Tyler Clippard — Clippard served as the awkward throw-in of one of the White Sox’ biggest trades this season. He was sent to Chicago along with three prospects, which made him a very certain outlier. At first blush it seemed like he was included to merely cover innings for a team that was trading away two of their best relievers at once. When he was traded to the Astros almost exactly a month later, it was clear his inclusion in the inital trade was merely to balance out salaries. It’s hard to say whether the team planned to flip him all along or his strong performance (10 IP, 2 ER) ignited interest from other teams. Regardless of the why, Clippard was in a White Sox uniform for merely an uninteresting month of the season.

Todd Frazier — Frazier was one of the many White Sox players belonging to the group of last ditch players from the era of the team piecing things together in hopes of finding something that worked. He spent a season and a half with the team, showing power in 2016 and nothing of great significance in 2017. The team was forced to package him with two strong relievers to get a team to bite, and he went on to find a leadership role with a Yankees team that was just one win away from the AL pennant.

Miguel Gonzalez — One of the big stories of the 2015 season was the massive failure of the Jeff Samardzija acquisition. There was absolutely no chemistry between Don Cooper and Samardzija, causing concerns about Cooper to ripple through the White Sox fanbase and baseball world. If it’s even fair to say there was a revival of Cooper’s reputation, it came in 2016 when Gonzalez went from throwaway player on the Orioles to one of the White Sox best pitchers. The 2017 was much rockier for Gonzalez, who battled injuries in the early part of the season. His 4.62 ERA on the season certainly wasn’t great, but he was effective while in Chicago. He weaved his way through hard contact left and right to make himself a trade asset in August, which helped the White Sox gain even more young talent in quantity even if not in quality.

Derek Holland — Holland always seemed like a great fit for the 2017 White Sox. He was a free agent whose price tag was greatly reduced by injury concerns, but if he was healthy he could easily provide a multitude of innings at at least a passable quality. That was a perfect fit for a team in the very early stages of rebuilding, and if the team got lucky he could have been a trade target by July. Instead things went horribly wrong, and Holland was cut from the roster before the season ended. His 6.20 ERA and 4.6 percent strikeout minus walk rate was not a site to behold, and as the summer came to an end his starts seemed to get worse and worse. The pitcher who appeared to be a solid signing with plenty of potential turned out to be a dud.

Dan Jennings — Jennings appeared in 77 games this season, which was good enough to put him tied for third in all of baseball among relievers. Perhaps it was the frequency with which Jennings was used that caused the Rays to show interest at the deadline. At the time they were certainly contenders for at least a Wild Card spot, if not within reach of the division title. With limited resources financially and within their system, they were forced to go bargain shopping. It’s hard to say why or how they landed on Jennings, but the fact remains that he was the guy they wanted. The White Sox were happy to oblige as they handed out bullpen arms like candy on Halloween throughout the months of July and August, and in return got Casey Gillaspie, a prospect who is flawed but interesting enough to more than justify the trade.

Tommy Kahnle — Kahnle and his morbidly huge thighs stepped out of nowhere and into our world in 2017. Before this season he was merely a fireballer who couldn’t find the strike zone, hardly a rare breed in this day and age of baseball. All it took for him to take off, as is the case for so many relievers, was a bit of command. He was able to establish the fastball early in counts and blow hitters away with his devastating changeup. The White Sox could have held out to squeeze more value from what seemed to be a very good reliever, but the general principle of selling high on relievers whenever you can is a good one. Kahnle went on to be a crucial part of the powerful Yankees bullpen, making strong and important appearances in a multitude of postseason games.

David Robertson — Robertson, like Frazier, was part of the team’s last ditch effort at contention over the last couple seasons. With contention out of the picture and Robertson still a valuable bullpen arm with a large salary commitment through 2018, the White Sox decided it was time to part with him. His value was neither at an all-time high nor all-time low, but when he was packaged with Kahnle and Frazier the return was at the very least a couple players of interest.

