Fedde, Pham, Kopech: All gone ... but for whom?
Three-way trade with St. Louis and L.A. yields some Dodgers prospects, including infield blue chip Miguel Vargas
After all of the “Getz sleeping” memes, the White Sox GM plopped himself right into the middle of a three-way deal with the National League on Monday:
Full trade, sources to @YahooSports.
— Russell Dorsey (@Russ_Dorsey1) July 29, 2024
Cardinals get: RHP Erick Fedde, OF Tommy Pham
Dodgers get: INF/OF Tommy Edman, RHP Michael Kopech
White Sox get: INFs Miguel Vargas, Noah Miller, Jaral Perez and Alexander Albertus
BUT WAIT! That wasn’t the deal, in fact. It was, actually, worse for the White Sox:
The Dodgers will send prospects 2B Jeral Perez (No. 17 per @MLBPipeline), INF Alexander Albertus (No. 23) and INF Noah Miller (No. 26) to the White Sox along with Vargas, per source.
— Mark Feinsand (@Feinsand) July 29, 2024
And STILL the breaking news tweeters couldn’t get it right, although this is the job they are paid to do!
The full trade is three teams and seven players, according to sources.
— Alden González (@Alden_Gonzalez) July 29, 2024
Dodgers get: UT Tommy Edman, RP Michael Kopech.
Cardinals get: SP Erick Fedde, OF Tommy Pham.
White Sox get three INF prospects from the Dodgers: Miguel Vargas, Alexander Albertus and Jeral Perez.
This, for the White Sox, comes down somewhat to being Erick Fedde for Vargas, who is 24 years old and “MLB-ready” in that he’s been playing left field (not his natural third base, or even his other natural, second base). Vargas is also another Cuban player added to the White Sox, and has ranked as high as No. 30 overall in the majors across all the prospect-rating services (in this case, pre-2023, No. 30, Baseball America). He fits a White Sox profile in terms of his low batting average, but is not horrifying with contact and does have some pop. His 108 OPS+ doesn’t bowl you over, but does represent 8% better than league average.
This is Baseball America’s assessment of Vargas:
Miguel Vargas, OF
Age: 24
At one point, Vargas was one of the best prospects in a loaded Dodgers system. He peaked at No. 29 on BA’s Top 100 and No. 3 in the organization. So far, he has not lived up to that billing when he’s gotten chances in the big leagues. Vargas is hitting just .239/.313/.423 in 71 MLB at-bats this year. The Cuban native has done much better at Triple-A Oklahoma City, where he’s posted a 1.005 OPS in 41 games. As a prospect, Vargas was lauded for strong strike-zone discipline, feel for the barrel and an ability to use the whole field. He’d done well to get his body in better shape, which in turn helped him both in the field and on the bases. The move to Chicago should give him a much clearer path to playing time than he found in Los Angeles.
This massive deal is still possibly in flux. Who knows, there’s a Vargas playing shortstop in the St. Louis system, maybe Getz got the wrong guy or wanted both.
We’ll update this with more information, including White Sox confirmation, later on, or put together an entirely new story-explainer.