With White Sox ahead of schedule, Getz getting aggressive at trade deadline

Posted August 02, 2026 5:38 pm

By Jon Greenberg

White Sox general manager Chris Getz didn’t go into this season with any airs about leading the American League Central or being one of the more aggressive teams at the MLB trade deadline, but here the Sox are, in first place and making significant deals in early August.

Things have changed quickly for Chicago, which is just two years removed from setting a modern record for losses, and on Saturday, Getz swung a trade for Seattle Mariners starting pitcher Luis Castillo, a reliable workhorse in the midst of a down season.

“We’re a day away from the trade deadline,” he said in a video conference call with reporters Sunday, “and we’ve got an opportunity to continue to build out this roster to give us a greater chance of making the playoffs and still set us up for future success.”

While the Sox (58-52) lost to the Tampa Bay Rays on Saturday, the second-place Cleveland Guardians (56-56) lost to the Arizona Diamondbacks, so Getz’s team still had a three-game lead in the AL Central going into Sunday’s games. After the Castillo deal and another Guardians’ loss, the Sox’s odds to win the division jumped from 35.8% to 39.5%, according to FanGraphs.

“The fun part about this part of the season when you’re looking at acquisitions, you can plug it into a projection system and playoff probabilities,” Getz said. “And as you’re inputting different possibilities and potential acquisitions out there and understanding what the acquisition cost is going to be, (the Sox’s odds) took a meaningful jump.”

The reason, Getz said, is that Castillo will provide innings for a team that needs help. Going into Sunday’s game, the White Sox ranked last among AL teams in starting pitching innings with 479 2/3.

Castillo, a three-time All-Star, has thrown 99 2/3 innings this season, which would only rank fifth on the Sox. But the Sox’s top two starters, Sean Burke and Davis Martin, are in just their second seasons as full-time members of the rotation.

“We’re going toward uncharted territory for a lot of these young arms,” Getz said. “And to be able to provide Luis Castillo’s innings and ability into our group, that’s why our probability took such a large jump, in addition to our 2027 playoff probability.”

What’s happened in those Castillo innings hasn’t been great. He’s got a 5.06 ERA and a 1.395 WHIP. In his last three starts, he’s given up seven homers. But from late May through July 21, his ERA was under 4.00. Despite an average fastball around 95 mph, the 33-year-old’s strikeout percentage is down to 19.4%, which would mark the first time he’s been under 20% in his career.

Castillo is making $22.75 million this season and in 2027, and he has a vesting option for $25 million in 2028. The Sox have one of the lowest payrolls in baseball and have lost more than 100 games in three straight seasons, including the record-setting 121-loss season in 2024. Attendance is finally picking up, and the Sox are starting to get more viewers to their RSN station, which they co-own with the Blackhawks and Jerry Reinsdorf’s other team, the Bulls. The time is now to make moves to build on this momentum.

What can Castillo bring to this year’s team? Getz said he has plenty left in the tank and the character reports he got were “about as glowing as I’ve heard about any player.”

“I think that there’s going to be opportunity to perhaps tweak an arsenal or some of the delivery,” Getz added. He pointed to director of pitching Brian Bannister and pitching coach Zach Bove’s success with recent pitching additions like Jordan Hicks.

To offset the salary and dump a disappointing player, the Sox sent deposed closer Seranthony Domínguez, along with prospects Boston Smith and Nolan Jones, to Seattle. Domínguez signed a two-year, $20 million deal before the season.

The Sox have a highly-ranked farm system, though they have graduated several players to the big-league roster this season, which should allow them to make aggressive moves to build up their pitching staff. Getz said he was against trading a “top 100” prospect for a rental, but open to doing so for a player with control. He was still planning on adding more pitching before Monday’s deadline, and with Kyle Teel injured again, a catcher as well.

“I anticipate we do something,” he said of the catcher spot. “I just don’t know when and who’s going to be coming our way.”

Getz’s first full season as GM was in 2024, when the Sox were the laughingstock of baseball. The next winter, he traded Garrett Crochet for a package of prospects.

Now he’s trying to add pitching to hold onto the top spot in the AL Central and a potential bye out of the Wild Card round.

“It has been a long road to get where we are right now,” Getz said. “I don’t take any of this for granted. You can’t assume that you’re going to be in these positions every year.”