MLB Trade Rumors: 5 waiver deadline players who could get moved
By John Buhler
Left-handed ace pitcher Chris Sale has spent his entire electrifying Major League career with the Chicago White Sox. Though he is a five-time American League All-Star and a perennial American League Cy Young candidate, Sale has yet to play in the postseason and that has seemed to have had an adverse effect on him.
One could easily argue that Sale is the best pitcher in the American League this season. He does boast a 14-4 record with a 3.17 ERA, a 1.029 WHIP, and 133 strikeouts in 139.0 innings in 20 starts for Chicago’s Junior Circuit franchise. However, he has had two “you can’t make this up” type of emotional outbursts for the underwhelming 2016 White Sox.
Sale essentially threw a temper tantrum when former teammate Adam LaRoche wasn’t allowed to bring his son to work every day for the rest of time. The White Sox ace also hated their throwback jerseys in on July start. Rather than soldiering on in that ridiculous garb, Sale to scissors to all the throwback jerseys and destroyed them, costing him a five-game suspension.
Of course the White Sox will be reticent to trade their best player via the waiver wire, but Sale has made it abundantly clear that he’s not really feeling it anymore within the White Sox organization.
Sale has one more year on his five-year contract with the White Sox, with a team option for 2018 and 2019. He’s the type of pitcher that can anchor a staff and would make any rotation infinitely better.
Sale doesn’t have to go to a contender via the waiver wire. In fact, it might actually make more sense for him to go to a team destined to miss the 2016 MLB postseason because those are the type of organizations that could offer what the White Sox could covet in terms of high-end prospects.
Conceivably, Sale may again miss the postseason even if he is traded. Two things are certain: Sale and the White Sox aren’t on good terms and he won’t be playing in late October on the South Side.
Next: 4. Nick Markakis.