KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A quick and non-competitive three-game sweep at the hands of the much envied Royals suggests efforts to "flush" or "forget" a 27-71 first half have not taken hold for the White Sox.
"It’s hard to forget it, the first half," said Nicky Lopez. "We’re trying to get over it, and this is an interesting time as well with the trade deadline, you have that swirling around. This is my third trade deadline where you start hearing that stuff. And once you get over that and everyone starts playing some ball, that’s when you start making some strides."
The fresh, utterly hairless face of Brooks Baldwin signals a coming White Sox youth movement that management and the release of Martín Maldonado have foreshadowed, where the final two months will be focused more on evaluation and players fighting for a role on next year's roster. But clarity on who will be auditioning over those final two months is something that won't be available until next Tuesday evening.
When likely trade assets are occupying such signature team roles as leadoff hitter, middle of the order threat, ace starter, closer and more, it's a little tricky to turn the page.
"You want to know what the season's going to be for the rest of the season," said Michael Kopech, whose names comes up in trade reports more than most. "You don't really have an idea of what that could be until the team is pretty much split up. Whoever is going to be here after the break and is going to ride this thing until the end, we want to know who that is. And we want to have the peace of mind of knowing the guys around us when it does turn around, or who you're going to struggle with, one way or the other."
This is both a natural thing to want, and something Kopech is plainly aware is not available to him nor anyone on the roster. If it wasn't something he had figured out already, it would be a message he heard from his manager.
"Every day this question comes up, and it should, with the trade deadline," Pedro Grifol said. "I actually find it funny. Because what can we do about it? We can't do shit about it. We can't do anything about it. And in reality even as an organization, you really can't do anything about it either. You're dependent. We have assets that teams want, but you're dependent on what they want to give up for those assets, right? At the end of the day, it's very hard to execute a deal for players that are superstars and players that are potential superstars. It's very hard. Don't worry about it. I've told these guys and I'll continue to tell them until that day comes: Do not worry about the trade deadline, be where your feet are."
Trades are not some organic weather pattern that just happen to the White Sox. They have demonstrated in numerous ways their willingness to discuss deals anyone on their major league roster, could declare Garrett Crochet and Luis Robert Jr. long-term cornerstones if they wanted to (and have very much elected not to), and even their preference for near-ready prospects in return is going to dictate the pace of negotiations to a degree.
But the pain of waiting with uncertainty to hear if the Sox have shipped them out yet is at least made more bearable by the fact the on-field results have been so clearly and immediately putrid that everyone knew this was coming. The next nine days will be awkward, but expectedly awkward.
"When you start a season as poorly as we did, it's kind of expected," said Steven Wilson, who was just traded here in March. "Two months in you probably could have started selling people. Everybody's kind of prepared for it. You never like seeing your friends go, but it's part of the game and everybody knows it's probably coming."
"It kind of felt inevitable for some while," said Erick Fedde, who should be a top target. "There's some thoughts of 'How much will it be?' in the sense of how many guys. But I don't know, it's something you kind of come to terms with at this point of the season, just with the way the season's going."
"I know there is a chance," Luis Robert Jr. said via interpreter. "Not just me, but the players, we know there is always a chance to be traded. That's something that we can't control."
The ubiquity of trade talk, with the White Sox being the most obvious and openly selling team in the league has turned a subject that could be touchy given the impact it has on players' lives, into an open one in the clubhouse. Veteran players on one-year deals have openly talked about their expectation to be dealt with each other. Another such player spent Sunday morning cracking jokes with media about the pervasiveness of rumors that rarely come to fruition -- most front office members will tell you that 99 percent of the trades they work on don't happen -- can turn all the reports into white noise.
“Obviously, I pay attention to it," said Garrett Crochet, the member of the Sox most likely to be asked about trades in every media scrum. "I see it. I hear it all the time. But I’ve still got to perform. A wise person told me, ‘Every time you take the mound, you’re playing for every team in the league.’ And that’s just the fact of the matter. You never know what can happen in this business."
"Maybe in some sense," Fedde said on whether it makes it difficult to focus on current games. "But I've been preaching it for so long about how if we don't play well until that day comes, who knows what's going to happen. They still count for our numbers, it's still part of our job. We've got to play well no matter what."
All-Star-caliber performances from Crochet and Fedde, career norms for Robert and Tommy Pham, and even recent string of scoreless outings from Kopech while trade talk has only accelerated speak to how it's the non-functional nature of this White Sox team holding them down, rather than distractions.
But the only redeeming thing about rebuilding seasons is seeing the seeds of the next good team starting to grow. It's heartening to see Drew Thorpe provide six scoreless innings amid a lifeless sweep at Kauffman Stadium, and soon that -- and potential infamous history -- will be the only sort of thing to focus on for the White Sox. There's just one thing to get through first.
"I don't think it's snuck up on anybody," Kopech said. "It's the same thing that's been going on all year. You do your job until you're asked to do it differently, elsewhere or what have you. Right now I'm here and I'm doing my job here. It's not anything I'm really actively thinking about or anyone else I know is actively thinking about. But we know it's approaching."
