White Sox win another winter meetings

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — The White Sox always seem to win the Winter Meetings. They haven’t won much else since 2005 but, whether they’ve added splashy pieces to n position a roster to contend or traded even bigger ones to begin a full rebuild, they’re always the ones exiting the building in the back-slap line.

This time, after trading Chris Sale and Adam Eaton, the acclaim came from prospect-analyst types, scouts, rival executives, media and fans alike for reeling in significant returns for their best pitcher and position player. Yoan Moncada, Lucas Giolato, Michael Kopech and Reynaldo Lopez are names many ticket-buyers probably hadn’t even heard of before this week, but the infusion into a thin farm system likely vaulted it from bottom third to top third status – if not higher. Those four names dropped Carson Fulmer’s from first to fifth in MLB.com’s updated rankings of White Sox prospects, and Luis Basabe and Dane Dunning, also acquired in the Sale-Eaton deals, are the new No. 9 and 10.

Regardless of rank, there are more trades to come and more prospects to welcome in, as well as another guaranteed losing season, but at least with a caveat – that enough of the young talent in the farm system will meld into a roster that’ll go more than 10 good players deep by say, 2019.

That Jerry Reinsdorf is on board with letting general manager Rick Hahn go full throttle on a rebuild says a lot about the frustration of a dead-end period featuring one playoff appearance since Paul Konerko handed him that prized World Series game ball that the chairman, at age 81, is willing to endure this.

“He’s been fully supportive of this from the start,’’ Hahn said. “He’s as competitive as anybody in this building. He wants to bring another championship to Chicago as badly as all of us if not more so. At the same time he knows it’s going to take time and that it may be painful along the way.’’

Hahn is not exactly basking in the glow of having reeled in baseball’s top-rated prospect (Moncada) and pitching prospect (Giolito) and more.

“It’s a weird feeling,’’ he said Thursday, still trying to wrap his head around showing Sale, as well as Eaton, the door to greener postseason pastures (Boston and Washington).

The dealing was far from done, Hahn with saying “we’re still thoroughly engaged, deeply engaged on a number of different fronts’’ with names like David Robertson drawing interest after closers Aroldis Chapman and Kenley Jansen came off the free agent board.

“Perhaps now that the process has started in earnest, teams know ‘Now is the time to get serious and bear down on what’s on the table,’ ’’ Hahn said.

Player movement might happen now, next week, next month, next season. It will be ongoing.

Exasperated fans seem rejuvenated, saying now is the time for a White Sox offseason plan to actually work. This one will take time to unfold, and fans seem to be more than OK with it. They’ve had enough of copy-and-paste roster patching.

“While it was difficult to see Chris and Adam leave,’’ Sox vice president for communications Scott Reifert said, “fans quickly became excited about the depth and quality of talent Rick was able to obtain in exchange. Fans seem to understand our plan and direction and most we heard from embraced it with enthusiasm.’’