Anthony Swarzak — During most seasons you would be hard-pressed to find a reliever that came more out of nowhere to find success than Kahnle. However, in 2017 Swarzak did exactly that. The White Sox gave him a minor league deal, converted him to the bullpen and saw immediate success. He started the season on fire and finished with a 2.33 ERA and 30 percent strikeout rate. With Swarzak only signed on for the single season, it was an even easier decision to send him away to a contender. He landed in Milwaukee, where the Brewers were trying to keep themselves in the playoff race.

Jose Quintana — The most inevitable trade of the season was one involving Quintana. It was a shock, however, to see him sent to the other side of town. Despite struggling in the early parts of the season, he rebounded enough to convince teams that confidence in his past performance was enough to warrant sending prospects to the South Side. His departure was the saddest of the season from a rooting standpoint, but it sent the most exciting prospects the other way. Suddenly a White Sox system that still seemed arm-heavy had one of the best hitting prospects in baseball along with another high-ceiling pitcher. Seeing Quintana go after so many years of improbable success was unfortunate, but it was a huge step in the right direction for the White Sox rebuilding efforts.

Lead Photo Credit: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports

Melky looks to take at bats away from Alex Gordon (.202/.296/.303) and Brandon Moss (.210/.289/.410), which means a pretty clear upgrade at both spots.  The Royals and White Sox will essentially split the $5.2 million he is owed for the remainder of 2017 before he becomes a free agent this winter.

As might be anticipated given Edwin Encarnacion’s surprisingly tepid free agency this past offseason, and the underwhelming price for J.D. Martinez, the White Sox’ return for the veteran left fielder was modest.  Still, there is plenty to like about the arms coming to Chicago in the deal given the circumstances wherein it wasn’t clear what the demand would be for Melky’s services, if any.  Puckett is a 6’4” RHP who was drafted in the second round out of Pepperdine in 2016.  He’s a low ceiling guy, in that he sits in the low 90s, topping out at 94, with his best offspeed pitch being a change up.  Whether he is a starter or a reliever seems to hinge upon if he can get his curveball up to major league caliber to go with his first two offerings.  You can find a more detailed write-up on Puckett here.

Davis is almost 24-years-old and is only pitching okay in Low-A at the moment, however, he is 6’6” and left-handed—although he doesn’t throw much harder than 92—and perhaps he’s a project the White Sox think might turn into a reliever down the road.

It’s hard to imagine the White Sox have much left to trade unless they feel like parting with Jose Abreu, which seems extremely unlikely. Maybe someone is encouraged by a healthy-looking Jake Petricka, given that every decent reliever seems valuable at this stage?

2.  Talking about the on-the-field impact of the Melky Cabrera trade seems to be missing the point. Although it makes sense for the organization—and gives Melky a chance to make the playoffs—I would be remiss if I didn’t stop to highlight what a joy Cabrera has been to watch in his almost-three-years with the White Sox.  His personality absolutely shone through in his playing style, as his sense of humor was palpable in the way he played the outfield, ran the bases, and interacted with his teammates.  By all accounts, Cabrera was popular in the clubhouse as well, and his presence will be missed.

3.  The Cabrera trade freed up space for the return of Leury Garcia, who wound up missing six weeks for a finger injury that initially seemed minor. Garcia wasted little time resuming his startlingly good, breakout 2017 campaign, as he broke up what was then a no-hitter and shut out in the sixth inning by ripping a home run to right-center.  The diminutive, speedy switch-hitter who can play both shortstop and center field raised his line to .297/.343/.470, and the remainder of the season should provide plenty of opportunities for the White Sox to figure out just what kind of player he will be moving forward.

4.  Carlos Rodon dominated on Sunday, with a performance that statistically outshone his opus in Oakland, but wasn’t quite as visually impressive. Regardless, Rodon only walked two and threw first pitch strikes in over 60% of the batters he faced, which was a point of emphasis of Don Cooper’s dating back to last year. Given Rodon’s arsenal, particularly his wipeout slider, getting ahead of hitters is absolutely crucial.  Rodon is so important to the future of the organization and his performance moving forward is another aspect of the team that bears watching as the White Sox play out the string.

