Too early for White Sox trade talk? Not with sign-and-trade types like Mike Clevinger, Tommy Pham aboard

Even though the always confusing Marlins have already kicked off trade season in Major League Baseball, the first few days of May still seems a bit early to be talking about deadline deals, right?

Well, the White Sox, still yet to see their win total reach double digits more than 30 games into the schedule, figure to be obvious sellers come July, so much so that the national writers are already compiling lists of possible departures. USA Today’s Bob Nightengale shouted out a half dozen current South Siders that figure to be changing uniforms later this summer.

While the rebuilding White Sox would surely be keen to swap veterans — many of whom will be leaving at season’s end anyway, considering their one-year deals or impending, expensive club options — for youngsters who can be of greater long-term help, it’s too easy to just list guys. It of course depends on how those guys play for the next three months and how attractive they make themselves to teams looking to bulk up for a pennant race.

Newly arrived veterans Mike Clevinger and Tommy Pham figure to be on this team, in part, so Chris Getz can squeeze some long-term value out of them later this summer. While the first-year general manager has acknowledged the positive effect their presence can have on the clubhouse, he also addressed that they — and the team’s veterans, in general — could bring something back in a trade, a prospect or two who could find their way into the front office’s long-term planning and perhaps end up playing a role the next time the White Sox field a contender.

Sounds nice, even if it might be taking innings and at-bats away from young players the White Sox already have, guys who could be part of that long-term planning. But getting something of value means Clevinger and Pham playing well enough to earn that sort of return package.

“You’ve got six months to play baseball, and we’re at the end of April,” Getz said last month. “There’s going to be plenty of at-bats and plenty of innings for our young players that we want to see up here. We want to surround them with guys who have had some success, and there’s a lot of value in that.

“Certainly, some of these players that get the opportunity on one-year deals to show what they can offer to Major League Baseball, there’s other chances to perhaps grab some value at the trade deadline or at some point to help once again to get our organization healthy.”

Pham has been really good since arriving on a minor league deal. He had nine hits in his first six games with the team, and he’s up to two homers in 10 games after his two-run shot against his former team Monday night in Florida. A nice performance in 10 games is not quite enough to do what Nightengale suggested and make himself a favorite for an All-Star appearance — even on a last-place team, Garrett Crochet’s strikeout total, which ranks second in baseball, would figure to give him a clear edge — but it might be enough to get the other 29 baseball bosses dialing Getz’s number.

Is it enough to net something big? That is harder to see happening. But a rebuilding team like the White Sox can use whatever help they can get in amassing talent as they try to build for the future.

Clevinger has been with the team for all of one day since the White Sox gave him a free-agent deal to return for a sequel to his 2023 campaign, in which he was the best starting pitcher on the South Siders’ 101-loss squad. But his massive struggles in his season debut show the flip side of the sign-and-flip coin.

Any GM sniffing around for an upgrade might have been intrigued by Pham’s homer Monday, but Clevinger’s performance might have served as a massive turn off. The right-hander didn’t last three innings, giving up six hits, walking four and striking out none. He was no good in his first big league game of the year, and of course it’s worth remembering that it was his first game of the year. He’s got months to not only help his own cause but help Getz’s by straightening things out.

But it’s a helpful reminder that just saying the White Sox are hopeful to unload doesn’t mean that every candidate to be dealt will fare well enough to be dealt — or to net the type of return that might be hoped for. Sure, the White Sox probably would be interested in getting something in exchange for Eloy Jiménez, whose pricey option for 2025 makes him unlikely to return. But by July, will Jiménez be performing like a middle-of-the-order hitter who can net a top prospect? Or will he be the home-run hitter who struggles to get the ball in the air and fetch only a lesser prospect?

Only time will tell.

But certainly there’s an extensive list of guys who could be traded away. Pham and Clevinger are obvious because they’re of the sign-and-flip variety. Jiménez’s contract tells the story there. And others will fall into those categories of guys who probably won’t be here next year.

The intrigue will come with players like Crochet, Luis Robert Jr. and Michael Kopech. Crochet and Kopech have been among the bright spots for a team off to a franchise-worst start. Robert is a centerpiece who has spent most of the year on the injured list but is expected back soon and expected to quickly reassume the title of the team’s top hitter.

All three are controllable past 2024, but will the White Sox’ rebuilding project — which Getz recently pointed out is not expected to be “a quick fix by any stretch” — progress quickly enough to include them as part of the next contending team on the South Side?

With Crochet and Kopech, it could be unlikely. Past this season, Crochet has two years of control left. Kopech has just one. Dealing them now could be maximizing their value, if Getz doesn’t see things moving along fast enough to use them as key pieces in a legitimate quest for a division crown.

Getz showed no interest in trading Robert over the winter, describing him as a player to build around rather than one to trade for future pieces. But with the White Sox opting to focus on low-cost, defensive improvements last offseason and the team off to a miserable start this season, Robert’s value as a middle-of-the-order presence decreases, not because of his own talent but because multiple years of the White Sox’ control of him will be spent in rebuilding mode.

So is now the time to deal Robert, too? That might be a harder pill to swallow, but it simultaneously would be the easiest way to infuse exciting talent into the organization, boosting the future in a significant way.

The market will dictate what Getz is able to do, this summer, next offseason, whenever. Just like he sat back and waited until near Opening Day to move Dylan Cease, Getz will undoubtedly not move Robert — or anyone, for that matter — unless he gets what he thinks is a worthy return offer. The mystery is whether such an offer will materialize for one of the top talents in the game.

But again, everyone needs to be producing and everyone needs to be healthy for these types of suggestions to be anything more than just suggestions.

The White Sox will almost surely be sellers come July. What exactly they’ll be selling, however, remains to be seen.

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