3 reasons the Chicago White Sox should trade Garrett Crochet and the holes in them

Outside of Luis Robert Jr, Crochet is the best asset the White Sox have to land prime prospects.

Crochet is making $800k this season, so he is a bargain and his age along with his club control has already been discussed. He has already reached stud status and for all intents and purposes, he has also reached ace status.

Some contenders are going to need starting pitching. The Baltimore Orioles rotation has holes in it because of injuries. The same goes for the Milwaukee Brewers. The New York Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers are always looking for starting pitching.

Plus, those teams would love to have a young southpaw they can have at the top of their rotation for more than just a few months.

The holes in that reason are numerous...

First, the White Sox farm system needs bats. The word on the street is the Sox want position prospects with high upside who are close to the big-league level. Those are prospects teams are cautious to give up.

Second, do you trust the White Sox to develop prospects they get back in a deal? Developing pitching does not seem to be a concern as the organization seems to have a plan in place and the right guy in charge of their development in Brian Bannister.

Developing hitting is another story right now especially when you look at how the five hitting prospects the Sox have ranked among their top 10 overall prospects are performing.

Montgomery, the Sox' top prospect, is hitting home runs at Triple-A but also has a .218 average with a .718 OPS. Quero is now raking again at Double-A, but he had his struggles to start the season.

Bryan Ramos is hitting .250 with a .619 since going back to the minors and playing at Triple-A. Samuel Zavala is hitting .198 at High-A ball. Jacob Gonzalez is the only one who you can say is having a solid season even then, he has been rated as a high-floor, low-ceiling guy.

Oscar Colas and Lenyn Sosa failed badly in their early auditions. They are showing their career might be salvageable, but they might just be nothing more than bench players. The Sox seem to do a good job of churning out players more in the production mold of Danny Mendick. It is fine to produce a cheap bench, the Sox need foundation pieces that can produce hits and home runs at the big-league level.

In this deal, the Sox must walk away with at least two blue-chip prospects who become the foundation of the team eventually winning. Crochet can be that piece, so the Sox must multiply that type of foundation in a potential deal. They also need to win it considering the benefits they are possibly trading away in Crochet.

Also, some potential suitors might not have the hitters the Sox are craving. The Yankees, the Brewers, and the Orioles are really the only three teams that have been rumored among the potential suitors that could provide bats with the potential to be great.

The Orioles and Brewers have been hesitant to part with their talented young hitters. Those two teams understand that October is a crapshoot. They play the long game, build teams that can get to the Fall Classic, and go from there.

The Yankees have refused to trade their two top-hitting prospects. Now if the Orioles make a fair offer, then the Sox should jump on it since they have a record of developing hitting. That is the only exception Getz should make when it comes to trading Crochet.

The White Sox have plenty of young pitching prospects to make up for the potential loss of Crochet.

The hope of the White Sox returning to being competitive by 2026 lies within the young pitching prospects they have.

Cannon's developmental trajectory is pointing up. Nastrini has not looked great during his two brief tours of duty with the big-league club. If he can figure out his command issues, his stuff gives him the chance to be a solid starting pitcher. Drew Thorpe showed he could reach his floor during his first career start.

The starting rotation at Double-A Birmingham is brimming with hope. Noah Schultz is doing well despite only being allowed to throw four innings once a week. Jairo Iriarte, Ky Bush, Jake Eder, and Mason Adams are putting together really good outings. Grant Taylor is at Low-A who is showing a ton of promise.

Plus, the Sox can leverage a good pitching prospect in a deal for Crochet or out of the other veteran players they have to offer.

Here are the two holes in that reason...

The first hole is not all of these pitching prospects are going to pan out. With Bannister being a pitcher whisperer along with a development plan that makes sense--use Double-A to develop them since there are only so many pitches in those arms--there is comfort in knowing that the organization is capable of developing some more starters.

The history of the game shows that injuries or other reasons are going to get in the way of some of these arms having success at the big-league level or reaching it in the first place. Others might turn out to be nothing more than bullpen arms.

Some of these young arms might have to be leveraged to possibly acquire pieces for the next good team.

The better idea is to build the rotation around Crochet especially since as mentioned earlier, the franchise does not like to pay a lot for pitching. The Sox could have a homegrown rotation on the cheap with possibly only Crochet making millions for the next couple of years based on the hope he is signed to an extension.