The July 30 commerce deadline got here and went with no Garrett Crochet deal, although a number of groups reportedly had curiosity within the White Sox southpaw. The Dodgers and Phillies had been two of the golf equipment concerned in Crochet’s market, and whereas The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal stories that the 2 NL contenders made “engaging” gives to the Sox, the bidding solely went to this point.
Starting with the Phillies, they weren’t keen to incorporate Andrew Painter, who stays a top-34 prospect within the view of each Baseball America (twentieth) and MLB Pipeline (thirty fourth) although he hasn’t pitched since September 2022. A UCL sprain sidelined Painter throughout Spring Coaching 2023 and he underwent a Tommy John surgical procedure in July 2023, placing the highly-touted righty on tempo to be prepared for the beginning of the 2025 marketing campaign.
The thirteenth total decide of the 2021 draft Painter has solely pitched 109 2/3 professional innings, together with 28 1/3 innings on the Double-A stage. He may begin 2025 again at Double-A if the Phillies wish to comparatively ease him again into motion after his lengthy layoff, although if all goes nicely, Painter may transfer up the ladder fairly shortly and develop into an choice for Philadelphia’s huge league employees earlier than the tip of subsequent season. Since Painter remains to be simply 21 years outdated, it’s comprehensible why even a win-now group with a fairly crowded pitching employees can be cautious about shifting a high prospect with front-of-the-rotation potential.
Relatively than make a giant splash of a Crochet commerce, Philadelphia as an alternative made a extra modest set of strikes previous to the deadline. The Phillies’ discussions with the White Sox about Crochet would possibly’ve spun off into the commerce that introduced Tanner Banks to Philadelphia, and the Fightins’ deadline provides additionally consists of the likes of Carlos Estevez and Austin Hays.
Chicago’s talks with Los Angeles had been nonetheless ongoing within the final hour earlier than the deadline, earlier than the Dodgers apparently pivoted and as an alternative landed Jack Flaherty from the Tigers. Since Flaherty is a free agent after the season and his commerce market could have been impacted by some harm issues, naturally the Tigers’ ask for the right-hander was a lot decrease than what the White Sox had been in search of for Crochet, who’s arbitration-controlled by means of the 2026 season.
High catching prospect Dalton Dashing wasn’t included within the Dodgers’ gives for Crochet, however River Ryan was, although Rosenthal notes that “the White Sox had issues about [Ryan’s] well being.” Chicago’s focus was on the shoulder downside that price Ryan the primary two months of the minor league season, however Ryan has since been sidelined by a Tommy John surgical procedure that can doubtless preserve him out of motion for the whole thing of the 2025 marketing campaign.
The Dodgers had such a necessity for pitching that Ryan bought a little bit of a quick observe to the majors following his shoulder harm, as Ryan amassed solely 24 1/3 innings within the minors (16 1/3 on the Triple-A stage) this season earlier than he was referred to as up for his MLB debut. To this finish, shifting a giant league-ready starter for Crochet in all probability wasn’t a perfect state of affairs for an L.A. group that mainly wants all of the arms it will possibly get at this level, but the Dodgers had been clearly going to have to surrender so much to pry Crochet away from the White Sox.
Dashing’s identify has been concerned in commerce hypothesis even earlier than Will Smith signed his huge contract extension with Los Angeles in March. Smith’s standing because the Dodgers’ catcher of the foreseeable future may make both Dashing or fellow catching prospect Diego Cartaya expendable, but it might be that L.A. didn’t wish to transfer Dashing earlier than experimenting with him at one other place. Dashing has been taking part in solely left area since his promotion to Triple-A earlier this month, and he has stored up the recent hitting even whereas adapting to a brand new place and dealing with a better caliber of pitching, so it isn’t out of the query that Dashing may make his Main League debut earlier than 2024 is over.
In one other be aware concerning the Crochet commerce talks, Rosenthal writes that “the White Sox additionally entertained gives wherein they might have obtained lesser [prospect] packages however gained wage aid.” These explicit discussions reportedly concerned Andrew Benintendi, so on this state of affairs, an unknown group would’ve eaten all or most of Benintendi’s remaining contract as a sweetener to acquire Crochet. Rosenthal didn’t specify which groups made such gives, although the Dodgers and Phillies each appear much less doubtless candidates, as including Benintendi’s contract would’ve come at an excellent heftier price for 2 groups deep into luxurious tax territory.
On the one hand, Benintendi’s five-year, $75MM contract is already wanting like a misfire lower than two seasons in, so packaging him together with Crochet may be Chicago’s solely cheap technique of getting Benintendi off the books. That being stated, Crochet can be the group’s finest commerce asset, and shifting him for a prospect package deal of most worth is a transparent means for the Sox to deliver extra expertise into the group. Diluting that return simply to avoid wasting cash wouldn’t appear all that prudent, particularly because the White Sox diminished payroll in different deadline offers. Benintendi is owed $47.5MM over the 2025-27 seasons, however the Sox have just below $41MM dedicated to their total 2025 payroll, as per RosterResource.
