Sometimes, the Best Trades are the Ones...

Yes, White Sox shortstop Tim Anderson is having a breakout year, what with his .336 BA to go with 55 RBIs and 75 runs scored.  And James McCann’s no slouch, either, hitting .274 with 17 homeruns and 57 RBIs, every one of them clutch, it seems.  If only every one of GM Rick Hahn’s pickups could work out like McCann has.  Still, I wonder.

For openers, what if the Sox had kept Marcus Semien?  Consider these stats [everything cited today as of Tuesday’s games]: .281 BA/31 homers/87 RBIs/117(!) runs scored.  And let’s not forget Omar Narvaez, hitting .284 with the Mariners with 22 homers and 55 RBIs.  I wonder.

What if the Sox had kept both Semien and Narvaez (we won’t even mention Chris Bassitt or Josh Phegley here)?  At 29, Semien is three years older than Anderson.  You can never have too many good shortstops.  Either Anderson would’ve needed to change positions for Semien, or vice versa.  All I know for sure is the Sox let go of a player who hit eight homers for them vs. 98—and counting—for his new team.  We traded Semien and three others for Jeff Smardzija, now of the Giant.  Gosh, do you think SF would consider trading Smardzija straight up for Semien?

A good front office has to be able to judge talent.  GM Rick Hahn wasn’t up to the task, again (see Fernando Tatis Jr. for yet another painful example).  Imagine what we could get for Semien now.  Check that, imagine what a good GM could get for Semien coming off a 30+ homer season.

Which brings us to Narvaez.  A Narvaez-McCann platoon behind the plate would translate into something like 39 homers and 112 RBIs from the catching position.  Instead, Hahn stuck with Welington Castillo.  Oh, well, it could be worse, and I’m figuring it will be.  The Sox have helped mess up Daniel Palka, who’s gone from 27 homers his first season here to two hits total his next.

He gone, as the Hawk would say.  And he’ll go deep against us, too.  Of that you can be assured.