It's always the big trades that get broken by a team account explaining the roster machinations that necessitated the move.
The Phillies were doing what contending teams do right before Christmas, trading for Jesús Luzardo to round out what has a chance to be one of the best rotations in the National League. Dave Dombrowski's style of ambitious roster-building always discourages focusing too much on the minor league cost, so all are forgiven for overlooking that the Phillies designated Tyler Gilbert for assignment to make room on the 40-man roster, after the 31-year-old lefty spent most of the past season looking like credible bullpen depth.
The bulk of Gilbert's major league experience has been spent floating on the periphery of the Diamondbacks' roster during assistant general manager Josh Barfield's tenure in the desert, with some dalliances in their starting rotation mixed in. But the bulk of his 2024 was spent at the Phillies' Triple-A Lehigh Valley affiliate after coming over from the Reds for cash considerations in May, and Gilbert looked a little too good for the International League, posting a 2.25 ERA over 40 innings with 52 strikeouts and just eight walks. He wasn't nearly as dominant while recording a 3.24 ERA in 8⅓ major league innings (just four strikeouts, with an elevated hard-hit rate), but he threw strikes consistently with a less cutter-dominant mix than his previous big league work.
The White Sox are expecting to use Gilbert out of the bullpen, and since platoon-neutral changeup artist Jared Shuster and still-rookie-eligible Fraser Ellard were the only lefty relievers on hand before pulling off swaps for Gilbert and Cam Booser, it was a small area of need that's now been addressed with a noticeable but appropriate level of effort.
It's New Year's Day. Despite striking out almost 40 percent of the 33 hitters he faced at Low-A Kannapolis at the end of the summer, last July's eighth-round pick Aaron Combs has yet to attain a prospect reputation even as high as that of Yhoiker Fajardo. The temptation to leave this deal unwritten upon, solely to be debated in the comment section was not insignificant, as Gilbert needs to perform better with the Sox than he has at any previous major league stop to make an impact. However, the first time a team in the middle of a deep rebuild swaps a fringe prospect for 30-something reliever who could make the Opening Day roster is a blip. The second time, it's cause to take note.
Combined with the waiver claims of Ron Marinaccio and Penn Murfee, that makes it four relievers with a small measure of MLB experience/success who were pushed off the fringes of contending team's 40-man rosters by injury/circumstance, only to be gobbled up by a White Sox organization that has room and opportunity to spare. Since it's already stretching the timeline rules to include Marinaccio in this effort, the initially successful waiver claim of verified real person Gus Varland has a similar feel.
The White Sox bullpen blew 37 saves last year and traded away anyone who was even partially shielded from the carnage, so anyone with a passable major league resume is more than welcome. But since nothing the White Sox are currently doing can be justified by present utility alone, there's a larger purpose in using the major league roster to create value by accumulating relievers who could perform well enough to be flipped at the deadline. Combs and Fajardo were not at the level yet to be billed at part of the White Sox future, but reliever development is fickle enough that it's theoretically possible for either prospect to outproduce Booser and Gilbert down the road. Even if the most likely impact of this White Sox-Phillies trade is closer to "McKinley Moore for Adam Haseley 2: Lehigh Valley Boogaloo," the fact that the White Sox have dealt for two such relievers this winter smacks of intent.
Given how much time Brian Bannister has spent talking about trying to make a White Sox a home for launching successful runs for overlooked pitchers, this concerted effort necessitates me to update a personal list.
Most interesting things the White Sox are doing this offseason
- Trading or trying to trade their best players
- Hiring well-reviewed coaches and baseball operations staffers from other orgs who say they 'believe in Chris Getz's vision' or something similar
- Vigorously mining the market of free agents interested in signing one-year deals for less than $2 million
- Adding veteran relievers at low cost to be potential trade deadline assets
- Making Will Venable go to my favorite coffeeshop near the ballpark
I didn't want to drop The Stockyard down to fifth, but the White Sox simply forced my hand, which is a credit to them.
