The White Sox seem to be enjoying their trade deadline experience as buyers, because just like a trip to Trader Joe's, they're going off the shopping list.
Previously interested in starting pitching, relief pitching and a catcher -- and coming up with Luis Castillo and Huascar Brazobán to address the former needs -- the White Sox have now added an outfielder, picking up two-time Gold Glove-winning center fielder Brenton Doyle from the Colorado Rockies for prospects Mason Adams and Carlos Vielma.
Doyle, a right-handed hitter, rose to prominence for superlative defensive performances in 2023 and 2024, along with a bat that had approached league average in the latter year, hitting .260/.317/.446 with 23 homers and 30 stolen bases. His performance has tailed off in both areas since, as the 28-year-old version of Doyle is hitting .214/.287/.282 over 129 plate appearances this season, with defensive metrics hovering around average. An injury hasn't helped, as he missed two months with a left oblique contusion and groin discomfort, and only recently returned from the injured list. The White Sox have some early ideas for cleaning up Doyle’s bat path and shaving down his loading action to unlock the power he’s shown in the past, but there’s obviously work to be done on that front.
Statcast still shows him with an 88th-percentile sprint speed and 95th-percentile arm, so there's a potential change-of-scenery boost even if he is an Adam Engel of sorts making $3.1 million as a Super Two this season. The White Sox roster could also use a true center fielder to take some stress off Tristan Peters, who is hitting 6-for-56 since his cycle.
But Doyle is also a righty-hitting outfielder joining an outfield that already has Everson Pereira and Randal Grichuk as fourth/fifth outfielders and faces a decision with Austin Hays as he approaches the end of a rehab stint, so this doesn't seem like the last move to be made on this front.
Heading to the Rockies are a pair of prospects at different ends of the affiliate spectrum. Adams, 26, made his eighth and ninth appearances of the season for Charlotte in Nashville this week, piggybacking off José Urquidy as he rounds into form after Tommy John surgery. He's made a smooth-enough recovery, as he hasn't experienced any sort of setback to date, and he's touching 95 mph with his fastball in a way that was difficult for him during his first stint at Triple-A in 2024. His strike-throwing is in decent shape considering the layoff, but his command started wobbling on him in his third inning of work in both of his last two outings.
Vielma, who is 10 years younger, has been a plate discipline prodigy at the onset of his professional career, hitting .337/.508/.474 with 32 walks against 16 strikeouts over his first 34 games in the Dominican Summer League. The measurables on Vielma's raw power are pretty marginal at present, but White Sox signed him out of Venezuela for $400,000 this past January, and he's played mostly third and second base.
Along with Adams and Vielma, the White Sox have traded Gabe Davis, Zach Franklin, Boston Smith and Nolan Jones from their farm system in the three deals over the last three days. Smith or Davis had cases for being the highest-ranked prospects of the bunch, but neither would be considered top-10 material as of yet.
