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Bernfield: Chicago White Sox taking right approad

As the trade deadline approached, the Chicago White Sox had the two best assets on the market.

General manager Rick Hahn listened as suitors pitched their package of prospects in hopes of landing Chris Sale and Jose Quintana.

Neither was traded at the deadline. South Side fans are frustrated with the status quo, but the franchise's pragmatic approach was the right one to take with franchise-altering moves.

Sale and Quintana both demand a king's ransom in any trade scenario. They're two of the best pitchers in baseball - Sale is the American League's best - and both are signed to team-friendly contracts with multiple years of control remaining.

Sale is under Sox control for the next three seasons, with club options in 2018 and 2019. He's slated to make $12 million next year, $12.5 million in 2018 and $13.5 million in 2019.

Quintana, a first time all-star this season, also is pitching for a bargain price.

In 2014, he signed a five-year, $21 million contract, which includes club options for the 2019 and 2020 seasons. In his all-star campaign, he's making just $3.8 million and will make $6 million next season, $8.35 million in 2018, $10.5 million in 2019 and $10.5 million in 2020.

For perspective, Cubs fifth starter Jason Hammel is making $9 million this season, and third starter John Lackey will make $16 million each of the next two seasons. Neither is an all-star these days, nor anything close to an ace.

So trading either Sale or Quintana is not something the Sox can take lightly - and they aren't. For a team that operates with a midmarket budget, they are extremely fortunate to have two players so talented and so affordable.

If they're going to trade either, they had better be sure they are getting a boatload of impact talent in return. And that return is only greater in the off-season, when opposing organizations will be more willing to part with talent contributing to their success this year.

Fans see what the New York Yankees were able to accomplish by trading their top two relievers, Aroldis Chapman to the Cubs, and Andrew Miller to the Cleveland Indians. The Yankees completely revamped their farm system and now have four of the top 30 prospects in baseball, per MLBPipeline.com, and seven of the top 100.

The White Sox currently have two of the top 100 prospects (Carson Fulmer, Zach Collins) but could surpass the Yankees' seven with trades of Sale and Quintana. It would turn an ordinary farm system into a potentially extraordinary one with the potential to give the Sox a talented young core with which to build.

It also would mark a complete reversal in the team's strategy. Over the last five years, the White Sox worked to build around Sale and now Quintana. They've signed free-agent bats to short-term deals, hoping their aces atop the rotation would be the difference in bringing them back to the playoffs.

Now, they would be using their prized assets for a youth movement, with the hopes of returning to October sometime in the next three to five years.

In baseball these days, being "mired in mediocrity" - the phrase Hahn used to describe his team before the deadline - is the worst place to be. Sometimes, it takes an extremely bold move to change a franchise for the better.

And if the Sox are going to make one, waiting for all potential bidders to present them with an offer they can't refuse is the best approach to take.

• Jordan Bernfield is an anchor and co-host of "Inside The Clubhouse" on WSCR 670-AM The Score. He also works as a play-by-play broadcaster for ESPN. Follow him on Twitter@JordanBernfield.

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