AJ Preller's (rightful) stubbornness puts Padres' pursuit of Garrett Crochet in doubt

For the better part of six months now, the industry has been waiting for the Chicago White Sox to trade ace Garrett Crochet away for a franchise-altering return that would accelerate the club's multi-year rebuild. Up to this point, there's been a whole lot of waiting and not a whole lot of action, and the San Diego Padres have been part of the charade.

Crochet, 25, just wrapped up his first season as a starting pitcher and he was utterly dominant. The left-hander made 32 starts for the cellar-dwelling White Sox, going 6-12 with a 3.58 ERA, 2.69 FIP and 115 ERA+. He struck out just under 13 batters per nine innings while walking just 33 in 146 innings of work. He also made the All-Star Game for the first time in his young career.

The Padres (amongst others) have been one of the clubs most frequently tied to Crochet's rumor mill, but a deal has yet to materialize. Rumor has it that the White Sox are looking for a huge prospect return centered around position players rather than pitchers.

According to USA Today's Bob Nightengale, the White Sox have approached the Padres regarding the availability of catching phenom Ethan Salas and infield star-in-the-making Leodalis De Vries in recent discussions. As of right now, AJ Preller and Co. haven't budged and are indicating that they will not give up either of their top position player prospects in a deal for Crochet.

Padres' pursuit of Garrett Crochet trade may have hit a snag

Salas and De Vries are currently in the No. 1 and No. 2 spots on MLB Pipeline's top-30 Padres prospects list. It's easy to see why the White Sox are aiming high in these talks, as Crochet has once-in-a-lifetime talent and upside. On the flip side, it's also refreshing to see Preller, who loves making trades, take a second to consider before pulling the trigger.

Salas, still just 18 despite the fact he made it all the way up to Double-A in 2024, put up underwhelming numbers during this past season, recording just four home runs with 53 RBI in 111 games. That was alongside a .206 average and .599 OPS. His 23-game stint in the Arizona Fall League saw him match his regular-season home run totals while upping the OPS to .751, so it's clear that his showing in High-A has all the makings of an outlier.

He's widely regarded as one of the best defensive catching prospects in the game and is projected to have a can't-miss bat as well as he matures. He's still so young and raw, but the Padres seem to have a good one on their hands. Again, it's easy to see why the White Sox want him, but he simply can't be involved in a trade for a player that's only got one full season on a starter's workload under his belt.

De Vries, also freshly 18 years of age, has all the makings of being a special talent in his own right. In 75 games at the Low-A level this past season, he hit 11 home runs with 38 RBI and an .803 OPS all before legally becoming an adult. He AFL stint went quite a bit differently than Salas (.179 AVG, .583 OPS), but he's a legitimately special player who's only going to improve as he fills in physically.

The only other position players in the Padres' top-10 are outfielder Kavares Tears and infielder Kale Fountain, but neither player possesses knock-your-socks-off talent like Salas and De Vries both do. Ultimately, this is going to come down to whether Preller softens his stance or not on involving one of the two can't-miss prospects Chicago's targeting in these talks.