The future of the White Sox is looking pretty solid so far. They have revamped their entire farm system from just two trades, with more expected throughout the course of the 2017 season. Right now, the focus around the league is on top international prospect Luis Robert, a player who has often been linked to the White Sox. The rebuild is still much closer to the beginning than the end, and the final piece(s) are most likely going to be added via free agency in 2018-2019. The free agent class that year is absolutely loaded with both bats and arms. By then the Sox should be far enough into the rebuild to be able to isolate one or two last weaknesses and go all in during the free agency period to address them.
The biggest thing to remember is that the White Sox will have an incredibly low payroll going into the 2019 season. Before Tim Anderson signed his extension, the White Sox had just $4.25MM committed to the 2019 payroll. That is not a typo. Now it sits at roughly $5.7MM. With the majority of the team most likely still being on cheap entry level contracts in 2019, the White Sox are going to have more than enough wiggle room to work with.
Rick Hahn has already said that he does not mind going over the international spending pool limit to sign players overseas (Luis Robert cough cough), and he is on record saying that the 2018-19 free agent class should be the final piece to the rebuild.
“The 2018 and 2019 free-agent classes are stacked. A number of players will command nine-figure contracts. There’s nothing magical about the $68-million threshold. And we know spending is the final piece of all this. When we get there, we expect the resources to be there.”
-Rick Hahn on 2018-2019 free agency
With all that being said, here are the top 5 free agents the White Sox should be pursuing towards the end of the rebuild.
