Curtis Mead has already been part of one of those trades that feels like it could keep unfolding forever, and now Boston Smith is trying to turn the same kind of chain reaction into his own breakout story.
The Nationals’ run with Mead was short but loud. They picked him up from the White Sox in an end-of-spring move driven by his lack of options, then watched him put together a season that included 17 homers in 87 games while bouncing around multiple infield spots.
That led Washington to flip him to the Red Sox for left-hander Connelly Early, a move that looked especially sharp once Early backed up his top-100 prospect billing with a 3.24 ERA over his first 21 major league starts. Early has since landed on the IL with elbow inflammation, but the deal’s second-guessing has been muted because Mead suffered a broken wrist on an HBP and is basically done for the year.
That’s the kind of setup that makes these trade webs so entertaining: one player moves, another gets rerouted, and suddenly everyone is tracking who might be the next name to pop. In this case, Smith is the one making noise.
The unheralded sixth-round senior signing hadn’t played a professional game when the Nationals sent him to the White Sox, but he’s forced his way into the conversation this season. Smith homered for the eighth time for Birmingham on Tuesday night, pushing him to 22 home runs in just 75 games. He’s hitting .286/.449/.595 overall, and the numbers get even more interesting when you look at how he’s handled tougher levels:
Kannapolis: .267/.353/.367 over 34 PA
Winston-Salem: .288/.449/.595 over 216 PA
Birmingham:.288/.488/.712 over 82 PA
That climb has started to get attention beyond the box score. Last week, Smith debuted at No. 15 on MLB Pipeline’s White Sox prospects list, and Keith Law revisited him while discussing the Mead-Early swap on Sunday.
For Washington, the whole sequence looks like another smart turn of the wheel. They turned what seemed like a minor March trade into a real win, and both players involved have had breakout years. Smith, drafted in the sixth round in 2025 by then-scouting director Danny Haas and scouting coordinator Jordan Missal, looks like a backup catcher with power, and his athleticism behind the plate gives him a chance to become a regular.
Mead’s own trade history adds another layer to the story. His first move sent him from Philadelphia to Tampa Bay, with the Rays sending Christopher Sánchez to the Phillies in return.
Maybe that’s just coincidence. Or maybe every young player attached to Mead is bound to end up in something interesting.
Elsewhere, the White Sox are still shopping for pitching without wanting to part with top prospect capital, and the two pitchers they’ve been most publicly linked to are out there in the open. David Adler also made the case that Murakami is the best hitter in the league against high velocity.
The Marlins and Cardinals have been occupying the NL version of the White Sox role, though recent rough stretches have pushed them toward selling. The Cardinals might have gone that way regardless.
And the broader labor talk keeps getting more complicated. The league has been pushing the idea of a salary cap built on a 50-50 revenue split with players, but the proposal is tied to “baseball revenue,” not overall revenue, and it comes with plenty of deductions.
MLB could take up to 17 percent of local revenues annually as expenses, plus up to 22 percent of national revenues. Some costs would be uncapped, including construction and renovation expenses for ballparks and spring-training facilities.
MLB Network would have no deduction limit, and for 2027 and 2028, neither would local broadcast costs for any team. The league also wants unlimited deductions for what it called “new ventures.”
As for Shane Bieber, Tuesday brought a strange first: he had never issued a bases-loaded walk in his career before then, and he gave up three in a rough opening inning for Toronto. The White Sox are probably wondering why they couldn’t have gotten that version of him 11 days ago.
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Acunas recent stretch has made him look far more like a useful piece than a project, and that matters on a roster still sorting out its infield depth. With Jacob Gonzalez now gone to Pittsburgh, Acuna is the lone substitute infielder on hand, which only adds to the importance of what he can do in a utility role. The bigger question now is whether Chicago sees him as part of the long-term mix or as the kind of versatile player who can draw interest elsewhere if the White Sox decide to keep reshaping the roster. [Read more 🡒]