Eight White Sox players, ranked by how likely they are to be traded

Come on down to Chris Getz’s summertime selloff, where seemingly just about everything is on sale.

The Chicago White Sox own baseball’s worst record and are in the early stages of a long-term rebuilding project, earning them obvious seller status as the trade deadline approaches.

Who knows when the deals will start going down, but Getz figures to be willing to part with any player on a lengthy list of White Sox trade candidates, whether obvious rentals on short-term contracts or more controllable young stars who might strike fans as potential building blocks for the future. Plenty of White Sox are already popping up on national lists of possible trade chips.

But with a lot of work to do in overhauling the organization, Getz wouldn’t surprise if he traded even guys like Luis Robert Jr. or Garrett Crochet — if the price is right, of course.

The next several weeks could see quite a bit of upheaval on the White Sox’ big league roster as Getz attempts to bring in young talent that could contribute to turning the franchise’s fortunes around over the next few years.

Here’s a look at eight guys who could be heading to a new team before the calendar flips from July to August — eight men who could be “out,” if you will — ranked by how likely it is that they’re moved in a trade, starting with the most likely to be dealt.

White Sox trade candidate: Tommy Pham

It sure seemed at the time that the White Sox signed Tommy Pham to trade him, and nothing has deterred from the idea that his time on the South Side won’t last past the end of July. Certainly, the team got positive contributions out of Pham, whose edge was spoken of as a welcomed addition to the clubhouse, and he spent a short time as the best hitter on the team.

Pham’s bat has cooled since a hot start, but he’s had peaks and valleys in the offensive-production department throughout his major league career, still finding takers who want that edge and experience applied to their lineup. Pham joined the Diamondbacks in a midseason trade last summer and ended up a critical bat in their lineup during a run to the World Series.

That recent October success figures to intrigue contending teams, even if Pham’s recent numbers — a .158 batting average in his last 15 games coming into Monday — aren’t so appealing. Just look to last year, when he was on an 8-for-48 skid when he was moved by the Mets. Getz might not land an overwhelming return, but he figures to be able to get something that can help his long-term project.

Likelihood to be traded: Extremely likely

White Sox trade candidate: Erick Fedde

Erick Fedde was Getz’s biggest offseason free-agent signing, and he’s been just what the White Sox hoped he’d be after he revamped his career with a successful year-long stint pitching in Korea, where he won the equivalent of the MVP and Cy Young in that league.

Fedde has proven himself a mighty effective and mighty reliable starting pitcher, with a 3.05 ERA in his 16 starts. Ranked by fWAR as the 15th most valuable pitcher in baseball, he’s skewed much more toward the best-in-the-league arm he was in Korea rather than look like he did in six unsuccessful big league seasons with the Nationals, and he figures to be a hot commodity leading up to the deadline.

Teams are often looking for pitching, and some contenders could be more hungry for starters than others. Fedde’s been good enough to warrant consideration by anyone looking to bolster their staff, and with one year left on his deal after this one, he could perhaps fetch Getz a little more in return than if he was just a two- or three-month rental.

Likelihood to be traded: Very likely

White Sox trade candidate: Paul DeJong

While Paul DeJong was part of a crop of low-cost offseason additions that seemed more focused on improving the White Sox’ defense than improving their offensive output, he has provided a turn-back-the-clock amount of pop, leading the team with 14 home runs, matching in 73 games what took him 112 to do last season, when he played for three different teams.

Being the best home-run hitter on the mostly power-sapped White Sox isn’t like being that for many other teams, but there’s no doubt DeJong, on a one-year deal, is having a bit of a renaissance at the plate. His 107 OPS-plus is the highest in his career since his rookie year, when he hit 25 home runs for the Cardinals. He was an All Star two years later in what ended up a 30-homer season, something he’s at least on pace to come close to in 2024.

DeJong hasn’t been entirely the defensive upgrade at shortstop the White Sox were hoping for. Only 13 players in baseball have committed more than his eight errors, and his minus-seven Defensive Runs Saved mark ranks worst among 25 qualified shortstops. But teams looking for power either off the bench or in a part-time role on the infield would certainly be intrigued by the home-run numbers DeJong has managed in half a season on the South Side.

Likelihood to be traded: Very likely

White Sox trade candidate: John Brebbia

While Tim Hill has already been jettisoned from the White Sox bullpen, John Brebbia, the other of the team’s free-agent relief additions from the offseason, is pitching well, like the reliable veteran arm he was signed as. His 5.72 ERA currently counts as one of the highest of his career, though he’s got a 1.86 ERA in 11 games this month after an ugly May.

Brebbia has minimal playoff experience, appearing briefly with the Cardinals in 2019, but he has been around the block and could entice teams looking for a dependable veteran reliever. Considering the annual desire for bullpen upgrades for a wide swath of the league, Brebbia could be one of the easier players for Getz to move, even if the return for a relief rental is rarely out of this world.

