May 16: The White Sox announced the trade. However, rather than the cash considerations indicated by Brown, the Sox announced that they’re sending international bonus pool space back to Houston in the swap. Pool space must be traded in $250K increments unless a team is emptying out a bonus pool that has under $250K remaining (in which case the entire remainder is sent).
Given the Sox’ position and long-term outlook, it seems likely that they’re sending at most $250K or perhaps that they had less than that amount remaining. Notably, no actual cash changes hands when pool space is traded. The Astros are simply acquiring the right to spend an additional block of cash on international amateur free agents.
May 15: The White Sox are acquiring right-hander Miguel Castro from the Astros, reports Robert Murray of FanSided. Astros general manager Dana Brown tells Chandler Rome of The Athletic that Houston receives cash considerations in return.
Castro, 30, signed a minor league deal with the Astros in the offseason. He has since pitched 19 2/3 innings at the Triple-A level with a 2.29 earned run average. His 10.1% walk rate is a tad high but he’s striking out 25.3% of opponents while getting grounders on 44% of balls in play.
Despite those solid numbers, it seems the Astros weren’t planning to call him up, so they’ve traded him instead. Per Ari Alexander of KPRC 2, Castro’s deal had an upcoming opt-out date on June 3rd.
The White Sox are rebuilding and don’t have a strong relief group. Collectively, their bullpen has a 4.42 ERA, putting them in the bottom third of major league teams. Given that they are 14-30 and at the bottom of the American League standings, they presumably plan to install Castro into the bullpen and see if he can pitch his way into being a midseason trade candidate. Assuming they plan to call him up before his opt-out, they will need to open a 40-man spot for him.
Castro has occasionally been a useful pitcher in the big leagues, though with declining results in recent seasons. His ground ball rate has been fairly consistently near 50% and his walk rate has usually been a bit higher than average. The strikeouts have been high at times but there’s been a clear downward trend. He peaked at 33% in 2020 but that figure dropped to 25.4% in 2021, 23.7% in 2022 and 22.4% in 2023.
Last year, he started with the Diamondbacks but landed on the injured list due to shoulder inflammation in the middle of April. He stayed there for about three months, getting reinstated in July but was released in early August. Around the IL stint, he tossed 13 2/3 innings with a 5.93 ERA and 12.5% strikeout rate in that small sample. Based on his minor league numbers this year, it’s possible he has put the shoulder problems behind him and is back in good form.
Photo courtesy of Reinhold Matay, Imagn Images
Once again the white sox are being desperate and taking a horrible player and giving them a chance. Poverty is all I have to say
How is there a downside to a bad team, clearly rebuilding taking a flier on a solid performing veteran bullpen arm? Worst case he stinks but eats up some innings, which a bad team can always use. Best case, he keeps it up and pitches very well and they trade him for a prospect (nothing special, but still a roll of the dice for the future).
And gets paid minimum instead of starting the clock on someone in their system…
I agree, depending on who they kick off of the 40. Bring him up for two months. If he shows something, dump him for a lottery ticket.
It *is* odd how mean-spirited people like to ridicule bad teams for trying to improve. If I were a White Sox fan, I would be pleased by Getz’s many small moves. (Of course, in time, bigger moves will have to be made.)
Exactly. They may be able to turn that initial investment of international bonus money into a prospect that may be more advanced than an international signing would be.
2.29 ERA, in AAA. Gotta start somewhere.
The maximum allowed in a cash consideration transaction is $100k, otherwise it needs commissioner approval. I can guarantee they aren’t paying that for him. Probably cost them three figures or less, considering the looming opt out. In other words, zero downside, as 16 pointed out.
They got him for free. There’s no downside.
Not terrible.
Nice signing, will help our team. Don’t stop signing better players.
Sure… that is what Getz is doing….
The mini GM loves these position less light hitting guys.
He’s a relief pitcher
It’s in the first half of the first sentence of the article.
Teams have been trying to fix him for 10 years. I don’t think it’s happening.
Old front office was the problem.
New front office is the problem too.
A ‘New front office’ would be ‘the Mummy’ giving up his ownership control to someone that cares about building a team and culture to develop players and win consistently, but this has not happened on the Sox since Himes in the late 80’s and early 90’s.
Getz was handed a dumpster fire. He may be horrible but you have to give him a chance to draft and sign his own players to pass a fair judgement.
Getz was responsible for a portion of that dumpster fire. The smart thing would have been to never give him a chance. But now that he’s there, and has no budget to work with, spaghetti on the wall is one of his few options.
Agreed @stymeedone, Getz was in charge of player development and did not to improve it (and no, the players they traded for were already good, they were lauded as top prospects that other teams helped develop before coming to the Sox, and even then how well did Jimenez, Moncada, and Robert do?).
If you are an owner and miffed by the rebuild misfire, you eliminate everyone in the current org and go get a proven GM and president of baseball operations. But no, ‘the Mummy’ is also a control freak and anyone with brains would want complete control to manage the club as they saw it, and that is just not Jerry’s MO, and Im fairly sure that one reason why Rizzo stayed in Washington.
Does anyone know if “cash considerations” count for the Astros cap?
No. Plus, it’s been updated that CHW is sending international bonus pool money instead of cash considerations.
I remember when he first came up with the Jays I really thought he was going to be something special.
How much operating profit have the white Sox generated these last few years? What’s their 5 year plan to get better? Or maybe they’re on the orioles 20 year rebuild plan…orioles finally seeing the fruits of that rebuild these last few years
Rotten fruit thus far in 2025.
Yeah, the pitching has failed in Baltimore and the manager who helped make them relevant just got shitcanned.. Guessing he will be the Sox next manager when Venable goes the way of Grifol.
Would you rather him sit on his hands and not try? Castro cost you nothing in prospect capital and the money comes directly out of Reinsdorf’s pocket. Why would you NOT want that?
Castro’s like… crap!
Starting to hit lately. I suspect he will do well at Wrigley Field this weekend.
He has dramatically reduced his K% this year, and has hit the ball harder lately. He made an adjustment with his hand placement after studying some biometrics. He has also looked perfectly capable at 3B.
He should play 3B every day for the remainder of 2025.
White Sox have some good young players. I could see them being great again soon enough. No clue on this guy but figured I would mention
As much as I have crapped on Vargas, he seems to have turned a corner as his bat has come alive. With that, players tend to relax and play better defense as well, so time will tell. But it is encouraging that he has looked better with he bat as of late and strung along some consistent hitting..
Too bad he will likely be traded this AS break if he is doing well enough as ‘the Mummy’ likely no longer believes in extensions after the last four that Hahn gave out have backfired so bad and who knows when this rebuild gets the team to a ‘window to win’ for Getz or his undead boss.
Vargas has 6 years left of control btw.
Actually more like three, as we all know the ‘Mummy’ hates parting with cash, but yeah there is time, but again with how this year looks, its a throw away, next year likely still.. I mean its rare for teams to go from 100 losses to competitive quickly, especially with an inept org like the White Sox.. But anything can happen, like the Mummy finally going away and a competent owner taking the reigns, but I see Gerry lasting just long enough to torpedo this rebuild just out of spite for White Sox fans.
A full year of service time is 182 days I believe. But teams like the Wsox rn can play around with the service time BS. You are correct that most of the extensions of rebuild 1.0 did backfire. I also understand your opinion on Getz. Jerry isn’t going to own the team forever and father time is ♾️.
Getz and his transactional ‘hokey-pokey’.
Thats OK, Maybe Katz will pull his nose away from his iPad enough to actually help him.. nope never mind.