5.  Sunday’s 3-1 walk-off win against Cleveland was a delight to watch on a beautiful summer afternoon, as was seeing the joyous celebration of Matt Davidson, Jose Abreu et al. as Davidson came to home following his ferocious 2-run homer in the bottom of the ninth. Some White Sox fans complained that this would cost the team the number one overall pick.  I have already addressed this issue at length as has Patrick Nolan of South Side Sox.

But even after Sunday’s game—where despite the loss of Melky Cabrera, a several young players performed admirably and the team pulled out a nail biter against one of the best teams in the league—White Sox fans were upset that they had won.

It was the White Sox second win in their last fifteen games.  During that same time they have traded away seven of their best major league players.  They are now jockeying with the Phillies and Giants for the number one pick. They are going to pick in the top five and are steadily gaining on number one.  Rodon and Leury Garcia performing well means a lot more to the future of this organization than win number forty hurts it.

Lead Image Credit: Erich Schlegel-USA TODAY Sports.

2. The loss to the Cubs Tuesday afternoon wasn’t the headlining news of the day, but it did bear significance for the White Sox rebuild. That significance was in a puzzling outing for Carlos Rodon. The problem for Rodon is the same problem he’s had since he joined the team — he can’t find the strike zone. Or perhaps more precisely, he has no command. He has been able to find the strike zone at times in his career, but his finding of the strike zone has been paired with hitters feasting on fastballs in the zone. Not ideal.

On Tuesday Rodon struggled to command, or even control, his pitches the same way he’s struggled to do so in each of his starts this season. That’s still a very limited sample size, but some concern is warranted. The good news is that Rodon managed to strike out 11 batters while pitching just four innings. He also walked three batters, allowed seven hits, and gave up four earned runs. His inability to tap into his incredible potential has been extremely frustrating for both the White Sox and their fans. Some patience is required, however. Rodon is coming off an arm injury that knocked him out for half the season. There’s bound to be some rust there. The strikeouts in Tuesday’s game are a good sign that he’s beginning to shake that off but, like always, the command has to come. The good news is that the White Sox aren’t trying to win anything as they witness Rodon’s growing pains, so for now he can struggle in the big leagues and find his way well before the next competitive White Sox roster arises.

3. Down on the farm, two of the top pitching prospects took the mound on Tuesday. Lucas Giolito had a fine night in Charlotte, going seven innings with no earned runs. He allowed four hits while walking three, but he struck out six. Jeff Long of the BP prospect team got a good look at him two weeks ago and remarked that, “This new Giolito is still very, very good. He’s just not a dominant stuff guy anymore, showing elite pitchability and getting outs by outsmarting hitters rather than overpowering them.” Alec Hansen, another darling of the BP prospect staff, also pitched Tuesday. He went six innings while giving up two earned runs on two hits. He did walk three batters, but he struck out seven. Hansen is relatively new to the level, so that’s certainly a good performance. There’s no rush, but the White Sox would surely like to see a college arm make his way past A-ball by 2018. He looks in line to do so.

4. Avisail Garcia’s first half of 2017 is well-documented. He got in shape, improved his plate discipline, and became an All-Star. With a little boost from a .371 BABIP, he posted a .310 average with an .850 OPS. His 125 wRC+ made it seem like he had become a legitimate weapon. In the past week he has gone 3-for-19 with four strikeouts and one walk. That’s a small sample size and certainly something he can crawl out of, but it does appear as though the BABIP dragon is beginning to breathe a little fire on Garcia. His BABIP in the second half (small sample!) is down to .333, which is a reasonable place for a player like Garcia if he continues to show some speed down the line and hit the ball hard. Maybe it’s the cynic in me expecting the bad Garcia to return, but the cracks in his dream season are already starting to show.

5. A player who is even more difficult to figure out than Garcia is Matt Davidson. Co-editor-in-chief Nick Schaefer wrote about the mystifying Davidson last month, and not much has changed. It is worth noting, however, that he’s striking out at a 39.0 percent rate while still managing to post an above average 103 wRC+. This is reminiscent of Todd Frazier’s 40 dinger season a year ago where he looked abysmal aside from the times the ball flew over the outfield wall. What is even more impressive than Frazier’s season is that Davidson is doing it not as a three true outcome player. He’s striking out far more than Frazier did and walking at just a 4.8 percent clip. Even the .255 ISO is good but not all that great. Hitting 19 home runs in fewer than 300 plate appearances, however, remains an impressive feat that has allowed him to find success. Where the team goes with him in the future is a decision to be made down the road when the major league roster starts to fill. For now, they can afford to play a mediocre to bad defensive player at third who strikes out almost half the time but still clobbers dingers.

