The White Sox Should Absolutely Trade Chris Sale

Chris Sale is one of the five best pitchers in baseball, and he’s having another outstanding season. Unfortunately, his Chicago White Sox have not joined him on that train, as they enter Friday’s action 10 games behind the Cleveland Indians for first place in the American League Central. The South Siders are also 7.5 games out of the final AL Wild Card spot. They aren’t competing now and don’t look like they will any time soon, thanks to a barren farm system.

All of that leads to one conclusion: it’s time to trade Sale and start a massive rebuild.

Sale has been his usual dominant self in 2016, posting a 14-3 record, with a 3.18 ERA, 1.01 WHIP and 129 strikeouts against 29 walks in 133.0 innings. The 27-year-old also ranks 13th in WAR (2.7) among pitchers according to Fangraphs. He’s one of baseball’s top hurlers and he’s under team control until 2019. Unfortunately for Chicago, the team simply hasn’t surrounded him with enough talent to be successful.

Even if the White Sox wanted to be buyers at the deadline for a run at the postseason, they simply don’t have the prospect pieces to entice other teams in trades. The recently called up Carson Fulmer is a legit top 50 prospect, but could only get them one bat, which wouldn’t be enough to turn things around. Fulmer is also just 22 and the future of Chicago’s rotation. Rebuilding with him is a nice start. After that, the team’s system is utterly bare without a single legitimate top 100 prospect.

Moving Sale now at the height of his prime could net the White Sox a wealth of top prospects or young major leaguers. In fact, Ken Rosenthal and his bow tie report they turned down such a package this week:

If that report is true, Chicago’s front office needs a stern talking to.

It would be one thing if offers for Sale were coming in far under his value, but there is enough need for pitching out there that the White Sox could absolutely fleece somebody. Given how fragile pitchers are these days, and how far they are from championship contention, the Pale Hose would do well to take advantage of Sale’s dominance by moving him as soon as possible. They could return maximum value for his talent right now and there’s no telling whether they will be able to do so in a year or two.

Sale is a five-time All-Star and I know it’s incredibly difficult for teams to move young stars they drafted and developed. But at this point the best thing for the franchise would be receiving maximum value for the asset it has groomed.

The Sox aren’t winning a World Series any time soon, they must reshuffle the deck and build for the future. That starts with moving Sale.