Three weeks after the 2026 MLB trade deadline, the White Sox’s big swing looks a lot more like a miss.
That’s not enough time to hand out a final verdict on any player, but it is enough to see whether a club actually addressed its needs. In Chicago’s case, the answer is getting harder to dodge: the White Sox made moves, but they didn’t do enough, and the early returns suggest Chris Getz came up short.
Chicago’s deadline haul centered on four main additions: right-hander Luis Castillo, right-hander Huascar Brazoban, outfielder Brenton Doyle, and catcher Joey Bart. The White Sox also brought in righty Jose Urquidy in a smaller deal, and that one has looked like one of the better moves so far.
Luis Castillo was the headline grab, the arm meant to help stabilize the rotation. Instead, his first month in Chicago has been uneven at best.
In four starts over the last three weeks, Castillo has put up a 5.89 ERA across 18.1 innings, which works out to less than five innings per outing. His seven shutout innings against Cincinnati stood out as his best showing, but the other three starts have gone the wrong way.
On Friday against the Mets, he couldn’t escape the third inning, had trouble finishing hitters, and gave up too much hard contact. Right now, the White Sox still can’t count on him for quality playoff innings, and the lack of a second starting pitcher at the deadline leaves the rotation with the same questions it had before.
Brazoban was supposed to be the dependable late-inning option Chicago needed. That hasn’t shown up yet. He’s allowed a 6.00 ERA in nine appearances with the White Sox, and his results have tracked worse than Seranthony Dominguez, the reliever Chicago moved on from because he wasn’t trustworthy in leverage spots.
Doyle’s defense has held up, but the bat has not. Since joining the White Sox, he’s gone 7-for-36 and carries a .500 OPS.
Chicago had already moved on from Everson Pereira to get him, and at the plate, Doyle has been the downgrade. Bart’s situation has been even shorter and more frustrating: after just three games, he suffered a broken hand when he was hit by a pitch.
Put all of it together, and the picture is bleak. The White Sox’s four main deadline acquisitions have combined for -0.5 fWAR.
Even with Urquidy included, the total is still -0.2. In other words, the players brought in to improve the team have, at least so far, made it worse.
There’s still time for that to change. All of them remain under control beyond this season, so the long-term value can still shift. But if this is the shape of the deadline by season’s end, it will go down as a major failure in Getz’s first attempt at buying.
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