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White Sox GM: We'll consider trading with Cubs

Mark J. Rebilas / USA TODAY Sports

The Chicago White Sox are heading in the direction of a full-on rebuild, and could be ready to deal ace left-hander Chris Sale this winter. A few miles north, the Chicago Cubs are itching to add another starting pitcher and can trade from a deep farm system to land an All-Star arm like Sale.

Ordinarily, this is the recipe that results in a blockbuster trade - except in the Windy City. The politics of the crosstown rivalry has often prevented the clubs from doing business together, and the Cubs' World Series win has rendered the struggling White Sox to near invisibility in their own city.

All of that would suggest a trade between the two sides is highly unlikely, to the point that ESPN's Buster Olney reported Monday that the White Sox already told the Cubs they won't trade with them. White Sox general manager Rick Hahn took issue with that report, however, and released a statement on Wednesday to say he's open to trading with the Cubs.

"As I have said many times over the years, we are always open to discussing trades with all 29 other clubs," Hahn said, according to Daryl Van Schouwen of the Chicago Sun-Times. "We even have completed trades within our division, despite facing these teams 19 times a year, and while trades between the Cubs and White Sox will always draw heightened scrutiny and attention, it makes no sense for us to eliminate any potential trade partners.

"We will consider any trade, with any team, that improves the Chicago White Sox."

It's incredibly rare for the Cubs and White Sox to get together on a trade. They've only done so 11 times in the last 40 years, and none since 2006. Only once - when the Cubs sent Hall of Famer Ron Santo to the South Side in 1973 - was an established star involved in a Cubs-White Sox transaction.

LAST 5 CUBS-WHITE SOX TRADES

Date Cubs acquire White Sox acquire
11/22/1989 P Chuck Mount P Rich Scheid
4/30/1990 P Bill Long P Frank Campos
3/30/1992 P Ken Patterson; OF Sammy Sosa OF George Bell
7/29/1998 P Matt Karchner P Jon Garland
11/16/2006 P Neal Cotts P David Aardsma; P Carlos Vasquez

(Courtesy: Baseball-Reference)

While Cubs GM Jed Hoyer acknowledged to Patrick Mooney of CSN Chicago that the two front offices speak to one another "on a fairly regular basis," he doesn't foresee even a minor transaction coming out of those conversations.

"You don't see a lot of deals done between the Mets and the Yankees or Oakland and San Francisco," Hoyer said. "Deals within your own city are difficult to make, because you got a lot of writers covering the same things, and there's a lot of scrutiny.

"I think they would always listen to the merits of a deal. They're in the business of getting better. But I don't think anything that's been written is the least bit surprising. I don't expect a lot of deals done between the White Sox and Cubs. And I don't think I'm really saying anything surprising when I say that."

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