As trade deadline rumors begin to heat up, the Chicago White Sox must decide which prospects are too important to sacrifice for a 2026 playoff push.
We are now one week into June, with the Chicago White Sox maintaining pace as a playoff team in the American League with a 34-30 record.
Despite plenty of adversity from an injury standpoint, the White Sox don't appear to be going anywhere, and the conversation has started to shift toward the MLB trade deadline.
Last week, we heard White Sox GM Chris Getz acknowledge for the first time that his club could be buyers at the deadline if the team keeps playing at its current pace. That was a change in tone from the noncommittal answers we've received in the past.
Granted, there's still a long time between now and the end of July, and there will be plenty of games for the White Sox to potentially fall out of the race. But I believe now more than ever that Chicago could be serious about adding talent to this team if it finds itself within striking distance of the postseason.
We also had our very first rumor drop last week. In Jeff Passan's trade deadline preview at ESPN, he singled out Los Angeles Angels lefty Reid Detmers as a potential target for the White Sox.
Detmers is a former first-round draft pick by Los Angeles who has had some ups and downs throughout his MLB career, but has had a nice year returning to a starting role in 2026. Detmers has a 4.26 ERA over 74 innings and 13 starts this season.
Should the White Sox Be Buyers?
Knowing Chicago's current need for starting pitching and how that need will probably only grow with time, I'm not sure there are many White Sox fans opposed to the idea of trading for Detmers. The real question comes down to the package and the prospects the White Sox would have to give up. But that right there is a much bigger conversation.
2026 was supposed to be a developmental year for the White Sox. This team is currently playing with some house money. For that reason alone, it would be easy for the front office to sit on its hands and let things play out as they will. But as the White Sox should know, playoff appearances can be tough to come by. They've made the playoffs just seven times in the last 65 years, and it's been more than 20 years since the franchise last won a postseason series.
As much as you want things to be about the future, it would be foolish to ignore the opportunity you have in the present.
And that's where the difficult decision kicks in.
If you're Chris Getz and you're going to make a move to help get this year's White Sox team to the postseason, how big do you go? And what players are you willing to give up? Which prospects are expendable, and which are too important to move if the White Sox want to maintain a well-rounded farm system?
Which Prospects Are Untouchable?
For me, the first criterion of an untouchable prospect is someone who can or will help you this year. If the goal is to improve the 2026 team at the trade deadline, I don't see where moving a young player who has a role on this year's club is all that beneficial.
You don't trade rookies like Noah Schultz or Sam Antonacci, and I think we can safely assume that Braden Montgomery will have a regular role in the outfield by the time the trade deadline arrives. He's off the table too.
Jacob Gonzalez and Hagen Smith are tougher calls.
Had you asked me a few weeks ago, I would have been more open-minded to the idea of trading Gonzalez. He's an infielder trying to find regular playing time for an organization that's already loaded at his positions. He's also having the best year of his professional career, looking like a completely different player and finally living up to the hype as a former first-round talent. That's an opportunity to sell high if you're the White Sox on a player whose long-term fit with the organization is still unclear.
But then Munetaka Murakami got hurt.
His Grade 2 hamstring strain has an estimated recovery time of 4-6 weeks. Yet White Sox fans have also seen players like Kyle Teel and Austin Hays suffer similar injuries this season and miss extended periods of time. Gonzalez got some experience playing first base in the minor leagues, and since being called up by Chicago, he has played in six games with a .316 batting average, .855 OPS, and one home run.
If he continues to produce, Gonzalez may be too valuable to this year's team when it comes to bridging the gap during Murakami's absence.
If the White Sox ultimately decide that Gonzalez won't be a long-term asset for them, the time to trade him is in the offseason, not when you're in the middle of a playoff push. And for that reason alone, I think you keep him and see what he brings you the rest of the way.
Not to mention that when a player looks lost at the plate for his entire professional career and then seemingly overnight becomes one of the best hitters in minor league baseball and an MLB contributor, you have to figure out what's real. More data can't hurt.
I think Hagen Smith is off the table for a completely different reason.