Lead Photo Credit: Erich Schlegel-USA TODAY Sports

2. Gonzalez wasn’t the only pitcher who had a fine outing on Monday. Anthony Swarzak was asked to get the final four outs of the ballgame, and he did so despite letting things get rocky in the ninth. Swarzak is interesting because, aside from Melky Cabrera, he’s the one remaining player on the roster that might be moved at the deadline. He has a 2.30 ERA while striking out batters at a 27.8 percent clip against walking only 6.7 percent of them. The question now is whether the White Sox will get more value in a trade than they could receive from Swarzak simply pitching a good number of innings. It’s easy to say that they can find someone to fill the innings if need be, but it’s not always that simple. With that said, the reliever market is weird and some team could blow them away. In that case, it would absolutely make sense to send him packing.

3. As for Cabrera, even manager Rick Renteria commented that he was surprised that he was still on the team. That’s probably because he’s been both red hot lately and consistently good over the course of the season. His .295/.338/.443 slash line is bound to be an upgrade for some team that believes they’re in the race. It seems like the market for corner outfielders isn’t that great, but with Cabrera’s contract expiring at the end of the season, it’s likely the best option for the team to get whatever they can.

4. Yoan Moncada has received a lot of attention for, well, pretty much every plate appearance. So far it hasn’t really gone his way. He’s stepped to the plate just 15 times, so it’s certainly not a sample size worth fretting over. However, the strikeout concerns quickly entered the forefront of fans’ minds when he struck out four times in Monday’s game against the Cubs. One of those was a close called strike, and another was a nasty Hendricks changeup after bunt attempts (not even gonna go there) forced him to a two strike count. Even with those excuses, it remains a concern. It’s way too early to make a grand conclusion, but it would be great to see Moncada drill some extra base hits in the near future.

5. One of the nice things about the influx of prospect talent in the White Sox system is that it has pushed the former top prospects to much more comfortable positions on the team’s prospect hierarchy. One such example is Carson Fulmer, who started 2017 fairly well, but has mostly just been bad. He has a season ERA of 5.42 while sporting an abysmal 15.5 strikeout rate with a 11.3 percent walk rate that only makes things worse. His outing on Monday didn’t help matters as he pitched just five innings, allowing seven hits and four earned runs while walking four and striking out five. Before the rebuild began, a Fulmer bust would have been disastrous. Now his almost inevitable move to the bullpen is hardly a big deal at all. That doesn’t mean there shouldn’t be concern, but it’s certainly nice to have the depth in the system to alleviate the pain of an early first round pick falling flat on his face.

Lead Image Credit: Erich Schlegel-USA TODAY Sports

Still, Freeland worked wonders all afternoon, inducing weak contact while working around the zone throughout. He struck out nine, walked three, and the only trouble he found himself in was back-to-back walks to Jose Abreu and Todd Frazier leading off the seventh inning before promptly getting Avisail Garcia to ground into a double play. Melky Cabrera saved the White Sox the embarrassment with a one-out single in the ninth inning, which also ended Freeland’s day at a career high 126 pitches.

2. As mentioned above, the overarching theme of the series was the White Sox pitching staff getting battered around. They were outscored 26-9 over the weekend, allowing double-digit runs in both Friday’s and Sunday’s losses.

Derek Holland‘s performance Friday is what we’ve come to expect since the calendar turned to June. In his last seven outings, he’s failed to get through five innings four times and in two of those couldn’t complete three. Coming into the season, the main concern with Holland was health. The White Sox have done a fine job keeping him on the mound, but he’s completely lost his command and it’s resulted in a whole heckuva lot of hard contact.  His DRA now sits at 6.35, 14th-worst in the majors among pitchers who have thrown 75 innings or more.

