The Rays are acquiring starting pitcher Adrian Houser from the White Sox, according to MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand. Infielder Curtis Mead will head to Chicago in return, according to Joel Sherman of the New York Post. Bruce Levine of 670 The Score adds that the White Sox will also receive right-handed pitchers Duncan Davitt and Ben Peoples.
Houser, 32, had a rough 2024 season with the Mets but spent the offseason training at “at PitchingWRX, a facility in Oklahoma City where former Sox pitcher Lane Ramsey is the chief of operations,” according to James Fegan of Sox Machine. Houser landed a minor league deal with the Rangers in December, then inked a Major League one with the White Sox on May 20th. Houser had added over a mile per hour to his fastball due to his offseason training, and posted a stellar 2.10 ERA in 11 starts for the Sox.
Somehow, Houser has had this level of success despite a 17.1 K%. He’s had success preventing barrels, and Statcast’s xERA supports a sub-4 mark. Houser, a free agent after the season, joins a Rays rotation that also includes Ryan Pepiot, Shane Baz, Drew Rasmussen, and Joe Boyle. Houser, a free agent after the season, can serve as something of a replacement for Zack Littell, who the Rays dealt to the Reds yesterday. The Rays optioned Taj Bradley to Triple-A a week ago, but today shipped him to the Twins for elite reliever Griffin Jax.
It’s been an interesting month for Rays president of baseball operations Erik Neander, who also shipped out Danny Jansen and acquired Bryan Baker earlier this month. The Rays simply aren’t afraid to make trades (including during a game with their opponent) and serve as both buyers and sellers. The Rays took a painful loss in New York against the Yankees today, with Yandy Diaz, Jonathan Aranda, and Chandler Simpson all departing early with injuries. The club still has a fighting chance at 3.5 games out in the Wild Card.
Mead, 25 in October, hasn’t done much with Major League pitching in stints in each of the last three seasons. Nor has he been all that impressive in Triple-A in the last few years. Still, Mead has spent ample time on Baseball America’s top 100 prospects list, peaking at #36 prior to the 2023 season. He garnered a 55/medium risk grade at that time, at which point Baseball America considered him “one of the best pure hitters in the minors.” Though the Rays are considered a dangerous trading partner, Mead represents a rare misstep for the club, as they acquired him for Cristopher Sanchez back in November 2019.
Not known for his defense, Mead can fit at first, second, or third base. Those spots are occupied in Chicago by Miguel Vargas, Lenyn Sosa, and Colson Montgomery of late, with Andrew Benintendi taking a fair number of DH at-bats. Mead can likely work his way into the playing time mix. As Jim Margalus of Sox Machine notes, Mead bears some similarities to Vargas.
Davitt, a 25-year-old righty, earned a promotion to Triple-A earlier this month. Eric Longenhagen and James Fegan of FanGraphs described him in February as “a funky low-slot guy at Iowa who has successfully been turned into a backend starter prospect in pro ball.” Peoples, a 24-year-old righty, has spent the entire season as a reliever at Triple-A, posting a 2.65 ERA with a 12.3 K-BB%. The FanGraphs team wrote, “We’re betting on Peoples’ athleticism and delivery here, and still think he has a future as a fastball-heavy up/down reliever who has a chance to entrench himself in a more regular big league role if one of his secondary pitches improves.”
That’s unexpected.
Houser got pulled from his start.
I figured he might get traded. Just didn’t think the Rays would be trading for pitching, They’re usually trading it away.
Replacement in the rotation for Littell
Was wondering if he was going to be moved.
Oh no, 2026 Cy Young campaign loading…
This trade deadline is crazy.
Not the Yankees or Cubs, did not have the Rays on my bingo card…
Agreed. I was definitely concerned that he wouldn’t get traded at all, but I certainly never expected the Rays to be in the picture.
Hopefully this Aussie kid (Mead) is better than his numbers would suggest, otherwise the return is pretty underwhelming.
Yeah, but Houser is not exactly an Ace. I mean on this White Sox Roster he may have been close, but on most he is likely a 3/4 starter.. The fact that the Sox got 3 players in return is a bit surprising actually.
That’s true. Once the story was updated to say that we got the two pitchers in addition to Mead, I was much more okay with the trade.
That’s it? Wow……..
Why? They gonna trade him again real quick?
What? Weird trade.
Houser > May
Tf Breslow?
That’s a very good return. Mead may end up being only reserve quality, but like Vargas he needs a hundred games of continuous playing time. Tampa was shuttling him back and forth between Tampa and AAA.
Odd but cool
Fair enough. Didn’t cost either team anything
2 prospects makes this nice quantity return.
Light hitting infielder. Getz is obsessed with fringe players like himself…..surprised Houser had zero value to at least get a longshot OF/power prospect with flaws.
At minimum our infield is set for now, not a terrible trade by Getz.
If our infield is set, then…yikes.
I was hoping for the same thing. Sox need prospect slug, instead it crowds an already crowded infield.
Another Vinny Capra. LOL
Apparently Houser had little trade value. How many more unproven infield “prospects” do the Sox need? And if Houser’s trade value was minimal, why not retain him because of the value he’s currently providing the team—he’s contributing considerably to winning games—and isn’t that the whole point?
realsox: That’s exactly the problem with Getz. You get a player that is helping the team, so why not trade him? At what point does it stop?
