While their division rival Twins were stopping just shy of selling the copper wiring out of Target Field, for the second straight summer, Chris Getz led the White Sox through a trade deadline headlined by the big piece that wasn't moved.
And while Garrett Crochet just had to wait a few months before he became the centerpiece of the biggest deal of the winter meetings instead, Luis Robert Jr.'s continued presence in a White Sox uniform is all about the team professing unique belief in his value.
"We just love Luis Robert, we do," said Getz, before being quizzed on his intentions for his center fielder's $20 million team option for 2026. "We anticipate him being here, we do. If we felt otherwise, maybe we go a different course."
Rival teams certainly felt the Sox were on a solitary path with how they viewed Robert, insisting upon an impact return for a player the league viewed as a valuable defender and baserunner who has also hit .219/.288/.368 since the start of the 2024 season.
With the Mets dealing for Cedric Mullins from the Orioles and the Phillies grabbing Harrison Bader from the Twins on Thursday, the primary suitors for Robert could be seen opting for alternative center field upgrades in real time, eschewing paying for the elevated offensive potential the Sox insist is still present. If anything, when the Phillies sent out Mick Abel as the headliner for landing Jhoan Duran on Wednesday, that was already them moving on as they pulled from the prospect tier the Sox were looking to access, in order to land a more proven contributor.
This is the time of year where plenty of other teams are willing to chirp that the Sox were being unreasonable and unrealistic in their view of Robert's value, and the lack of a deal for him is validation. The White Sox's internal stance is they would rather be seen as inflexible than as an easy mark, and watch Robert thrive elsewhere while they try to make the best of a meager return.
At the risk of being prisoners of the moment, that Robert has hit .406/.500/.594 while the Sox have gone 8-4 since the All-Star break is viewed as a testament to his ability to lead a winning club that they risked losing.
"Other teams have identified him as a guy that can help their club and there was an effort to acquire him, but certainly it wasn’t to the level we felt like could have met the mark for us to make a move on from a talent like Luis Robert," Getz said. "We're going to continue to exhaust our efforts in establishing ourselves as a top hitting environment. That's a big part of this offseason and the coming years and we feel like Luis Robert is going to be a part of that and he's really going to benefit with having the resources and the support that's needed."
The belief that the White Sox can become a place where hitters get better is certainly reiterated with former top-100 prospect Curtis Mead being the headliner of the three-player package coming back for Adrian Houser.
It wasn't that long ago that Miguel Vargas had the worst two-month showing imaginable after being acquired last July. Now he's the cited template for acquiring the 24-year-old Mead, who offers plus raw power, solid contact rates and big recent improvements to his chase rate, but is nevertheless a .238/.307/.322 hitter in 111 big league games with an uncertain defensive home on the infield.
"We identified some things in his offensive game that we feel like we can try to tap into to make him a real impactful major league player," Getz said of Mead, who will report to Triple-A Charlotte. "It's about the next two months of work, going into the offseason and seeing where we are at come spring training with Curtis."
The Australian-born Mead has earned a reputation as a tinkerer at the plate. Some iterations of his swing have produced dizzying highs and driven projections that he would mature into an above-average mashe, but after three disparate stints on the Rays roster, it just looks like mechanical inconsistency, and the Sox see having a set plan for Mead as a difference-making route to take. Getz's allusion to the importance of getting him right by next spring is not an idle one, as Mead will be out of options by then.
For a team that's 29 games under .500, the White Sox spoke a lot about not disrupting the good things they have going, and ultimately didn't wind up dealing anything they couldn't spare.
Sure, Houser has been their most effective pitcher, but Aaron Civale remained through the deadline, Shane Smith is set to be activated on Friday, and Martín Pérez's nearing return answers the question of covering White Sox innings in the immediate future. Austin Slater's departure makes the rejuvenated Sox offense less dangerous against left-handers, but they don't view Mike Tauchman and Andrew Benintendi as purely platoon players anyway, and the worst thing that could happen is that Brooks Baldwin actually gets regular run.
"Offensively, it's really come alive, and a lot of that is Luis Robert," said Getz, talking up how excited he is about the current team. "Our bullpen has become much more reliable, and Grant Taylor is a big part of that reason. We've been able to have pitchers settle into more roles that perhaps are more suitable for their skill set. So I think bullpen, starters and our offense are to credit."
If few other Sox trade assets advanced beyond the check-in stage, Getz acknowledge that the pursuits of Tauchman and Taylor would have gotten further were the team more motivated to move either one. Tauchman is 34 and arbitration-eligible next season at a likely reasonable rate, but got a noncommittal statement on his chances of being retained.
"Our options are open with Tauch," Getz said. "He’s got value here and he’s going to have value other places. We didn’t have to make that decision right now. We didn’t. Certainly that was part of the equation, alongside the fact he’s been a really productive player for us."
Whereas with the hauls that Duran, David Bednar and Camilo Doval brought back on Thursday, Getz seemed more interested in the concept of having a top-flight reliever to sell of his own, but less interested in the prospect of placing Taylor into such a limited designation at this early point of his career.
"Just getting his major-league career started, we haven’t closed the door on him being a future starter, we haven’t," Getz said. "You do look around the league and some of the transactions made, it’s entertaining, it is. But when it comes to Grant Taylor, we weren’t going to move Grant Taylor."
Now that the dust from the deadline has settled, it seems like there were quite a few players central to a 40-69 White Sox team that they really were not inclined to sell. As much as rebuilding trades have built up a large portion of their current core, team leadership never felt they had the ammunition to pull in a big haul at this year's deadline. And the past 12 games have built the case against the practice of stripping down everything at 35th & Shields in the name of future value.
Will the next 53 games maintain that same energy?
