Espinoza's secondaries are ahead of Kopech's at a younger age and he has better command/control. There is also still a decent chance Kopech ends up as a closer due to some effort in his delivery/secondaries (although his delivery has come a LONG way in terms of getting cleaned up)- that's not to say that's what I think will happen but some evaluators still believe that is a serious possibility
I wouldn't underestimate Kopechs secondaries, though. Plus his 4 seamer's got the chance to be ++.
Not trying to pick on Espinozas after he got traded, he's still a top notch prospect, but he's got question marks too. People just fell in love with the sound delivery and mechanics.
Kopechs control is funky at this point, but that's not all that surprising. He definitely needs to work on this (otherwise he probably won't make it as SP), but he's already shown swing and miss stuff at a crazy rate. Pitchers like that flame out on a regular basis (recent example of that is Webster), but that's why I said upside and low floor. I would actually say that AE got a higher floor than Kopech's, but the upside is on par.
I don't touch JBJ for Quintana straight up
You can make the argument JBJ is worth close to Sale on his own if you believe what we have gotten from him this year is the player he is. He plays a premium position very well, he's got legit pop, he has tons of team control and he's cheap.
I would think about JBJ and a couple of prospects in the Chavis range...wouldn't do much more than that for Sale IMO (but I'm on the record as being terrified of Sales future medicals so that's not unexpected from me)
You can make that argument, yes, but the White Sox likely won't deal Sale for a position player if the value is close. But they could probably get behind JBJ and another WC in Leon. If his 2016 campaign is legit, they got great value and if not, then they have at least a good defensive catcher and a top notch CF.
It's just a question what the White Sox would rather have. If they deal Sale and Quintana, wouldn't they rather have multiple top prospects? If they want young studs nonetheless, they have to make a deal with us. And from reports right around the deadline, JBJ has been indeed involved in trade talks.
By the way, I think you are severely underrating Quintana. I would easily deal JBJ for Quintana. He's been basically putting up low #1 high #2 numbers for the past 3 years on a great contract and with decent mechanics (unlike Sale).
I seriously doubt the WSox would take that deal. That's why I included a valuable commodity like Leon (or maybe Swihart/Vazquez, whoever they prefer).
