The returns from the Garrett Crochet trade -- Kyle Teel, Braden Montgomery, Chase Meidroth, Wikelman González -- are all tracking decently well. Additionally, they represent the White Sox securing an infusion of offense into their system that was difficult to pry away in the Dylan Cease and Erick Fedde trade talks, at least until Miguel Vargas made a host of adjustments.
Because prospect hitters with true everyday potential are rare, the Sox farm system is still light on them. Sine the major league roster -- all apologies to Adrian Houser and eight of the best starts of his life -- doesn't have a Crochet-level trade chip, Getz is banking on getting bats in this year's draft.
"When you find a guy you feel like can be an everyday player at the major league level, teams really value that, and it can be difficult to pry," Getz said, before seemingly trying to prod his GM colleagues. "But then you find some organizations that are highly motivated to go for it and try to win a World Series and you might be able to net something. Primarily we're focused on bats in the draft. When it comes to trades, we'll try to pry the best talent that we [can]. It could be pitching, it could be position players, but going into it we're looking to improve our offense long-term."
Scouting director Mike Shirley, who will address media later this week, has often remarked upon investing in prep talent as a means of securing high-ceiling athletes who only grow more difficult to acquire with time. So it's no coincidence that a Sox team that still needs to build their future offensive core has been repeatedly linked to high school shortstops, and Getz is emphasizing a focus on up-the-middle players.
He did qualify that most teams want up-the-middle players for the same defense and athleticism reasons he is emphasizing, but perhaps it's still novel for the White Sox GM to reiterate something like this.
"We're targeting premium positions, and not only shortstop but center field, knowing that a shortstop likely can play second or third, or perhaps are athletic enough to go to the outfield, and the center fielders can go to the wings," Getz said. "That is fundamentally the approach of most clubs. But we're certainly prioritizing that. Shortstops are very difficult to find. Going back to the trade deadline, it's not easy to pry an everyday shortstop. The best way to get that talent into your system is likely drafting them or signing them in the international side. I love shortstops. I really do. It's obviously a highly skilled position and it's a very demanding position as well. If they're able to handle the responsibilities of shortstop, they're likely to be able to handle the responsibilities of other positions around the field."
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Shane Smith has made past reference to being unsure of how to best make use of the extra days of rest the White Sox have afforded him. It's extra rest for a pitcher who has never cleared 100 innings in a season before, but also a curveball for a rookie still figuring out his routine between starts.
In diagnosing Smith's struggles over his last four starts, Getz sounded a little torn between a measure they think will help keep Smith healthy, and also might have thrown him off.
"When you're pitching once a week or you get multiple extra days rest, how much does that affect the sharpness and the productivity?" Getz opined. "Most important is his long-term health and we don't want to run him into the ground. I think a lot of it can be attributed to just the amount of rest between outings. Yesterday's start was a normal day's rest and it was a little bit sharper than some of the outings prior. Tough to really personally pinpoint it."
Smith, once more insisting that he feels strong and with the velocity to match, unsurprising talks like someone who would readily accept less workload monitoring than he's currently receiving -- although it's worth noting that it's tinged with the gratitude of someone who feels like the White Sox have supercharged his career.
"The last couple of outings, the ball's been taken out of my hand early, and rightfully so, so hopefully that gives me a little more wiggle room in the back half," Smith said.
"The stuff is still there, so it's just a matter of getting him back to being sharp," Getz said.
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While Getz spoke positively of the Kyle Teel and Edgar Quero catching pairing, Monday marked the 12th straight game where it was either one or the other in the starting lineup, but not both. The Sox tend to willingly use whoever doesn't start as a pinch hitter or a late-game sub, but have clearly soured on starting them simultaneously at catcher and designated hitter.
"We've tried to using the DH and sometimes that can hamstring you a little bit with what you can do with the bench that night, or if someone goes down," Getz said. "It gets a little higher risk and you start looking at who's going to be the catcher. It's like pulling the goalie out of the stands in hockey, but to my knowledge, they don't have that rule here. I think we're going to look up and they're going to have a pretty solid body of work at the major league level for the first time in their careers. I view it as a benefit to have two quality catchers like we do."
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Asked a question about weighing the merits of retaining veteran starters Houser and Aaron Civale to provide bulk innings versus trading them, Getz mostly sounded like he's ready to make some deals.
"When it comes to upcoming deadline, first and foremost it's my job to continue to build this organization, and have this, I would say, long-term view," Getz said. "But you're weighing the protection of these young arms and perhaps acquiring some future assets that they can help you win some games in the future. It's not a straightforward answer. It isn't."
Getz also pointed out that the Sox might easily wind up acquiring some major league-ready starting prospects at the deadline to take on the innings they trade away, and mentioned that Davis Martin should be back after the All-Star break. And then he brought a name that probably wasn't at top of mind for a possible late-season rotation addition.
"You look at Tanner McDougal, a kid who's really taken some strides."
With apologies to -- man, doing a lot of apologizing today -- Tyler Alexander, Jared Shuster, Bryse Wilson or other bulk inning options the White Sox could conjure to fill innings after the deadline, an aggressive promotion of McDougal (21.1 IP, 29 K, 6 BB, 1.27 ERA in four starts at Double-A, might draw more eyeballs to SoxMachine.com.
