It’s being reported through various media sites that the White Sox are willing to trade away righty James Shields. He has time this season as the 34-year-old pitcher has been part of the San Diego Padres and the Chicago White Sox. The White Sox acquired Shields earlier this summer.
The trade that ended up bringing Shields to the White Sox also re-allocated his salary. The Padres are still on the hook for $31 MM of the sizable outlay, which would end up leaving the White Sox responsible for approximately $27 MM from the point of the trade which happened on June 4th. The point: the heavy lifting of re-evaluating his contract has been done.
James Shields does have an opt-out clause in his contract following this season, which does not seem to be a major factor in his potential market. The primary importance for teams looking to strengthen their rotation is the fact that Shields has done quite well as of late. His overall numbers in his short time in Chicago aren’t great. Over the last few weeks as the August 1st deadline approaches, there has been a ton of rumblings out of Chicago as reports have been going around that the team is willing to entertain many of the players.
If the White Sox can trade him, some possible teams I could see him going to are the Texas Rangers, New York Yankees, New York Mets, or any team that needs help in the pitching rotation. Being that James Shields has gone down in numbers, he can still help any team who needs pitching help and is in a playoff run.