White Sox “Trades” with EVERY TEAM | AL Central Edition | 2026

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 AL Central Edition.

The Au Jus

Minnesota Twins

White Sox send: Korey Lee C
White Sox receive: Edouard Julien DH
Rationale: Both of these guys are out of options!

Lee is a totally serviceable 2nd catcher with pop. He’s a good thrower, a mediocre blocker and a pretty rough framer (ABS saves?). He has some trade value, but not much.

Julien has pop and a high walk rate, that’s the good news. The bad news is, it’s A LOT of strike outs AND no defensive value whatsoever. I know they have tried Julien at 2b, but it was bad. Basically the idea here is to get the bat back to it’s Top 100 prospect form and then use Julien’s skills at DH or possibly LF when you have a ground baller starting the game. It’s a waiver bait for waiver bait deal.

Cleveland Guardians

White Sox send: Drew Thorpe RHP
White Sox receive: Ralphy Velazquez 1B
Rationale: Is it really a trade blog if we don’t consider a Drew Thorpe trade? Now look, I like Drew Thorpe, he seems like a good kid. We met his dad and he seems like a great guy. The kind of people you want the best for. I’d love to see Drew healthy and pitching at the top of his game. There is no better way to ensure that happens than trading him to the Guardians.

In return, we get some first base thump that is probably a few years away from the bigs but also probably blocked as the third 1B/DH only lefty in the org behind Kyle Manzardo and C.J. Kayfus. I’d honestly be a bit surprised to see the Guards give up a guy with 22 HR across A+ and AA last year, but Thorpe does still have value in my humble opinion.

Kansas City Royals

White Sox send: Chase Meidroth 2b
White Sox receive: Asbel Gonzalez Of, Gavin Cross Of
Rationale: The Royals could really use a player like Meidroth to solidify the keystone. Michael Massey is there, but he’s horrible unless he’s batting against the White Sox, they traded for Jonathan India, but his days of holding a glove in the field seem close to over.

Meidroth’s a strong defender at 2b and his strengths of spraying the ball everywhere play nicely at Kauffman. Plus with Bobby Witt Jr. manning short stop for the next decade, there’s no temptation to stretch ole Chase there. The White Sox are starting to develop quite a bit of talent that needs homes in the infield. They aren’t all 2b only, but a bunch of them would be best there. Sam Antonacci, William Bergolla, and Jeral Perez just to name a few up and coming minor leaguers that might be best at 2b. Not to mention Lenyn Sosa‘s best position is also 2b. You don’t want to make it a routine trading solid young players with a lot of team control, but sometimes you should.

Asbel Gonzalez looks like a future centerfielder, but he’s at least a couple tree years away. At 6’2″ 170 there’s room to add good weight and with that the pop that could really make a difference in this type of profile. He’s the prize of this deal.

Gavin Cross is a former 1st round pick that had a bad 2023, a good 2024 and a bad 2025. He had a good plate approach and then started striking out too much. He’s now rule 5 eligible and at the end of his rope. Seems like a fun project with pedigree for the Ryan Fuller hitting program. Speed up the swing, get his head out of his ass on pitch selection and voila you have another solid outfield bat! Or something like that.

Detroit Tigers

White Sox send: Lenyn Sosa 2B/1B
White Sox receive: Kelvis Salcedo RHP
Rationale: As the season ended, I perused the free agent class and stopped on Gleyber Torres. He’s a guy I would have liked to seen the Sox go after him previously. When I looked at his 2025 campaign, I was surprised by something: his fielding. His play at 2b netted him a -4 DRS and -4 OAA. I understand he was likely hurt and this not me shitting on Gleyber. It’s more noting that the Tigers lived with subpar fielding at 2b in exchange for a bat, which is what Lenyn Sosa is.

I also think while the Tigers have options in the middle infield, there is uncertainty. Despite rumors of the Javier Baez renaissance, that shit didn’t really pan out in the second half. Trey Sweeney is there, but how’s the bat? Will they bring up Kevin McGonigle to start the season? Did Zach McKinstry figure it out at the plate? A lot of unanswered questions could have them opt for adding another guy in that mix.

Lenyn is in a similar place to McKinstry of “did he finally get right?” His walk rate remains non-existent at 3% but he generally looked good at the plate and lead the Sox in HR and RBI. He also will appear in a number of these blogs as he doesn’t really fit with what Getz and crew are attempting to do with the roster.

In return the White Sox get Kelvis Salcedo who has looked good in Rookie ball and Single A. But Fangraphs notes, he has significant reliever risk to him. His Fangraphs page from March of 2025 lists him at 6’0″ 210lbs and mentions “Salcedo is a bigger-bodied righty” and “His profile includes substantial relief risk because of his build alone” which are ways of calling a dude fat in Fangraphsese. But strangely, on Baseball Reference, he’s 6’0″ and 180lbs. So either he lost 30 lbs or Fangraphs did him dirty. Now I can’t find any footage of him doing DDP Yoga with Diamond Dallas Page, but it’s possible he has slimmed down. Regardless, he would help fill some of the starting pitching depth the org thought it had, but slipped away quickly.