Rizzo on Sale: "We reached as far as we were going to reach"

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. - As talks with the White Sox about a potential Chris Sale trade progressed over the last week, Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo found himself willing to part ways with some of the kind of elite prospects he normally would deem untouchable.

The availability of Sale, a five-time All-Star left-hander under contract for the next three years at an affordable price, led Rizzo in a direction he hasn't gone before. But in order to pull off this blockbuster, the Nationals GM would have had to go even farther down that dark path, and when it came time to finally make the decision, he elected to turn around and come back to the light.

"The caliber of pitcher available isn't often bandied about in the trade market," Rizzo said of Sale. "He's a quality pitcher, so you're going to have to give up quality to get him. It's a move that you have three years of control of a really good pitcher, so you're going to have to give up a lot for him. And we felt we reached as far as we were going to reach in the trade, and we fell short."

The Red Sox, in the end, were willing to reach farther, and so it was their GM, Dave Dombrowski, at the podium Tuesday afternoon at the Winter Meetings taking questions about his club trading of two elite prospects (infielder Yoan Moncada and right-hander Michael Kopech) and two other minor leaguers to the White Sox for Sale.

Rizzo was left to conduct his regular daily media briefing in the hallway outside his suite at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center, his roster unchanged from 24 hours earlier when he took questions from that exact same location.

Though he didn't reveal any specific names involved in the discussions, the insinuation was pretty clear: Rizzo wasn't willing to include Trea Turner in a deal for Sale, and that's what the White Sox would have required to say yes.

That the Nationals refused to give up Turner should come as no surprise. His performance in only three months of regular playing time this season was so impressive it solidified his stature as one of the club's most important pieces toward winning both in the short and long term.

"He's a great talent, and a guy who is controllable and really performs well," Rizzo said. "It's a small sample, but he's shown that last year he energized us. He's got a great skill set. He's a good ballplayer, and he impacts a roster."

Rizzo may not have been willing to include Turner in the proposed deal for Sale, but he appears to have been willing to include other elite prospects whose names would have been complete non-starters in the past. The precise package of players the Nationals offered Chicago in the final exchange between the two sides Tuesday morning isn't known, but it is believed to have included right-hander Lucas Giolito and outfielder Victor Robles, two of the organization's most prized possessions.

That would have been an exceptionally steep price from the Nationals' perspective, and more than one club official was hopeful late Monday night that would get the job done. The White Sox, though, were engaged with the Red Sox all along, and on Tuesday morning decided the offer of Moncada and Kopech was better.

"There was extensive debate," Chicago GM Rick Hahn said. "Obviously, we took this decision quite seriously. There were a number of talented players involved, not just in the Red Sox package, but in other packages that we were debating. And those conversations went right up until late this morning, before we ultimately decided that the Red Sox deal was the one that made the most sense for us."

Rizzo said the Nationals were aware other teams were in the mix, and so when official word came down Tuesday morning, there was little time spent sulking over a trade that wasn't to be.

"You move on to the next," Rizzo said. "You pivot, and we start working on the next deal. We've got Plans A, B and C in place, and when that door shuts, another door opens."

The Nationals may have a variety of backup plans, but they are not expected to involve starting pitchers. Rizzo said they viewed Sale as a unique case, and that they're not otherwise looking to improve their rotation.

The Nats will be content to head to spring training with an already fearsome quintet of Max Scherzer, Stephen Strasburg, Tanner Roark, Joe Ross and Gio Gonzalez - not to mention Giolito and Reynaldo Lopez waiting in the wings - under contract. They'll now focus on acquisitions of a closer, a center fielder that would allow Turner to move to shortstop and bench depth.

But make no mistake, they were hoping to emerge from these meetings with yet another ace for their rotation, and there is some disappointment they weren't able to pull it off.

"It's quite a process," Rizzo said. "It's a lot of work goes into all these trade talks. We put a lot of conversation and effort into it. We thought we made a good, valiant effort at acquiring a really good pitcher, and we fell short. We feel good about the players we kept in not doing a Sale deal. But obviously a great pitcher went over to the Red Sox."