White Sox “Trades” with EVERY TEAM – NL West Edition – 2024

A long time ago, I was listening to an interview with legendary poker professional Phil Ivey and the interviewer asked the question (paraphrasing) How would you recommend a player learning the game get better the fastest? Phil said something to the effect of (paraphrasing) Buy in to a game at much lower stakes than you would normally play, and then play every single hand for an hour. Try and figure out how you would play all of these different hands in different situations and positions that you are normally taught not to play in. In the spirit of that recommendation from an all-time great, Chorizy and I are once again going to undertake the exercise of making a White Sox trade with every team in the majors…..this is the NL West Edition.

The Au Jus

Los Angeles Dodgers

White Sox send: Jose Rodriguez SS / 2B
White Sox receive: Jorbit Vivas 2B
Rationale: Vivas and Rodriguez are both likely 2b profiles with different shapes. Vivas is a bat first player with excellent plate discipline and elite bat to ball skills. A polished hitter with limited arm strength that basically board locks him to 2b. Rodriguez is a very good athlete with speed, but with poor pitch recognition and low walk rates. My thinking here is that both 45 FV prospects per Fangraphs that Rodriguez is a much better fit for the Dodgers who love defensive flexibility even if the plate approach isn’t the best (and in theory they can fix it). The White Sox on the other hand are dying for better plate appearances and although Vivas is likely 2b only, they happen to have 650 plate appearances available, so why not take this shot? These are the types of gambles I’d like to see the White Sox convert under this new regime.

San Diego Padres

White Sox send: Andrew Vaughn, Lenyn Sosa
White Sox receive: Jake Cronenworth
Rationale: Apparently the Padres have the same person overseeing their money that the Wilpon Mets did. And now they gotta cut payroll. While Cronenworth ain’t raking it in, Andrew Vaughn will make significantly less in his 1st arb year. And while Vaughn’s contract will escalate, Cronenworth’s does as well. The difference here is that, at least this year, the Padres will have Ha-Seong Kim at 2B which leaves Cronenworth at 1B. And his bat didn’t really hold up to that position this year. Vaughn would be a cheaper option with probably a similar if not better output at the plate.

San Francisco Giants

White Sox send: Eloy Jimenez DH
White Sox receive: Wade Meckler CF and R.J. Dabovich RHP
Rationale: Nobody gets more out of aged hitters than the San Francisco Giants, so why not take a chance on Eloy. As much as White Sox fans like to dog Eloy, he had a 141 OPS+ in 2022, so there still good hitting stuffs in there somewhere. The Giants have a ton of money to spend and if the recent free agent markets are a gauge, nobody seems to want to take it, so enjoy a couple years of Eloy.

Wade Meckler is another of these Oregon State guys that are smallish, grindy, over-achieving hitter types. There’s some Steven Kwan here stylistically (including the lefty bat), but probably less bat control but a little more power. Not saying he actually has power, just more than Kwan. He’s MLB ready and probably slots in as a plus range right fielder with an underwhelming arm. His monster walk rates at AA and AAA showcase the approach, but assume a high batting average, high on-base, low slug player. An upgrade to the White Sox current outfield for sure.

Dabovich has a 70 curveball and has mediocre control. He also had hip surgery in 2023 after only throwing 2 2/3 innings. He’s rule 5 eligible so he’s a throw in that the White Sox can protect and the Giants cannot. Everyone wins. Kinda.

Colorado Rockies

White Sox send: Jacob Gonzalez SS, Grant Taylor RHP
White Sox receive: Brendan Rodgers 2B, Brenton Doyle CF
Rationale: One of the toughest teams to trade with as I have no idea what they’re gonna do or even what they’re trying to do. From the White Sox side, this is a quick way to turn things around on defense. Brendan Rodgers is not really a glove first guy, but moving to 2B really helped him out in terms of defense. Now, he spent most of last season out with an injury, but he came back at the end of the season and got 14 xbh in those 46 games. His four home runs all came at the very end of the season, so it seems his back to reasonable health. In Brenton Doyle, this is a glove first guy. But he’s a ridiculously good outfielder. He was worth 19 defensive runs saved (DRS) last season. With him in CF and Luis in RF, your outfield defense becomes awesome despite your left fielder.

I have only really gotten a chance to read about or listen to things about Gonzalez. But I am getting the feeling that the height of his value might be right now. So I would like to take advantage of that. Grant Taylor is interchangeable here as I’m just looking for prospect pitcher a few years away. Since the Rox are probably at least a few years away.

Arizona Diamondbacks

White Sox send: Eloy Jimenez DH
White Sox receive: Jorge Barrosa CF
Rationale: The D-Backs need some thump in that lineup. Despite a few good individual performances, the team that plays 1k feet above sea level only had 166 HR putting them 22nd in the league. They can’t count on Alek Thomas to have the playoffs of his life every year and turn in a bunch of homers. Though I do think they’re going to count on Thomas to man CF. With Dominic Fletcher already seeing some big league time and Druw Jones waiting in the wings, Jorge Barrosa seems pretty blocked. He’s an excellent defender and fast af. His bat is not really the strong suit, but if he can man CF at a high level, we’re back to the Luis Robert RF idea. Which I am personally a fan of. Why not have tremendous defense.

Hopefully Eloy will be able to lift the ball a little and take advantage of the altitude in AZ (not quite COL, but it’s not at sea level). If he does, he can be an impact bat for a team without a DH.