5 White Sox prospects make Baseball America's top 100 list

White Sox farmhands occupy five spots on Baseball America's list of top 100 prospects, which was released Monday morning.

The five players are:

4. Eloy Jimenez
11. Michael Kopech
57. Alec Hansen
58. Luis Robert
82. Dane Dunning

It's a good sign for the Sox to still have five players in the top 100, considering three of their guys who were on the list at this time last year are no longer eligible because they are now in the big leagues -- Yoan Moncada (No. 2), Lucas Giolito (No. 25) and Reynaldo Lopez (No. 31).

Zack Collins was No. 56 last year, but he has fallen off the list after struggling at Class-A Winston-Salem in 2017 (.223 average with 118 strikeouts).

The other bad news? Fernando Tatis Jr. is No. 9 in these rankings. In case you've forgotten, Tatis Jr. is the shortstop the Sox traded the San Diego Padres in 2016 in exchange for James Shields.

We said at the time of the Shields deal that it was the sort of trade that gets GMs fired. Rick Hahn can thank his lucky stars that some of the young players he's acquired since the Shields deal have masked the loss of Tatis Jr.

Andrew McCutchen trade makes little sense for Pittsburgh or San Francisco

Andrew McCutchen

Is anyone else confused by this trade between the Pittsburgh Pirates and the San Francisco Giants?

San Francisco acquired former league MVP Andrew McCutchen from the Pirates in exchange for right-hander Kyle Crick, outfield prospect Bryan Reynolds and $500,000 of international money.

Do the Giants really believe they can win this year with this move? They are coming off a 98-loss season. They finished 40 games behind the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NL West, and oh yeah, that division produced three playoff teams last season -- the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Colorado Rockies were the NL wild-card teams.

I know the Giants added Evan Longoria this offseason, too, but he's similar to McCutchen -- still a good player, but a veteran on the downside of his career. McCutchen will be a free agent after the 2018 season, so this is very much a win-now move. But to me, San Francisco is going to have to hope other clubs in its division take big steps backward. The Giants look like a 75-win team to me, at best.

And what about the Pirates? That isn't a very good return for McCutchen. I had never heard Reynolds' name until he was included in this deal. Apparently, he's a switch-hitting outfielder who was drafted 59th overall in the 2016 draft. Good for him.

Crick is entering his age-25 season. He broke into the big leagues last year and compiled a 3.06 ERA in 30 relief appearances for the Giants.

Good for him, too, I guess, but if I'm a Pirates fan, I'm saying, "That's all we got for the player who has been the face of the franchise for the past five or six years?"

Yuck, all the way around.

Pittsburgh obviously is entering a rebuild phase. The Pirates traded Gerrit Cole to the Astros, too, in a move that makes a lot of sense for Houston.

The Astros are the defending champs, and they just added another guy who is top-of-the-rotation material in an effort to boost their chances of repeating. Unlike the Giants, the Astros have legitimate hopes of "winning now."

What did that cost Houston? Its fifth-best prospect in infielder Colin Moran, plus pitchers Joe Musgrove and Michael Feliz and an outfield prospect named Jason Martin.

You make that deal in a second if you are the Astros. If you are the Pirates, well, you got some guys in exchange for Cole and McCutchen, but I'm struggling to find any names in those trades that project as future franchise cornerstones. And make no mistake about it, Cole and McCutchen were franchise cornerstones for the Pirates.

There might be some tough years ahead in Pittsburgh, and in San Francisco, too, for that matter.

White Sox bring back Miguel Gonzalez on one-year deal

Miguel Gonzalez

The White Sox moved to improve their starting pitching depth Thursday by signing Miguel Gonzalez to a one-year contract worth $4.75 million.

With Carlos Rodon likely to start the 2018 season on the DL, the Sox needed a stopgap veteran to eat some innings and at least get them through the first half of the year. They are turning to a pitcher they are familiar with in Gonzalez.

The 33-year-old veteran spent most of the 2016 and 2017 seasons on the South Side. He made 45 starts with the Sox and went 12-18 with a 4.02 ERA over that span.

Gonzalez was traded to the Texas Rangers for infielder Ti'Quan Forbes on Aug. 31. He made five September starts in Texas and went 1-3 with a 6.45 ERA before becoming a free agent.

Best guess on the Opening Day rotation as of now: 
James Shields
Gonzalez
Lucas Giolito
Reynaldo Lopez
Carson Fulmer

Presumably, Rodon will return at some point. Prospects Michael Kopech and Alec Hansen could make their big-league debuts sometime this season. Until then, somebody has to pitch. Might as well be Gonzalez.

The Sox designated outfielder Jacob May for assignment in order to make room for Gonzalez on the 40-man roster.

