With an eye on 2024, White Sox trade Burger to Marlins, Middleton to Yankees
The White Sox made two more trades before Tuesday's 5 p.m. deadline, but it's a deal they didn't make that's most newsworthy.
As the minutes and seconds to the deadline ticked away, rampant rumors had the Sox trading No. 1 starting pitcher Dylan Cease, who is under contractual control through the 2025 season.
Cease stayed put, but infielder Jake Burger was dealt to the Marlins in a surprise move and relief pitcher Keynan Middleton was traded to the Yankees.
The White Sox also acquired right-handed pitcher Luis Patiño from the Rays for cash considerations.
Since last Wednesday, Burger, Middleton, Lucas Giolito, Reynaldo Lopez, Lance Lynn, Joe Kelly and Kendall Graveman have been traded for seven minor-league prospects and veteran outfielder Trayce Thompson.
Cease, Luis Robert Jr., Tim Anderson, Eloy Jimenez and Andrew Vaughn are among the core players that will most likely be back next season.
"It was very clear, obviously, that 2023 wasn't going the way any of us intended," Sox general manager Rick Hahn said Tuesday. "We entered this deadline knowing there were players we would be best served by moving on from and restocking the farm system, obviously prioritizing arms and getting guys at premium positions like (catcher Edgar) Quero and (catcher Korey) Lee were of importance to us. None of us wanted to be in this position.
"But we all feel very good about what we were able to accomplish once we accepted the fact this was the position we were in. We still have many impactful talents in Chicago. We still play in a division in which nobody has run away and hid in. Certainly competing for the postseason is viable in 2024."
Time will tell if Hahn can add enough quality pitching over the winter to replace all the pitching he traded away.
Time will tell if positional players like Anderson, Yoan Moncada, Jimenez, Vaughn and Andrew Benintendi can have more productive years.
Time will tell if the Sox can finally stay healthy.
"You don't shake something up just to shake it up," Hahn said. "That said, what we put out there hasn't worked the last couple of years now, or hasn't worked since at least '21. So there is absolutely consideration and dialogue and various permutations that we've played with to have a different look going forward. What exactly that's going to be come the '24 season? There's a lot of time between now and then to put that all in place."
In Tuesday's trades, the White Sox acquired left-handed pitcher Jake Eder from Miami for Burger.
Eder, 23, made his season debut on June 4 after missing the entire 2022 season recovering from Tommy John surgery. The Marlins' No. 4 prospect was 2-3 with a 4.12 ERA over 9 combined starts with Class A Jupiter and AA Pensacola.
"(Burger's) a tremendous kid, and we'll miss him," Hahn said. "We'll be rooting for him. At the end of the day, this was a strict baseball deal. In the end, we felt we dealt from a position of relative strength, in terms of right-handed power, and we were able to acquire one of the finer left-handed pitching prospects in the game."
Burger had a breakout season for the Sox with 25 home runs while hitting .214/.279/.527 in 88 games.
"I'm grateful to the White Sox organization for believing in me when it didn't seem like a lot of other people believed in me," Burger said. "Fans believed in me coming back from injury. A lot of good memories here. My son got to see my put on a White Sox jersey. But on the flip side of that, I'm going to Miami and I get to make a push for the playoffs in the wild-card hunt. I'm really excited about that."
In the Middleton (2-2, 3.96 ERA) deal, the Sox got Juan Carela, the Yankees' No. 29 prospect.
The 21-year-old righty was 2-4 with a 3.67 ERA in 17 games (16 starts) with Class A Hudson Valley.
Patiño, 23, was 3-4 with a 6.75 ERA 27 games (6 starts) with Class AAA Durham.
Rangers 2, White Sox 0
Taking Lance Lynn's spot in the starting rotation, Jesse Scholtens pitched 6 innings and gave up 1 run on 3 hits and 1 walk Tuesday night in the Sox's loss at Texas.
The White Sox managed only 3 hits and struck out 16 times against Rangers starter Andrew Heaney and three relievers.