If you are a baseball fan, this is the most intriguing and agonizing week of the season depending if your team is a buyer or seller at the upcoming July 31st trading deadline. But if your team is a buyer, chances are you are keeping your eyes and ears glued to the trade pipeline to see and hear who your team may be either deal or who they may acquire. However, in the case of one player and team, it is very intriguing to see if a certain player will be on the move to a team that we may except or in some cases did not see coming.
So the question begs: Who’s on Sale?
No seriously, who’s in hot pursuit of Chicago White Sox LHP Chris Sale?
Chris Sale, who is currently 14-3 on the season with a 3.18 ERA, has been the best pitcher arguably in the American League this season. However, the numbers that Sale has put up is not the only reason why Sale may be on the trading block come August 1st. Sale has been in the news in the last three days stemming from his incident on Saturday evening when he cut the retro uniforms the team had planned to wear that night against the Detroit Tigers. Sale was suspended for five games for his actions, but the suspension itself is not what is alarming. Many people strongly believe that this maybe is stemming from the anger he felt from the Adam LaRoche situation that happened during Spring Training in which that Adam LaRoche’s son was not permitted to be in the White Sox clubhouse as often as he would like.
It has become quite clear that the White Sox organization has become quite weary of his outspoken nature and given that the White Sox has fallen out of contention in the last two months, the White Sox believe that now may be the right time to try to move Sale out of Chicago.
But where?
The irony is that whichever team that ends up acquiring Sale will have to pay a steep price. Whether it’s trading a bonafide star or top tier prospects, one team will have to make that ultimate sacrifice to land a bonafide ace on top of their rotation.
This is where the Boston Red Sox come in. The Red Sox have the prospects and the money to pull the trade which will certainly unquestionably make the Red Sox favorites in the American League to get to the Fall Classic in October. Red Sox President Dave Dombrowski certainly has the resources and more importantly, the guts, to pull off such a big trade. Even if it meant trading away prospects like Yoan Moncada and Andrew Benintendi, this is a big and gutsy move that the Red Sox should pull if they want to not only cement their position for October baseball but also make a run for the World Series title in David Ortiz’s final season.
We still have six days until the trading deadline on August 1st. However, a lot can happen and change over that span of time. Given the current state on top of the Red Sox starting rotation, this move is something the Red Sox should seriously consider given that David Price has been a disappointment so far in his first season as a Red Sox. If the Red Sox acquire Chris Sale, it will provide them with a legitimate 1-2 punch on top of their rotation that they sorely need (given that Price can sort out his struggles and finish the season strong).
These next six days are going to be wild. For the Red Sox, it could very well determine what happens during the final two months of the season and possibly October.