Chicago White Sox

And the source of the “88-89” was none other than A.J. Pierzynski watching a steam with absolutely no context, so not surprising it’s a whole lot of nothing.

Upon further review, Steven Wilson is a very interesting 4th piece. I wrote him off pretty much immediately due to his age, but the dude has put up pretty solid traditional stats, has posted +80th percentile xwOBA’s the past two years, and has really good stuff (ranked 18th in Stuff+ last year amongst relievers). His pitch mix is basically just a plus 4-seamer (FG graded it a 70 back in 2022 despite just avg velocity) & his bread & butter “slutter” that he’s been enhancing through technology. The sweeper all but confirms this is a Bannister guy. If it were me, I’d hand the closer role to Wilson and see how he responds. If he does well, we could be looking at a very valuable trade asset at the deadline as Wilson still has four years of control left. It’s still somewhat bizarre Getz went down this route vs. just getting an extra prospect, but I appreciate the creativity if they truly believe Wilson has real flip potential come July.

Don’t let Balta see this!

Lol…he’s a fucking 18 year old in A ball. His 14 HRs tied for 5th in the league.

Do you trust Bannister though?

I 100% prefer this trade.

People are underestimating the Bannister angle here. They scouted this farm extensively and chose these guys. People look at Thorpe and worry about his subpar fastball instead of seeing it as an obvious area of opportunity. His floor is already high, but with even a little improvement with the fastball and the kid could be special. Iriarte is a high ceiling arm with helium and at 22 years of age there is plenty of time for Bannister to help him harness his stuff a bit. If that doesn’t ultimately happen, he probably ends up a valuable back-end reliever. As for Zavala, Law had him as a top 100 prospect a year ago and he just put up a 140 wRC+ offensive season in A ball as an 18 year old. Law said he dropped him off the list due to some unfavorable reports and it sounds like there are some work ethic questions at play. But Law also doesn’t deny the talent (or the quality of the results) and there is a pretty high ceiling, even if a corner profile.

We got a SP ranked in the 60’s, another SP ranked in the 90 to 120 range, and a kid that is likely in the 100 to 150 range. That’s way more than those two were expecting no matter how much they want to spin this. I wouldn’t use the word “steep” to describe it, but I think it’s a roughly fair return and much more than what we would have gotten if opposing GMs valued him as the 2023 version.

People are legit sleeping on Thorpe. We’re talking about a SP with 70 grade command. Steamer & ZiPS both project him as a 2 win pitcher this year. I’d normally say he’s more of a middle of the rotation profile, but with Bannister just never know where he can rise him.

It’s a four for one so we know all the pieces. I am very much good with this return now that Zavala is a part of it.

We got your savage bro! Kid also just put a .420 OBP in A ball last year as an 18 year old. To be honest, I wanted Zavala more than Head so this is a huge win!

Savage!?!?!!

Why??

Thorpe is currently BA’s 58th overall prospect or the 15th highest ranked pitching prospect. I get wanting one of their even higher regarded arms (I really wanted Snelling), but let’s not pretend like he’s some fringe top 100 type. Iriarte was #92 overall on the 2023 list and is a consensus top 10 prospect in a really strong system. Need to see the rest of the package though.

Early favorite for POTY!!

I’m hoping Morosi breaks it to end his god awful streak of providing zero inside info that comes to fruition

Before opening day bro. I’m even more confident about this one than I was about Gioito commanding a top 100 prospect at the deadline and Santos being tradable despite coming off a season-ending injury. It will happen soon.

Things are going to happen soon whether you like it or not unfortunately.

Which means they aren’t serious about adding Cease

That could be possible…still think we were asking for Jones alongside some of those players.

None of this makes sense or a deal would likely be done already.

Good call out there. Saw Swift & Owens in there so assumed all our signings were as well. But they do have draft pick dollars in their build, so I think it would just be missing Byard & Everett (less minimum salary guys coming out of their build). I’m hoping we’re closer to $40M than $30M in total space.