Trade Rumor: Chicago White Sox To Trade All-Star Closer

Before the trade deadline, the Chicago White Sox acquired All-Star closer Craig Kimbrel from the Chicago Cubs in exchange for Nick Madrigal and Codi Heuer. Now, according to Bob Nightengale, the White Sox will pick up Kimbrel's $16 million option for next season, but trade him this winter.

The Chicago #WhiteSox are expected to pick up reliever Craig Kimbrel's $16 million option and then trade him during the winter. He badly struggled as a setup man, allowing 31 baserunners in 23 innings, including a 5.09 ERA. There will be plenty of teams looking for closers.
— Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) October 13, 2021

With the Cubs this season, he had a 2-3 record, 23 saves and an immensely low 0.49 ERA. He understandably made his eighth career All-Star game because of it. However, he struggled significantly with the White Sox in a setup role. In 24 games with the team, he had a 2-2 record and 5.09 ERA. Thus, everything went completely wrong for him once he joined them.

Even though Kimbrel struggled a lot with the White Sox, it's very possible that other teams would still be interested in him. His stats with the Cubs this season were spectacular and it was best year since 2018 when he was a member of the Boston Red Sox. However, during his two previous seasons, it is also important to remember that he had high ERAs in each of them, too. In 2019 with the Cubs, he had a 6.53 ERA in 23 games and then a 5.28 ERA in 18 games during the 2020 campaign. Therefore, he has had previous bad stretches of his career, too.

The Kimbrel trade is one that the White Sox likely already regret. They gave up a young and talented second baseman in Madrigal who has been very good in his short career thus far. In 83 games over two seasons, he has two home runs, 32 RBIs and an impressive .317 batting average. The sample size of course has been small, but if he continues to produce like this, the White Sox will miss him. Heuer also didn't do too bad with the Cubs after the trade. He had a 3-3 record and 3.14 ERA.

Where do you see Kimbrel playing next season? Let us know in the comments!