FWIW, the Sox have used good players under long term contracts as a sweetener when it comes to trades, and not as a reason to not trade a player. At this stage the contracts of players like Quintana and Sale were assets and the Sox put them to work to acquire more players. If it gets to stage where there are players pushing established players with contracts, it could set up a scenario for the player in front to be dealt for assets, or the players behind to be dealt for filling any holes they might have at that time.