White Sox 'buy a prospect' from Red Sox

Over the weekend, the White Sox made a kind of trade I can't recall them ever making before. 

They took on a bad contract and added to their payroll for purposes of acquiring a pitching prospect they wanted.

Here's the trade they made with the Boston Red Sox:

Chicago gets: RHP Jordan Hicks, RHP David Sandlin, two players to be named later, $8 million

Boston gets: RHP Gage Ziehl, a player to be named later

The guy the Sox wanted here is Sandlin, who was the No. 8 prospect in the Boston organization. The 24-year-old ascended to Triple-A last season, finishing the year with a 9-6 record and 4.50 ERA. He made 14 starts before moving to the bullpen to accommodate a predetermined innings limit.

I've never seen Sandlin throw a pitch before, but apparently he's 6-foot-4, 215 pounds and can rush it up in the mid-90s. He's another guy who could be in the starting rotation mix by the midpoint of 2026, and we all know the Sox need pitching.

Why would Boston do this deal? Welp, the Red Sox wanted to get rid of Hicks, who has two years and $25 million remaining on a four-year, $44 million contract he signed before the 2024 season.

The Sox are on the hook for all but the $8 million they received in the trade. In effect, they "bought" Sandlin by taking on the majority of Hicks' contract.

Hicks was a decent reliever for the St. Louis Cardinals from 2018-23, but after signing with San Francisco in 2024, he converted to starting. That experiment did not go well.

Last season, Hicks was traded from San Francisco to Boston midseason. He did not pitch well at either stop, going a combined 2-7 with a 6.95 ERA in 34 games. He made nine starts with the Giants, but all 21 of his games with the Red Sox were in relief.

According to comments given to Scott Merkin on whitesox.com, Hicks has been throwing in the high-90s in bullpen sessions this winter. Maybe there's still an effective relief pitcher in there somewhere.

The Sox do have some velocity in their bullpen now with Hicks joining Seranthony Dominguez, Grant Taylor and Jordan Leasure. That's not something we could have said at any point in 2025. We'll see who pitches in what role when the season starts. 

White Sox sign OF Austin Hays to 1-year contract

It's time to do a little player comparison, based on 2025 statistics:

Player A: .263/.356/.400, 17 2Bs, 9 HRs, 40 RBIs, 112 OPS+, 1.9 WAR, 93 games

Player B: .266/.315/.453, 16 2Bs, 15 HRs, 64 RBIs, 105 OPS+, 0.8 WAR, 103 games

Player A is Mike Tauchman, the veteran corner outfielder the White Sox brought in on a one-year contract last season.

Player B is Austin Hays, the veteran corner outfielder the White Sox just signed to a one-year deal for 2026. 

It's not an exact apples-to-apples comparison. Hays, 30, is five years younger than Tauchman. And Hays has more power than Tauchman, having hit 15 or more home runs in four of the past five seasons. Tauchman's career high in homers is 13, although he has Hays beat in the on-base percentage category. The shape of the production between these two players is a little different.

Also, Tauchman swings lefty. Hays bats right-handed.

But ultimately, the Sox are swapping one outfielder for another here. Hays is coming off a league-average kind of year with the Cincinnati Reds, and his best skill is the ability to hit left-handed pitching.

Here are his splits for last season:

• vs. LHP: .319/.400/.549
• vs. RHP: .249/.286/.422

That said, Hays did hit 13 of his 15 homers last season against righties, and I don't think he's coming to Chicago to be a platoon bat. He's coming here because there's an opportunity to play every day in a Sox outfield that features a lot of question marks.

Luis Robert Jr. has been traded, creating an open competition in center field.. Andrew Benintendi is the incumbent left fielder, but there are question marks about whether his health will allow him to stand in the outfield every day. Right field is vacant after Tauchman was not tendered a contract offer. Brooks Baldwin will be on the roster, but his role is likely utility-oriented. It doesn't seem probable that he would win an starting outfield spot in camp.

The Sox have accumulated several reclamation projects in the outfield. Luisangel Acuna, acquired in the Robert deal, has been mostly an infielder in his career, but he's playing center field in the Venezuelan winter league. Derek Hill, a glove-first veteran, is another candidate to play center. 

Everson Pereira, a former top prospect in the New York Yankees organization, and Tristan Peters, a castoff from the Tampa Bay Rays, are on the 40-man roster entering spring training. Former top prospect Jarred Kelenic, who struggled with both the Seattle Mariners and the Atlanta Braves, is coming to camp as non-roster invitee. 

