Tuesday Winter Meetings Update: White Sox are having a fire! … Sale!

Tuesday at the Winter Meetings brought a Chris Sale trade. But not to the Nationals.

Sale is headed to Boston, dealt to the Red Sox in exchange for top prospect Yoan Moncada, Michael Kopech, Luis Alexander Basabe and Victor Diaz. Soxprospects.com ranked Moncada the team’s top prospect (plenty of arguments he was the top prospect in baseball heading into 2017), Kopech at No. 5, Basabe at No. 7 and Diaz off the board.

So, say the Phillies wanted in … it would’ve probably taken something like Vince Velasquez, Jorge Alfaro, Roman Quinn and Jake Thompson. Not the Phils ever even wanted to.

Meanwhile at the Winter Meetings …

FIVE NOT ALIVE: Reportedly the Phillies are not likely to select any players in Thursday’s Rule 5 Draft. But since we won’t know for sure until the draft takes place, we’ll still have a preview of the draft tomorrow!

TALKING BAT: Manager Pete Mackanin spoke to the media Tuesday, and most of the discussion revolved around finding another bat to help the offense. It seems more and more likely the team will add one more power-first bat, whether or not it’s this week, and may be moving someone like Cesar Hernandez in the process. They could still use free agency as the pathway to a bat (Michael Saunders remains an attractive-enough piece).