy Jimenez at some point before the start of the 2024 season.

We’ve already highlighted the reasons why the White Sox need to trade Cease this off-season and while Jimenez could have value to the team if they held off on moving him and waited until a future trade deadline, the weak position player market may allow for a team to pursue the White Sox slugger and get aggressive in their offer.

There hasn’t been much discourse on the type of players that the White Sox may be targeting in these trades. The White Sox’s trade with the Atlanta Braves earlier this off-season may serve as a guide for what the team may be expecting in return for the deals they make. The White Sox added two pitchers that could possibly slide into their rotation and a potential starting infielder in Nicky Lopez.

It would seem that the White Sox may be eyeing players who don’t necessarily have a role on their current team. To that end, former Major League Baseball general manager Jim Bowden of The Athletic (Subscription Required) listed the following trade targets for the White Sox: Cincinnati Reds’ infielder Jonathan India, Milwaukee Brewers’ shortstop Willy Adames, and Kansas City Royals’ catcher Salvador Perez.

Much like this terrible trade proposal, Bowden is showing why he is a former Major League Baseball general manager as only one of these players makes sense for the White Sox and that is India as he isn’t a free agent until 2027.

Adames is a free agent after this season so there would be little value for the White Sox to trade prospects in a rebuilding year for a shortstop that they likely wouldn’t be willing to pay the price that it would cost for an extension.

Perez has two seasons remaining on his current contract and it would seem that the White Sox would want Perez to come in and be a leader within the clubhouse but this is another type of trade that a team in the Sox’s position should not be making.