White Sox trade ace left-hander Garrett Crochet for four of Red Sox' top 14 prospects

DALLAS — As the winter meetings were winding down Wednesday, the White Sox lowered the curtain by pulling off the gathering’s biggest trade.

They dealt ace left-hander Garrett Crochet to the Red Sox, who will send left-handed hitting catcher Kyle Teel and switch-hitting outfielder Braden Montgomery — both first-round draft choices who are ranked No. 4 and 5, respectively, in Boston’s farm system, according to MLB Pipeline — plus the Red Sox’ No. 11 and 14 prospects.

“We got value and volume on this deal,” said White Sox general manager Chris Getz, who headed to the airport feeling more than satisfied about a trade that started coming together Tuesday night.

About five teams were serious bidders for Crochet, Getz said. Boston presented the best deal.

“It was very clear that they were motivated, wanted to get something done and we made a match,” Getz said. “And both clubs should feel really good about the return.”

Getz shopped Crochet, his sometimes dominant All-Star and Opening Day starter, at the trade deadline in late July but wouldn’t bite on offers that didn’t satisfy.

But “this is a deal that was above what we could have gotten at the deadline from our evaluations,” he said.

The deal is eerily reminiscent of the 2016 winter meetings in Maryland when the White Sox dealt ace lefty Chris Sale to the Red Sox for four prospects, including No. 1 prospect Yoan Moncada and Michael Kopech, kicking off a rebuild under general manager Rick Hahn. Sale helped the Red Sox win a World Series while the White Sox’ rebuild was a failure, producing only two postseason appearances, both of them lasting one round.

Eight years later, Getz has made a similar move as the dollar-saving Sox move into the second year of yet another overhaul.

On the plus side, this deal gives them six of baseball’s top 59 prospects, according to MLB Pipeline. Teel (No. 25) and Montgomery (54) join left-handers Noah Schultz (No. 16) and Hagen Smith (30), shortstop Colson Montgomery (37) and catcher Edger Quero in the Sox’ system.

Quero and Teel give the Sox, who have Korey Lee in the majors, arguably baseball’s best catching prospect cache.

Crochet had lots of appeal to contending teams and trade value for the White Sox because he is projected to make $3 million in arbitration next season and will not be a free agent until after 2026. While working under an innings limit in 2024, he made all of his starts in his first season as a starter coming off Tommy John surgery.

Crochet could start Opening Day for the Red Sox, whose interest in the 25-year-old was heightened when they fell short in bids to sign free-agent outfielder Juan Soto and pitchers Max Fried and Nathan Eovaldi.

The White Sox lost a modern-day-record 121 games last season and might not be done dealing, having 2023 All-Star center fielder Luis Robert available in trade discussions.

Crochet was 9-19 with a 3.29 ERA and 294 strikeouts in 104 games for the Sox, who drafted him in the first round in 2020.

“We feel like we got a legitimate No. 1 starter in Garrett,” Red Sox GM Craig Breslow told reporters. “Left-handed, ton of swing-and-miss, massive strikeouts and feel like the best is still in front of him. So we’re excited about what he brings. And obviously, we needed to trade really good players in order to be able to do this.”

For Getz, the deal “accelerates the rebuild.”

“It’s never easy to have to make decisions like this,” Getz said. “Garrett, what he did this past season was nothing short of excellent. But when you look at the long-term health of the organization, and to inject the type of talent that we just did in this trade, is really exciting for us.”