The White Sox entered the trade deadline hunting for a controllable starting pitcher to fortify a rotation that's thrown the fewest innings in Major League Baseball, an addition to their bullpen's high-leverage mix, and a catcher to hold them over until Kyle Teel returns next month from a high ankle sprain.
In acquiring Luis Castillo, Huascar Brazobán and Joey Bart over the final days before the trade deadline, Chris Getz and the Sox inarguably addressed those needs, and in adding Brenton Doyle, sought to alter their right-handed outfield mix in a way that Everson Pereira's four RBI game on Sunday did not quite portend. Derek Hill also hit a go-ahead grand slam for the Phillies on Monday night, but the Sox right-handed outfield mix has enough roads not taken as is.
"We feel really good with what we were able to accomplish," Getz said in his trade deadline postmortem Zoom session. "We felt like we were able to accomplish adding wins to our major league club but also maintaining prospect depth."
For a GM who two months ago acknowledged his team's play had forced him out of a more beyond 2026 view, Getz both addressed his roster's most immediate needs, but also all four players he added have additional years of control beyond this season, in keeping with how often he referenced each deadline move's impact on the team's internal projections for 2027.
It's just that for fans who just watched this young Sox roster outscore the club with the best record in the American League by a margin of 15-3 in their own building this weekend, the idea of pushing some chips in to boost this 59-52 team probably doesn't feel as bold in and of itself as it used to. With even the third-place Twins adding AJ Minter, Jeff Hoffman and Dean Kremer to their beleaguered pitching staff, and the second-place Guardians addressing their most acute offensive weak points with outfielder Jo Adell and first baseman Nathaniel Lowe before a last-second deal for All-Star starting pitcher Foster Griffin, the focus can easily shift to whether the White Sox did enough to hold off the competition.
That's actually supposed to be part of the thrill of being in this position.
"Naturally, you're paying attention, I'm paying attention," Getz said of the activity of his division rivals. "We still feel really good about where we're at and what we were able to accomplish here at the trade deadline. We've got depth in a lot of different areas, but we've got a lot of work to do in front of us. It starts tomorrow."
Castillo is not in the middle of one of his three career All-Star campaigns, but hoping a new organization -- and a rescue from the Mariners' piggybacking efforts -- can reverse a career-worst season. Brazobán is having a breakout at age 36, but is also effectively replacing the departed Seranthony Domínguez. Doyle, 28, has two-time Gold Glove history in center, offers a platoon partner to a scuffling Tristan Peters, and there are Ryan Fuller-led plans for bat path adjustments already being formed, but he's also hit .229/.277/.359 since the start of last season. Bart is an upgrade for a catcher spot that was giving the Sox the worst offensive production in the league, but ultimately is a stopgap who will pair with Drew Romo after Edgar Quero was optioned.
"I would say when Kyle Teel comes back, obviously that will be the biggest boost," Getz said of the catching mix. "Sept. 1 is kind of a rough timeline. As we move along, further along from when the injury happened, we'll get a better idea. He will be back this season."
These are the sort of qualifiers a team has to accept to address a host of needs, while not purging the top of their farm system in an intense seller's market. The Sox limited the prospect cost by getting a proven starter whose contract currently looks under water, a leverage reliever whose plentiful years of control will also take him into his late-30s, and a catcher and outfielder who have been slowed by injury for much of the year.
And ultimately, no one else met the price for to pry multiple years of Reid Detmers away from the Angels either, and while the Sox saw rental starter Clay Holmes go to the North Side after dutifully scouting his rehab process, the return price the Cubs paid of a top-100 caliber shortstop in Jefferson Rojas is exactly the sort of move Getz didn't think was appropriate for his club.
"It just didn’t make sense with some of the asks; yeah, it’s very clear that a Caleb Bonemer, a Billy Carlson are very attractive pieces," Getz said. "Open-minded on rentals. There were plenty of names out there that we felt like could really help us. The asking prices and looking at what some of those returns were like, we just couldn’t match up. And some of that was our unwillingness to part with the top of our system.
And it's also just how our system is set up right now. We’ve got some guys that are very obvious candidates like at the top, top-100 guys. There is a little bit of gap to the next group. And so, you look at some of those returns, I think that there were some players that were in-between that existed in other organizations, that we weren't able to provide."
In assessing what they could fetch with the Gabe Davis, Mason Adams and Boston Smith tier of prospects, the White Sox felt there was better value in sticking with Noah Schultz in the fifth starter slot, even as he approaches a professional career-high in innings. With Getz rattling off Triple-A depth options, including last year's All-Star Shane Smith, that could provide alternatives to Schultz down the stretch if needed, maybe José Urquidy was a bigger part of the Sox' deadline additions than initially realized.
"We're mindful of that [Schultz's innings] and I think he's obviously a guy that can get really good lineups out," said Getz, making a case that's aided by Schultz throwing five innings of one-run ball against the Rays in his last time out. "We want to protect Noah Schultz just because of what we know he brings to this organization. More than anything when you're bringing a Castillo, it gives us a little more breathing room and ability to be creative with the group that we have."
As he was out of options, Pereira was designated for assignment to make room for Doyle on the active roster, and Getz didn't sketch a future role on the roster for the rehabbing Austin Hays beyond "we do have decisions in front of us," so even the seemingly optional upgrade of the deadline will have internal alternatives it will be immediately compared against. All of them are bounce-back projects in the heat of the division race, and there's a case to be made that Doyle's glove offers the highest floor.
If it all -- or even mostly -- works out, the Sox will have impressively threaded the needle; upgrading a 'year early' young contender without requiring nearly the prospect cost that the established heavy hitters of the league shelled out. Not only was White Sox leadership not supposed to be weighing these sorts of midseason decisions yet, until their revamped international operation has more runaway, they weren't supposed to even have the renewable streams of talent to swing these trades at full capacity yet. Two years ago, no one expected to be hanging playoff bunting all over Rate Field before the new academy in the Dominican Republic opened, but here we are.
But while we might be inclined -- when the emotion of the season subsides, maybe -- to grade this group on a curve, the actual roster is not. For whatever sense there is that Getz didn't push the gas pedal to the floor to shop at the top of the trade market, he feels like his team is going to continue to transcend.
"They compete against anyone," Getz said. "Objectively, when you line up with some of these clubs and you look at the names on the other club versus our club, I'm sure there are people who might choose the other club versus us. But we go out there and we're not scared of anyone, we aren't. We are not. We've accomplished a lot so far. I think we can do even more."