And as always, we would be remiss if we didn't include this number in a blog post such as this:

Baseball America releases list of top-10 White Sox prospects

Eloy Jimenez

For those who enjoy lists, Baseball America has released its latest list of top-10 White Sox prospects. You would need to buy a subscription from that publication to get full details, but here is its ranking:

1. Eloy Jimenez, OF
2. Michael Kopech, RHP
3. Alec Hansen, RHP
4. Luis Robert, OF
5. Dane Dunning, RHP
6. Zack Collins, C
7. Jake Burger, 3B
8. Blake Rutherford, OF
9. Gavin Sheets, 1B
10. Dylan Cease, RHP

Notable graduations from last year's Baseball America list at this same time include the guys who were ranked 1, 2 and 3: Yoan Moncada, Lucas Giolito and Reynaldo Lopez. All received call-ups to the big leagues during the 2017 season.

Baseball America says the top of the Sox's farm system ranks among the best in the game, and the top 10 could get stronger if Burger and Sheets -- both members of the 2017 draft class -- play well in their first full seasons as professionals.

The publication also notes that there is a bit of a dropoff in the Sox's system once you get past the first 15 prospects. The depth could be better if more fringe prospects such as Luis Alexander Basabe and Alex Call bounce back from disappointing 2017 seasons.

Here's the best-of list for the Sox's farm system provided by Baseball America:
Best hitter for average: Jimenez
Best power hitter: Jimenez
Best plate discipline: Collins
Fastest base runner: Logan Taylor
Best athlete: Robert
Best fastball: Kopech
Best curve: Hansen
Best slider: Zack Burdi
Best changeup: A.J. Puckett
Best control: Dunning
Best defensive catcher: Nate Nolan
Best defensive infielder: Yeyson Yrizarri
Best infield arm: Zach Remillard
Best defensive outfielder: Basabe
Best outfield arm: Micker Adolfo

White Sox acquire relievers Joakim Soria, Luis Avilan in three-team deal

Joakim Soria

It has been somewhat surprising that the White Sox have not addressed their depleted bullpen through free agency, but perhaps their plan all along was to acquire a couple of veteran relievers through a trade.

The Sox on Thursday added veteran right-hander Joakim Soria from the Kansas City Royals and left-hander Luis Avilan from the Los Angeles Dodgers as part of a three-team deal.

It seems as if the Royals might be looking to clear some salary in order to make a bigger offer to free agent first baseman Eric Hosmer. In addition to sending Soria to Chicago, they sent left-handed reliever Scott Alexander to the Dodgers.

Los Angeles also receives minor-league infielder Jake Peter, who is the only player the Sox parted with in this deal. Peter had a nice year in 2017, hitting a combined .279 between Triple-A Charlotte and Double-A Birmingham, but he's blocked by Yoan Moncada, Tim Anderson and Yolmer Sanchez in Chicago, and didn't appear to be part of the Sox's long-term plan.

Kansas City receives infielder Erick Mejia and right-handed pitcher Trevor Oaks from the Dodgers as part of the deal.

The only way this trade doesn't work out for the Sox is if Peter somehow becomes more than the utility infielder most people believe he is.

Although neither Soria nor Avilan figure to be part of the Sox's long-term plan, either, the two veterans provide a short-term solution in the late innings -- at least for the first half of 2018 -- and if they pitch well, they could be candidates to be traded midseason to contending teams in exchange for prospects who are more highly regarded than Peter.

Soria, 33, has 204 career saves, so I think we have a good idea of who has the ninth inning for the Sox when the season opens. Soria is not the pitcher he was in the past -- his ERA was an ordinary 3.70 for Kansas City last season -- but he has experience as a closer, and he kept the ball in the ballpark in 2017. He allowed only one home run in 56 innings, and at Guaranteed Rate Field, you want relief pitchers who keep the ball out of the air.

Avilan, 28, was 2-3 with a 2.93 ERA in 46 innings and 61 games with the Dodgers last year. The left-hander's main value comes in getting left-handed hitters out. In 2017, left-handed hitters slashed .195/.290/.280 against Avilan, while right-handers slashed .292/.376/.449. This is a pitcher that can be effective if manager Rick Renteria puts him in favorable matchup situations.

With this trade, here's how the Sox bullpen might look if the season started today:

Right-handers:
Soria
Nate Jones
Juan Minaya
Danny Farquhar
Greg Infante

Left-handers:
Avilan
Aaron Bummer

Assuming a 12-man pitching staff, those likely are your seven relievers. Other bullpen candidates include right-handers Thyago Vieira, Jose Ruiz and Dylan Covey, plus left-hander Jace Fry.

Dubious definition of a 'key free agent' -- Mike Pelfrey

Mike Pelfrey -- in younger years

If you've watched MLB Network's offseason coverage lately -- and if you're reading my blog at this time of year, you probably have -- you may have noticed it has a tracker of "key free agents" running across its bottom crawl.

