I was a big fan of Jacob Gonzalez. He started the year with the Charlotte Knights — the Chicago White Sox Triple-A affiliate. He was batting .320/.422/.675 with a league-leading 19 home runs when they called him up to replace the injured Munetaka Murakami at first base. Gonzalez’s minor league career was a bit of a rocky road, but he’s a good defensive infielder with legitimate power upside, and he turned into a solid part of the Sox starting lineup.
A natural shortstop, he easily transitioned into an above-average defensive first baseman, and his 93 OPS+ was artificially deflated by a cold stretch in early June after he fell back into some old habits with his swing, which had also caused his earlier troubles (which he corrected last year). After making some adjustments, he’d gone back to hitting well, and he looked like a long-term major league player.
I was hoping the Sox would leave him on their roster as a platoon DH and utility infielder. But they sent him down to Triple-A when Murakami came back, and shortly afterwards, it came out that they were trading him — along with relief pitcher Brandon Eishart — to the Pittsburgh Pirates. This isn’t the worst thing for Gonzalez; with Konnor Griffin out until September, Gonzalez should get regular playing time as a platoon shortstop. That’s his usual position anyway, and it’s a better option than being stuck in the minors. There’s more room to move in the Pirates infield compared to the White Sox, and Gonzalez will have a better chance at everyday time.
The Sox have become unexpected playoff contenders after being predicted to lose 90 games this year. Their roster is good, but it will need to get better for the playoff race, especially when it comes to pitching. They’ll have to be active before the trade deadline, and if you have a player you can’t use, but who makes a good trade piece, it makes sense to move him. But the Sox shipped Gonzalez off without much guarantee in return — they got back minor league relief pitcher Jaden Woods, plus the 34th pick in the draft. The latter was probably the big thing the Sox wanted, because the trade was made shortly before the draft.
Woods pitched 25.2 innings to a 3.16 ERA in Double-A this year, but he had a 7.71 ERA over 11.2 innings after getting called to Pittsburgh’s Triple-A team. His overall MiLB ERA is 5.45, although to be fair, that includes his recent work with the Knights, where he’s allowed 4 runs in 0.2 innings pitched.
Ideally, if you need pitching and you trade away a pitcher, you get back a better one. But Eishart had a 4.39 ERA with the Sox last year over 69.2 innings pitched, and this year he had a 5.93 ERA over 27.1 innings pitched before the trade. So neither pitcher has exciting numbers, and Woods arguably has more upside than Eishart because he’s still technically a prospect, but the results haven’t been there — in the short-term, Eishart is probably the more useful pitcher. He has a better ERA and he’s played in the majors. I can see stockpiling experienced relief arms for the playoffs, but if you’re looking at prospects, you’re better off getting arms who profile as starters. I don’t see trading for a relief prospect.
Assuming what the Sox really wanted was the draft pick, they should’ve packaged Andrew Benintendi with Eishart. I doubt they would’ve gotten Woods back too; Benintendi still has some money and years left on an overly expensive contract, and he’s having a mediocre season following several straight-up poor ones. But he’s still a mostly average, relatively affordable major league ballplayer. Paired with a usable relief arm, that’s probably worth a draft pick.
Gonzalez could’ve taken Benintendi’s spot as a left-handed DH, while being a substitute infielder when possible. He and Murakami could even split the first base job, with Murakami DHing sometimes. I like Murakami at first base — I always prefer it when star players have positions, even when they aren’t particularly good at them, but he’s a mediocre defensive first baseman at best, so I could see the Sox opting to give Gonzalez more time at first base instead.
The Sox have too many outfielders, and they’re short on infielders. Their only non-starting infielder is Luisangel Acuna, and they originally wanted him to play center field because he can play both the outfield and infield. Both their DH options are also outfielders. Murakami, Miguel Vargas, Chase Meidroth, and Colson Montgomery aren’t all going to play a 162-game season every year, which the Sox already learned the hard way when Murakami spent a month on the injured list. Acuna is a replacement-level player who it’s hard to give a long-term role to. Gonzalez is the best depth infielder they had, even if there’s not currently a clear spot for him..
The Sox selected Landon Thome as the 34th pick. MLB gives him a 50 overall scouting grade, and he’s notable for having a good hit tool, good speed, and decent power. He graduated from Nazareth Academy in Illinois, and had a .535 BA in his senior year. He plays shortstop, but is expected to switch to second or third base in affiliated ball. He’s a very good selection who probably has a higher overall ceiling than any other player in this trade, but prospects are such an unknown quantity that it’s hard to put too much stock in this so soon.
This trade makes some sense. Gonzalez gets playing time, the Sox have a good draft pick, the Pirates get a shortstop, and the relievers are basically a lateral swap. And I’m glad the Sox are still focusing on their farm system. They really revamped it during their rebuild, but now they’ve graduated so many players to their major league team that it would be easy for their minor league system to fall off the radar a bit. But I’m going to miss Gonzalez, and the White Sox might, too. He’s too intriguing to move so soon, especially in exchange for a shaky relief arm and a question mark.