3. Carlos Rodon, on the other hand, looked a lot better than his resulting line. He wasn’t quite the pitcher who generated 26 swings and misses against Oakland last week (he had eight on Sunday), but was still a lot better than the pitcher who couldn’t throw strikes in his 2017 debut. He stayed in the strike zone and induced weak contact pretty well through the first five innings. The sixth inning is where things unraveled a bit, as he allowed a massive home run to Charlie Blackmon–which is hardly the most embarrassing thing for a pitcher to do–on a low fastball that didn’t get low enough, and followed that up by issuing two of his three walks on the day, before being replaced and having Chris Beck allow those two to score.

The highs and lows of Rodon from start to start or even inning to inning or pitch to pitch is like a roller coaster. But just as it’s important to temper expectations when he shows what he’s capable of in starts like the one we saw in Oakland, it’s also important not to get too down when he’s working through struggles. We saw a little bit of both on Sunday, but at the very least it seems his development has picked up right where he left off pre-injury.

4.  Avisail Garcia is limping across the finish line after earning a place on the All Star team.  He’s hit .172/.238/.241 over his last fifteen games while battling through a couple of injuries.  Ironically, it looks like he could really use the full All Star Break to rest his sore finger, but barring a setback or some other incident, he seems set to attend the festivities in Miami.  It should still be less demanding than a regular schedule, and it almost certainly means a lot to him to be able to go.  Moving forward, although there were always BABIP and approach questions about the strength of Avisail’s first half, but it is hard to say just how much of this regression is luck abandoning him or his “true talent” rearing its ugly head as opposed to simply fatigue and playing hurt.

5.  Nate Jones experienced a setback while throwing off of flat ground over the weekend.  He will be re-evaluated over the All Star Break and hasn’t pitched since April 28th.  Although injuries are now unfortunately an expected part of Jones’ profile, this virtually guarantees that the potentially extremely valuable reliever won’t be traded this season.  Jones is signed through 2018 with two cheap team options for 2019 and 2020 that drop to the league minimum if Jones undergoes elbow surgery.  So, this won’t be the team’s last chance to deal him when and if he should return to form.

Lead Photo Credit: Isaiah J. Downing – USA Today Sports Images

The 2014 team didn’t compete, but it had the foundations of a contender if the right complementary parts were acquired. A core four of Jose Abreu, Adam Eaton, Chris Sale, and Jose Quintana is impressive. Adding Jeff Samardzija, David Robertson, Adam LaRoche, and Melky Cabrera to it should have been enough to make things at least interesting through September. Instead, an eight game losing streak in mid-June put the season on ice early with May 18 being their last day above .500. Those four key additions wound up on a team that won a whopping three more games than the season before. 2016 hurt even more. A 17-8 April gave way to going 36-61 over the next four months and a fourth straight year with a losing record.

The team was blown up and we’re where we are now. The seemingly huge acquisitions either blew up in the Sox face or amounted to diminishing returns. LaRoche flopped and retired in the weirdest clubhouse incident in recent memory. Samardzija pitched like an absolute bum and all it cost the team was a shortstop worth 5.7 bWAR over two years, a backup catcher, and a swingman. Robertson may wind up paying off if the trade market doesn’t completely crater this summer due to the gulf between the haves and have nots making for some uninspiring playoff races. But the one move that has absolutely not disappointed is signing Cabrera.

This is clearly not coming from a statistical standpoint. Melky’s essentially been a league average hitter in his time on the South Side and his defense could be charitably described as “somewhat lacking”. But Melky was never supposed to be “The Guy”. He’s one of the guys you sign or hope to develop that slot easily enough into the lineup that you don’t have to worry about their production. He’s meant to complement the bigger pieces and keep the Dayan Viciedos and pre-reboot Avisail Garcias confined to the realm of bad memories and nightmares that no longer have the power to haunt you.

Yes, the White Sox lost on their investment. They paid way more than Melky wound up being worth to them. But in three seasons that have felt like soul-sucking slogs, he has remained incredibly entertaining to watch because he actually seems like he enjoys his job. The world doesn’t end if he doesn’t get a hit, but holy hell if it isn’t somehow the best thing in the world to him if he does get one. He does weird hand gestures. He runs the bases like a day-old foal. His routes in the outfield resemble a cross between the old Family Circus circuitous path home gags and 22-26 year-old me stumbling home in the early hours of the morning. He dresses like a cowboy and hits baseballs with guitars.