Amid all this chaos and uncertainty, it seems pretty likely that Hays is going to be standing in a corner outfield spot on a regular basis for the Sox, provided he's healthy. He did miss 59 games last season with calf and hamstring injuries.

But presuming availability, a healthy Hays provides predictability in a sea of unpredictability. That's why the Sox signed him. 

White Sox memory lane: Hanser Alberto retires

Are there any other White Sox fans out there who chuckled after hearing the news of Hanser Alberto's retirement? 

The 33-year-old utility infielder last played in a major league game on May 31, 2023, with the Sox, of course. After all, Chicago is where middling careers go to die.

Alberto's main claim to fame was batting .439 in spring training 2023, which convinced the Sox to carry him on the roster and designate Leury Garcia for assignment. The move was unthinkable at the time, because Garcia had two years remaining on his contract, and the Sox don't typically eat that sort of deal.

Not to mention, Garcia was beloved by team management, even as he was disliked by some segments of the fan base because he was overused by former manager Tony La Russa in both the 2021 and 2022 seasons.

In any case, Alberto made the club because of his "veteran leadership" and because he "knew Pedro." You see, former manager Pedro Grifol was in his first season with the Sox, and Alberto had played in Kansas City -- where Grifol coached previously -- and the belief was he could get other veterans on the Sox to "buy in" to the new manager. 

Yeah, no, that didn't happen. Alberto batted .220/.261/.390, and he was gone by June 1. The Sox went on to finish 61-101, and there was ample evidence that Sox veterans didn't respect Grifol. They might have even hated his guts. 

The hiring of Grifol is a major misstep in Sox history that probably doesn't get talked about enough. There's been plenty of discussion about La Russa's hiring before the start of the 2021 season.

Owner Jerry Reinsdorf came down from on high and undercut general manager Rick Hahn. He forced Hahn to hire La Russa, and it was the wrong decision. La Russa was years past his prime, and he was the wrong guy for the team in place.

Two years later, when La Russa stepped aside because of his declining health, Hahn conducted his own search and brought in his own guy. Somehow, he landed on ... Grifol.

That's the move that finally got Hahn fired late in the 2023 season. After the 101-loss season ended, Grifol was inexplicably brought back for 2024, when he went 28-89 and got fired in August. Grifol's final record as Sox manager: 89-190.

A dead dog probably could have done better than that.

And let's not forget, the Sox began 2023 with sky-high expectations. Jose Abreu had left in free agency, and Liam Hendriks was undergoing cancer treatment. However, the rest of the so-called "championship core" was still in place.

The lineup had Tim Anderson, Yoan Moncada, Eloy Jimenez, Yasmani Grandal and Luis Robert Jr. Andrew Benintendi was signed as a free agent, and highly touted draft pick Andrew Vaughn was expected to take Abreu's place.

The pitching staff: Dylan Cease, Lance Lynn, Lucas Giolito, Michael Kopech, several of the guys who helped the Sox to the AL Central title in 2021 were still present. All of the high-priced bullpen arms that Hahn adored -- Kendall Graveman, Joe Kelly, Aaron Bummer -- they were still here too.

Yet time proved that La Russa got significantly more out of that roster than Grifol, even if La Russa was half asleep in the dugout most of the time. 

It just goes show how bad Grifol was, and a mediocre journeyman like Alberto wasn't going convince anyone in that clubhouse otherwise. 

White Sox sign Seranthony Dominguez to 2-year contract

After the White Sox traded center fielder Luis Robert Jr., general manager Chris Getz said the $20 million the team was saving on Robert's contract would be spent elsewhere.

Well, half that money is accounted for. Relief pitcher Seranthony Dominguez will be slated to make $10 million in 2026 as part of a two-year, $20 million contract he will sign with the Sox.

Dominguez, 31, split time in 2025 with the Baltimore Orioles and Toronto Blue Jays. He appeared in a career-high 67 games and tossed a career-high 62.2 innings, totaling 79 strikeouts, 36 walks and a 3.16 ERA.

Those 79 strikeouts were also a career high for Dominguez, who throws 97 mph and should add some much-needed swing-and-miss stuff to the Sox bullpen. 

Of course, while his 30.3% strikeout rate last season is desirable, his 13.8% walk rate and league-leading 12 wild pitches temper enthusiasm a little bit.

Dominguez is tough on right-handed batters. He limited them to a .132/.269/.182 slash line last season. Left-handers were noticeably better at .277/.371/.446.

It stands to reason that Dominguez could thrive in a role where he faces primarily righties, but the Sox are planning to use him as a closer -- he has 40 saves in seven MLB seasons -- so how he handles lefties could determine his success or failure in a ninth inning role.

