There has been plenty of noise surrounding what the White Sox are planning on doing at the trade deadline, as there have been a lot of reports that teams are interested in many of the White Sox key players. It is unclear how willing the White Sox are to trade some of their star players that are locked up beyond this year, but with the news today, we have an idea of what teams could potentially get a blockbuster deal done.
According to The Athletic, the White Sox have had some of their best scouts focusing on three team’s farm systems. They are focused on the Seattle Mariners, the Los Angeles Dodgers, and the San Diego Padres.
This is a very interesting combination of teams, as they have all made deals with the White Sox recently. Chris Getz made a big trade with the Padres in the Dylan Cease trade and he also traded relief pitcher Gregory Santos to the Seattle Mariners this past offseason. I’m not sure how involved Getz was in the Lance Lynn and Joe Kelly trade with the Dodgers, but the White Sox made a trade with them less than a year ago.
Perhaps the recent trades have strengthened the relationship with those team’s general managers and Chris Getz, which is why he would potentially be willing to move a big time player, like Luis Robert Jr. or Garrett Crochet to one of their teams.
However, the familiarity due to the recent trades is also why this report is a bit confusing. The White Sox should be very familiar with the Padres System, as most of their prospects should have been on the table in different iterations of a Dylan Cease trade. The same can’t necessarily be said about the Dodgers or the Mariners, as we were never going to get some of their top prospects due to who the White Sox were trading, so the aggressive scouting for them makes a bit more sense.
But, all of these teams have very strong and deep farm systems, so it makes sense that there is a focus. I also hope they are paying a good amount of attention to the Orioles and the Yankees, as they are both going to be buyers at the trade deadline and they could use some of the players on the White Sox.
It has been reported prior that the Dodgers, Padres, and the Mariners were all interested in either Garrett Crochet or Luis Robert Jr., so perhaps there is smoke to those rumors if the scouts are doing extra work on those farm systems.
In terms of a blockbuster trade, the Mariners and the Padres have the most top-100 prospects as they both have four on the MLB Pipeline list. The Dodgers system is weaker than usual, as they only have two on the list.
The Mariners have middle infielder Cole Young(#26), catcher Harry Ford (#27), infielder Colt Emerson(#49), and outfielder Lazaro Montes(#82). This combination of prospects could work very well in a Robert or Crochet trade, as they have some talented prospects at positions of need.
The Padres also have four promising young prospects, catcher Ethan Salas(#5), left handed pitcher Robby Snelling(#25), right handed pitcher Dylan Lesko(#69), and shortstop Leodalis De Vries(#79). Like the Mariners, the Padres could also make a strong offer for either Robert or Crochet.
The Dodgers are a different story. They only have catcher/first basemen Dalton Rushing(#50) and outfielder Josue De Paula(#80) on the list. While both may be talented, I’m not sure that either as a headliner could get the job done for the White Sox. They do have a few players within their top-10 that have fallen of the top-100 list recently, so there is still talent throughout the system, but I’m not sure if they can make a huge splash with the White Sox unless they offer a ton of prospects.
It will be interesting to see how the White Sox handle the deadline, as there are plenty of routes they can go. No matter who they make a trade with, an already strong White Sox farm system will likely take a huge jump in August.
