Contenders looking for a closer had their attention on Zach Britton. But the New York Yankees were the only team to get him.
The last-place Baltimore Orioles are in sell-off mode, dealing Manny Machado to the Los Angeles Dodgers and then Britton to the Bronx on Tuesday night after rumors flew all over the place in recent days. Among the non-Yankees teams that were reportedly interested in acquiring Britton and his very good track record — 139 saves in the last five seasons, including an American League leading 47 of them in 2016 — were the Cubs, Houston Astros, Boston Red Sox, Milwaukee Brewers and Arizona Diamondbacks. Britton's got plenty of value regardless of whether the Yankees, who also employ Aroldis Chapman, want him to close games or not, a lefty who is two years removed from an eye-poppingly low 0.54 ERA.
But now that the Britton derby has come to a close, there are still plenty of teams looking for bullpen help, and that's where the White Sox come in.
The South Side bullpen isn't packed with attractive trade chips like it was last summer, when Rick Hahn dealt away David Robertson, Anthony Swarzak, Tommy Kahnle, Dan Jennings and Tyler Clippard from his relief corps. It's why the general manager said he expects this to be a quieter deadline than last year for his front office. But that doesn't mean the cupboard is bare, and Joakim Soria could be one of the more attractive options on the market now that Britton has a new team.
Soria's been great out of the White Sox 'pen this season, specifically since mid May. He's got a 0.77 ERA in his 24 appearances since May 21, allowing scoring in just one of those outings, when he blew a save against the defending-champion Astros. Take that game out of the mix, and Soria's allowed only 10 hits since May 21, with 31 strikeouts and seven walks in that span.
He was back at it Monday in the White Sox series-opening win against the Los Angeles Angels in Anaheim. He didn't work a 1-2-3 inning, but he didn't allow any runs to score, either, pitching around Mike Trout with a runner on before striking out Justin Upton to get his 15th save of the season.
A quick glance at MLBTradeRumors.com will yield several other possibilities for those teams looking for bullpen upgrades: Raisel Iglesias of the Cincinnati Reds, Felipe Vazquez of the Pittsburgh Pirates and Fernando Rodney and Zach Duke of the Minnesota Twins could all be trade candidates. Is Soria a more desirable addition than those guys? Maybe. Maybe not. But he's included among them, which is good news for the White Sox, clearly a seller this summer as they move along with their rebuilding effort.
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This seemed like the hoped-for scenario when the White Sox acquired Soria in a three-team trade over the winter. After all that success dealing relievers and bolstering the farm system at last season's deadline, the team acquired a bunch of veteran arms for the bullpen, appearing that the White Sox were trying to replicate the strategy used a summer ago, when they brought prospects such as Blake Rutherford and Ryan Cordell into the organization.
So what will the White Sox be able to get for Soria? And could the return package be improved if they're able to package him with one of their other better-performing relievers, Xavier Cedeno or Luis Avilan?
A look at some of the already-completed deals involving bullpen arms might or might not be a helpful guide. The San Diego Padres dealt away All-Star relief arm Brad Hand and another bullpen pitcher and received one of the top 15 prospects in baseball. The New York Mets just traded their closer, Jeurys Familia, to the Oakland Athletics and received two prospects, neither of which was highly ranked. Neither of the prospects the Tampa Bay Rays received when they traded their closer, Alex Colome, back in May were highly ranked. The Kansas City Royals traded Kelvin Herrera to the Washington Nationals last month, and two of the three prospects they got back are currently ranked in the top 15 in their system. The Orioles got a couple highly rated Yankees prospects as part of the package for Britton.
It's also worth looking back at last summer's trades and looking at those return packages. The multi-player deal with the Yankees that featured Robertson and Kahnle (in addition to Todd Frazier) brought back Rutherford, among others. Swarzak netted Cordell from the Brewers. Jennings went to the Rays in exchange for Casey Gillaspie. The diamond in the rough was Ti'Quan Forbes, the minor league infielder in the midst of a nice season, who was the return piece in the August trade that sent Miguel Gonzalez to the Texas Rangers.
Bottom line: There's a wide range of possibilities. But given Hahn's track record of acquiring minor league talent, White Sox fans should have some confidence that he'll be able to help his rebuilding effort in a deal involving Soria.
Such a trade could now materialize now that teams outside the Bronx have found themselves sans Britton. Bullpen help is always coveted at this time of year, and this season appears to be no different, especially as the importance of relievers in the postseason continues to increase. Perhaps Soria will play a role this October.