He dresses like a cowboy and hits baseballs with guitars.

The Melky Cabrera experience is coming to an end. Even if he isn’t shipped off to a contender over the next two months, it’s hard to imagine he signs a new contract with Chicago this winter. And while 2015-2017 are three seasons I don’t imagine I’ll hold in any high regard as time goes by, I’ll always look back at Melky being incredibly, charmingly weird and smile.

Lead Photo Credit: Caylor Arnold-USA TODAY Sports

Despite Sale’s often hot-headedness and some belief that his occasional head-butting with the front office were at least part of the reason he was shipped away, Sale had nothing but good things to say about his time spent in Chicago, and fans greeted him with a standing ovation both when he took the field for warm-ups and when he toed the rubber in the first inning.

What followed isn’t what anyone would have guessed, however, as Sale and Jose Quintana were battered for 12 earned runs and 20 hits in just 7 2/3 innings combined in Boston’s 13-7 victory.

YCPB.

2. We no longer have to hand-wring when Sale has a rough outing — and Tuesday’s was easily the worst of his season for the Red Sox — but Quintana’s woes continue to be troublesome.

Quintana once again showed flashes of what has made him great throughout his career, striking out a pair in the first inning, including the virtually un-whiff-able Mookie Betts on a four-seamer in the first inning. But he lost all command in the innings that followed, allowing three homers and seven earned runs in just 2 2/3 innings. For reference, in 2016 Quintana allowed his third home run of the season on June 11 and only had three starts in which he allowed that many homers (that same day, when he also went eight innings and struck out 10, and again on July 9 against Atlanta).

There isn’t much to analyze about Quintana that we didn’t say after his last start, when he melted down in the fifth inning against Arizona after cruising through the first four. But it’s worth reiterating that as a pitcher without top-line stuff, he’s always going to need to command his pitches to a near-perfect degree in order to find success. Until he shows the ability to once again to that consistently, his performance will remain a concern.

3. Jose Abreu’s torrid stretch earned him American League Player of the Week honors last week, and with one day remaining in May he’s slashing .307/.347/.570 on the month, with Monday’s win over Boston counting as the only game in the last 12 in which he failed to reach base.

If Abreu continues to hit like this, trade talk will undoubtedly heat up — the chatter has already begun — as July 31 draws near. But the first base market isn’t exactly robust, and like with Quintana during the offseason, the White Sox surely won’t force a trade if the right package isn’t offered.

Likewise, Abreu was reportedly integral in the White Sox recruitment of Luis Robert, and has acted as a mentor to their other prized Cuban prospect, Yoan Moncada. His place on the next White Sox contender is uncertain, but his value during the rebuild is apparent.

4. There’s very little if anything teams can learn about Melky Cabrera this season that they don’t already know, but after a 2-for-5 day Tuesday, he’s hitting .367 with four home runs over his last 12 games and has raised his line to a more respectable .268/.319/.395 on the season.

That kind of performance isn’t going to change anyone’s minds about Cabrera. He’s an average corner outfield bat with very questionable defensive abilities. Likewise, outfield/designated hitter doesn’t seem to be an area of need among many playoff hopefuls. But if the White Sox hope to get even so much as a lotto ticket for Cabrera before the trade deadline, it certainly can’t hurt for him to be showing signs of life.

5. James Shields is apparently ready for a rehab assignment as he recovers from an injury that has kept him out since April 21, and the timing is ideal as the White Sox have a taxed bullpen and an open rotation spot following Dylan Covey’s injury.

The Sox have performed surprisingly well despite their pitching depth being stretched to its absolute limits in recent weeks, winning four of their last six games including three of four against Detroit over the weekend. They called up an extra reliever prior to their recent 10-day west coast swing, and had a full bullpen day with David Holmberg getting the start in a surprising win over David Price and the Red Sox on Memorial Day.

Still, with Shields presumably coming back fairly soon, and Nate Jones appearing close to a rehab assignment, as well, the opportunity to protect young arms from overwork and build the trade values of those two appear to be on the horizon.

