The Chicago White Sox struggled to score runs last season, so they added some offense Wednesday in the form of third baseman Brett Lawrie.
The White Sox announced a trade with the Oakland Athletics on Twitter and gave up left-handed pitcher Zachary Erwin and right-handed pitcher J.B. Wendelken in exchange for Lawrie. MLB.com did not rank either pitcher in Chicago’s top 30 prospects following the 2015 campaign.
Athletics outfielder Josh Reddick still seemed pleased to welcome Wendelken to the fold:
Lawrie was the headline of the trade, especially after he appeared in 149 games for Oakland last season and hit .260 with a career-high 16 home runs and 60 RBI. His presence will be welcome news for the White Sox because they were a dismal 28th in the league in total runs scored last season and can use all the help they can get on the offensive side.
CBS Chicago described the importance of this trade from the White Sox’s perspective:
The third-base spot was a disaster for Chicago last season, as it had the lowest batting average and slugging percentage production from that position in the majors. The combination of Conor Gillaspie, Gordon Beckham, Mike Olt and Tyler Saladino combined for 16 homers with 59 RBIs (though Saldino played all over the field as well).
As for Oakland, it finished with an abysmal 68-94 last season and is understandably in rebuild mode. This trade only underscored that direction for the franchise as it attempts to build its prospect base that Baseball America ranked a concerning 23rd in the entire league entering the 2015 season.
The right-handed Wendelken is the more experienced of the pitchers and will be 23 next year.
According to MiLB.com, he pitched 43 innings at Double-A in 2015 and finished with a 2.72 ERA, 1.09 WHIP and 56 strikeouts in 43 innings. He earned a promotion to Triple-A behind those solid numbers but was not nearly as effective with a 4.50 ERA, 1.19 WHIP and 13 strikeouts in 16 innings. Given his struggles at the next level, it may be some time before he is in a major league uniform.
As mentioned, neither pitcher was considered a high-end prospect in MLB.com’s rankings. What’s more, Baseball America did not have Wendelken or Erwin in its top 10 rankings for the White Sox’s farm system before the 2015 campaign.
As a result, Matt Spiegel of 670 The Score praised the deal for Chicago because it “did not give up any prospects of consequence.”
Before Oakland fans get too concerned, it follows that Erwin didn’t crack those rankings since he is only 21 years old and was Chicago’s fourth-round draft pick in 2015.
Jeremy F. Koo of SB Nation’s Athletics Nation passed along some numbers for the inexperienced Erwin: “In 15 games between the Rookie-level Pioneer League and Low-A South Atlantic League, Erwin struck out 30 and walked seven in 40 1/3 innings with a 1.34 ERA.”
Those are impressive statistics even if they did come against lesser competition. There is still plenty of time remaining for the southpaw to develop into a solid contributor for the Athletics organization if he continues to build on his early efforts.
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