The fact that Moncada
The sweetener may have been that the Red Sox are paying all of the remaining 31M on Moncada's deal. That's a lot of money for the White Sox. Moncada is the closest thing to a ML ready player in either offer (last September notwithstanding), and getting a highly touted four tool player for free is not to be sniffed at.I'd be really curious to see what the Nationals had on the table beyond Giolito and Robles. Rumor is they also had Reynaldo Lopez in their best offer. The more I think about it, the more I'm convinced that Rick Hahn was just enamored with Moncada and once he was on the table, the Nationals were basically just there to leverage the Red Sox. I can't get my head around the idea that Moncada, Kopech, Basabe and Diaz is a better package, in a vacuum, than Giolito, Robles and Lopez.That's three top 40 prospects versus a top 5 (at worst) in Moncada, a top 50 in Kopech and two guys who probably aren't top 100 guys.
At mid-season Moncada was number 1. He may have slipped a few spots by the end of the year, but it wouldn't have been by much. Giolito was number 4 on that list and will probably clock in around the same spot this spring. Robles was 13 on that list and Lopez was 48. Kopech was ranked number 93, but obviously finished strong and had helium.
Of course, this is probably just the prime example of how teams don't really do top 10 or top 100 rankings in the way we like to think about prospects. Even still, I think the Nats turned down the better overall offer in order to secure the individual player they most coveted. That's obviously a defendable decision, but I'm not sure if I'd have made the same one if I was in Hahn's shoes.