White Sox insane Erick Fedde asking price from Twins takes division tax to new level

The Chicago White Sox had a legitimate opportunity to win the MLB trade deadline. That might seem crazy considering the fact that their record is now 27-84, but they had the chance to sell off some major pieces and completely revamp a farm system that wasn't anything special.

Their chances of accomplishing that were dampened significantly with them choosing to hold onto both Garrett Crochet and Luis Robert Jr., but the White Sox still had a chance to do some damage in what was clearly a seller's market with guys like Erick Fedde, Tommy Pham, and Michael Kopech.

Unfortunately, rather than attempt to maximize their values in separate deals, the White Sox traded all three of those guys in one three-team trade involving the St. Louis Cardinals and Los Angeles Dodgers, and wound up receiving an incredibly underwhelming return.

What makes the eventual White Sox return in this deal even crazier is the fact that the White Sox initially had an insanely high ask according to Dan Haynes of The Athletic who revealed the kinds of players that the White Sox were looking for in a deal with the Minnesota Twins on the Foul Territory podcast.

White Sox ask from Twins makes eventual deal they accepted look foolish

The White Sox asked for one of Walker Jenkins, Brooks Lee, or Emmanuel Rodriguez, their three top prospects, in any deal with the Twins, and Minnesota obviously said no. Minnesota was willing to offer Luke Keaschall, a prospect whose stock has risen a ton this season, but the White Sox passed, eventually settling for the three-team deal.

There are a couple of questions to get from this that are worth asking.

First, how in the world do the White Sox go from asking about the very best prospects in baseball to accepting a deal headlined by Miguel Vargas? It's not as if they had to even trade Fedde or Kopech who both had an additional year of control.

Second, why do the White Sox care about what the Twins do? Yes, they're division rivals, but it's not as if Fedde will be under contract by the time Chicago suddenly is competing again. Even if Fedde were to ink an extension of some sort to stay in Minnesota past 2025, he's already 31 years old. How good will he be in five years or so when the White Sox might be ready to compete?

Keachall, a prospect who has had a monster year split between High-A and Double-A would've comfortably been a better headliner than anyone that the White Sox ended up getting, yet they settled for the package that they got just to ensure that a fine No. 2 or No. 3 starter didn't end up playing for their rivals for the next year and a half.

With the White Sox nowhere near competing, their focus should be on trying to improve their future outlook the best way they can. If that means trading with your division rival, just do the deal and try not to think about what the Twins do with Erick Fedde. Taking a lesser offer just to avoid trading within your division when you're not close to competing anytime soon is absolutely insane, and is something that Jerry Reinsdorf and/or Chris Getz should have to explain.