Drew Thorpe provides hope if the Chicago White Sox trade All-Star Garrett Crochet

The MLB trade deadline is July 30th, and rumors continue to swirl that the Chicago White Sox will move All-Star pitcher Garrett Crochet.

Thankfully, the White Sox have a pitcher in place that can take over the No. 1 spot in the rotation if they do trade their ace.

Rookie pitcher Drew Thorpe continues to turn in quality starts.

Thorpe was the only bright spot this weekend as they were swept by the Kansas City Royals. The Royals outscored the Sox 17-3.

Tommy Pham played like he wanted to stay in Kansas City as the Royals are rumored to be interested in him. He had five hits which included two doubles and an RBI.

Otherwise, Bobby Witt Jr. and company destroyed the Sox.

Since Thorpe was rattled for eight runs, seven of them earned, in his second career start against the Arizona Diamondbacks, he has been tough to score on.

He rebounded when he threw six shutout innings against Detroit. He allowed five runs in three starts after and then was wonderful against the Royals.

The fear was Thorpe would be nothing more than a No. 5 starter with his lack of velocity on his fastball. He can hit mid-90s on the gun, but in today's modern age of throwing near 100, Thorpe's fastball is considered weak. Plus, it does not have a ton of movement on it.

What he can do is locate it, and if he is hitting his spots, it sets up his deadly changeup, which may already be the best in baseball.

While it would be great to dream of a rotation being built around Crochet and Thorpe, the likelihood is the Sox are not going to pay the steep price to extend Crochet. Plus, they need to find a foundational hitter like Witt Jr. and Crochet is their best trade asset to get that type of player.

Instead, the hope is Thorpe develops into an ace in the Mark Buerhle mold. A pitcher who does not need a blazing fastball, but instead can deploy an array of pitches that keeps hitters off balance.

Thorpe can be the foundation of a rotation much like Buerhle was at the beginning of the century. The Sox have plenty of in-house candidates to build a great rotation around.

Jonathan Cannon is proving at the very least he can be a solid No. 4 starter. He gave up four runs over six innings on Saturday. Those four came early and he settled down to keep the Royals off the board over the final four innings he pitched.

The Sox have used two of their last three first-round picks on big left-handed flamethrowers that project to be top-of-the-rotation pitchers in Noah Schultz and Hagen Smith. Schultz is mowing down hitters in his weekly four-inning Saturday starts at Double-A. That is the sound development plan the Sox have to build his workload for the big leagues since he was drafted out of high school.

The White Sox must sign Smith to make sure he is in the fold to give them two prospects to replace Crochet once he is traded. Then the White Sox have a plethora of young arms in the minors to compete for the No. 5 spot.

While it would be amazing to have Crochet and Thorpe together for years to come, at least the Sox have some hope that Thorpe is worth watching on the mound once Crochet is traded.