It took Chris Getz a few tries, but he finally pulled off a critical trade that didn't leave me wondering, "Wait, is that it?"
Sending Dylan Cease to San Diego for Drew Thorpe, Jairo Iriarte and Samuel Zavala wasn't terrible in terms of raw value, but between Thorpe being a changeup-first starter, Iriarte already being on a 40-man roster and Zavala wrestling with critical flaws in A-ball, there was a heightened chance that the Sox ended up swapping out a very good starter for a decent starter, just one that's on a friendlier timeline.
Packaging Erick Fedde, Michael Kopech and Tommy Pham in the same three-way trade with the Cardinals and Dodgers was simply confounding. It was bad enough that Miguel Vargas hadn't come close to hitting MLB pitching well enough to overcome his lack of a defined position, but his lack of options going forward means that all the trial and error will have to take place at the major league level. Jeral Perez and Alexander Albertus can't be written off yet, but they weren't enough to drive a deal by themselves.
The Aaron Bummer trade was also unnecessarily limiting, even after adjusting for the lower stakes. I didn't believe that Bummer had exceptional value because his game possesses some self-defeating traits independent of his defense, but the Braves were happy to take him for five players they didn't have use for, two of whom they planned on non-tendering. Barring Jared Shuster transcending the long-relief profile that looks like his most viable path, Riley Gowens is the last hope for any real impact after just one year.
With Wednesday's trade sending Garrett Crochet to Boston for Kyle Teel, Braden Montgomery, Chase Meidroth and Wikelman Gonzalez, it feels like Getz finally turned a valuable player into a return that actually captures the imagination.
PERTINENT: White Sox made the sort of Garrett Crochet trade they felt they had to make
If it sounds like faint praise, it is. It should be. The White Sox need to show some knack for evaluation and development before they receive any benefit of the doubt for trading enjoyable, capable knowns for unknowns. After the losingest season in modern MLB history, the volume should be capped at "3."
But capturing the imagination was effectively the requirement for clearing the pass/fail bar. It wasn't that Getz had to acquire two top-100 prospects, but he needed to acquire players with options, literal and figurative. Gonzalez is the only player who requires a 40-man roster spot, but he was just protected from the Rule 5 draft last month, so he has all three options remaining. Nobody needs to help right away to keep the vision from crashing.
Also, each player has multiple paths to contributing. Maybe Teel can play some outfield, or maybe he opens the possibility of trading Edgar Quero for a different position of need. Montgomery plays the preferred outfield corner at the very least, and were it not for the ghastly ankle injury suffered in the College World Series, his ability to cover center field while hitting 20-30 homers might've had him off the board before the White Sox selected Hagen Smith at No. 5 this past summer. Gonzalez is likely a reliever, but since he threw 111⅓ innings last year, starting isn't yet closed off to him. Meidroth's position looks the most certain, but even if he is stretched too far on the left side of the infield, his on-base history is preposterous enough to make an audition at second base compelling.
Basically, the White Sox needed to trade Crochet for players to make their projected 2028 lineup less of a wasteland, and this trade accomplishes that.
Could they have done more? Maybe. Perhaps you might've preferred Philadelphia's reported offer of a package led by Aidan Miller and Justin Crawford, and provided the undercard prospects were of equal promise to those Boston sent, that would've been fine, too. As it stands, we're left with one of the less distressing alternate universes to track.
But whether they acquired Montgomery coming off wrecking his ankle or prospects who aren't yet able to legally purchase alcohol, the White Sox probably had to accept some level of uncertainty, because they're sending some uncertainty Boston's way.
In Crochet, the Red Sox get a pitcher who didn't throw more than four innings and averaged only 56 pitches per start in the second half. Can he withstand a full six-month grind in the rotation? Will he look decidedly less special when he faces a batting order three times on a regular basis? I'd like to think the answers are "yes" and "no," but Crochet has more to prove than the usual All-Star pitcher.
That said, Cease had less to prove when the White Sox traded him, and yet the White Sox received a less scintillating package for him. It's not the perfect comparison. In terms of performance, Cease was coming off a down-by-his-standards season. Financially, his arbitration trajectory was far steeper, enough that the Padres are weighing trading him this winter, and Crochet seems more open to signing an extension Cease wouldn't. Throw in the prolonged unemployment periods for top free agent starters Blake Snell and Jordan Montgomery, and teams just didn't seem willing to pay the usual cost for top-flight pitchers.
With the free-agent arms all smashing their crowdsourced estimates this winter, the environment definitely tilted in the White Sox's favor for dealing Crochet, and Getz seized the day. It's just one day, the standard caveats about prospects apply, and the reasons for disenchantment far outnumber the sources of enthusiasm, but the return looks satisfactory with a possibility of sensational.
If the White Sox need this return to overachieve, it's only because so much before it underwhelmed, and undermined.
