White Sox prospect's hot start gives fans hope for Dylan Cease trade return after all

When Chris Getz took over as White Sox general manager in 2023, he was staring down the barrel of a full-scale rebuild. The White Sox were coming off a 100-loss season and traded away most of their top talent at the trade deadline. Getz’s first major trade as general manager sent the team’s ace, Dylan Cease, to the San Diego Padres in exchange for three prospects: RHP Drew Thorpe, RHP Jairo Iriarte, and OF Samuel Zavala. While the early returns on the White Sox end have been questionable at best, the resurgence of Zavala has given White Sox fans recent hope that the trade wasn’t a complete failure. 

Let’s start with Thorpe, as he was the highest-rated prospect to come over in the deal. It’s a bit difficult to judge what the White Sox really got in Thorpe. He burst onto the scene after a dominant 2023 season in the Yankees farm system and continued his dominance with Double-A Birmingham to begin 2024. Thorpe made his big league debut in June, where he posted a 5.48 ERA in nine starts before being shut down early due to an elbow issue. After arriving at spring training in 2025, Thorpe experienced a setback that led to Tommy John surgery and he missed the entire 2025 season. He’s back to throwing bullpens and seems in line to return before the end of 2026. The jury’s still out on Thorpe, and a lot will be riding on how he looks at the end of 2026 and into 2027.

The other pitcher acquired in the deal just hasn’t worked out for the White Sox. In Jairo Iriarte, the White Sox landed a big arm with questionable control. His first season with the organization went alright. Iriarte posted a 3.71 ERA in 23 appearances, even reaching the big leagues for six relief appearances. Unfortunately, his control took a major step back in 2025 and has yet to recover. Iriarte walked 37 hitters in 48 innings in 2025 and posted a 7.13 ERA, struggling even after moving to a full-time relief role. He began the 2026 season with Double-A Birmingham after being outrighted off the 40-man roster. Iriarte’s early results have been better, but he’s still walked far too many hitters. He’s now 24 years-old and it’s getting close to the point of being able to say he didn’t work out. 

Samuel Zavala has started to turn the corner with Birmingham

The third and final prospect acquired in the deal is where things get interesting. At the time, Samuel Zavala was a toolsy teenage outfielder with big potential but a lot of developing to do. His results in his first two seasons with the White Sox were underwhelming to say the least. Zavala hit just .187 with eight home runs in 2024, though he demonstrated elite plate discipline with 83 walks. His numbers improved in 2025 at the High-A level, but not enough to really move the needle. Zavala was promoted nonetheless and began the 2026 season with Double-A Birmingham, where he looks completely resurgent at the plate. 

In 16 games so far, Zavala is slashing .305/.431/.610 with five home runs and a 1.041 OPS. He’s more than halfway to his home run total from each of the past two seasons with only a fraction of the games played. Birmingham is known for being a friendly environment for pitchers, making Zavala’s early production even more impressive. 

Given Zavala’s excellent feel for the strike zone, any sort of offensive production makes his profile very intriguing. He was once a top ten prospect in the system but has since dropped completely out of the top 30. If he finally taps into the power and offensive upside the White Sox saw when they acquired him, he could easily surge back into the top half of the system. Despite starting his sixth pro season, Zavala is still just 21 years-old and won’t turn 22 until July. He’s young enough to still be on track with his development. 

It’s a long season, and I’ll need to see Zavala produce for longer than a few weeks, but there seems to be a glimmer of hope that the Dylan Cease trade will work out after all. If Zavala does turn 2026 into a breakout season, let it serve as a reminder that development isn’t always linear and that sometimes we need to just trust the process.

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