Yesterday we saw the Marlins trade speedster Dee Gordon to Seattle for essentially nothing. Miami received no top-100 prospects at all. This is making people think that they are just trying to dump salary more than anything else. Which makes sense seeing as they want teams looking to acquire Giancarlo Stanton to take on his whole contract.
It seems as if Miami is about to go into a full blown fire sale, similar to what the White Sox did last season. If that is the case, and they are indeed looking for money relief more than anything, then everyone should be on the table. That includes star outfielder Christian Yelich.
If you go into the depths of White Sox twitter today, you will see dozens of fans clamoring for Rick Hahn to go get Christian Yelich for cheap. Except he won’t be. Not nearly as cheap as Dee Gordon was anyways.
@whitesox It would make my week if you traded for yelich. Marlins got robbed for Gordon so rob em’ for yelich https://t.co/UqF5sQUa8E
— Josh Dop WHITESOX (@josh_dop) December 8, 2017
Christian Yelich to the #WhiteSox @NotRickHahn make it happen!!
— Robb⚾WightSox (@WightSoxR44) December 8, 2017
Announce Yelich to Sox
— James G (@ChiSoxJames) December 8, 2017
Christian Yelich is very good. He has never had a season where he has batted lower than .282. In 2016 and 2017, he had a WAR of 4.5. For comparison, Avi Garcia’s WAR last year was 4.2. Add the fact that he is cheap and under longterm control, ($49.6M/7 years), and you would essentially be looking at a package similar to what the White Sox got for Jose Quintana.
Yes the Marlins got rid of Dee Gordon for basically nothing in return, but Yelich would be a different story. Just because they just got salary relief from one trade does not mean they want no prospects at all. Furthermore, it is way too early for the White Sox to be thinking about trades. They will eventually trade players who become blocked, or if we have a surplus, or if some become more expandable than others. Rick Hahn has built something far too great to consider trading pieces away already.
As far as the White Sox trading for Christian Yelich, it would definitely be a fascinating sight to behold, but one I do not see coming to fruition.
