Yes indeed, Adrian Houser has been traded for a player the RAYS are giving up on — always a recipe for success
A month ago, I chose the best player on the White Sox, Adrian Houser, to feature in a trade-or-no story, with the conclusion reached that without a massive haul for him (not totally implausible given his now-3.0 WAR in less than half a season of play), he is the sort of pitcher who should be kept and extended on the cheap.
Naturally, then, on Thursday with minutes left before the deadline clock struck, GM Chris Getz shipped Houser to Tampa for failed infield prospect Curtis Mead.
Mead, in his third season with the Rays and playing in 111 career games, has a career 0.4 WAR. He has managed to combine a lack of speed, power and bat discipline into a brief career with one of the most respected talent-scouting orgs in the game in Tampa, so that’s something.
But when the Rays give up on you, well, it’s telling.
To be fair, Mead has mashed in the minors and was ranked as high as No. 16 overall in baseball among prospect rankers (Baseball Prospectus, before the 2023 season). But he has been, bluntly, a terrible major-leaguer. Approaching 25, time is running short.
The Sox also got two minor league throw-ins to the deal, and they might make you even angrier. Righthander Duncan Davitt was an 18th-rounder in 2022, coming out of the University of Iowa. His career has been almost totally nondescript, although he has continued to climb the ladder. This year at Double- and Triple-A (mostly AA), he’s made 19 starts to a 4.08 ERA and 1.167 WHIP. A lazy man’s comparison might liken Davitt to current Double-A righty Riley Gowens. If I had to make the call, I’d say Davitt is the best player in this deal.
Also included is this year’s Trey McGough (acquired a year ago for Eloy Jiménez, and who killed it for the remainder of the year with Charlotte and then, this year … retired), Ben Peoples. He’s a lefty, mid-20s like the other two acquisitions, with a 3.44 career ERA. The reliever is really clicking at Triple-A Durham this season, pitching to a 2.65 ERA over 35 games (five finishes).
For this bounty, we traded a starter in Houser, who out of nowhere was dynamite over 11 White Sox starts (yes, 3.0 WAR in 11 starts), pitching to a 2.10 ERA and 3.29 FIP. By all accounts he should have been Chicago’s All-Star Game rep. He’s up for free agency after the season so technically he’s a rental — but one who the White Sox could very clearly have extended this year at a reasonable rate.
Know how many pitchers in 125 years of White Sox baseball have recorded 3.0 WAR in 11 games or fewer? One: Adrian Houser. You have to up the number to 18 games (Bart Johnson, 1974) to get a better season.
I’ll ask all of you, but don’t mind putting my thumb on the scale for this one: My grade for Getz on this trade? F.