Watching the White Sox fail to score more than three runs night after night after occasional day after night, makes it easy for fans to look forward to a windfall of position players at the trade deadline, but with five days remaining, it's worth steeling yourselves for disappointment. At least for those who haven't lost the ability to feel.
Ken Rosenthal poured water on the idea of a big return for Garrett Crochet -- or any return, for that matter -- in his latest rumors roundup for The Athletic on Wednesday.
Some in the industry expect the Chicago White Sox to hold left-hander Garrett Crochet, believing that an even greater number of buyers will emerge in the offseason and that his value is greater in his additional two years of club control than in 2024.
At the moment, the teams with the most interest in Crochet are contenders. The list of suitors could expand in the offseason to include teams currently out of contention, but planning to compete in 2025. The Chicago Cubs, for example. The Blue Jays. Perhaps even the Nationals.
The White Sox feinted in such a direction with Dylan Cease, going so far as to open spring training with him and let him throw in a Cactus League games before they finally found a deal to their liking with San Diego. Just like car-buying, the most powerful weapon in their arsenal is the ability to walk away, and when you hear Jon Heyman say that the Yankees aren't up for parting with Spencer Jones in a deal for Crochet, perhaps the standing offers really are that meager.
On the other side, teams can really hammer at the uncertainty with Crochet's workload and whether they'd be able to count on him for important innings down the stretch and into the postseason, because that's indeed a great unknown. Waiting until the winter, when everybody has a firmer idea of how Crochet handles a six-month season as a starter, almost reminds me of a team having an interest in a prep pitcher, but not enough to buy him out of a college commitment. It's outsourcing development in either case, except for just two months instead of three whole years.
That makes the White Sox a Vanderbilt or Wake Forest in this analogy, and maybe that is a less laughable notion with Brian Bannister in the fold. James only alluded to it in Wednesday's post because it was already past 2,000 words despite focusing on the draft, but Bannister also shared some thoughts about Crochet's path to the end of the season on his Zoom call with reporters.
"I do think true workhorse pitchers who have the frame Crochet has are able to throw more pitches and consistently and do it for a longer period of time, and I really think the key is allowing him to have an arsenal that goes out and gets outs efficiently," Bannister said. "I’m not as big on strategic de-loads or really reducing pitch counts. I look more at how hard does a pitcher have to work to get through his outings, and I think the way he’s pitching and the efficiency of it gives them a little more leeway. [...]
"We have some creative strategies we are going to employ in the year-end to preserve him, given it’s going to be a big jump in workload. But overall I’m very bullish on him for the future and what he will be able to do from a volume perspective."
Perhaps acquiring teams aren't interested in exchanging prospects of significance for a guy who will require "creative strategies" to get through the rest of the season. At the very least, they can pretend they aren't interested, just like the White Sox can insist that they aren't obligated to deal him now.
That's true with most negotiations, certainly, but concern over the instruction manual distinguishes Crochet from somebody like Erick Fedde. Sure, Fedde is older and under control for just one more year, but Fedde has thrown at least 27 starts in three consecutive seasons, so there isn't a question of whether or not he can do it. He merely requires a simple value assessment in which teams figure out if somebody can do it better, or nearly as well for cheaper.
That Crochet earned an All-Star bid and is on track for considerable Cy Young support with two years of arbitration remaining allows the White Sox to dream bigger, which invites more negging from teams that wish they could be a little more certain. Perhaps Rosenthal's sources are correct, and the divide is so large that the Sox will end up retaining Crochet until the next transaction period. But the elements are such that I can picture the tone of Crochet rumors running cold until they're suddenly boiling.
