Phillies Rival Loses White Sox Sale to Boston
Chris Sale has been traded, but the Phillies won’t be seeing him as much as expected
All week Phillies fans have feared the White Sox trading Chris Sale to the Washington Nationals. For several days it sounded like a done deal, and was just a formality.
A pitching rotation of Max Scherzer, Stephen Strasburg, and Sale could compete among the best of all-time. The Phillies lineup could not compete against Washington in a three-game series.
Fortunately, the Boston Red Sox jumped in at the 11th hour, and pulled off the first blockbuster trade of the Winter Meetings.
The Red Sox have traded their top prospect, Yoan Moncada, their fifth best prospect, pitcher Michael Kopech, eighth best prospect Luis Basabe, and Victor Diaz, their 28th ranked prospect.
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Last season Sale had his fourth consecutive season with over 200 strikeouts. Over the past five seasons he has finished in the top-six in the Cy Young voting.
Chicago is now taking the path of their cross-town rival Cubs, and are stripping their franchise down to the bone. Expect Adam Eaton, Todd Fraizer, and Jose Quintana to be on the trade block as well for Chicago.
This move does however give the Nationals enough firepower to make a trade for Pirates star Andrew McCutchen.
Do not think the Phillies are out of the woods yet when it comes to facing Sale though. Philadelphia and Boston have four games (two home and away games back-to-back) against each other. It will take a miracle for the Phillies to miss Sale during that four-game stretch.
Sale has faced the Phillies once in his career, and was rocked for six runs in four innings.