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A tale of two Sox at Winter Meetings
- Updated: December 8, 2016
NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — The 2016 Winter Meetings were a tale of two Sox: Red and White.
Working from opposite ends of the talent acquisition spectrum, Boston and Chicago both found remarkable success; the Red Sox trading prospects for established players, the White Sox trading established players for prospects. In the process, Boston established itself as the extremely early favorite for the 2017 American League pennant. The White Sox turned the beginning of a rebuilding project into an impressive haul of prospects that should speed their climb back into contention.
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Conveniently enough, these two clubs achieved a portion of their goals in a trade with each other. The White Sox dealt highly sought lefty Chris Sale to the Red Sox for infielder Yoan Moncada, MLBPipeline.com’s top-ranked prospect, and three others, included hard-throwing Michael Kopech (No. 30). In a Carolina League outing last season, Kopech threw a pitch clocked at 105 mph.
With Sale, the Red Sox’s rotation is now, to put it mildly, imposing. It includes two five-time All-Stars — Sale and David Price — and the 2016 AL Cy Young Award winner, Rick Porcello. As we speak, the Red Sox have seven starting pitchers of Major League quality and could conceivably trade pitching from a position of real strength.
But the Red Sox are now in a position where they don’t have to deal unless they are overwhelmed by an offer. They can hang on to their pitchers and wait for the value of them to climb later on.
“I don’t really have a big hole on our Major League club to address at this time, in our opinion,” Red Sox president of baseball …
