Abreu looks like a keeper for rebuilding Chicago White Sox

One by one, serviceable Chicago White Sox veterans packed up their belongings and moved on to contending teams.

It was a quiet seven months after Sox general manager Rick Hahn traded Chris Sale (Boston) and Adam Eaton (Washington) on consecutive days in early December.

On July 13, Jose Quintana was sent to the Cubs, setting off a flurry of seven trades in a six-week stretch.

Jose Abreu certainly had value, and his steady bat would have been an obvious fit on a number of teams with legitimate postseason hopes.

But even as players such as Sale, Eaton, Quintana, Todd Frazier, David Robertson and Melky Cabrera headed out the door, Abreu was hoping to stay.

"When you're building a team around young players, you need to have the veteran figure to guide them," Abreu said through a translator. "For me, it's something I would like to do. I'm here to help the team, and if that means that I have to help the young players through that process to get to the level where they can be by themselves and perform as everybody expects for them, I'd love to do it."

As Hahn has shown throughout the rebuild, he will trade any player at any time.

But as the end of the season draws near, it looks like all of the major moves have been made and Abreu is going to be a part of a promising future.

The 30-year-old first baseman is signed through the 2019 season, and he's showing he has plenty of pop left in the bat.

In Saturday's victory over the Giants, Abreu became just the sixth player in White Sox history to hit for the cycle. He followed up with 2 home runs Sunday.

By himself, Abreu had 18 total bases in the two games. As a team, San Francisco had 14.

Abreu also is on pace to reach 100 RBI for the fourth straight season.

Before he signed a six-year, $68 million contract with the Sox, Abreu was wooed by the Giants.

"We know Abreu," San Francisco manager Bruce Bochy said. "He's a good hitter. This guy, he's consistent, too."

As he nears the end of his fourth season in the major leagues, Abreu has accomplished a lot. But he has yet to play for a winning team, much less a playoff team.

Instead of being jealous of former teammates now gone to contenders, Abreu sees much better days ahead for the White Sox.

"I think we are playing with a lot of motivation," he said. "We always come here to try to do our best, to play with joy and motivation. I think that since the young kids have started coming up, we're playing with more motivation, with joy.

"We're enjoying more of the game. We're trying to put all of our effort on the field. We have been working hard every day to get good results."