CHICAGO -- Mark Buehrle didn't re-sign with the Chicago White Sox after the 2011 season, ending the veteran pitcher's 12-year run in the Windy City. It marked one of the first times Chris Sale remembers being confronted by the business side of baseball.
"I know Coop [White Sox pitching coach Don Cooper] said it, but if Buehrle can leave, anybody can leave -- anywhere," Sale recalled Monday. "It's hard to stay in one place for your whole career. Just part of it, I guess."
It's true. For every Derek Jeter, whose Yankees pinstripes might as well have been branded to his body during a 20-year career spent entirely in New York, there are dozens of All-Star-level players who change uniforms multiple times, either through trades or free agency.