Red Sox won’t like the price for Chris Sale, so how about James Shields?
COMMENTARY
So, Chris Sale isn’t happening.
However attractive a package headlined by Red Sox prospect Andrew Benintendi might be in the eyes of the White Sox (Chicago had its eyes on the outfielder in the first round of last year’s Major League Baseball draft, denied selecting him with the No. 8 pick after Boston took him one selection earlier), it would only begin the conversation.
Yoan Moncada’s name probably comes up in the suggested package returning to Chicago for the All-Star pitcher. Rafael Devers, and perhaps Mookie Betts too. Hell, maybe more.
If the White Sox are serious about shopping Sale, they rightfully should expect a ransom from whatever team is willing to talk. At 27, Sale may be someone you don’t want to leave kitchen utensils around, but he’s also one of the best pitchers in baseball, the likely American League Cy Young Award winner this season with a 14-4 record and 3.17 ERA. He’ll make $12 million in 2017, or $1 million less than the Red Sox wasted on Clay Buchholz in 2016. Team options for 2018-19 total $26 million, $4 million less than David Price will total after his first season in Boston.
Sale tops the list of the best bargains in baseball. The White Sox likely aren’t privy to give that up for a Double-A slugger and a sprinkling of lesser prospects.
But what about the other guy?
No, not Jose Quintana, the 8-8 lefty with a 2.97 ERA, who also may be on the market with baseball’s trading deadline looming on Monday. For if Sale’s contract makes other general managers drool, then Quintana, owed less than $16 million over 2017-18 before team options totaling $22 million over 2019-20, at least makes their hearts palpitate.
If the 50-52 White Sox are prepped for a rebuilding mode, there are better ways to prepare for it than dealing away two cornerstones of their starting rotation, both three years short of 30 and under cost-effective contracts.
But what about the other guy?
By any relative measure, James Shields doesn’t belong in the same bargain bin category as his White Sox colleagues, which probably makes him the most likely starter that the White Sox would be willing to surrender. A disaster upon arriving in Chicago in a trade with the San Diego Padres back in June (21 earned runs over his first 8 2/3 innings, a 21.81 ERA), Shields has quietly turned his season around, going 3-3 over his last seven starts with a 2.11 ERA. Since the Fourth of July, Shields’ ERA is only 1.78, the fifth-best ERA in the AL for the month.
He’s also due $42 million over the next two seasons, though there’s the chance he could opt out after 2016 and shoot for a better chance at making more than the $21 million he’s due in 2017.
Shields cost the White Sox Fernando Tatis Jr., a 17-year-old shortstop that ranked 30th on MLB’s list of top international prospects last year, and 26-year-old pitcher Erik Johnson, whose value ultimately whittled down to little after managing a 7-6 mark with a 4.50 ERA over parts of four major league seasons. Upon arrival in San Diego, Johnson was 0-4 for San Diego with a 9.15 ERA.
The Padres also sent along about $31 million of the $58 million that remained on Shields’ deal as of June, which means the White Sox will only be paying $21 million for the righty over the next two seasons. There’s no guarantee that they would be willing to pass that sort of savings onto the Red Sox, or any other team that comes calling.
Maybe that’s better if the Red Sox are interested. If they’re willing to take on the cash, it might only take the likes of Henry Owens to pry him from the White Sox.
President of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski may be done fixing the pitching staff anyway after acquiring lefty Drew Pomeranz to the rotation, and submarining lefty Brad Ziegler to the bullpen. Closer Craig Kimbrel is due to begin a rehab assignment in Pawtucket this weekend, which should help solidify a bullpen that may or may not get Koji Uehara back at some point.
The Red Sox are reeling, losers of four-straight for the first time this season, culminating in Thursday’s 2-1 loss in Anaheim, which included a brilliant, eight-inning, shutdown performance from embattled David Price, only to watch Hanley Ramirez literally throw the game away in the bottom of the ninth. Coming off their two-game sweep of the San Francisco Giants last week, Boston has won only two of its next eight games, and yet there the Red Sox still dangle in the AL East, only 2 1/2 games behind the Baltimore Orioles.
At 4.23, the Red Sox have only the seventh-best starting ERA in the AL for July, no thanks to knuckleballer Steven Wright, whose carriage is slowly receding back into a pumpkin with his 6.37 ERA for the month. Despite Thursday night’s outing, Price can be suspect, Eduardo Rodriguez has limited stamina, and Pomeranz is still a wild card.
We live in a world where 13-2 Rick Porcello is the team’s most reliable starter. Just as we predicted.
With Thursday’s loss, the Red Sox are now an ungodly 8-32 when scoring four runs or fewer. That can’t be. Even with a pitching staff as shaky as Boston’s.
So, the question becomes whether or not this is a fixable slice of concern, or if the Red Sox are, at this point, who they are. If that’s the case, David Ortiz’s farewell tour just went from storybook ending to pamphlet reminder.
If Dombrowski is done dealing, then Pomeranz better be more of what he was in start No. 2 for the Red Sox, Price needs to show more outings like he did Thursday — a suggestion that has fluctuated like a used cars salesman this season — Rodriguez needs to focus in his middle innings, and Wright needs to change his pants every inning in order to wipe away the problematic moisture for his signature pitch.
Meanwhile, James Shields lurks in Chicago on a team going nowhere with a likely willingness to deal.
Why not?
Patriots training camp through the years
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