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White Sox GM reluctant to deal pitching to fill other needs

Anthony Gruppuso / USA TODAY Sports

Chicago White Sox general manager Rick Hahn understands that to address his roster's many needs, dealing from an area of strength is an option - though he'd like to avoid it at all costs.

Left-handed starters Chris Sale and Jose Quintana headline the top of the White Sox rotation, and have understandably drawn the interest of many suitors. Hahn hopes to escape the offseason with his key starters intact, however, there's no conversation he won't have.

"It's conceivable, but at the same time we realize how special some of the arms we have under control for the foreseeable future are and we're reluctant given the cost of replacing those to dip into those," Hahn told Dan Hayes of CSN Chicago.

"Everything is on the table. We haven't closed off any avenues to make ourselves better. When you start talking about taking away from the strength of our rotation or even our bullpen part of the calculus you have to balance out how much of a step back in our run prevention would we potentially take in trying to score more runs."

Both Sale and Quintana are under extremely team-friendly deals, making the prospect of trading them even more difficult for Hahn. Sale is owed $21.15 million over the next two seasons with a pair of team options totaling $26 million, while Quintana is signed through 2018 at $21.5 million with two team options for $10.5 million and $11.5 million respectively.

Pitcher W-L ERA IP SO
Sale 13-11 3.41 208.2 274
Quintana 9-10 3.36 206.1 177

"We know the value of the talent that we have and the fact that they're not only premium pitchers but controllable at affordable rates going forward makes them all the more valuable to us much less in the trade market," Hahn said. "You don’t want to rob Peter to pay Paul to a huge extent but we need to get better offensively so we may have to make some sacrifices."

The White Sox missed the postseason for a seventh straight year in 2015, thanks in large part to an offense that ranked last in the American League in runs, home runs, and OPS. There's little help internally when it comes to improving the offense, as Hahn has a laundry list of weaknesses.

"We've talked about behind the plate, we've got to figure out what we're going to do in the middle of the diamond as well as third base," Hahn said. "Those are all areas where really there's room for improvement offensively."

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