Red Sox acquiring LHP Garrett Crochet from the Chicago White Sox

The Chicago White Sox have traded Garrett Crochet to the Boston Red Sox in exchange for a package of prospects.

The White Sox announced the trade on Wednesday, confirming earlier reports.

The Red Sox are sending catcher Kyle Teel to Chicago in the deal, along with outfielder Braden Montgomery, infielder Chase Meidroth and right-handed pitcher Wikelman Gonzalez. According to MLB.com, Teel is the Red Sox's No. 4 prospect, Montgomery is No. 5, Meidroth is No. 11, and Gonzalez is No. 14.

Crochet, a left-hander, just completed his first season as a starter with the White Sox, and despite the team’s abysmal results, Crochet made the most of his opportunities. In 32 starts in 2024, he recorded a 3.58 ERA over 146 innings and recorded 209 strikeouts with just 33 walks. On June 30 against Colorado, he tied his career high with 11 strikeouts. The 25-year-old Crochet earned the first All-Star nod of his career in July.

Leading into the deadline, Crochet was positioned to become a significant contributor in the rotation of a contending team. Instead, the White Sox opted to hold on to him for the remainder of the 2024 season. Crochet has two more years of team control and is set to become a free agent after 2026.

The Red Sox sent a haul to Chicago in exchange for Crochet. Boston is out at least two guys who project to be major leaguers, and in return they're getting an impact arm to upgrade their rotation. And it does need an upgrade. Tanner Houck was one of the only bright spots in last year's Red Sox pitching rotation, as well as the only Boston starter to finish the year with an ERA under 4.00.

Crochet will be taking the rotation spot recently occupied by Nick Pivetta, who departed in free agency this winter and is still looking for a new team. The Red Sox's three other starting pitchers — Brayan Bello, Cooper Criswell and Kutter Crawford — are all under contract until at least 2029.

The White Sox, who finished 41-121 in 2024 for the worst record in MLB history, are deep in the weeds of another rebuild. Landing Kyle Teel, a 22-year-old catcher and designated hitter, is a positive addition to a farm system that desperately needs to produce multiple stars to help the big-league team.

A mid-ranked prospect according to MLB and Baseball Prospectus, Teel started 2024 in Double-A and was promoted to Triple-A before the end of the season. In 112 games over two levels in 2024, he hit .288/.386/.433 with 23 doubles, 13 home runs, 68 walks and 116 strikeouts.

What to make of the White Sox's return?

Teel is the headliner — and a fascinating one at that. The 14th overall pick in the 2023 draft, he combines rare athleticism for a catcher with exciting offensive upside. He improved at the plate each season during his three years at the University of Virginia and didn’t stop hitting once he entered pro ball, racing all the way to Triple-A by the end of 2024. His statlines might never be especially gaudy, but the bar for catcher production at the plate is notoriously low — and Teel projects to clear it comfortably. While his fantastic arm is his best trait on defense, he continues to improve in other aspects of the position. This is one of the best catching prospects in baseball.

Catcher is a crucial position for any franchise to have figured out, and now Chicago has multiple promising candidates atop its system, as Teel joins 21-year-old switch-hitter Edgar Quero — acquired from the Angels for Lucas Giolito and Reynaldo Lopez at the 2023 trade deadline — as another potential backstop of the future. Both players finished 2024 in Triple-A, so it’ll be interesting to see which arrives in the major leagues sooner and if either starts to get playing time at other positions to increase the likelihood that they could occupy the same roster for years to come.

Montgomery is arguably the co-headliner alongside Teel, and it would not be surprising if he emerges over the next calendar year as Chicago’s best position-player prospect. He appeared to be a consensus top-eight talent in the 2024 draft as a switch-hitting slugger out of Texas A&M, but he broke his ankle late in his junior season and ultimately fell to Boston at No. 12. He didn’t play after signing because of the injury, so now his pro debut will take place with a new organization. There are some questions about his overall hit tool, but Montgomery looks like a potential star right fielder on paper. This trade makes him one of the more intriguing players in minor-league baseball entering 2025, as he will look to make a strong first impression for a team that surely has sky-high expectations for him.

With so much infield depth at Boston’s upper levels, Meidroth’s remarkable ascent to the cusp of the big leagues has gone somewhat overlooked. I highlighted him last summer as one of the more interesting prospects in the minors for his combination of defensive versatility and tremendous on-base ability, and now he joins a team that offers markedly more opportunities for him to make an impact at the major-league level in the near future. He still needs to work on elevating the ball more frequently, but the terrific plate discipline skills remain intact, and it would not be surprising to see Meidroth get considerable playing time in Chicago in 2025.

In a Boston farm system flush with bats, Gonzalez stood out for his upside on the mound, though he comes with considerable questions. At roughly 6 feet and 180 pounds, he doesn’t have the typical workhorse starter build, but he makes up for that with an incredibly live arm and fantastic raw stuff featuring a mid-90s heater and a plus curveball. He broke out in a huge way in 2023, when his 35.2% strikeout rate led minor-league pitchers with at least 100 innings, but his 14.7% walk rate was 12th-highest among the same sample. Command remains a struggle for Gonzalez, and he spent all of 2024 in Double-A, failing to replicate that level of dominance before he was limited to more condensed outings. He’ll be just 23 next season, and there are plenty of encouraging ingredients in place, but it remains unclear whether his future is in the bullpen or the rotation. Read more here. — Shusterman