Is this the best way for Getz to spend the money he saved on the Robert deal?

Ehh. I've never been a big proponent of spending on relief pitchers when you have a holes in your lineup like Swiss cheese.

The Sox outfield was suspect even before Robert's departure. You figure highly paid veteran Andrew Benintendi is a lock for one roster spot, but the other outfield jobs will be up for grabs among Luisangel Acuna, Brooks Baldwin, Derek Hill, Everson Pereira, Tristan Peters and Jarred Kelenic.

That doesn't inspire a lot of confidence, does it? Maybe the Sox should have spent on an outfielder. 

That said, the remaining outfield free agents wouldn't make me feel much better. Harrison Bader and Austin Hays are probably the top two left on the market, and neither moves the needle for me.

Given the track record of the Sox organization in recent years, we should probably be happy that Getz spent his savings on *something*. 

Dominguez is an upgrade over some other pitchers projected for the Sox bullpen, for sure. 

White Sox trade Luis Robert Jr. to New York Mets

It's official: This bobblehead featuring Eloy Jimenez and Luis Robert Jr. has been rendered obsolete.

That's because the White Sox on Tuesday cut ties with Robert, the last significant piece of the failed Rick Hahn rebuild, trading him to the New York Mets for all-purpose player Luisangel Acuna and pitcher Truman Pauley.

The Mets are taking on all $20 million of Robert's 2026 salary, in addition to the 2027 team option for $20 million that includes a $2 million buyout.

Some Sox fans seem unhappy with this light of a return, but the fact is Robert is often injured. He's also been unproductive in each of the past two seasons, and he's also expensive.

Injured, unproductive and expensive: Three strikes and you're out. 

Robert was marketed to fans, by Hahn and others, as a future superstar. But aside from the 2023 season, when Robert slugged 38 homers and made his only All-Star team, he was a disappointment.

In fact, that 2023 campaign looks like the outlier, a career year. Here's what Robert has done more recently:

• 2024: .224/.278/.379, 14 homers, 35 RBIs, 23 SBs, 100 games, 1.4 WAR, 86 OPS+
• 2025: .223/.297/.364, 14 homers, 53 RBIs, 33 SBs, 110 games, 1.4 WAR, 85 OPS+

These are not superstar numbers, friends. The most reliable Robert skill is his speed, and even that is fleeting given the amount of time he spends on the injured list with ailments in his legs. There were eight players on the 2025 Sox, a 102-loss team, that accumulated more WAR than Robert did last season.

Strangely, you still hear people talk of Robert's upside and "potential," but this is now a 28-year-old player with six years of experience in the league. He is who he is. Believe your eyes. Believe what you are seeing from this player, not what people have told you to expect from him.

Some people will say, why not keep Robert until the trade deadline? See what he does in the first half, and maybe he can rebuild some trade value. 

Well, for starters, that was tried last year. It didn't work. But just for the sake of argument, let's say the Sox keep Robert and he regains his 2023 form. Would that really increase his trade value dramatically? 

I say no.

Why? Because rival GMs would be reluctant to give up premium talent for a player with a long track record of injury. Think about it: Are you going to give up top prospects to acquire Robert for a playoff push, knowing full well that he usually finishes every season on the injured list? If you're a contending team, you're looking for someone more reliable, right? 

You see, the days of Robert as a premium trade asset are long since past, so Sox GM Chris Getz took what he could get.

I understand the fan frustration with hearing about how this trade creates "financial flexibility" for the Sox. The $20 million Robert contract should not be stopping the Sox from spending. Only in cheap owner Jerry Reinsdorf's world was Robert's money preventing the Sox from going out and improving their team. The anger with that is understandable.

But you cannot be angry with this trade return because, well, Robert isn't worth that much.

Acuna, 23. was once the third-rated prospect in the Mets' system, but he's never gotten a full-time opportunity because he's been blocked by veteran players.

He's played in 109 games over two years with New York, with pedestrian results. His career slash line is .248/.299/.341. He's played mostly infield with the Mets, but he's been playing center field with his team in the Venezuelan winter league.

The guess here is the Sox are going to give Acuna a full-time shot to stick in their outfield. He's only 5-foot-8, so he's undersized for an outfielder, but he does have speed and athleticism.

Pauley, 22, was New York's 12th round pick in the 2025 draft. He pitched 4.1 innings at Single-A last season after finishing his collegiate career at Harvard. I would expect him to begin 2026 in A-ball.

