Chicago Cubs

From Eloy Jiménez to Sammy Sosa, A History of Trades Between the Cubs and White Sox

Thursday's Ryan Tepera deal was just the 27th between the two teams in history

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The Chicago Cubs and White Sox have shared the city for 120 years now, but while the two teams meet often on the field since the advent of interleague play, they don’t meet too often on the trade market.

Thursday marked one of those rare exceptions, as the Cubs dealt relief pitcher Ryan Tepera to the White Sox in change for minor league pitcher Bailey Horn.

According to Baseball Reference, the trade is just the 27th that the two teams have made in their collective history, and is just the third that the two teams have made in the last two decades.

Since it’s a hazy summer day, let’s take a look back at some of the biggest trades in history between the crosstown rivals.

July 13, 2017: Cubs send Eloy Jiménez, Dylan Cease to White Sox for José Quintana

In one of the most lopsided trades in the history of the rivalry between the two teams, the Cubs sent their top hitting prospect and their top pitching prospect to the White Sox in exchange for Quintana, who put together several strong years for the White Sox to kick off his career.

While Quintana had a decent run with the Cubs, with a 33-23 record and a 4.24 ERA in 82 total appearances, giving up Jimenez had a big impact on the Cubs’ lineup, and giving up Cease had a big impact on their future rotation.

Jimenez inked a six-year deal with two club options before he took his first big-league at-bat, and has 46 home runs and 123 RBI’s in 741 total plate appearances. Cease also came up for the 2019 season, and has a 16-17 record with a 4.61 ERA in 47 total starts for the South Siders.

July 29, 1998: White Sox acquire Jon Garland from Cubs for Matt Karchner

The Cubs, who would go on to win the National League Wild Card in 1998, acquired Karchner to help bolster their bullpen, and though he had a 5-2 record in 58 games with the Cubs, he also had a 4.60 ERA and walked 34 batters while striking out 36.

On the flip side, Garland, a first round pick of the Cubs in 1997, went on to have a good career with the White Sox, including a 2005 season where he posted an 18-10 record with a 3.50 ERA and helped the White Sox to their first World Series title in 88 years.

March 30, 1992: Cubs acquire Sammy Sosa from White Sox for George Bell

Bell had finished fourth in MVP voting in 1989 and had been named to two straight All-Star teams when the Cubs traded him to the White Sox before the 1992 season. Bell ended up hitting 38 home runs and driving in 176 RBI’s for the White Sox, but was out of baseball at the conclusion of the following year.

Sammy Sosa, meanwhile, would go on to win an MVP award in 1998, make a total of seven All-Star teams and club 545 home runs in a Cubs uniform, to go along with 1,414 RBI’s and a .284 batting average.  

Jan. 25, 1983: White Sox send Steve Trout, Warren Brusstar to Cubs for Scott Fletcher, 3 others

The largest trade in terms of number of players between the two teams, this one ended up being fairly pedestrian for both sides, with the Cubs getting the slightly better end of the deal thanks to Trout.

He posted a 13-7 record with a 3.41 ERA for the Cubs in the 1984 season, helping the team to its first playoff appearance in 39 years. He had a 43-38 record with a 3.95 ERA in five seasons on the North Side.

Dec. 11, 1973: Cubs trade Ron Santo to White Sox for Steve Stone, three other players

One of the greatest players in Cubs history, Santo played his final career season with the White Sox, hitting five home runs and driving in 41 RBI’s in 117 games for the Sox.

While Steve Stone is best known as a broadcaster, having called both Cubs and White Sox games during his illustrious career, he had a pretty solid run with the Cubs after this trade, with a 23-20 record and a 4.04 ERA, including a 12-8 record in 1975.

He would later find more success with the Baltimore Orioles, posting a 25-7 record and a 3.23 ERA in winning the American League Cy Young Award in 1980.

h/t to Baseball Reference’s franchise trade history page, which you can find here.

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