The White Sox continued their active offseason this weekend, acquiring right-handers Jordan Hicks and David Sandlin from the Boston Red Sox for pitching prospect Gage Ziehl. On the surface, it looks like a strong deal for the White Sox, who land a bounce-back candidate with big stuff in Hicks and a pitching prospect that they believe will be an impact starting pitcher. An interesting and underrated aspect of the trade, however, was the addition of multiple “players to be named later”. The White Sox will receive two players to be named later in addition to Hicks and Sandlin, and the Red Sox will receive one along with Ziehl.
Trade announced: Jordan Hicks, David Sandlin, $8 million and two players to be named later to the White Sox for Gage Ziehl and a player to be named later.
— Chris Cotillo (@ChrisCotillo) February 1, 2026
By rule, a player to be named later must be identified within six months of the announcement of the trade, so both sides will have until August 1st to identify and send the other players involved in the deal. It’s a rather common occurrence for this to exist in trades, but multiple in one deal is an interesting wrinkle. The clubs have likely provided each other with a list of possible players and will wait to do further scouting throughout the spring and summer before making a final decision on which players to acquire.
The White Sox could land more high-level players in Jordan Hicks trade
While players to be named later are not often highly regarded prospects, it’s not unheard of for them to become big league contributors, or even stars. Phillies start shortstop Trea Turner was traded from his original team, the Padres, to the Washington Nationals in 2014. He was a player to be named later at the time and didn’t officially head to the Nationals until June of 2015. Other players like Michael Brantley, Gio Gonzalez, Marco Scutaro, David Ortiz, and Moises Alou have turned in excellent careers after being traded as a player to be named later as a prospect.
Obviously, there’s no guarantee that whoever the White Sox pick will make an impact, but they’ll have two shots at landing a future contributor. They’ll also lose a player, but I can’t imagine it’s a highly-touted prospect with the team taking on two-thirds of Jordan Hicks’ remaining salary.
For me, this kind of swing is exactly the type of move a team in the White Sox position should be making. They have one of the bottom payrolls in baseball and have very little committed for 2027 as well. Hicks posting a strong first half could net a solid return at the trade deadline, and the real prize of the deal is landing David Sandlin, who may crack the starting rotation as soon as this season.
The White Sox strong offseason continued this weekend, and it’ll likely get even stronger when the full trade is completed in the next few months. We’ll see if Chris Getz has any other moves up his sleeve before the season gets underway.