As a Cub fan, I took some more crap from my White Sox fan friends today for the Eloy Jimenez trade. But my response was as always - "laugh all you want but the White Sox made a worse trade. They traded Fernando Tatis Jr. for James Shields."
The Cubs at least got a decent pitcher back. While Quintana has not pitched like the Cubs hoped, the guy has still gone 33-23 and is only 31 years old with a number of years still left in his career. Shields went 16-35 with the White Sox and is 38 years old and has been out of baseball since the end of the 2018 season.
I think the White Sox got great young talent back from the Cubs in Eloy Jimenez. I think he is going to be a big time power hitter but likely will be a future DH since he is limited defensively. However, Tatis Jr (already with 9 home runs so far in 22 games) has a better all around game. He has the bat, the glove, the arm, can run and plays a premium defensive position. I would certainly take Tatis Jr over Jimenez if I had a choice.
The wild card is of course Dylan Cease. If the guy wind up harnessing his great stuff, he can be a #1 starter. If that happens you might have to give the edge to the Jimenez trade as being the better of the two trades.
But if I was a White Sox fan, I would still be pissed. These two trades were not "either or" trades. The White Sox should have both Jimenez and Tatis Jr. on their roster. I thought at the time that giving up a talent like Tatis Jr. for a washed-up 34 year old pitcher like James Shields was complete head scratcher.
The Cubs made a calculated gamble for a talented pitcher that they felt would help them contend for championships for the next handful of years. The White Sox simply made a monumental blunder that made no sense in the Tatis Jr trade.
The Cubs at least got a decent pitcher back. While Quintana has not pitched like the Cubs hoped, the guy has still gone 33-23 and is only 31 years old with a number of years still left in his career. Shields went 16-35 with the White Sox and is 38 years old and has been out of baseball since the end of the 2018 season.
I think the White Sox got great young talent back from the Cubs in Eloy Jimenez. I think he is going to be a big time power hitter but likely will be a future DH since he is limited defensively. However, Tatis Jr (already with 9 home runs so far in 22 games) has a better all around game. He has the bat, the glove, the arm, can run and plays a premium defensive position. I would certainly take Tatis Jr over Jimenez if I had a choice.
The wild card is of course Dylan Cease. If the guy wind up harnessing his great stuff, he can be a #1 starter. If that happens you might have to give the edge to the Jimenez trade as being the better of the two trades.
But if I was a White Sox fan, I would still be pissed. These two trades were not "either or" trades. The White Sox should have both Jimenez and Tatis Jr. on their roster. I thought at the time that giving up a talent like Tatis Jr. for a washed-up 34 year old pitcher like James Shields was complete head scratcher.
The Cubs made a calculated gamble for a talented pitcher that they felt would help them contend for championships for the next handful of years. The White Sox simply made a monumental blunder that made no sense in the Tatis Jr trade.
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