White Sox Reportedly Plan to Keep Free Agent Jose Abreu at Trade Deadline
By Parker White
This year's trade market doesn't feature many obvious big time position players, as starting pitchers command most of the discussion ahead of the deadline. Well, one more slugger is set to stay put with his current club, making the available pool of hitters even thinner.
According to Bob Nightengale of USA TODAY Sports, the Chicago White Sox do not plan on moving first baseman Jose Abreu at the deadline, despite being a free agent at season's end.
The Chicago #Whitesox aren’t going anywhere this season, and slugger Jose Abreu is a free agent, but the White Sox want to win next year and are keeping him. https://t.co/lR05rPBWQm
— Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) July 16, 2019
The White Sox value Abreu's leadership, and instead of letting him walk after the season, Chicago hopes they can re-sign him to a short-term extension so he can be around when this team hopes to contend.
The Chicago White Sox are trying to sign Jose Abreu to a short-term extension. (Via @BNightengale)
— Daniel Greenberg (@ChiSportUpdates) July 16, 2019
The former AL Rookie of the Year has been around since 2014, and just like the Atlanta Braves did with Freddie Freeman, the White Sox see Abreu in that same light and want to build this club around the middle-of-the-order bat.
Of course, Abreu is 32 years old and in 90 games this season is slashing .271/.307/.503 with 21 home runs and 66 RBI. Not exactly Freddie Freeman-like numbers, but he's still a very good player who has established the culture on the South Side.