Before and after Manny Machado joined Fernando Tatis Jr. in San Diego to form the most hard-to-watch left side of the infield ever for White Sox fans, general manager Rick Hahn assured that the Sox front office is “going to be right back at it again the next time this opportunity arises,” in regards to pursuing top-end free agent talent.



The comforting effect of that declaration has been muted by a wave of contract extensions that have taken much of the coveted premier talent off the board for the next free agency class. Thanks to a slate of deals signed in the last two months, neither Nolan Arenado, Xander Bogaerts, Paul Goldschmidt, Chris Sale nor even Miles Mikolas will be coming to the White Sox as “finishing pieces” to the rebuild next winter, at least not without the Sox surrendering a massive prospect haul in a trade.



Those are just some of the players who were on track to hit the open market next offseason, and a small drop in the...