The White Sox have checked in on any big name available via trade. While the idea of giving up a haul of prospects for one season of Manny Machado – for a club at-least two years away from competing – made no sense the club has also reached out to other teams such as the Marlins about outfielder Christian Yelich.
Yelich, 26, is under team control though 2021 which would give the White Sox and just about everyone else a year or so to position themselves for contending. His stat line of .282/.369/.439 with 18 homers, 81 RBI and 100 runs scored last season isn’t quite as eye popping as those boasted by players the Marlins already traded in Giancarlo Stanton and Marcell Ozuna.
But we are talking about a younger player who is one year removed from winning a silver slugger who offers gold glove caliber defense in center. So naturally teams have called. Thus far the rhetroic has been that the Marlins are not interested in trading Yelich even as reports surfaced that he and catcher J.T. Realmuto have asked to be moved.
The #WhiteSox and #Marlins recently discussed Christian Yelich, but never got much traction. Chicago has a deep enough farm system to match up with Miami, but talks failed to advance beyond the "routine dialogue'' stage. Rival executives think the #Marlins will hang onto Yelich.
— Jerry Crasnick (@jcrasnick) December 22, 2017
As ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick notes, the White Sox are just one of the teams who the Marlins have talked to but have rebuffed trade offers for Yelich. If the Marlins were serious about rebuilding their farm system with talented minor leaguers there’s no better place to start than the White Sox who have one of – if not the – top minor league systems in baseball.