Tensions high in Sox clubhouse as trade deadline approaches

Well, this is pretty much it.

Whatever changes the White Sox are going to make will happen in the coming hours and days.

Yes, the Sox could still make trades after this week’s deadline, but the bulk of anything they do will happen now. In fact, something may have already gone down by the time you finish reading this.

While we don’t know for sure who or how many — if any — Sox players are dealt by 3 p.m. Wednesday, we all know the reality and likelihood that change is coming.

The players know it, too, and the looming deadline certainly makes for an awkward atmosphere. This is my first real experience observing a clubhouse this early in the season where the players know that some of them might soon be exported, but they don’t yet know to what degree.

And they’re preparing for it.

Jake Peavy packed three full suitcases to Cleveland in the event his next destination after that isn’t Detroit (where the Sox will be after the series against the Indians).

For weeks, players like Alex Rios and Jesse Crain have done the mental gymnastics of preparing themselves for the idea they could soon be playing in different uniforms while simultaneously trying to block it all out.

For the rest of us, the waiting game is the same, though none of us has to pack any bags.

But who knows? If the Sox don’t like what they’re being offered, there’s every chance that those guys won’t need those bags.

So, while we wait for something to happen ...

I’d like to extend some support to Sox starter Chris Sale — since he can’t get any from his offense.

Just two times since May 17, Sale has earned a win, though the use of the word “earned” is probably unfair considering he’s more than done a good enough job to help his team win games. It’s just that his team isn’t doing its part to help him.

Included in Sale’s 10 starts are four games in which he pitched at least 8 innings and never allowed more than 3 runs. On Saturday, he even went all 9 innings and allowed just a single run.

And he lost.

Ouch.

You might look at his record and convince yourself that he’s overrated (yes, someone actually suggested that to me this week). If you do, just stop. In the last four years, only the Giants’ Tim Lincecum and the Mariners’ Felix Hernandez have had lower ERAs at the time they took their 10th losses — and in one of those years, Hernandez rightfully ended up winning the Cy Young Award.

The fact is nobody in baseball gets worse run support than Sale, and that probably isn’t totally surprising considering the Sox have scored the fewest runs in the American League this year.

But there is something good to take from this now that I’ve depressed you: Chris Sale is special. And as long as he stays healthy, I can’t see any reason he won’t continue to be the rock in that Sox rotation for the next 5-6 years.

ŸChris Rongey is the host of the White Sox pregame and postgame shows on WSCR 670-AM The Score. Follow him on Twitter @ChrisRongey and at chrisrongey.com. Subscriber Total Access members can email him questions each week via our online link.