The trade deadline’s the headline for this White Sox team
Which just happens to have the headliners this time around
It seems like trade deadline talk has been going on since about February, which makes sense when you have a team that did a lot of acquiring players with the obvious goal of hoping they do well enough to be flippable come late July. Chances are most of the big trades will wait ’til the midnight hour, even though that may not be the best idea for either side.
(Last year there was one, and only one, notable swap in June, with Aroldis Chapman going from Kansas City to Texas for Cole Ragans and a teenager. The move paid off well for both sides, as Chapman was solid for the Rangers in the playoffs and Ragans has been excellent since the trade, with 2.7 bWAR already this season.)
Of course, it’s usually the seller who procrastinates, hoping more contending teams get smitten with injuries and enter the dealmaking. But is that always wise, what with the possibility the tradee gets hurt or goes 2-for-58 in July?
And given the tightness of the wild cards, especially in the NL, there will never be more suitors than there are now.
CASE IN POINT: GARRETT CROCHET
Crochet is everybody’s No. 1 trade candidate on the pitcher side, and rightfully so. Still, given he’s already way past the most innings he’s pitched in his whole MLB career, let alone one season, there are good reasons for both the White Sox and some of the top bidders to act sooner rather than later.
The Sox have been duly careful with Crochet’s innings and pitches, but that may not matter, and his value could deteriorate in the next month. Plus, the top teams, who already know they’re buyers, should want to maximize their control over his workload so he’ll most likely be in good shape come playoff time.
Let us consider a Shark Tank scenario: Every so often one of the sharks will make an offer and when the participant asks if it’s OK to check with the rest of the panel, he or she will say, “No. Take it or leave it. If you move on, this offer’s off the table.”
That attitude would make a lot of sense for, say, the Dodgers or Yankees or another team that’s very sure of making the playoffs but wants to maximize its situation come October. Get control of Crochet now and you get some extra in-season benefit — but more importantly, you control how much he pitches through September. You can create a six-man rotation, or have him start only on Tuesdays, or skip every third time his turn comes up. But first you have to tell the White Sox: “Take it or leave it.”
From the Sox point of view, they may well be able to get multiple early players, and do a quick and lucrative deal, eliminating injury risk or Garrett looking worn out in a month. Don’t bet on anything fast, though — greed is most likely to overcome sense.
DIFFERENT CASE — LUIS ROBERT JR.
Thursday’s homer off of Chris Sale notwithstanding, the White Sox are probably better off putting off dealing the top-rated position player available until at least the deadline, if not the winter. That dinger was Robert’s first RBI in a week and his .204 average isn’t exactly inspiring, so given his history he’s likely to be an even more valuable trade chip in a month than he is now, and given Chris Getz’s apparent desire for the moon and multiple asteroids in exchange, maximizing value will be critical.
Still ...
AS FOR THE REST
All sorts of White Sox are expected to be doing a little locker cleanout in the next month, including Erick Fedde (who should reap a pretty good return), Michael Kopech (fair), John Brebbia (stock going up a bit?), Tommy Pham (whatever parking lot attendant you can get, as his OPS has dropped 153 points since May 25), Eloy Jiménez (good assistant groundskeeper if some team wants to spend big bucks on a gamble) and Paul DeJong (decent return if teams only want his bat, hot dog vendor if they check out his precipitous fielding decline to -0.4 dWAR).
Keep those another month, and you take your chances on a big value decline.
ONE TO REALLY MOVE AS SOON AS YOU CAN
The latest Sox player to start getting trade rumors is Andrew Vaughn, despite team control through 2026. Vaughn started miserably, of course, but has had his usual hot June (well, even hotter than usual), with a .315/.330/.947 slash for the month.
Raise your hand if you want to sell Vaughn very, very quickly, while teams see someone who’s hitting well (author meekly raises hand). It would pay off — he’s historically a terrible second half player and especially bad in September, so the return will only diminish.
SPEAKING OF RETURNS
One must hope Getz doesn’t follow Rick Hahn’s pattern of grabbing players regardless of what they play. Seasons of the most expensive, and most mediocre, bullpen ever, or collections of six or eight DH-only types who should never be allowed to play in the field need to become laughable history. There are a lot of potential starting pitchers making their way between Birmingham and Chicago, the Sox look in good shape on the catcher front with Korey Lee and Edger Quero, but somebody has to play the rest of the positions, and in Triple-A only Colson Montgomery and Bryan Ramos look like they can.
Many of the trade proposals bandied about talk about getting a team’s No. 4 or 6 and 7 and 9 prospects or some such back, without noticing what position whose prospects play. Might be good to take a look at that factor for a change.
OF COURSE, NOTHING ELSE MATTERS WITHOUT THE BIGGEST TRADE OF ALL
Jerry Reinsdorf to whoever will have him. And we’ll even toss in all the above-named players and a whole season’s supply of Campfire Milkshakes.