Unlike some rebuilds, the fruits of the White Sox teardown came in the form of some close to ready-made young talent, and among the players the White Sox acquired who made their team debut during an otherwise forgettable season were Yoan Moncada, Lucas Giolito, and Reynaldo Lopez. Throw in incumbents Tim Anderson and Carlos Rodon (health pending) and the start of a hopeful new core was already starting to take place on the South Side, even as we wait for Eloy Jimenez, Michael Kopech, and others to join them.

If 2017 was Phase 1 of the rebuild, 2018’s Phase 2 won’t be too dissimilar. There likely won’t be as many veterans Rick Hahn & Co. can flip for shiny new toys, but as the aforementioned “next core” continues its development either in the majors or the minors, the White Sox will likely search for roster filler with two thoughts in mind: 1. Someone has to play, and 2. A good few months could generate even more young talent in the form of even more trades.

Setting aside the White Sox two most obviously valuable trade candidates, Jose Abreu and Nate Jones, which Nick outlined Monday, there isn’t much “roster filler” leftover from 2017, save for the expensive and ineffective James Shields. Thus, it’s likely the White Sox will spend this offseason identifying and pursuing players who fit the archetype of cheap veterans looking to rebuild their value on a shorter deals. Think Derek Holland, only hopefully with better results. Actually, forget Holland. Think Anthony Swarzak. That’s better.

With that in mind, a perusal of the available free agents brings … less than stellar options, as you might expect.

Still, there are bargains to be had. And when you project what the White Sox roster might look like in 2018, the rotation and bullpen are likely where most of the action will take place. Positionally, the White Sox have their starters at first base, second base, shortstop, and right field. One could make the argument for bringing in veterans at catcher, third base, left field, and center field, but the White Sox will have to weigh the desire to do that with ensuring more reps from guys like Omar Narvaez, Kevan Smith, Yolmer Sanchez, Leury Garcia, Matt Davidson, and Nicky Delmonico.

With that in mind, here are a few players who, at first glance, could be on the White Sox radar if the price is right:

Starting pitchers

James Fegan wrote about Tyler Chatwood as a potential free agent target over at The Athletic and I’ll echo those sentiments, as Chatwood is younger than your average free agent and the type of ground ball pitcher the White Sox like to target. Andrew Cashner is now 31 but was once a flame-throwing top prospect who could want to rebuild his value after posting the worst K/9 of his career in Texas. Jhoulys Chacin will be 30 in January and has a dwindling strikeout, but may come cheaply enough if he’s willing to leave the friendly confines of PetCo for a less pitcher-friendly environment. Chris Tillman had a disastrous season in Baltimore and his value couldn’t be much lower, but that’s kind of the point here, right? Wade Miley technically still exists. Why not bring back Miguel Gonzalez?

Relievers

Trevor Cahill gave up more home runs in 23 innings with the Royals than in 61 with the Padres, but is somehow still only 29. Asher Wojciechowski is a slider/change-up guy who gives up way too many fly balls to make sense but is young enough that maybe the White Sox would be interested. Steve Cishek and Tommy Hunter represent classic “sign and flip” candidates if they have a few good months. Luke Gregerson is only a year removed from being a valuable bullpen piece, but was so bad for Houston that he only pitched in mop-up duty in the playoffs. The actual answer to this question, of course, is Matt Albers.

Outfielders

Carlos Gonzalez was among the worst everyday players in baseball for the first half of 2017, but rebounded to the tune of a .921 OPS in the second half. He was linked to the White Sox plenty during the years they were actually trying to contend, so it would only be logical for them to get him now to split time between left field and DH. Leonys Martin plays a good center field but can’t hit a lick, making him basically an older version of Adam Engel. Ichiro Suzuki is who they sign in my dreams, and sometimes my dreams come true.

Infielders/catchers

There really isn’t much to work with here, and these groups are probably the least likely to see any sort of free agent additions. Maybe Will Middlebrooks on a minor league deal excites you, since he’s a name you know. Hey, they gave Cody Asche a shot so who knows? Chris Iannetta has always been well regarded for his receiving skills and would be a good candidate to help groom the White Sox young arms from behind the plate, but would only likely be considered if the front office’s opinions on Narvaez or Smith’s handling of pitchers are less glowing than they say publicly. Old friend Hector Sanchez will only be 28 and had a random dinger-laden streak for the Padres last season.

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1. As Dariel is still very young, it’s time to start learning life lessons: like having the first taste of the sardonic pleasure of harming the playoff hopes of another team; especially a team owned by Jeffrey Loria. After the Sox put 14 men on base in five innings against the newly-acquired Andrew Cashner, Loria might want to get back on the phone with San Diego.

While the four runs the Sox scratched across pushed Cashner above a 5.00 ERA for the season–what an acquisition!–and 4-for-12 with runners in scoring position is a pretty good average.