Likelihood to be traded: Very likely

White Sox trade candidate: Michael Kopech

It seemed Michael Kopech was destined to be moved to a contender in need of a closer when he started his new gig with a bang early in the season, looking dominant with triple-digit radar-gun readings. But Kopech’s effectiveness as a closer hasn’t been super consistent. He’s got a 4.60 ERA, has blown nearly as many saves as he’s racked up and has a 5.5 walks per nine innings mark as he’s continued to struggle to keep guys off the base paths.

All of that might speak to Kopech not commanding the big haul that an available closer might at the deadline. But it doesn’t preclude a move, either, and certainly teams — what contender isn’t looking for bullpen help this time of year? — would be interested in adding someone with Kopech’s dominant relief potential, whether they want him to throw the ninth inning or the sixth.

Any team acquiring Kopech would be getting him not just for the remainder of this season but for all of 2025, as well.

Likelihood to be traded: Likely

White Sox trade candidate: Garrett Crochet

There’s perhaps no greater sign the White Sox could be in for a long, long rebuild than the fact that Crochet is being talked about as someone who could depart via trade this summer. He has stunned by going from a relatively inexperienced reliever to one of the best starters in baseball, leading the AL in strikeouts and ranking second in the sport in fWAR among pitchers. The questions before the season began were about whether Crochet was physically capable of making such a switch. Now, they’re about whether or not he’ll start the All-Star Game.

While there’s half a season left on the schedule and three more months for Crochet to prove he can handle the workload, he’s looking like he’s blossoming into an ace, and his teammates and manager are forecasting someone who will be a top-of-the-rotation pitcher for years to come.

And yet, even with two seasons of control after this one, the White Sox still might deal him, seeing a rare opportunity to strike while the iron’s hot and secure a impressive return package while they’re trying to stockpile talent. It would be a signal that Getz & Co. aren’t expecting to be able to use Crochet on the next contending White Sox team, surely saddening for fans hoping to see Crochet stay on the South Side for a long time.

Getz’s willingness to depart with any player on the big league team is perhaps about the same across the board, showing how open he is to anything as he embarks on his rebuilding project. But with Crochet, it will come down to whether any team is willing to meet the asking price, and we could be in for something similar to the months of trade speculation we sat through before Getz dealt Dylan Cease to the Padres in March. The White Sox might value Crochet as that ace-in-the-making, while other teams could have some of the long-existing questions about Crochet’s ability to handle such a dramatic innings increase — and because of it, his ability to stay healthy through this season and into the future.

We’ll see if there’s an alignment to be had on that front.

Likelihood to be traded: Somewhat likely

White Sox trade candidate: Luis Robert Jr.

Moving Robert would signal much the same thing a Crochet trade would, that the White Sox are digging in for a years-long rebuild, considering Robert, who has three years of control remaining after this one, is the perfect player to build around. He showed last year that, given health, he can rank among the most fearsome hitters in baseball, not to mention he plays Gold Glove level defense in center field.

Robert’s health is a bugaboo, certainly, especially after an early season injury that knocked him out for more than a month, the kind of thing that brought to mind the inconsistent health he experienced during the 2021 and 2022 seasons, as well as in the minor leagues. And it wouldn’t surprise if that discouraged opposing front offices from meeting what you’d guess would be an enormous asking price. Based solely on Robert’s talent, it wouldn’t shock if Getz expected to receive something akin to what the Nationals did for Juan Soto two summers ago, except Robert has even more control now than Soto did then.

And at the end of the day, the likelihood of a Robert trade is based less on whether the White Sox would want to part with their superstar — it’s a reasonable question for fans to ask why Getz would entertain the idea of a Robert trade at all — and more on whether another team would choose to blow Getz away with an offer.

Getz sat on a Cease trade until the eve of the regular season despite rumors starting as early as December, and much like that situation, there’s no rush or need for the White Sox to move Robert, just a potentially rare opportunity to land a massive amount of talent in return. And who knows if such a return will materialize before the deadline? Or if it’s more likely to come around in the offseason? Or, perhaps, never at all?

Likelihood to be traded: Not very likely

White Sox trade candidate: Eloy Jiménez

There’s little reason to believe that, at this moment anyway, Eloy Jiménez would be coveted by contending clubs. He’s fresh off his second IL stint of the season, this one a month long, and he hasn’t proven that he can stay healthy. Not to mention that the supposed middle-of-the-order power hitter hasn’t solved his inability to keep the ball off the ground, despite hitting plenty of balls hard this season.

I’m listing Jiménez only because he figured to be a perfect name for this list when the season began. If he could stay healthy and show some power, he could fetch something valuable for Getz’s rebuild, something he figures not to be a part of, considering his expensive contract option for 2025.

But Jiménez didn’t do that, and now he’s probably not able to get much value in a trade, unless he goes off for a scorching hot July that features plenty of home runs.

Likelihood to be traded: Very unlikely

[MORE SOX: White Sox’ deadline dilemma: To trade Garrett Crochet or not?]

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