Melky Cabrera on rebuilding White Sox: 'I would like to stay here'

Melky Cabrera says he wants to remain with the Chicago White Sox despite the rebuilding club's latest flurry of trades.

Cabrera told the Chicago Tribune on Sunday that he "would like to finish the season" with the last-place White Sox.

"I like Chicago," he told the Tribune through an interpreter. "I like this team and I would like to stay here for a long time, not just until the end of the season. But I don't have control of those decisions. They know what they have to do, but if you ask me, I would say I would like to stay here."

Cabrera's comments came one day after White Sox manager Rick Renteria acknowledged he was "kind of surprised" that the organization had not traded the veteran outfielder, who is batting .295 with 13 home runs and 56 RBIs this season.

The White Sox already have made a pair of blockbuster trades this month, sending Jose Quintana to the Cubs on July 13 and packaging Todd Frazier, David Robertson and Tommy Kahnle to the Yankees last Wednesday.

Cabrera was pulled from Sunday's loss to the Royals in the fifth inning, leading to speculation that the White Sox were potentially including him in another trade. But Cabrera and Renteria both cited a bruised toe, suffered when he fouled a ball off his foot, for the early exit.

Since the start of December, the White Sox have built one of baseball's best farm systems by trading away veterans Chris Sale, Quintana, Frazier, Adam Eaton, Robertson and Kahnle for a bevy of highly regarded prospects. But Cabrera told the Tribune that the players are "not thinking of trades or what can happen next."