White Sox Send All-Star Reliever Crain To Rays In Complicated Deal!

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The Chicago White Sox at least assured themselves of some type of compensation for All-Star reliever Jesse Crain by completing a real unique trade on Monday afternoon with the Tampa Bay Rays.

In a Major League Baseball season where there has been an unusual slow amount of big name trades leading up to this Wednesday’s July 31st MLB non-waiver Trade Deadline, this trade is one that’s very unique in that Crain is currently on the 15-day disabled list with a right shoulder strain and hasn’t pitched since June 29th.

With the 32-year-old Crain, who made his first All-Star team this year out till possibly mid-August it made the deal complicated to complete and forced White Sox general manager Rick Hahn to come up with such a creative deal that allows the Sox to receive players to be named later or cash for Crain.

“This is obviously a complicated one for everyone to analyze given that there are still some unknowns, ” Hahn told reporters during a conference call Monday after the deal.  “There’s a pool of players that [Rays general manager] Andrew Friedman and I have discussed.  We’re going to continue to cross-check the players over the coming weeks and months and actually we’ll come to an agreement as to what’s appropriate compensation for Jesse.  It required a fair amount of creativity and trust between the two clubs, and given our relationship with them it was fairly easy to ultimately come to an agreement that we felt would make sense for both of us going forward.”

It’s not known the level of prospects potentially available to the White Sox from the Rays, but if it’s anything less than top prospects it’s very unfortunate for the club.  Especially seeing that Crain was not only arguably the best setup man in baseball for the first half and one of the best relievers, but possibly even the best in all of baseball.

Crain set a franchise record with 29 straight scoreless appearances and had a 1.15 ERA in 36 2/3 innings with 19 holds and 46 strikeouts over 38 relief appearances with the White Sox this season before the injury.  The scoreless innings pitched streak is the longest in the American League and second best in the majors this season.

So obviously with the All-Star type numbers Crain put up for the White Sox it’s to bad he was not healthy and the Sox could know a true value to get possibly more that obviously took a hit with the injury.  The Sox also had no choice though and faced getting no compensation in exchange for Crain after the season had he decided to leave in free agency.

Crain if healthy will definitely boost a Tampa Bay Rays team that’s currently first in the very competitive AL East and fighting to win the division, but he also has found memories of his time here in Chicago and will be missed.

“Great teammates. Great city.  I had an organization that’s been amazing to me,” Crain said after he talked to reporters about the trade.  “They brought me in here three years and treated me unbelievably.  I think I got better over three years here, for sure.  It’s time I’ll never forget.  I just realized how many people have come through the White Sox organization.  So it’s pretty cool to be a part of that.”

Jesse was not only a very great player for the White Sox in his time here, but a great person to the city of Chicago so it’s very unfortunate and sad his tenure had to end like this and wish it could have ended with White Sox fans and the city of Chicago seeing him play at least one more time in a Sox uniform.  It is what it’s though and good luck to him in the future, except for when it’s obviously against the Sox.