After four months of miserable baseball that seemed to stretch on forever, the White Sox are selling off players faster than they can call up replacements.
Two days after Lucas Giolito and Reynaldo López were dealt to the Angels Wednesday night, three more members of the Sox pitching staff were dealt to contenders pregame Friday. Lance Lynn and Joe Kelly will join the NL West-leading Dodgers, and reliever Kendall Graveman was traded to the defending champion Astros for the second time in his career.
In the wake of this turnover, the Sox have called up relievers Sammy Peralta and Declan Cronin from Triple-A Charlotte, and shifted Touki Touissant to the starting rotation Friday night, but still have two open roster spots to account for even assuming starter Mike Clevinger is activated from the injured list on Saturday.
But that hardly matters anymore for the 41-62 White Sox.
“Those guys have earned the right to be in the postseason and that’s where they’re headed,” said manager Pedro Grifol of his departing players. “Unfortunately, we’re not headed there right now.”
In return for Lynn and Kelly, the White Sox will receive a third stint with veteran outfielder Trayce Thompson. But the real focus of the package is starting pitching prospect Nick Nastrini and reliever Jordan Leasure, both right-handers at the Double-A level in the Dodgers’ vaunted farm system.
In Nastrini, Sox GM Rick Hahn expressed hope that the 23-year-old’s four-pitch mix will fuel a mid-rotation future, if not more due to athleticism that rival scouts have credited for his rapid development. Leasure, 24, posting a 3.09 ERA and threatening a 40 percent strikeout rate on the season, will be promoted to Triple-A Charlotte upon arrival.
For Graveman, the Sox received Triple-A catcher Korey Lee, both a former first round pick and the college roommate of first baseman Andrew Vaughn at Cal. Lee competed for a major league roster spot with the Astros in spring, but was viewed as behind rookie catcher Yainer Díaz offensively, and is currently rehabbing from an oblique strain.
“Andrew Vaughn and I had a conversation earlier today about Kory and about his potential fit and makeup and Andrew had nothing but very positive things to say,” said Hahn. “Very strong catch-and-throw type. Good leader on the field, high energy.”
Lee, along with the acquisition of catching prospect Edgar Quero on Wednesday, begins to prepare a White Sox system starved for depth at the position, for life after Yasmani Grandal’s contract expires after this season. While both he and Leasure have walk troubles that scouts point to as possible speed bumps, Nastrini represents a possibly near major league-ready option for rebuilding a starting rotation that faced an uncertain future even before the team dealt 40 percent of it in three days time.
Every prospect acquired by the Sox so far in this blitz has been at Double-A or higher, but Hahn said the team had A-ball targets in their trade discussions, and explained the near-readiness of their trade returns as a result of those players being easier to project and agree upon in value.
Still in the fog of trying to pull more deals, Hahn declined to clarify the direction of the team that these trades indicate. He did however, find time to smooth things over with Lynn, who openly asked for more communication on the process on Thursday.
“They told me as much as they could and I thank them for that,” said Lynn, who said the two of them discussed waiving his no-trade clause. “Rick’s been good to me.”
Left with a roster now starved for pitching talent and light on literal bodies, Grifol was more definitive on how he sees his team’s future.
“A rebuilding situation, I don’t think that’s where we’re at,” said Grifol. “Next two months are critical for where we want to be next year at this time. We want to be here right here at this podium the next time, doing the opposite; welcoming guys in as opposed to sending guys out.”
