Less than three months after trading for Dylan Cease, the San Diego Padres are eyeing another of the Chicago White Sox’s top pitchers. Only this time, the two sides could have more difficulty reaching a deal, if they ever do.
The Padres have recently shown strong interest in left-hander Garrett Crochet, according to sources briefed on the White Sox’s discussions. San Diego’s need for starting pitching grew last week when Joe Musgrove and Yu Darvish landed on the injured list for the second time this season, and president of baseball operations A.J. Preller already has demonstrated unusual urgency this season by acquiring Cease from the White Sox during spring training and Luis Arraez from the Miami Marlins early last month. However, those trades also thinned a farm system that might no longer hold the same appeal for a club in the White Sox’s position.
The White Sox do not need to move their best remaining starter. Crochet, who turns 25 this month, is making $800,000 and will remain arbitration-eligible for the next two seasons. And although that amount of control could bring back a haul of talent, the Padres potentially face challenges in coming up with an enticing package.
For the White Sox to trade Crochet, according to a person familiar with that team’s thinking, they likely would require at least one position player prospect with significant upside. San Diego still has two in catcher Ethan Salas and shortstop Leodalis De Vries, but the Padres are reluctant to discuss either player unless they receive established star talent in return. Less than two years ago, Preller traded two young players who were considered close to untouchable — James Wood and MacKenzie Gore — as part of the price to acquire Juan Soto from the Washington Nationals. Before that deal, the Padres dangled multiple top prospects in talks with the Los Angeles Angels regarding Shohei Ohtani.
Crochet, of course, is not at the level of Soto or Ohtani. The Athletic’s Keith Law ranks Salas, 18, as the No. 6 prospect in baseball. De Vries, 17, received a $4.2 million signing bonus from San Diego in January. The Padres tend to promote their best prospects aggressively — Salas is in High A, and De Vries is in Low A — and they would like to eventually supplement a roster that has several nine-figure contracts with more inexpensive players like homegrown center fielder Jackson Merrill, who has been a positive contributor as a 21-year-old rookie.
In their deals for Cease, a former runner-up for the American League Cy Young Award, and Arraez, a two-time batting champion, the Padres surrendered outfielders Dillon Head (No. 5 in Law’s preseason ranking of San Diego’s top prospects), Samuel Zavala (No. 6) and Jakob Marsee (No. 10) and first baseman Nathan Martorella (No. 13). They did retain notable pitching prospects Dylan Lesko, Robby Snelling and Adam Mazur, who will make his major-league debut Tuesday night in place of Darvish. To get Crochet, perhaps Preller could work off his supply of young arms to acquire a position player or players who would satisfy the White Sox.
The Padres have been the most aggressive club pursuing Crochet, sources said, although that is standard operating procedure for Preller, who perhaps is the game’s most consistently active general manager. Darvish, 37, could return from a groin strain later this month. Musgrove, 31, is likely to remain on the injured list at least into July after experiencing a recurrence of the elbow inflammation that sidelined him last month. Mazur is considered the organization’s readiest upper-level starter despite the 7.11 ERA he posted across four starts in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League this season. Randy Vásquez, the current replacement for Musgrove, has pitched to a 5.74 ERA in six starts with the Padres.
Crochet, meanwhile, is thriving as a first-time big-league starter. After elbow and shoulder surgeries slowed his ascent the past two seasons, he has a 3.49 ERA and an American League-leading 93 strikeouts in 13 starts. His 2.88 Fielding Independent Pitching mark suggests he has suffered from some poor luck playing for a team that has the majors’ worst record (15-45) and arguably its worst defense.
Under first-year general manager Chris Getz, the White Sox are headed for a continuation of the sell-off that began when they sent Cease to San Diego. Candidates to be moved before the July 30 trade deadline include starting pitcher Erick Fedde, reliever Michael Kopech and outfielders Luis Robert Jr. and Tommy Pham. Robert, a 2023 All-Star, will earn $12.5 million this season and $15 million in 2025, with $20 million club options for 2026 and 2027. Those salaries make him less marketable than Crochet, who league sources say has drawn interest from various contending teams.
Few teams are as motivated as a Padres club that pulled off multiple pre-June blockbusters and now faces a possible deficit of starting pitching. The discussions that led up to the Cease trade could help facilitate a second exchange with the White Sox. But, for now, no agreement between the two sides is considered imminent. It remains to be seen if the Padres have the right players to close another aggressive deal.
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