15 minutes ago, almagest said:

Also the usual suspects here hate the move and that automatically makes it better.

Yeah, the more hyperbolic our glum chums rant, that makes me look for more positives, and then I find them. I've already reasoned Pereira out of my mind over that 8th inning single he let bounce past him on Saturday, and if Castillo can right the ship, I think he's a dude.

13 minutes ago, GreenSox said:

So we traded for what we had and then virtually gave away in Hill. We’ve done several of these zigzag sort of things over the last couple of years.

Because we're a rebuilding club running prospects through the queue. Hill wasn't a long-term piece. And if they found a taker, they had to move him to give Pereira a shot to see what they had. Same with Acuña, Kelenic, Peters, Murray, Notch and Nishida.

3 minutes ago, WestEddy said:

Yeah, the more hyperbolic our glum chums rant, that makes me look for more positives, and then I find them. I've already reasoned Pereira out of my mind over that 8th inning single he let bounce past him on Saturday, and if Castillo can right the ship, I think he's a dude.

Most of the grades in this thread are fairly comparable. I’m not seeing any hyperbolic “glum chums” ranting. You even graded it a C.

Hyperbolic would be reasoning a player that you formerly liked out of your mind over one single defensive miscue.

Edited 19 hours ago19 hr by WhiteSox2023

14 minutes ago, almagest said:

I just don't think Pereira is much of anything because he can't stay on the field. We'll see if Doyle is any better.

I’m just not seeing where Doyle is much of anything either. He’s 3 years older than Pereira and has had a lot more time to prove himself in the majors. He has almost 1,450 more major league plate appearances than Pereira and here’s his career line. Yikes…

.233

.284

.385

.670

B-/C+

I don’t understand the Pereira move. He’s shaky in the field, but he seemed to have some RH pop. Seems like the kind of guy you’d want to keep around. If they feel Doyle is going to regain his form from a few years ago, I suppose it’s worth a shot.

I like the Bart pickup, but I still feel like Lee should have been called up at some point.

I’d rather see Shultz move to the pen. He can’t seem to make it through a second time around the order, so pitching in relief might accelerate his game. Fedde and Kay both give a solid 5 innings and keep the game close.

Bullpen move is an upgrade.

Most importantly, they didn’t give away anything that should affect their future.

Edited 19 hours ago19 hr by Middle Buffalo

40 minutes ago, Falstaff said:

Adams coming off TJ is a factor that comes into play.

He gained some velocity since TJS. Huge plus IMO.

12 minutes ago, WhiteSox2023 said:

Most of the grades in this thread are fairly comparable. I’m not seeing any hyperbolic “glum chums” ranting. You even graded it a C.

Hyperbolic would be reasoning a player that you formerly liked out of your mind over one single defensive miscue.

Yeah, nobody is ranting here. I think some of the individual reactions in the general trade string are extreme (worst trade ever, etc.), and those just make me consider them, more. I'm not criticizing anyone for their viewpoints. I don't think that single play changed the org's minds on Pereira, but if they were leaning, I don't think it helped.

7 minutes ago, WhiteSox2023 said:

I’m just not seeing where Doyle is much of anything either. He’s 3 years older than Pereira and has had a lot more time to prove himself in the majors. He has almost 1,450 more major league plate appearances than Pereira and here’s his career line. Yikes…

.233

.284

.385

.670

I've posted some reasons why elsewhere. He's had personal issues (lost a child due to miscarriage) and some injuries since his breakout 2024. The injuries are hopefully behind him, and he's been showing some positive offensive signs since returning from injury this year. He's a good defender which helps prop his value up. Sox seem to like taking multiple shots on multiple players to see who sticks and who their organizational philosophy can help. I don't have a problem with that.

24 minutes ago, Falstaff said:

Hill was a great waiver pick up but once Braden came up and took over right field, he was the odd man out. Peters took off and was playing great which was totally unexpected.

Yea but we had Perez out there too. Could have kept Hill in lieu of him. Anyway, if Doyle can re-channel 2024, we're set.

11 minutes ago, WestEddy said:

Yeah, nobody is ranting here. I think some of the individual reactions in the general trade string are extreme (worst trade ever, etc.), and those just make me consider them, more. I'm not criticizing anyone for their viewpoints. I don't think that single play changed the org's minds on Pereira, but if they were leaning, I don't think it helped.

