With the Chicago White Sox and Boston Red Sox setting baseball’s hot stove fully ablaze with a blockbuster with the Red Sox obtaining Chris Sale in exchange for uber prospects in Yoan Moncada and Michael Kopech.  With this trade, the White Sox have unofficially announced they are rebuilding and are now willing to trade away every piece of value.

What is surprising is that a White Sox team that was under .500 last season actually has a number of good pieces.  In fact, they have a number of pieces that would be quite enticing for the New York Mets.

For starters, the White Sox have David Robertson.  Robertson is enticing not just because he is a good closer, and the Mets face the possibility of losing Jeurys Familia to a lengthy suspension in 2017.  He is also enticing because he pitched very well for Yankees, and has pitched well for the Yankees in the postseason too.  A pitcher who can pitch well in pressure situations in New York should always be of interest to the Mets.

The White Sox also have a very good left-handed reliever in Dan Jennings.  In 2016, left-handed batters only hit .217/.316/.337 off of him.  Overall, Jennings was 4-3 with a 2.08 ERA in 64 appearances.  He’s even more attractive as a trade target when you consider he’s under team control until 2020.

Perhaps the most impressive reliever in the White Sox bullpen last year was Nate Jones.  Jones made 71 appearances in 2016 going 5-3 with a 2.29 ERA, 0.892 WHIP, and a 10.2 K/9.  He is a sinker/slider pitcher that can throw the ball over 97 MPH that would thrive in the Mets organization.  He has a reasonable contract going forward with provisions in the deal that protects his team against arm injuries.  Overall, he will make $3.95 million in 2017, and he is under contract until 2021.

Offensively speaking, the White Sox have Adam Eaton who is a career .384/.357/.428 hitter who has averaged 28 doubles, nine triples, 10 homers, 50 RBI, and 16 stolen bases a season in his three years as an everyday player.  At 27, he is coming off his best offensive season where he hit .284/.362/.428 with 29 doubles, nine triples, 14 homers, 59 RBI, and 14 stolen bases.

In the field, it has been a mixed bag for Eaton.  He has averaged a 0 DRS and a -4.7 UZR in center.  Best case scenario is he is an average center fielder.  More likely, he is below average at the position.  Eaton will make $4 million next season, and he has an additional two years $14.4 remaining on his contract.  There are reasonable team options for $9.5 million and $10.5 million for the 2020 and 2021 seasons respectively.

Finally, because everyone is interested in the Toms River, NJ native, the White Sox also have Todd Frazier.  On a positive note, Frazier has proven that he is able to hit for power away from the Great American Ballpark.  In fact, Frazier’s 40 home runs this season were a career high.  These home run totals to mask the fact that Frazier is a career .225/.302/.464 hitter who has seen a steady decline in his batting average and OBP over the past three seasons.

Defensively, Frazier has been a good third baseman, but he did have a slight dropoff this season as per UZR and DRS.  In addition to third base, Frazier has played some first making him a versatile infielder.  That would be important for a Mets team that arguably has injury concerns at every position in the infield.  Frazier is third year arbitration eligible, and he will be a free agent in 2018.

Understandably, Mets fans covet one if not all of these players.  The issue becomes what are you going to be willing to give up for anyone of these players who not only suits a need for the Mets, but is also cost controlled?  Judging from the haul the White Sox obtained in the Sale trade, the team is wisely extracting the most possible value for its players.

While nothing has been reported, it is likely the White Sox would look to obtain players like Michael Conforto, Justin Dunn, Robert Gsellman, Steven Matz, Tomas Nido, Dominic Smith or really any big prospect the Mets have in exchange for any combination of the aforementioned White Sox players.  At some point during trade discussions, if they were to take place, the questions is ultimately going to be whether trading a significant part of the future would be worth a player of Robertson’s or Eaton’s caliber.