Landing both Bryce Harper and Manny Machado in free agency would be a groundbreaking achievement, but the Chicago White Sox might actually pull it off.
It’s almost a little bit unbelievable, but the Chicago White Sox might actually be on the verge of making history.
The South Siders, who have spent the last several years taking the back seat in the Chicago baseball scene, could spring forward into the driver’s seat in just this one offseason. There’s a good chance the White Sox will enter spring training with either Bryce Harper or Manny Machado on their roster, but it’s also possible that they could pull off a stunner and land BOTH of them.
White Sox fans shouldn’t count on it, but it could happen. It would be one of the biggest splashes ever made in MLB free agency, in one of the most highly anticipated free agent classes baseball has seen in a long time.
Over the course of the last few weeks, Chicago has become more and more of a likely landing spot for Harper. And they just traded for Yonder Alonso, who happens to be the brother-in-law of Machado, so you can interpret that information however you would like to.
To pull off this blockbuster, the White Sox would — obviously — have to spend a boatload of money. Actually, more like 15 boatloads. It’s been made pretty clear that Harper is seeking what will probably end up being the biggest contract in MLB history, one that could exceed $400 million. And Machado would most likely cost more than $300 million, so there’s no denying the insanely heavy investment this would be.
But the White Sox have been preparing for this moment for years. They traded Chris Sale a few years ago, and they’ve spent the last few seasons stockpiling young prospects such as Yoan Moncada and Eloy Jimenez. They’ll have to wait until 2020 to get pitcher Michael Kopech back as he will be recovering from Tommy John surgery. But the good news is that, based on what they saw from him in 2018, Kopech is going to be very, very good.
But everybody knows that to win championships in baseball, you have to spend money, and now the White Sox have reached the point in their building plan where they are ready to do just that.
If they shell out the money and bring both Harper and Machado to the Windy City, it would completely turn the Chicago baseball scene around. The Cubs have been a consistent playoff contender for the last four years, winning the World Series in 2016. If the White Sox pull this off, there would be a legitimate possibility of a Crosstown Classic showdown in the World Series.
Would the city be able to handle something like that? It would be incredible, and not just for the city of Chicago.
Spending all of that money would be a huge risk for the White Sox, and we’ve seen plenty of teams sign players to enormous contracts only to have it not work out in the end. But if the Sox have a chance to actually make this happen, they shouldn’t think twice about it.
In Major League Baseball, there is only one goal: to win the World Series. Signing Harper and Machado wouldn’t just put the White Sox in position to do that, but it would probably make them the favorite. The risk would be 100 percent worth it.
If you’re a White Sox fan, you would much rather see your team take a big gamble to have a chance at winning the World Series and fail, then to see them not even take any swings at all.