I do agree that we were all expecting Pereira to be able to play CF when he was first acquired, but that doesn’t seem to be the case.

24 minutes ago, GreenSox said:

Yea but we had Perez out there too. Could have kept Hill in lieu of him. Anyway, if Doyle can re-channel 2024, we're set.

Perez came up when Hays & Pereira got hurt

The most annoying part of this trade deadline is that this is probably half of our next offseason already.

A starter, a reliever, a center fielder, and a backup catcher.

I’m not seeing much spending happening next offseason, with or without a lockout.

We made a swap in the bullpen which was an upgrade, still could have used one more IMO. But this was by far the best move, still think we overpaid a bit though given his age.

We might have gotten better at SP if Castillo can be tweaked and comes back to form from previous years but that might not be even good enough because his road splits were not good playing for Seattle. Also overpaid and now stuck with his contract next year with the worry he won't gain form again and we will have to drop him and eat the money.

We upgraded half of the catching tandem by just a little bit but demoted the better of the two catchers we had on the roster

We overpaid for a backup OF that we hope after injury and a down season last year we can tap into what he had in 2024 while playing for the most hitter friendly team.

I wanted them to improve the current roster's biggest weaknesses and they did. I didn't want them to borrow too much too quickly from the future of a team that's arriving early and they didn't.

Feels like SEA should have gotten Smith OR the Sox eating all of the money rather than both, but I've read that Smith had real approach concerns despite the flashy AA numbers so I get selling high if they see him as future LF/DH on a hot streak rather than a real C prospect. SEA was unlikely to eat all or even most of the contract and take Dominguez, so whatever I guess...Basically turned Houser + money into Luis Castillo (and Joey Bart), fine. Rather them flash a willingness to spend than add another/bigger name to get the dollars down.

If Castillo gives them just Fedde-quality pitching but for 6-7 innings/start instead of 4-5, that's a healthy number of BP bullets saved down the stretch plus some playoff experience when/if they get to the dance. Any Fedde/Houser/Cueto/etc. style vet resurgence is obviously a plus. Watching the rest of the SP market play out probably made me higher on the deal.

The pen, which has been solid as is, should be improved with the lower workload and Brazoban/Fedde replacing Ser and Schweitzer/Murphy.

Don't love the Doyle deal, but more for the cost than the player. If he's a more reliable defender with a marginally better approach than Pereira, that could be helpful (though I find Pereira's hard contact and high motor intriguing to dream on). I'm also an Adams fan, who hates for his sake that he'll have to pitch at Coors (and it feels fated that we'll see him in that September series vs. COL...)

I have other quibbles on the edges; I would have kept Quero up over Romo, and would have liked to see them resolve the Hays/Grichuk redundancy proactively. But not much overall that feels like something I'll look back on in two months with any real agitation.

Overall happy that Getz didn't seem to force anything and very relieved they didn't try to get too cute in dealing from the current group. Could they have swung a bigger name with a top 10 prospect or two? Maybe, but it's not the time. Could you have done some kind of MLB for MLB moves with Newcomb expiring, Meidroth playing at a position of strength, etc.? Probably, but Getz talked about valuing and respecting the mojo the group has going, and I'm glad he stuck to that.

The acquisitions having control gives flexibility to redirect them as/if needed. The Bonemers, Carlsons, McDougals, and Smiths of the org are more likely to have ceiling raising impact (and a team better positioned to capitalize on it) in 2027 and beyond compared to overpaying for the "bigger" names available this week, especially the rentals.

And of course there's also the other bigger picture, where the deadline discussions that most expected a few months ago would have centered on whether a contender might come calling for Davis Martin instead of where the SP you acquired would slot in next to him in a potential playoff rotation...hard for me not to grade on a bit of a curve for even being here, especially when I'm not convinced there were realistic "A+" moves (from my perspective) available.

TLDR: I'm content making some mostly floor moves to help this core start to figure out their ceiling. They're early, but they've earned a shot at the postseason, and they've got one. They took the offseason as a vote of confidence and can take this deadline as another. But any magic this year was always going to be up to those core guys rather than some mythical deadline savior coming in to make them a WS favorite, so I'm glad Getz rounded up some horses rather than go unicorn hunting.

