Nightengale: Chris Sale trade could key titles for both Red Sox, White Sox
NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — 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.
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The Chris Sale effect: How his trade impacts the Red Sox, White Sox and others
Red Sox President David Dombrowski brought back some old-school baseball with the biggest trade we’ll have all winter.
“When you have a chance to win,” Dombrowski said, “you go for it.”
And, oh 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 third-best pitcher. They’ve got Sale, Porcello, David Price, Clay Buchholz, Drew Pomeranz, Steven Wright, Eduardo Rodriguez and more on the way.
By the way, they’ve got the best offense and finest outfield defense in baseball, too.
“Wow,” 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 right-hander Victor Diaz, who likely will be a setup man. And speedy outfield prospect Luis Basabe.
Red Sox acquire Chris Sale in blockbuster trade with White Sox
The last general manager 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,” Dombrowski 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 some day.”
Amen.
Sure, Moncada could emerge as the infield version of Mike Trout. Kopech could anchor Chicago’s rotation. Diaz and Basabe could have brilliant 10-year careers.
Yet for the chance to win now, with a roster mostly under club control for the next four years, you can’t be afraid to trade prospects.
Dombrowski traded away future Hall of Famer Randy Johnson when he was the Montreal Expos general manager in a package deal for Mark Langston. He sent future All-Star closer Andrew Miller to the Florida Marlins in an eight-player 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,” said Dombrowski, who also acquired Milwaukee Brewers reliever Tyler Thornburg in the morning and signed free agent DH Mitch Moreland in the afternoon. “This is one of the best pitchers in baseball, proven. 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.”
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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 longer-term 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.
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