The White Sox are trading after midnight. Swapping after dawn. Dealing 'til the morning, and with today being an off day and the trade deadline at 5 p.m. CT, it might carry back into the evening before they finally can sleep.
In a trade reported by Ken Rosenthal at 12:23 a.m. CT, the White Sox are acquiring right-handed reliever Huascar Brazobán from the Mets for Gabe Davis and Zach Franklin.
The White Sox had opened a spot in their bullpen for a veteran righty by trading Seranthony Domínguez to Seattle for Luis Castillo, and while they theoretically filled that hole when Erick Fedde was displaced to the bullpen to accommodate Castillo in the rotation, he's not somebody who necessarily should be pitching in leverage.
Enter Brazobán, a righty who's in the middle of a career year at the age of 36 with the Mets. He's posted a 2.56 ERA over 46 games and 52⅔ innings. The strikeout (49) and walk (23) totals don't jump out, but he's allowed just 30 hits and a .166 average against on the strength of a 97-mph sinker he throws nearly half the time, and a changeup that nearly accounts for the remainder of his pitches. The combination has kept the ball on the ground more than half the time.
While Brazobán will take the mantle from Randal Grichuk as the roster's oldest player with nearly two full years to spare, he's not a rental. In fact, he has three years of arbitration remaining. You might not hear of a later bloomer, which is reflected not just by the fact that he made his MLB debut at 32 with the Marlins, but that he didn't make his Dominican Summer League debut until he was 22. His first attempt at matriculating up the ladder with the Rockies stalled out in 2017, and he spent the next couple seasons playing indy and winter ball in multiple countries.
He returned stateside with High Point of the Atlantic League for 2021, after which he re-entered affiliated ball by signing with the Marlins for the 2022 season. After overpowering Triple-A hitters with Jacksonville, he made his MLB debut that July, and did not return to the minors that season.
He's made plenty of trips back and forth since. This is the first season that he hasn't spent a day in Triple-A, and because some of those previous trips were short enough, he still has an option remaining. If the White Sox are humane, they won't even think about using it, because at this rate, Brazobán will qualify for his pension before he reaches free agency.
In return, the White Sox sent a pair of right-handed prospect pitchers to New York. Franklin is closer to the majors, having spent all of this season and a lot of 2025 with Charlotte. He's racked up impressive strikeout totals with riding fastballs despite ordinary reliever build (6'1") and velocity (94 mph), although it results in an extreme fly ball rate that has tempered his effectiveness at Triple-A, as he's yielded 11 homers over 45⅓ innings with Charlotte this season. He's a spring chicken by Brazobán's standards, but as a 10th-round super senior signing back in 2024, he'll finally reach Rule 5 eligibility this winter, shortly after he turns 28.
Davis is the bigger prospect, both in terms of ceiling, and his head's propensity to bump into one. The 6-foot-9-inch righty was an early developmental success story this season, as he'd taken well to professional baseball after a frustrating collegiate career at Oklahoma State. He'd earned a quick promotion to Birmingham after an impressive eight-start stretch to open the season in Winston-Salem.
It's been hairier at Double-A, as he's given up 37 runs over 34 ⅔ innings with the Barons. A lot of the damage occurred over a particularly brutal three-start stretch in June -- a total line of 8.1 IP, 22 H, 20 R, 19 ER, 8 HR, 6 BB, 8 K does all the talking -- and since he's been limited to four innings per start this season since he's well past his highest-ever collegiate workload, it makes it impossible to accrue enough clean innings to put a dent in his 8.31 ERA. Selected in the fifth round of the 2025 draft, Davis is a 22-year-old who still has two full seasons in front of him before Rule 5 protection must be considered, so he remains a worthwhile project. He'll just be one who is now under the purview of the Mets.
The White Sox had an open spot on the 40-man roster to accommodate Brazobán, but they will need to clear an extra spot on the 26-man. Duncan Davitt had already been optioned, presumably to accommodate Castillo, and with Fedde now occupying a multi-inning role, that makes Tyler Schweitzer the next place to look, even if he's running a very useful seven-inning scoreless streak at the moment.