2. But the Sox did manage to hemorrhage runs in fun and interesting ways. Tim Anderson grounded into a double play to kill a bases loaded situation in the first, Jose Abreu and Todd Frazier both chased junk and struck out to spoil another based loaded situation in the second, Melky Cabrera added his own double play in the fourth. For good measure, both Abreu and Frazier managed to get gunned down at the plate as well.

After Abreu singled and Frazier boomed a double off the wall to lead off the fifth, Abreu was thrown out easily at home on a chopped fielder’s choice from J.B. Shuck. And though Frazier would score that inning off an Anderson sacrifice fly, he was called out on a close play in the seventh after Omar Narvaez laced a singled through the right side of the infield.

Still scratching out four runs after possibly costing themselves four via random goofups is the mark of a good offense, but the Sox are not a good offense, so who knows what to do with this result?

3. Carlos Rodon delivered six one-run innings for his second-straight quality start, but the control and the wondrous stretches of his superlative night against the Orioles last weekend. Left-hander Christian Yelich was comically overwhelmed by his slider, and gave Rodon three of his four strikeouts, with the other coming on a 96 mph fastball blown by Giancarlo Stanton. If you’re going to only neutralize a small part of the Marlins lineup, that’s a good portion to focus on, but wildness and imprecision–he couldn’t spot his changeup to save his life all night but bless him for trying–forced him into laborious situations.

The Marlins scored their only run off Rodon in a 36-pitch fourth where he allowed Martin Prado to advance on a wild pitch, walked Marcell Ozuna, gave up an RBI single to catcher J.T. Realmuto and got into a 12-pitch war with utility man Miguel Rojas, all when he was just one out from ending the inning. He eventually got Rojas to fly out to left. The 122 pitches he used to get through six innings was a career-high.

4. Walking Adeiny Hechavarria and allowing a double to Ichiro Suzuki did some damage to the veneer of the Ace Reliever Jacob Turner project, but after Dan Jennings allowed a sacrifice fly to bring the game to 4-2 in the seventh, Nate Jones came on to deliver four bulletproof outs and turned over a two-run lead to David Robertson. After two-straight blown saves, Robertson’s knuckle curve was liquefying humans Friday night, and he struck out two in a perfect ninth inning.

5. Among the offensive heroes, Adam Eaton collected four hits in his first four at-bats and scored a run, and Narvaez walked in his first three at-bats and singled in his fourth, and now sits at .444/.600/.500 in 25 plate appearances. Tyler Saladino and Abreu both had two-hit nights, and drove in a run apiece.

So it was a fine victory and felt good and there’s no reason to feel existential dread about anyth–

White Sox 55-60 through 115 games.
Just as they were 55-60 through 115 games in 2015.
Just as they were 55-60 through 115 games in 2014.

— Christopher Kamka (@ckamka) August 13, 2016

Team Record: 55-60

Next game is Saturday at 6:10pm CT at Miami on CSN

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There’s buyer’s remorse, and then there’s the unshakable sense that you just did business with someone who committed a lie of omission. And in how hastily the Padres were willing to trade the Marlins back Luis Castillo–one of the prospects they received in the original deal–to take on Rea and pay for his surgery, there’s a tacit admission of something Buster Olney reports MLB is now investigating: that San Diego knew dire things about Rea’s medicals that they did not disclose to their trading partners.

Olney also reports that the deal to send Drew Pomeranz to Boston, while lacking the smoking gun of a Tommy John surgery but certainly marred by Pomeranz being suddenly completely dreadful in a Red Sox uniform, is also under investigation for the same concerns of undisclosed medical red flags.

There is, of course, one more pumpkin the Padres shipped out this season. Even removed from the blinding disaster of his first three starts, James Shields‘ strikeout rate has dropped by nearly 50 percent since arriving in Chicago, along with a very visible degradation of his stuff.

However, Shields is not mentioned in Olney’s reports, and despite his suspiciously immediate and steep decline, the Shields deal does not fit as comfortably alongside the other two. He’s 34-years-old with a massive career workload that would suggest decline was already around the corner, he’s continued to log heavy innings for the Sox (averaging over six frames per night during his last eight starts), his velocity has held up even though his whiffs have not, and the return package of Erik Johnson and Fernando Tatis Jr. along with the significant salary relief the Padres offered suggested that the Sox knew they were paying for a diminished asset.

Still, even a cursory review of the Shields trade is a natural progression of investigating the Padres trades this season, and how forthcoming A.J. Preller & Co. have been about the state of the players they have been shipping out. There likely won’t be enough there to fully redeem a pro scouting department that has stepped on far too many landmines in recent years, but there’s hope for some clarity on the deal that aligned with the demise of the 2016 White Sox and likely saddled the team with a below-average starter through 2018.

Lead Image Credit: Rick Osentoski // USA Today Sports Images