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Former White Sox: Adam Eaton shining in World Series

By Joshua Finkelstein

HOUSTON, TEXAS - OCTOBER 23: Adam Eaton #2 of the Washington Nationals is congratulated by his teammate Victor Robles #16 after hitting a two-run home run against the Houston Astros during the eighth inning in Game Two of the 2019 World Series at Minute Maid Park on October 23, 2019 in Houston, Texas. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)
HOUSTON, TEXAS - OCTOBER 23: Adam Eaton #2 of the Washington Nationals is congratulated by his teammate Victor Robles #16 after hitting a two-run home run against the Houston Astros during the eighth inning in Game Two of the 2019 World Series at Minute Maid Park on October 23, 2019 in Houston, Texas. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images) /
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The Chicago White Sox agreed to a deal in 2016 that sent Adam Eaton to the Washington Nationals. Now, Eaton finds himself having a phenomenal start to his World Series career through his first two games in it. 

Eaton, 30, has gone 4-for-8 with a homer, two runs scored, and three RBI through the first two games against the Astros in Houston.

On Wednesday night, he recorded the first hit of the game after Trea Turner walked. Both Turner and Eaton would score on an Anthony Rendon RBI double in the next at-bat to give the Nationals a 2-0 lead.

Eaton also helped put an exclamation point on their 12-3 victory as he hit a two-run homer in the top of the eighth inning to extend the Nats lead to 10-2 at the time.

While Eaton is having a great World Series and a solid postseason (.250/.340/.409 slash line with one homer, two doubles, one triple, and seven RBI), the price it cost to acquire him was still high.

In 2016, the Nationals sent back pitchers Lucas Giolito, Reynaldo Lopez, and Dane Dunning.

Now, if the Nationals win the World Series, nobody will ever care about the price tag as the name of the game is to win the last game of a season.

Eaton certainly helped them get there as he hit .279/.365/.428 with 15 homers, 49 RBI, and 15 stolen bases this season to give himself a 107 wRC+ and 2.3 fWAR.

That being said, the White Sox certainly aren’t complaining about what they acquired for an outfielder who only appeared in over 100 games in a season in 2019 for the first time since being traded.

Giolito, 25, broke out in 2019 and established himself as an ace for this team for years to come with a 3.41 ERA, 3.43 FIP, and 1.064 WHIP in 29 starts. He also averaged 11.6 K/9 as compared to 2.9 BB/9.

Lopez, also 25, wasn’t nearly as effective with a 5.38 ERA, 5.04 FIP, and 1.457 WHIP in 33 starts. However, he showed some signs of breaking out this season including a complete game against the Cleveland Indians on September 5 in which he struck out 11 while allowing only one run on one hit.

Dunning, 24, is the fifth-best prospect in the White Sox farm system according to MLB Pipeline. Unfortunately, he did not pitch this past season after undergoing Tommy John Surgery.

In 2018, though, he was very good across two levels (High-A Winston-Salem and Double-A Birmingham) in which he had a 2.71 ERA and 1.193 WHIP to go along with 10.4 K/9 as compared to 2.7 BB/9.

If Lopez were to develop into a more reliable back-end starter and Dunning were to replicate his minor league success at the MLB level, the White Sox could potentially have 3/5 of their starting rotation covered from the Adam Eaton trade.

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There’s no reason why we shouldn’t be rooting for Adam Eaton to be successful with the Washington Nationals because the Chicago White Sox certainly are benefiting from the trade themselves. This could be a rare win-win trade.

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