Yes, I do think it's possible that he contributes to the 2026 team in some capacity. He's looked pretty sharp over his last few outings and could be on the cusp of making his debut should Chicago need some extra innings.
But for me, it's impossible to see the White Sox selling low on Smith given the upside that's clearly there. Even in a disappointing 2026 season so far, he has a 13.2 K/9 over 12 minor league starts in a hitter friendly environment. When he's got his control, Smith is unhittable. And there's enough upside there to believe he's a potential superstar if developed appropriately.
That brings me to my next criterion.
If you're the White Sox, you don't move a prospect who has shown superstar potential as a professional.
I think Smith qualifies here. I think Braden Montgomery qualifies here if he wasn't already off the table. And I think this makes Caleb Bonemer an absolutely untouchable piece.
Bonemer has a .973 OPS with 16 home runs this season for High-A Winston-Salem. He's still just 20 years old and has played his way to becoming the No. 14 prospect in all of baseball.
When you look even two years into the future at the White Sox core, Caleb Bonemer has to be part of those plans.
So when Chris Getz talks about not wanting to jeopardize the future for the sake of a playoff push this season, this is the kind of thing he's talking about. There's nobody on the trade market that the White Sox could realistically acquire who would also be worth Bonemer's services.
Even someone like Tarik Skubal, a back-to-back Cy Young Award winner who will probably be the hottest name on the trade market come July, will be a free agent after 2026. There's no short-term acquisition or rental piece worth what Bonemer could be for the White Sox moving forward.
That gives us Caleb Bonemer, Braden Montgomery, Noah Schultz, Hagen Smith, Sam Antonacci, and Jacob Gonzalez off the table. So who does that leave for the White Sox to potentially trade?
The simple answer is anyone else.
Who Might the White Sox Trade?
Not that I necessarily believe the White Sox should move one of their other top prospects, but I think there's a package that could make sense for just about anybody else in the farm system.
The biggest fish the White Sox could trade is Billy Carlson. Do I think this will happen? Absolutely not.
Chicago clearly loved Carlson when it selected him with the 10th overall pick in the 2025 MLB Draft, and I think the White Sox still want to give their player development staff a chance to cash in on the upside.
We know Carlson's defense is elite. The mystery is whether the bat will catch up to the glove. With a .726 OPS in Kannapolis this season and currently on the injured list, Carlson remains somewhat of a project. And with the White Sox having so much talent on the infield, and presumably another infield talent coming with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2026 MLB Draft, it's possible Carlson is used as trade bait to make a big splash.
I should note that if the White Sox do trade Carlson, it would need to be for a high-impact player with multiple years of team control. Someone they can insert into their future core and help build around. It would be more about redistributing assets and acquiring someone who can contribute immediately.
Beyond Carlson, things drop off from a prospect standpoint. The rest of the farm system, as far as I'm concerned, should be open for business.
If the White Sox are going to move players like Christian Oppor or Kyle Lodise, that's fine by me. I think Javier Mogollon and George Wolkow could be prospects who move and have a lot of appeal to a rebuilding club.
Any of the young, unproven talent with upside, like Landon Hodge, Sebastian Romero, and Fernando Graterol, would be a huge risk to move on from, but one that I could see Chicago taking if it believes it's the right deal.
Too often, we see teams in a similar position to the White Sox hoard prospects. We saw the White Sox themselves do this during the last iteration of the rebuild, when they refused to move off their own guys or supplement the MLB core with enough veteran talent to truly compete. That's the last thing you want to do.
Prospects are prospects for a reason, and many of them don't work out. If you can cash them in for proven MLB talent, it might not be a bad idea to do so. But of course, when you have a young team, jeopardizing the future for the short term is a GM's worst nightmare.
I think Chris Getz needs to protect the top assets in his organization, the future stars and the players who can help the 2026 team win, but should be more flexible when it comes to making a deal that includes somebody else from the organization's Top 30 prospects.
That would send a message that the 2026 White Sox mean business and have plans on making noise in the postseason.