2 hours ago, Falstaff said:

Adams coming off TJ is a factor that comes into play.

If that's the case they sold super low on him.

I gave them a B, but it's probably a B-. I think the rotation got a little better, possibly more than a little if a change in surroundings helps Castillo. The bullpen addition was really good. Big improvement over Dominguez for a fraction of the price. I'm not sure about the move for Doyle. I wonder if that move was in anticipation of an outfielder being moved, and a deal fell through. But, replacing Pereira with Doyle seems like a wash. I think Bart was a smart move. He's an improvement over what we had going on, although that's not saying much. And they gave up essentially nothing for him. As someone else mentioned, the ask for Stephenson must have been ridiculous considering he didn't move.

The best part of all of this is the team got better, and they didn't trade any top prospects. We'll know in a few weeks how much better they got.

12 hours ago, CaliSoxFanViaSWside said:

No rentals

Sox have to get innings and quality from Castillo.

Brazoban only player acquired that's a clear upgrade, can't regress

Bart upgrade defensively and offensively but only because Quero was so obscenely bad.

Doyle 28 older project but great defensively but added to clusterfuck of RHH OF which led to the Pereira DFA who despite his injuries had upside and a lot of service time left but no options .

Leaning a bit too much on age and coaching staff . C-

Agree on the catching, just about anyone would be better the the tandem of Quero and Romo though I do still have hope for Quero down the road.

33 minutes ago, hogan873 said:

I gave them a B, but it's probably a B-. I think the rotation got a little better, possibly more than a little if a change in surroundings helps Castillo. The bullpen addition was really good. Big improvement over Dominguez for a fraction of the price. I'm not sure about the move for Doyle. I wonder if that move was in anticipation of an outfielder being moved, and a deal fell through. But, replacing Pereira with Doyle seems like a wash. I think Bart was a smart move. He's an improvement over what we had going on, although that's not saying much. And they gave up essentially nothing for him. As someone else mentioned, the ask for Stephenson must have been ridiculous considering he didn't move.

The best part of all of this is the team got better, and they didn't trade any top prospects. We'll know in a few weeks how much better they got.

Yankees made the same determination on their catchers as well.

@FiresideYankees: "The Yankees have signed

Christian Bethancourt

to an MiLB deal, per @BryanHoch . The 34-year-old catcher had a 90 wRC+ and . 466 SLG% in 59 games for the Iowa Cubs (AAA) this season.

At least we didn’t get M.Maldonado back out of retirement.

RF has been a black hole for years, thankfully Braden has resolved that problem. CF has an All Star, Peters might be running on fumes, but he had an awesome first half. LF has Sam patrolling and learning on the job. In the preseason I thoughts these 3 positions were the Sox biggest weakness and the catching with Teel & Q was rock solid.

Let's see what the last 1/3 of the season brings.

I went with a C. They don't seem much better but they don't seem worse. Hopefully they can fix Doyle.

Edited 9 hours ago9 hr by Bob Sacamano

Deep dive by Fegan on the trade deadline:

Did the White Sox thread the needle at the deadline, or w...

The White Sox entered the trade deadline hunting for a controllable starting pitcher to fortify a rotation that’s thrown the fewest innings in Major League Baseball, an addition to their bullpen’s hig

B+

The White Sox got markedly better without sacrificing the future; that's a win in our book. It has been an unexpectedly stellar season on the South Side, one that has pushed the Pale Hose into contention well ahead of schedule. But GM Chris Getz and Co. didn't get over their skis and do anything reckless. No, this was a reasonably aggressive deadline performance. Taking on Castillo's contract makes sense, given the club's relatively small payroll. He's not what he once was but remains a competent back-end starter with experience to impart. Brazobán and Doyle provide some depth. Nothing Earth-shattering here, but this is a nice series of moves for the Sox as they attempt to finish off what would be a shocking division title.

yahoo.com/sports

Edited 4 hours ago4 hr by caulfield12

5 minutes ago, Lip Man 1 said:

Josh Nelson must be da man. Howard Ankin is one of his sponsors. “Injury law made personal.”