Lead Photo Credit: Patrick Gorski-USA TODAY Sports

The picture isn’t much clearer than it was in March for Joses Quintana and Abreu — both are under contract for a couple more years, so they don’t have to be dealt this year. Moreover, trying to size a deadline package for a star who’s not a rental is next to impossible from the outside, since it’s much harder to rule teams in or out on a player that demands a bigger return. For better or for worse, Quintana’s tepid start and Abreu’s solid-but-spiky first six weeks don’t mean much.

For the two proper rentals on the team, the first six weeks haven’t been kind to their trade values. Melky Cabrera’s tAV of .226 would be a career-worst by 25 points, and while he’s due for a bit of a bounce back just based on BABIP luck, it’s not out of the question the power’s just gone. He probably always needed to get off to a hot start to get something more than a lotto ticket on the trade market, but barring a huge streak he’s now more likely to bring back a Nolan Sanburn than a Leury Garcia. (He’s not helped that there aren’t many contenders that need help in left field or a so-so bench bat. The Diamondbacks sort of fit the bill, but for now it’s hard to guess what shape they’ll be in at the deadline.)

The market for third basemen is at least a bit more open, with the Cardinals, Mets, and Red Sox all teams with reason for skepticism about their current situations at the hot corner and some shot at the playoff chase. (Amusingly enough, depending on how teams decide to value Melky’s switch-hitting, Todd Frazier might actually be a better left field/bench bat than Cabrera for the rest of the year.) The issue with Frazier is that there’s uncertainty for him at the hot corner — he just hasn’t been very good, though he’s got even more room for positive regression than Cabrera. While the White Sox won’t be as damaged by Frazier’s walk year slump as he likely will be, it does seem unlikely he brings back a bad piece, but they’re in better shape to get something interesting back for him than they are with Cabrera.

With the White Sox current rolling out Mike Pelfrey and Dylan Covey, it seems a little foolish to talk about trading starting pitching “depth,” but the peripherals suggest they might not have any takers anyhow — Miguel Gonzalez and Derek Holland’s respective cFIPs of 105 and 111 are pretty bad, and while Gonzalez threw a couple gems in April, neither guy has the recent track record to make him an appealing pickup at the deadline.

At least I have a couple positive nuggets to save for last, which is that the White Sox bullpen has been dominant thus far. Before Tuesday’s game against the Angels, David Robertson, Tommy Kahnle, and Anthony Swarzak were each in the top 30 in all of baseball by cFIP, and each of them (along with Nate Jones, if he gets well soon) are likely available to any contender. Right now it’d almost be more surprising if the Nationals didn’t trade for Robertson, but having three or four high-end relievers to deal, encompassing a range of contract situations and track records, means the White Sox are sitting somewhat pretty in this regard. None of the quartet will bring back what Andrew Miller or Aroldis Chapman did last season, but in Kahnle and Swarzak the White Sox appear to have found some lottery tickets worth cashing in (either for innings or in trade), and Jones and Robertson have good pedigrees that might attract a premium. It’s still early, but it’s a couple rays of sunshine peeking through the otherwise overcast trade outlook.

Lead Photo Credit: Caylor Arnold-USA TODAY Sports

Big picture, the organization already has a fairly clear path forward on the infield, with Tim Anderson adjusting to the majors and Yoan Moncada not far behind.  Rick Hahn et al. insist Zack Collins can catch, which is unlikely but not impossible, but even if he can’t he will likely slide over to first base without much issue.  The pitching plan is even more obvious, particularly given the trade hauls for Chris Sale and Adam Eaton skewed heavily to the pitching side.

The outfield, however, remains a mystery. Charlie Tilson will get the bulk of the plate appearances in center this year, and rightfully so. If he was not permanently harmed by his hamstring injury, he should be able to handle it defensively and the organization needs to learn just how much he can do with a bat in the majors. But unless and until Tilson changes his forecast, he cannot be trusted to be anything more than a bench player long term.  Rymer Liriano and Avisail Garcia are going to get opportunities to do their lotto ticket type things in the corners, and Adam Engel and Jacob May are less promising options behind Tilson in turn.