Bellinger back to Yankees

With Robert bound for the Mets, that made one less team in the hunt for free agent outfielder Cody Bellinger, who was the best remaining bat on the market coming into Wednesday.

On Wednesday, Bellinger went back to the Yankees on a five-year, $162 million contract. The deal includes opt-outs after the second and third seasons. 

No surprise here. Bellinger was a top priority for the Yankees all offseason, and the two sides finally came to terms. 

Mark Buehrle's Hall of Fame support grows

Former White Sox ace Mark Buehrle is still a long shot to make the National Baseball Hall of Fame, but he had his highest vote total yet this year.

This is Buehrle's sixth year on the ballot, and he garned 85 votes, or 20% of the ballots cast. A candidate must reach 75% in order to earn election to the Hall. A player must receive at least 5% of the vote in order to remain on the ballot.

In case you were wondering, Buehrle got only 11.4% of the vote last year. As recently as 2022, he nearly fell off the ballot when he received 5.8%. So, yes, support is growing, but a player can only remain on the ballot for 10 years, and Buehrle only has four shots left to gain another 55% of support.

It's not likely, but as a Sox fan, I'll pull for him as long as possible.  

Jones, Beltran get Hall call

Outfielders Andruw Jones and Carlos Beltran were elected to the Hall of Fame on Tuesday. 

Jones is known as a stalwart center fielder for the Atlanta Braves. He won 10 consecutive Gold Gloves with Atlanta from 1998 through 2007.  

But he does have a White Sox tie. I was in the stands the day he hit his 400th career home run. Jones played one season on the South Side of Chicago, and he hit that milestone homer off Kansas City right-hander Anthony Lerew on July 11, 2010, at then-U.S. Cellular Field.

Jones appeared on 78.4% of the ballots in his ninth year eligible for election. Among outfielders in the Hall of Fame, he has the lowest lifetime batting average (.254), but the years of brilliant defense carried his candidacy. Jones totaled 24.4 defensive WAR in his career, which is the best of any outfielder in baseball history. 

I'm sure the 434 career homers didn't hurt.

As for Beltran, he received 84.2% of the vote in his fourth year on the ballot. 

A nine-time All-Star, Beltran was a switch-hitting center fielder with both power and speed. He is one of only five players with at least 500 doubles (565), 400 homers (435) and 300 steals (312). The others are Willie Mays, Andre Dawson, Barry Bonds and Alex Rodriguez.

With 1,582 runs and 1,587 RBIs, he is one of only 38 players in history with at least 1,500 in each of those categories.

Beltran won a World Series as a member of the 2017 Houston Astros, but his name became linked with the "trash can" sign-stealing scandal involving that team. It cost him an opportunity to manage the New York Mets in 2020, but it did not cost him election to the Hall of Fame.

Jones and Beltran will join Jeff Kent, who was elected by the Contemporary Baseball Era Committee, as members of the 2026 Hall of Fame class. The induction ceremony is July 26 in Cooperstown, N.Y. 

Bo Bichette signs with Mets; J.T. Realmuto staying with Phillies

Catching up on some free agent news after the long weekend:

Infielder Bo Bichette is leaving the Toronto Blue Jays. He's signing a three-year deal worth $126 million with the New York Mets, who pivoted after losing out to the Los Angeles Dodgers in the Kyle Tucker sweepstakes. 

The Mets are going to be an interesting experiment this year. They lost slugging first baseman Pete Alonso to the Baltimore Orioles in free agency, but they've signed Bichette and Jorge Polanco. And they traded outfielder Brandon Nimmo to Texas for infielder Marcus Semien.

New York's projected infield is Polanco at first base, Semien at second, Francisco Lindor at shortstop and Bichette at third.

Notably, Polanco has never played first base, and Bichette has never played third. All four of those guys have been middle infielders their whole careers. The Mets are apparently going to test the theory that players with experience at shortstop can stand anywhere else on the field.

The Philadelphia Phillies reportedly made an offer to Bichette, but after he signed with an NL East rival, the Phillies pivoted and retained their longtime starting catcher, J.T. Realmuto, on a three-year, $45 million deal. 

I keep waiting for Philadelphia to do something to shake it up, after it has fallen short repeatedly in the playoffs in recent years. But for the most part, it seems like the Phillies are running it back. They've kept two of their top three free agents this offseason, Realmuto and slugger Kyle Schwarber, who signed for five years and $150 million in December. Philadelphia lost starting pitcher Ranger Suarez to the Red Sox.

The Phillies definitely still look like a playoff team, but it feels like they need to change the mix to get to the World Series and win it.