The extremely early returns on Drew Pomerantz are not good as the lefty was bashed around by the Giants Wednesday night at Fenway Park. The Pomerantz-for-Anderson-Espinoza trade had already been a hotly debated topic for Red Sox fans, and Pomerantz’ ugly debut outing has surely given the pro-Espinoza crowd reason to crow louder. Now, if Sox GM Dave Dombrowski trades away yet another prized Sox prospect ahead of the Aug. 1 trade deadline, the pro-prospects people will undoubtedly storm the Yawkey Way gates. If Dombrowski does indeed go ahead and move a player like Yoan Moncada, Andrew Benintendi, Rafael Devers or Michael Kopech – he would have to get the second-coming of Pedro Martinez in return. Tampa Bay’s Chris Archer wouldn’t do the trick. Chicago’s Chris Sale is probably the only starting pitcher out there who would. Expect Dombrowski to poke around for sure regarding both Archer and Sale – but the price tag looks to be ridiculously high for both players (even too high for the ‘win-now-at-all-costs Dombrowski). The Rangers were one of the teams that were “shut down” by the Rays, according to Stark and ESPN’s Jim Bowden.
As far as Sale goes, it’s much of the same.
FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal reported that it would take a king’s ransom to land Sale, but also said that the White Sox are opened minded when it comes to a potential blockbuster trade. For what it’s worth, Rosenthal penned a column Friday outlining why the White Sox need to push the reset button on their franchise. The Chicago Sun-Times also wrote about a potential Sale swap this week and also used the phrase “king’s ransom.” The Sun-Times also explained how team-friendly Sale’s contract is for the White Sox. Sale is under team control through the 2019 season. He will earn $9.15 million in 2016, $12 million in 2017, $12.5 million in 2018 and $13.5 million in 2019. From the Sun-Times piece: For Sale, ‘they would want a king’s ransom,’’ a veteran American League scout said. “As much to do with the contract as his immense talent.’’
“Many times with young controllable superstars it’s all about ‘pricing the beef,’ gauging his real value. Seeing what they could get. Maybe somebody is willing to overwhelm the Sox. Maybe a team loaded with young talent will cough up a mix of three to four dudes with two or three studs mixed in.’’ Or maybe not.
“Of course, they don’t really want to get rid of Sale. What can change is if they really think he is starting to slip, and have to time it just right before anyone else figured it out. It’s a high-stakes game of commodities when you get down to it.’’
Chris Archer or Chris Sale trade for Red Sox would literally be giving up the farm
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