One by one, each team in MLB's logo is shown, followed by a list of that team's unsigned free agents. The White Sox have only one such unsigned free agent this year, and it never fails to make me smile to see him described as a "key free agent."

Good ol' Mike Pelfrey.

Yep, "Big Pelf" gets a mention, even though he went 3-12 with a 5.93 ERA for a Sox team that went 67-95 in 2017.

Key free agent? Ha! I'm quite sure the fate of the 2018 Sox rests on something other than Pelfrey's future with club, and I can't imagine too many rival teams are lining up to try to "steal" the journeyman right-hander who is entering his age 34 season away from the Sox.

Hey, something's got to keep me entertained during this offseason of very little baseball news, right?

Other additions to SoxFest

The Sox have announced a few additions to the SoxFest lineup. Catcher Welington Castillo, manager Rick Renteria and his coaching staff and former pitchers Jose Contreras and Jon Garland all will be at the Chicago Hilton from Jan. 26 to 28.

Is Eric Hosmer going to end up back with the Royals?

Eric Hosmer

The hot stove has been cold this winter, with not much happening over the first two months of the offseason.

But we are starting to hear more rumors about a potential landing spot for free agent first baseman Eric Hosmer, and he may be back with the Kansas City Royals.

According to a USA Today report, the Royals have offered Hosmer a seven-year, $147 million contract to stay in Kansas City, where he won a World Series (2015) and has been the face of the franchise for most of this decade.

Early speculation this offseason linked Hosmer to the Boston Red Sox, but those rumors died down after the Red Sox gave Mitch Moreland a two-year deal. The only other team involved with Hosmer, strangely, seems to be the San Diego Padres.

The same USA Today report says that San Diego has offered Hosmer a seven-year deal for $140 million. That would be $1 million less a year than Kansas City's offer.

I've never quite understood why the Padres are looking to open the pocketbook for Hosmer. San Diego's most productive hitter last season was its first baseman, Wil Myers, who totaled 30 home runs, 29 doubles and 74 RBIs.

Myers played outfield earlier in his career, and reports indicate he would be willing to move back to the outfield in order to make room for Hosmer. That's good. That's great. But isn't there a reason Myers was moved to first base in the first place? Yes, there was. He's not a good defensive outfielder, so why put him back at a position where he will hurt his team? Shouldn't San Diego be keeping Myers right where he is?

Don't get me wrong: I'd rather have Hosmer at first base than Myers. Hosmer hit .318 last season, while Myers hit only .243. And I'll take Hosmer's 25 home runs and 90-plus RBIs with good defense at first base over what Myers has to offer.

However, the Padres went 71-91 in 2017, and they have much bigger holes on their roster than first base. Shouldn't they be addressing those? And is San Diego really in a position to win next year even if it adds Hosmer. I say no, and against that backdrop, why would Hosmer want to sign there?

Hosmer reportedly wants an eight- or nine-year deal, but there has to be at least some appeal for him to go back to Kansas City on a seven-year deal and be considered a local hero.

If not the Royals, then who is going to sign Hosmer? He can't possibly pick the Padres over the Royals, can he?

The next holiday on the calendar: SoxFest

Jose Abreu ... still not traded

With the holiday season past, it's time to turn our attention to SoxFest, which is scheduled from Jan. 26 to 28 at the Chicago Hilton.

I, of course, will be in attendance, but I doubt anyone is buying hotel passes to hang out with me for the weekend. So, here is a list of more important people who will be appearing at SoxFest.

White Sox players: Jose Abreu, Tim Anderson, Matt Davidson, Nick Delmonico, Adam Engel, Carson Fulmer, Avisail Garcia, Lucas Giolito, Reynaldo Lopez, Yoan Moncada, Carlos Rodon, Yolmer Sanchez and Kevan Smith.

White Sox prospects: Jake Burger, Dylan Cease, Zack Collins, Alec Hansen, Eloy Jimenez, Michael Kopech, Blake Rutherford and Gavin Sheets.

Past White Sox greats: Harold Baines, Carlton Fisk, Bo Jackson, Tim Raines and Frank Thomas.

White Sox broadcasters: Jason Benetti, Ed Farmer, Ken Harrelson, Darrin Jackson and Steve Stone.

White Sox brass: general manager Rick Hahn, assistant GM Jeremy Haber, senior director of baseball operations Dan Fabian, director of player development Chris Getz and director of scouting Nick Hostetler.

As a hotel guest, I will receive a talking Hawk Harrelson bobblehead. Won't that be interesting? Can't wait to go to the fest and talk baseball with my fellow Sox fans.

Happy New Year from The Baseball Kid!