But years of misses in the draft on players like Courtney Hawkins, Keenyn Walker, and Jared Mitchell have left the system thin, with Jameson Fisher and Alex Call being the next names of note after Luis Basabe.  Basabe is years away and full of risk. Fisher and Call are college performers who were available in the third and fourth round due to serious questions about their ultimate ceiling in the majors.

The White Sox should not prioritize any particular position in seeking trade returns. Generally speaking, and certainly at this stage, they should seek out the most talent possible and the prospects they think are best and sort it out later. If you want to know what it looks like when you disobey this principle, think about what the Royals got for Carlos Beltran so many years ago.

However, the organizational depth chart is screaming out for help here, and it’s something that can be addressed in a trade if the right situation presents itself.  The Mets, for example, have more outfielders than they can play, and it is starting to hinder the development of legitimate prospects like Brandon Nimmo and Michael Conforto.  There could be a fit here in terms of the needs of these two teams, and it’s something to keep an eye on moving forward.

Or perhaps this is simply a position they keep rolling the dice on until everything else is in place and finish the next contender off with a few free agents. As far as a team building strategy goes it’s not a bad one, as the outfield should be one of the easier problems to address.

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Rick Hahn & Co. picked a lane and stuck to it, and despite an already impressive prospect haul in the deals that sent away Chris Sale and Adam Eaton, there are likely still a number of chips to fall before the Sox roster bottoms out completely, something Hahn alluded to during SoxFest.

“We feel very pleased with our initial returns in our first few efforts on this with the Chris Sale trade and the Adam Eaton trade,” Hahn said. “I said at the time at the Eaton press conference that if we had our druthers we’d knock off four more of these things in the coming weeks. Obviously that hasn’t happened.”

If and when Jose Quintana, Todd Frazier, Melky Cabrera or others are sent elsewhere is impossible to predict, but with two weeks until camp opens and two months until Opening Day, it’s increasingly likely this is the team the White Sox open the season with.

The guys talked on Monday’s episode of The Catbird Speaks about how one of Rick Renteria’s challenges this season will be weighing playing time between guys who need it and guys who are just roster filler. This is a challenge for any rebuilding team — trying to focus on longterm goals against the chance of winning that day’s game — but it shouldn’t be as hefty of a challenge with this season’s roster as currently constructed.

At nearly every position, the White Sox will employ one of three types of player:

A) a veteran who could be used as a trade chip at some point in the near future,

B) someone with a legitimate chance of being a player on the next White Sox contender,

C) someone more than likely bad but young and intriguing enough to have a non-zero chance at being in Category B.

Category A includes the usual veteran suspects: Frazier, Cabrera, Quintana, Jose Abreu, Derek Holland, Brett Lawrie, Miguel Gonzalez, David Robertson, Nate Jones, essentially every other reliever.

Category B is basically just Tim Anderson and Carlos Rodon.

Category C includes the likes of Charlie Tilson, Omar Narvaez, and maybe a few others you could talk me into.

The main exception, as you’ve probably already shouted at your computer screen, is James Shields, whom the White Sox still owe $22 million over the next two seasons and, barring a minor miracle, is immovable. But even then, after 2017, which will be a lost year anyway, it’s down to just $12 million and low enough that it wouldn’t be inconceivable to just pay him to go away if things stay terrible.

The point of all of this is to say there are worse ways to construct a rebuilding team. The White Sox have given the impression that they’ll be patient with their new haul of prospects, but even if Lucas Giolito or someone else forces their hand into promotion sooner than expected, there isn’t a lot of dead money holding them back.

It’s not often we’ve been able to praise the White Sox roster construction in this space. In the aforementioned podcast, it was once again rehashed that the reason the White Sox are in this place to begin with is that they went into the 2016 season relying on the likes of Jerry Sands, Austin Jackson, J.B. Shuck and Justin Morneau to provide value instead of spending on the robust free agent market that offseason.

But while the 2017 season is likely just the start of some really ugly baseball for the foreseeable future, there are certainly worse ways to start a rebuild than with the roster the White Sox will have on their hands.

James Fegan contributed to this article.

Lead Photo Credit: Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports