Hey, Bob Nightengale can get White Sox news wrong after all.
A month and a day after tweeting that Escobar was "soon on his way from the Diamondbacks to the White Sox," he had to relay Jeff Passan's scoop that the Diamondbacks instead traded Escobar to the Brewers for two prospects, one old and one young. Nightengale said in a subsequent radio appearance that the Sox and Dbacks had a trade that fell apart due to health issues on both sides, but that just makes him a cautionary tale about assumptions, no matter how many things the White Sox have told him that held up in the past.
I was somewhat cool to the idea of acquiring Escobar, if only because with an OBP that's hovered around .300 all season, he's somebody who rounds out a lineup rather than lengthening one, and the Sox have enough guys you'd rather not have bat higher than sixth. But he's also a switch-hitter with 22 homers who is capable of covering every infield position and has been beloved in every clubhouse he's occupied, so I wasn't going to complain either.
(There's also the matter of the mild quad strain he suffered around the time of the original rumors in late June, but he's played in most every game since, hitting .258/.330/.516 over 26 games.)
What makes it more miffing is that of the trades made this week, this is the price the White Sox theoretically could have met. The Brewers traded 26-year-old corner infielder/outfielder Cooper Hummel and 18-year-old infielder Alberto Ciprian to Arizona. The latter is a lottery ticket in the DSL, which the White Sox have. Hummel is a little different, in that he hit .254/.435/.508 for the Nashville Sounds, drawing 41 walks against 26 strikeouts over 46 games. The White Sox have older prospects having nice seasons -- Gavin Sheets, Jake Burger and Micker Adolfo among them -- and they're younger by a year or two. Hummel's having the best year of anybody mentioned, though, and he's also played some catcher over the years, for what that's worth.
It's similar to Jack Suwinski, the second player in the San Diego Padres' acquisition of Adam Frazier. The top player -- Tucupita Marcano -- was a better young infielder than the White Sox could have offered without trading an injured Nick Madrigal, but Suwinski is a left-handed outfielder who can cover all three positions, hitting .269/.398/.551 in Double-A as a 22-year-old.
The White Sox are short on pleasant surprises like Hummel and Suwinski. Here's a list of all the position-player prospects with OPSes above .800 with 100 plate appearances or more:
| Player | Age | Level | OPS | BB% | K% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jake Burger | 25 | AAA/MLB | .974 | 6.1 | 24.7 |
| Micker Adolfo | 24 | AA/AAA | .843 | 7.9 | 34.6 |
| Romy Gonzalez | 24 | AA | .837 | 11.3 | 28.1 |
| Gavin Sheets | 25 | AAA/MLB | .824 | 8.5 | 19.9 |
| Luis Curbelo | 23 | A+ | .803 | 7.1 | 34.0 |
The only issue is that Sheetsis the only one with an above-average ability to put the ball in play, and Gonzalez is the only one who can handle up-the-middle responsibilities.
In order to find more athleticism, you'll have to head down to the next tiers in production.
- 750-799: Harvin Mendoza, Jose Rodriguez, Luis González, Yoelqui Céspedes, Yolbert Sanchez, Ti'Quan Forbes, Luis Mieses
- 700-749: Carlos Pérez, Bryan Ramos, Lenyn Sosa, Samil Polanco
All those names are worth monitoring, but they're also guys every farm system has. FanGraphs' farm system rankings, because the Future Value-based approach makes it easy to distinguish guys you like having around from guys other teams would actually want to add to their guys.
in this case, the White Sox have only one prospect with a FV above 40, and that's Jared Kelley, whose first season in the pros has been a miserable one. I'd probably move Rodriguez and Ramos to the top tier, although they're equally far away from the majors. Better infielders -- or at least infielders who are easier to project -- headlined deals for Frazier (Marcano) and the Yankees-Rangers swap for Joey Gallo (Ezquiel Duran).
The prospect cost for Escobar isn't anywhere in the same neighborhood, which might be a sign that position-player exchanges are starting to come down toward asking prices the White Sox can meet. That is, if the White Sox are actually interested in adding an infielder. The only other report is one from Nightengale, but for all we know this summer, perhaps he only reports on White Sox deals that aren't going anywhere.
We'll find out in about 30 hours.
(Photo by Mark J. Rebilas/USA TODAY Sports)
