Chris Sale is the sort of top-of-the-rotation starter the Red Sox achingly need, and there's a growing sense that the White Sox' ace may be available for the right package.
And -- according to Dan Hayes of CSN Chicago -- Boston may be one of the few teams with the type of young talent that could entice Chicago to surrender the 26-year-old left-hander, who's under contract via team options through 2019.
If ever there's an opportunity for another general manager to try and pry Chris Sale away from [general manager] Rick Hahn and White Sox, writes Hayes, it could be now . . . [There’s] a growing sense among rival executives that the current state of the White Sox could have Hahn -- who has always maintained no player is untouchable -- in a place where the previously unthinkable is no longer entirely out of the question.
That could open the door for the Red Sox, and the welcome mat for them may already be out. Reports Hayes:
Few teams boast a farm system or enough talent to absorb the cost of Sale. But one AL executive suggested the Boston Red Sox would be the franchise most capable of acquiring Sale and one Hahn would prefer because of the talent within.
Hahn likely would begin negotiations by aiming incredibly high and asking for a package revolving around shortstop Xander Bogaerts, 22, who produced a .320/.355/.421 slash line with seven home runs and 81 RBIs in his second full season in 2015.
But Boston also has young catcher Blake Swihart, of whom the White Sox are said to be fond. Not only have the Red Sox sought a front-of-the-rotation pitcher since last offseason, they also have a new head of baseball operations in Dave Dombrowski, who has to turn around a 78-84 club that was 14th in the AL with a 4.31 ERA in 2015.
