3 Chicago Cubs players who could be traded to the Chicago White Sox

3 players the Chicago Cubs could trade to the White Sox – #3: Craig Kimbrel

One route the White Sox could presumably take is trading for All-Star and likely future Hall of Famer Craig Kimbrel. Chicago has a pretty middle-of-the-road bullpen, as a whole – but definitely have some big-time arms in the mix.

They boast a dominant starting rotation and offense, sitting at a +113 run differential, good for second-best in the AL. The White Sox don’t exactly “need” anything outside of a second baseman, but if a team has an opportunity to make moves with an eye on October and potentially leapfrog other contenders in the process, you do so.

After your starters go six or seven innings of two to three-run ball almost routinely, it’s a pleasant feeling to then be able to turn the ball over to guys like Garrett Crochet (3.14 ERA), Jose Ruiz (2.97 ERA) and Liam Hendriks (2.61 ERA).  Hendriks has already been great this year and earned an All-Star nod himself, but adding a player of Kimbrel’s caliber might give you the best bullpen in all of baseball.

The biggest issue with this trade scenario is the lack of prospects in the White Sox system (and the potential of butting heads between Hendriks and Kimbrel over a closer’s title). They currently have zero in MLB Pipeline’s Top 100. I expect due to Kimbrel’s extra year of team control, it would likely take somebody on the big league roster and a prospect – at a minimum. It would be a very interesting return.

They do have other resources though and that’s cash. Sitting $38,000,000 under the luxury tax, the White Sox have the payroll to make a power move should they decide to use it to further bolster the bullpen. Kimbrel’s ERA of 0.51 is currently tops among all closers across baseball.