The White Sox have reportedly sent scouts to evaluate talent at New York Yankees camp — certainly causing some buzz.
According to George A. King of the New York Post, the Chicago White Sox have been “constant figure” at the New York Yankees camp in Tampa to evaluate talent.
There have been links with the White Sox and Yankees as fits for a trade involving left-handed starter Jose Quintana, and this only facilitates the buzz as just last week, Bruce Levine of CBS Chicago reported that New York was “dug into the sweepstakes” for 28-year-old.
However, it’s known that the expected return for a Quintana trade is all about the quality of prospects they get in return, not the quantity. General manager Rick Hahn had reportedly asked for Luis Severino, Jorge Mateo and one of the organization’s top prospects, Clint Frazier for Quintana back in late December.
They also wanted Gary Sanchez in Chris Sale talks during 2016’s trade deadline, but it’s well known that Brian Cashman is reluctant to deal the upper-tier prospects — something that will likely eliminate them from the sweepstakes.
An interesting footnote in King’s report, however, is that only Gary Sanchez, Greg Bird, Gleyber Torres, Justus Sheffield and Aaron Judge were named as players New York won’t deal.
Since making his major league debut Quintana totaled 951 innings in five years and since 2013, only Corey Kluber, Chris Sale, R.A. Dickey and David Price have pitched in more innings.
When also considering the controllability Quintana packs (signed through 2020, with team options for ’19/’20, at $48.5 million), there’s no reason not to believe there will be a sizeable return for his services.
There is also little uncertainty about what he brings to the table — unlike New York’s youngsters who are competing for the final two spots in this year’s rotation. Last season, Quintana went 13-12 with a 3.20 ERA while his 208 innings of work earned him an All-Star appearance and a tenth place finish in the AL Cy Young award voting.
Whether or not the move occurs is yet to be seen, but the rumor that New York is still in the sweepstakes while the White Sox are looking at one of the best systems the game has to offer is certainly keeping the stove warm.
With Quintana, you have a starter for the next 4 years at a very reasonable cost. After this year, CC, Pineda, and maybe Tanaka are gone. White Sox need a center-fielder, so offering Gardner with 8 million to offset salary would be a start. Torres has supplanted Mateo so add him in the trade, Kaprielian is a year or 2 away from a solid rotation piece. With Frasier, it makes all those extra OF's expendable, even Rutherford. Tanaka may not be willing to come back if he and Severino are the only people left in the rotation after this year. He wants a ring and he may look at other teams, like Dodgers, for that.