Then, right before Carlos Rodon went out and threw another quality start, the White Sox made a trade and a few other roster moves.  First the bad news: Jose Abreu is on the DL with an abdomen/groin surgery and early projections have him out until mid-September or so.  Given how many plate appearances they may need to devote to sorting through options like Nicky Delmonico, Daniel Palka, and Matt Davidson — not to mention, hopefully, Eloy Jimenez — perhaps we have seen the last of Jose Abreu for 2018.

The White Sox also made a trade! They sent Luis Avilan and his unremarkable left-handed competence to Philadelphia in exchange for Felix Paulino.  Paulino is a slightly undersized right-handed relief prospect who has spent his age-23 season finally pitching his way out of High-A and has had a rough go of it in his first look at Double-A. Paulino sits in a 90-95 mph band on his fastball and features both a slider and a cutter but he hasn’t missed as many bats as you’d hope for a slightly older pure reliever. Presumably the White Sox picked him because they saw something, as although moving Avilan (who is in his final arbitration year for 2019) clears a 40-man spot, Paulino will need to be added this winter to avoid being claimed in the Rule 5 draft.  He has this in common with Caleb Frare and Kodi Medeiros.

To replace Jose Abreu on the major league roster, the White Sox called up Jose Rondon.  For all that Rondon has whatever the opposite of Kopech’s hype is, he’s 24, can legitimately play shortstop, and has suddenly shown a good amount of power across Triple-A and the majors this year.  That’s certainly a player who could use another decent run of major league time before the offseason.

Last, to replace Avilan in the Chicago bullpen, they called up Ryan Burr.  Acquired for IFA money from Arizona, Burr has breezed through the minors without much difficulty.  Listed at 6-foot-4, 225 lbs., Burr is physically imposing, although his velocity is more good than great.  The right-handed reliever was only in Charlotte for a few weeks, but is certainly ready for a major league look — he’s also due to be added to the 40-man this winter.

Inevitably, for reasons both silly and legitimate, Burr getting called up ahead of Ian Hamilton (Burr. Hamilton. Everyone will point this out whenever they can) was a little surprising from a baseball perspective.  Hamilton scrapes triple digits and has been annihilating all comers with his heat and low-90s slider, and even made it to Charlotte before Burr did.  However, Hamilton doesn’t have to be on the 40-man yet, so perhaps that vaulted Burr ahead of him for logistical reasons.  Regardless, I stand by my position that Hamilton being in Triple-A made/makes even less sense than holding down Kopech and Eloy Jimenez did.

Still, Burr is a legitimate prospect as far as relievers go, and I am excited to see if he and Hamilton can form the nucleus of an elite bullpen despite minimal resources committed.

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Trade them if you can

Joakim Soria has been more or less exactly the pitcher he’s been throughout his career, which is to say he’s been very good. The 34-year-old’s strikeout rate is identical to what it was a year ago, and actually walking his fewest batters per nine since 2014. He’s also allowed just two home runs in his 28 innings of work. Soria has a $10 million team option for next season or a $1 million buyout, and given the seemingly never-ending bullpen help needed by contenders, one would expect the White Sox to fetch something for Soria’s services. Off the top of my head, you could see the Indians, Cubs, Angels, Phillies, Braves, and Cardinals among the teams that could use Soria. Given the fact that a better and younger reliever — Kelvin Herrera — fetched a trio of mid-level prospects, you’d have to imagine the White Sox would get something less than that in return. Still, Soria’s future is not in Chicago, so the best offer Hahn gets between now and July 31 should be fine.

Similarly to Soria, Luis Avilan is a veteran reliever who could add necessary bullpen depth to a contender down the stretch. Of course, Avilan is significantly less valuable given the fact that he’s .. well, not as good of a pitcher. As I mentioned, teams always seem to need bullpen help and they particularly always seem to be in the market for left-handed bullpen help. The White Sox got Casey Gillaspie for Dan Jennings a year ago. That’s nothing special, but if the White Sox get something similar in return for Avilan it wouldn’t be shocking.

Hector Santiago and Xavier Cedeno are two other veterans in the bullpen. I don’t know if we’re going to have another “Every Arm Must Go” bullpen sale again this year, but if there’s a deal to be had for either, I’d expect Hahn to take it. Nate Jones remains a viable option, too, but would need to prove he’s healthy within the next month before that can happen.

Maybe … probably … yes, do it

James Shields hasn’t been the outright albatross this year that he was the last two seasons, but he’s still a below-average starting pitcher, with peripherals that match up fairly well with his 4.59 ERA. Still, the fact that there’s any semblance of a market for the White Sox to trade him is something that would’ve been unheard of at the start of the season. But should they? Yes … probably. Re-litigating the White Sox disastrous acquisition of Shields is neither here nor there, but at this point there’s something to be said for what he’s provided the White Sox both in terms of his un-quantifiable veteran presence and his simple ability to eat innings. Yes, the White Sox have a lot of young pitchers both at the major league level or who will be here fairly soon, but even if you envision a second half rotation that includes Carlos Rodon, Lucas Giolito, Reynaldo Lopez, Michael Kopech, and Dylan Covey (yes, really), and even if all of them are performing well, depth is still necessary. Even if it’s just a matter of limiting some of their innings down the stretch, Shields provides value.

All that said, you still trade him. Even if all of that is true, any kind of value you can extract out of Shields in terms of a lottery ticket prospect or something of that sort is probably worth cashing in on over 2-2 1/2 months of his veteran leadership and inning eating. Besides, as far as the latter is concerned you also have Santiago and Chris Volstad around.

YOU WILL PRY HIM FROM MY COLD, DEAD HANDS

The most obvious asset I’ve yet to mention, of course, is Jose Abreu, who despite a recent slump is still putting together his fifth consecutive stellar season and will undoubtedly be the only White Sox representative at the All-Star Game.

We’ve discussed both the quantifiable and un-quantifiable of Abreu’s presence on the White Sox. From his middle-of-the-order production to his mentorship to some of the young White Sox hitters, Abreu has meant and continues to mean a lot to the team. Yes, he’s 31 and unlikely to remain productive for too much longer, but whose to say he can’t for another 3-4 years? IF (it’s a big if) the White Sox window for contention truly begins opening in 2019, the odds of Abreu still being one of the premiere first basemen in the game remains strong. Ditto 2020. You can project all you want what the White Sox lineup is going to look like once their plethora of prospects start graduating, but there’s no reason Abreu can’t be part of it throughout whatever growing pains those players go through.

Sure, if Hahn were blown away by some impossible to refuse offer from, say, the Colorado Rockies, I would understand his inability to say no. But I think his value both to the present and future of the White Sox is high enough that unless something like that happens, it’s not something they should pursue.

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After the “All Relievers Must Go” mega sale last season, as well as the non-tendering of Zach Putnam and Jake Petricka earlier in the winter, it was obvious the White Sox were going to need to bring in some relief help because even during another season where contention is not anticipated, it turns out guys still need to eat innings. The White Sox reliever depth chart on MLB.com prior to the trade included a top seven bullpen of Nate Jones, Juan Minaya, Gregory Infante, Aaron Bummer, Danny Farquhar, Jace Fry, and Thyago Vieira. Reinforcements were necessary.

Soria is the name you’re likely most familiar with from his dominant stint with Kansas City a decade ago. From 2007-2010 he tossed 255 innings, posting a K/9 of 9.9 and a 2.01 ERA. He missed the 2011 season with Tommy John surgery and subsequently bounced around from Texas to Detroit to Pittsburgh over the next few years before landing back with the Royals the last two seasons, where he wasn’t great in 2016 before rebounding for a solid 2017. Now 33 years old, he’s coming off a season where he struck out his most batters per nine since 2014 with a cFIP (78) that suggests he was much better than his 3.70 ERA would indicate. One would expect Soria to be in the mix with both Jones and Minaya for late-inning work in 2018.

Avilan is a 28-year-old lefty who misses both bats and the plate at a high rate. After coming to the Dodgers from Atlanta during the 2016 he saw a huge jump in both his BB/9 (2.5 to 4.6) and K/9 (8.3 to 12.8). He was solid in a limited role for the Dodgers last season, striking out 52 in 46 innings of work with a 2.93 ERA and a complementary DRA of 3.19. He was left off the Dodgers’ playoff roster after suffering from left shoulder inflammation toward the end of the season. With the unproven Bummer and Fry the only lefty relievers on the White Sox 40-man roster, he’s a reasonable option there.

The player the White Sox sent away in exchange for bullpen depth, Peter, was the subject of much discussion when they decided to leave him off the 40-man roster and thus, unprotected heading into the Rule 5 draft earlier this winter, where he was not selected. Peter was among the “Next 10″ in BP’s Top 10 White Sox Prospects list released earlier this offseason, with our prospect team saying about him:

Peter spent another year bouncing between Double-A and Triple-A, playing all over the diamond, and basically having the Jake Peter season. In a bit of a twist though, he socked nine home runs in 45 International League games after hitting just eleven total in his first three professional seasons. This may be a sample size blip of course—and Peter’s profile has always been more “scrappy utility type” than “future Brian Dozier”—but even if that is the case, he’s pretty much major league ready and a reasonable bench upgrade for a team that gave an awful lot of at-bats to Tyler Saladino and Alen Hanson last season. And hey, Brian Dozier’s profile was never “future Brian Dozier” either.

The path to playing time was hard to envision for Peter in Chicago. As a utility infielder who’s best position is second base, the existence of Yoan Moncada, not to mention Yolmer Sanchez, Leury Garcia, and the players mentioned above, there was no readily-available playing time for a player who is nearly 25.

Peter may turn into an adequate major league contributor, but given the blockade of middle infielders ahead of him, not to mention the fact that no team was willing to take a shot on him in the Rule 5, he’s a reasonably subtraction in a deal that nets the White Sox a pair of plus relievers and some cash to boot.

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