DALLAS -- It is with great sorrow that we must report that the White Sox' first overall pick in the Rule 5 draft has been robbed of the spotlight.
A source confirms that right at the conclusion of the winter meetings, the White Sox have reached a deal to send Garrett Crochet to the Boston Red Sox in exchange for four prospects.
The headliners are catcher Kyle Teel and outfielder Braden Montgomery, the 12th overall pick in this July's draft. Rounding out the package are Triple-A infielder Chase Meidroth and Venezuelan right-handed pitcher Wikelman Gonzalez.
Both Teel and Montgomery are consensus top-100 prospects, and Teel represents a target the White Sox have been pursuing dating back to last year when they were shopping Dylan Cease around. After a decorated career at Virginia, Teel torched Double-A pitching to the tune of a .298/.390/.462 batting line in 2024 before slowing down as a 22-year-old finishing out his season in Triple-A (.255/.374/.343 in 28 games). While he lacks typical size or arm strength, Teel is too polished mechanically to face any real questions about sticking behind the plate long-term and is revered for his handling of pitchers so far in his career. It's a similar polish-over-tools lefty-swinging offensive profile that is great for a catcher, but not suited to be the offensive anchor of a contending team.
While Chris Getz repeatedly reiterating that catching is "gold" on the market leads one to wonder if the White Sox will trade from their newfound surplus of top-100 prospect catchers, he also touted the benefit of a tandem with Edgar Quero. The Sox GM touted Teel's versatility to man other positions on his days off from catching, and the switch-hitting Quero battered left-handed pitching in 2024.
Due to a gruesome ankle injury suffered in the College World Series, Montgomery has yet to play in professional ball. It clouds the picture somewhat about how his skills will translate, but also drives home the feeling that the White Sox have swapped out Crochet for a package topped by two high-level first rounders, and Montgomery was highly rated by the amateur scouting department this July.
After a dominant junior season (.322/.454/.733) against SEC competition, the dream is that Montgomery becomes a 20-to-30-home run threat while playing athletic outfield corner defense with a huge throwing arm, though he had enough speed pre-injury to at least dream about center field. Getz said Montgomery is still rehabbing his ankle in Ft. Myers, Florida, but that they have interest in seeing if he can stick up the middle. For a recent first-round pick who has played as tough of competition as he could in college, Montgomery has some doubters in the industry about how much impact he can provide, and the switch-hitter is clearly superior from the left side. His strikeout rates have been elevated enough to offer bust potential, but this deal is a bet on bat speed, athleticism and power overcoming it.
Meidroth hit .293/.437/.401 in a full season at Triple-A last year while mixing in at every spot in the infield. He offers a patently absurd level of contact and plate discipline that lights up analytical models, but the lack of power has scouts questioning if he can keep the sky-high on-base percentages up in the majors, even if he's defied such doubts so far. While his versatility has been a selling point, it likely doesn't include much shortstop or above-average metric performance. Scouts talk about him as someone who can consistently hold a roster spot, even if they doubt he ever becomes a long-term fixture at any one place.
"It's a well-rounded offensive approach," Getz said of Meidroth. "His on-base ability, his contact skills and the versatility allow him to get some at-bats. We'll see how the rest of his offseason goes and see him in spring training. He's got a chance to break with the team."
Gonzalez is the fourth piece, and here the White Sox show some signature verve. He's just 22 years old, even though his first professional action came back in 2019. His raw stuff is clearly plus, with his secondaries playing a bit more consistently than his mid-90s fastball, but double-digit walk rates underscore significant concerns that he's bound for the bullpen, with even Getz allowing that as a possibility. The White Sox believe there's time yet for starter-level command to develop, and this is their opportunity for a revamped pitching development operation to create value by landing the plane. While he generates skepticism, few evaluators find fault with it as a wild card at the end of a four-player package.
Crochet, as much as he was seemingly the only thing worth watching in 2024, was at the height of his trade value, for a baseball operations department that never seemed on the verge of extending him. The question that scouts raise is if in exchange for their big star, they received any future stars in return.
Teel has the sort of skill and positional utility that could transcend his tools and find him in a All-Star Game, or the valued leader on a winning team. Any conclusions about Montgomery's ceiling aren't based on actual professional performance, but he has both the tools to become the biggest piece of this package and the uncertainty around him to render it ordinary if he fails.
The fairness of the return and surplus value acquired by the White Sox here isn't really being questioned by the industry--at least not to a degree even approaching the criticism they received for the Erick Fedde deal. Whether they've secured an impact portion of their future core can only be determined in time.
