White Sox continue rebuild, trade Eaton to Nationals for prospects
The past four seasons, the Chicago White Sox had Chris Sale and Jose Quintana at the top of the starting rotation, and they were surrounded by a cast of veteran players.
The White Sox were 63-99 in 2013. They were 73-89 in 2014, 76-86 in 2015 and 78-84 this past season.
It was a long, dreary stretch for the franchise, and odds are very good another losing season is coming in 2017.
But things are different on the South Side. Completely different.
A day after Sale was traded to the Boston Red Sox for four prospects - fronted by second baseman Yoan Moncada - the White Sox dealt outfielder Adam Eaton to the Washington Nationals Wednesday for three more young players with high ceilings.
The Sox got right-handed starters Lucas Giolito, Reynaldo Lopez and Dane Dunning for Eaton.
According to MLB.com, Giolito ranks No. 3 on major-league baseball's top prospect list. Moncada is No. 1. Lopez is No. 38 overall, and Dunning was the Nationals' No. 6 prospect.
In a span of just two days, the White Sox's farm system has gone from barren to booming. And with remaining veterans like Jose Quintana, Todd Frazier and Jose Abreu attracting trade interest, even more young talent might be coming.
"As you know … our behavior over the last several years has been on the other extreme in terms of adding big-league talent as opposed to accumulating prospects," Hahn told reporters at the winter meetings after the Eaton trade. "So expectations are high in these deals. We feel not only in Chris and Adam but other players, very high caliber players under control for an extended period of time. We expect there to be strong returns for them. We were very pleased with how these first two have gone so far."
Hahn talked to Washington about a Sale trade, so the foundation was already set when the Nationals paid a steep price for Eaton, who batted .284 with 29 doubles, 9 triples, 14 home runs, 59 RBI and 91 runs scored last season.
The Nationals' first-round draft pick in 2012, Giolito was a combined 6-5 with a 2.97 ERA and 116 strikeouts in 115.1 innings with Class A Hagerstown, AA Harrisburg and AAA Syracuse last season.
The 6-foot-6, 255-pounder also pitched in 6 games (4 starts) with Washington and was 0-1 with a 6.75 ERA.
Lopez was 5-7 with a 3.21 ERA and 126 strikeouts in 109.1 combined innings with Harrisburg and Syracuse last season. In 11 games (6 starts) with the Nats, he was 5-3 with a 4.91 ERA.
"Lucas and Lopez made it to the big leagues last year and conceivably will contribute to the 2017 White Sox as well," Hahn said. "However, we are going to wait to the point where we feel they are ready to contribute and perform well at the big-league level over an extended period of time."
Dunning, drafted No. 29 overall out of the University of Florida in June, was a combined 3-2 with a 2.02 ERA for the Gulf Coast League Nationals and Advanced Rookie Auburn.
"Dane Dunning was a guy on our draft board very high last summer and some of our amateur scouts were excited about acquiring him over the last few days as his name came up," Hahn said. "He's further behind. He will begin the year in A-ball. And when we go through this process, part of it is going to be about accumulating as much potential impact talent as we can. With the starters over the last few days in Giolito and Lopez, Dunning and (Michael) Kopech, we feel we got four guys that have the potential to be at the front end of the White Sox rotation for a long time."