It stops when there is a change in ownership and real money starts being spent.
Houser was a FA at the end of the year.. So what? He would help the Sox win 65 games instead of 60?
You move a guy like that for a lottery ticket or a few, and if you REALLY want him back the Sox can resign him at the end of the year.
nrd1138: Your rhetorical question is disingenuous. Would you keep a player who would help you win 70 rather than 65? 75 instead of 70? 80 instead of 75? And so on. What you’re implying is that no player has value to a team unless he can help them win it all. By that standard most players are relatively worthless, and that, of course, is ridiculous. You keep your prospects; I’ll keep the guys who help me win. I agree with you, though, that if they really like him, perhaps they can sign him again at the end of the year.
You point is pointless in this situation considering the Sox are playing for nothing other than to try to avoid 100 losses. Again the guy is a FA at the end of the season. But hey, they should keep a guy who will do nothing for the future of the team and could be gone at the end of the season, as opposed to trading him for prospects, as fringe as they may be, then maybe resigning him at the end of the season.
Sorry, taking the latter. This team was never going to amount to anything and they clearly signed Houser to be trade fodder and it worked.
Um, no. Not this season.
The whole reason the White Sox picked him up was to flip him at the trading deadline. He’s been really good for them and they got 3 nothings in return. So White Sox.
And Jax? Where am I?
don’t see much upside here…..hope he can prove me wrong
Rays fan — I’m shocked that we traded for a SP rental, but i’m more shocked that mead was able to return this much. Mead is terrible. Gives us some innings, a little hope (prob misplaced) for a guy that spent most of his time on the bench or AAA.
Again folks don’t pay attention at all. Mead was a top 100 prospect for 3 straight years. His numbers in minor league baseball overall 297/371/504 which is an 875 ops. Tampa never gave him more than about 9 at bats a week. Put him at third base and let him play the next 50 games. I’d expect 200 at bats closer to a 800 ops in the majors. That is a plus player
Well, that is a much better look to things than what the other guy said about Mead. It really felt like a knee-jerk by Getz initially.
Nah Mead had plenty of chances. He has zero power and isnt very quick. best case is he’s a light hitting IF that can play a few positions. Not a bad player, but def a bust pedigree wise.
Since June 26, Mead has battled 13 times with just 1 hit. I don’t think he’ll ever get close to an 800 ops.
Yeah bases on my math, 1/13 not equal to 800
SSS.
13 at bats in 5 weeks yeah that’s a heck of a chance.
I feel like the Rays are notorious for slappy top ranked foreign infield prospects. Brujan, Franco come to mind. Thing is the Sox just do position players worse than any other team in the majors. I have zero confidence they can allow Mead to live up to any potential. Knowing this team, they will get something special out of Ben Peoples and trade him for lesser value in a couple years.
Wow, if that’s remotely true- golaza!
With this Sox org? He is likely not doing a lot. The Sox fan should just be stoked for more pitchers as the org actually know what to do with those guys.
I had to figure that this was just a desperation move by Getz because he couldn’t get a return that he liked from the teams that we thought Houser would be sent to. This way, he can act like he “accomplished” something besides trading Slater. Bummer….
Lets just wait and see how this guy works out before declaring the trade a failure.
Fair. I like this trade a lot more based upon looking at his minors numbers and because the Sox managed to snag a couple of young arms as well.
I agree, the arms thrown in are depth pieces. Three “prospects” all be it older, for a guy who was a DFA pick up project is what you want
No, declare him a failure NOW so he can reconcile his fate to a landscape of diminished expectations: like the nuns did with me in the 4th grade.
It’s ridiculous how little Getz is getting for one of the top pitchers available at this trade deadline! I was hoping the White Sox would reach, a still abysmal, 60 win season. Now they won’t approach that number.
Come on, he’s got a 17 percent K-rate. He’s back-of-the-rotation fodder.
So happy to see the 2 minor league pitchers included. When it was reported as just Mead, I was surprised. Ben Peoples has a 2.65 ERA in 35 relief appearances. He could get called up to backfill an opening if the Sox trade a reliever.
Of course, both minor league pitchers were not amongst the Rays top 30 minor league prospects!
Bout time, Im surprised that the White Sox only could move Houser and Slater.. I mean no one wanted Tauchman, Benintendi, Alexander? I mean you will not get a lot sure but aren’t these guys all pretty mcuh gone at the end of the season?
Paying Tauchman for his last arb year in ’26 is good to have a pro bat approach OF that isn’t blocking anyone. OTOH- Michael A Taylor seemed like a no brainer defensive replacement/speed guy for a contender’s bench. Oh well-the vet pros can help the youth not get comfortable losing with sound play.
Wait, that last part of the return would horrify one Charlton Heston: “Soylent Green! It’s Peoples!!!!”
At least they didnt get one of the “damn dirty apes”!
The O.G. yell at cloud guy. Didn’t he throw a shoe or something in 10 Commandnents? Or was that Ben Hur?
Ben Peoples was great in those RL Stine books as Slappy.
I feel like a lot of people in the comments are delusional about Houser’s trade value just because he has a low ERA this season. The fact is he is a pure rental who has a long track record of being a 4+ ERA-guy and his underlying numbers this year aren’t that great despite the low ERA. There’s some value there as a (hopefully above average) innings eater for a couple of months, but a big return was never in the cards.