Despite a busy weekend hosting a fan convention Sox Fest Live at the Ramova Theatre on the South Side, Chicago White Sox GM Chris Getz was still making moves behind the scenes. Between interacting with fans and answering questions during a town hall, Getz was brewing up a trade with the Boston Red Sox to acquire veteran righthander Jordan Hicks as well as right-handed prospect David Sandlin, in exchange for right-handed pitching prospect Gage Ziehl (No. 31 at SSS) and our favorite prospect: Cash Considerations ($8 million).
With both Hicks and Sandlin being added to the White Sox 40-man roster, Chicago made a couple of subsequent moves by designating RHP Jairo Iriarte and catcher Drew Romo for assignment.
Ziehl originally came to Chicago at the 2025 trade deadline, from the New York Yankees in exchange for outfielder Austin Slater. Slater performed well in the first half of last season, and was solid enough for the Yankees to decide to deal a pitching prospect to add outfield depth in the midst of their playoff run. Now, in the course of a half-year they upgraded from Slater to a solid prospect (Ziehl) to a blue-chipper (Sandlin).
The immediate impact of this trade comes in the form of Hicks, a flamethrower who simply hasn’t found footing in the majors.
Drafted in 2015, Hicks debuted with the St. Louis Cardinals in 2018 and was fairly dependable out of the bullpen with a 3.59 ERA and 1.339 WHIP in 77 2/3 innings (73 games). He was even better in the first half of 2019, posting a 3.14 ERA while reducing his WHIP down to 0.942 in 28 2/3 innings. Hicks unfortunately tore his UCL and Tommy John surgery knocked him out for the rest of 2019 until late 2021, downgrading him to just a moderately reliable bullpen arm for St. Louis for the remainder of his time there.
Upon joining the San Francisco Giants in 2024 after signing a four-year, $48 million deal, Hicks shifted into a starting role. While he didn’t necessarily dazzle anyone with his 4.10 ERA and 1.450 WHIP in 20 starts (29 total games), he was a serviceable arm with the same tantalizing pedigree.
Hicks, however, experienced a steep drop in production in 2025, accumulating a 6.95 aggregated ERA across 67 1/3 innings with the Giants and the Red Sox — and his performance fell off of a cliff in Boston after being including in the Rafael Devers blockbuster, posting a whopping 8.20 ERA in 18 2/3 innings with the team. His previous performance is likely what Getz and the White Sox are hoping to lean on as someone who can eat innings so some of the prospects can sharpen up a bit before heading to the show — especially given his high fastball velocity (97 mph), and ability to induce ground outs. Outside of avoiding barrels, however, Hicks’ Statcast profile has a bit too much blue on it, and the low chase and whiff rates are definitely a cause for concern,. He is not a long-term solution by any means.
The real star of the trade, and the reason why the White Sox are spending $16 million on a mediocre reliever in Hicks, is Sandlin. The righty ranked eighth per MLB among Red Sox prospects in 2025. He was drafted by the Kansas City Royals in 2022 out of the University of Oklahoma and posted a 3.51 ERA across both Low and High-A in his first professional season in 2023. Sandlin wasn’t as strong in 2024, with a 5.34 ERA in 57 1/3 innings in High-A and Double-A. Despite the ERA struggles, Sandlin still struck out batters at a high 33.2% K rate across both levels while maintaining a decent 7.3% walk rate.
His performance greatly improved with the Double-A Portland Sea Dogs last season, posting a 3.61 ERA, 3.33 FIP, and a career-best 1.178 WHIP while starting 13 games and appearing in 17 before earning the promotion to Triple-A. Sandlin struggled to quickly adapt to the level, and in his small sample size of 23 2/3 innings he racked up a 7.61 ERA in 14 games out of the bullpen and one start. His strikeout rate decreased from 25.4% to 17.6% with the jump, and his walk rate inflated to 10.9%.
Sandlin has showed plenty of promise and his fastball sits in the upper-90s, averaging around 96 mph, and his secondary pitches are pretty solid, with the slider being his next most-thrown pitch.
Ziehl is a comparable player to Sandlin that has shown that he has a solid mix with his slider and cutter, but he doesn’t have as strong a fastball. Despite not exhibiting an elevated walk rate (4.2% in 2025), Ziehl’s command isn’t fully there yet. Sandlin is likely to be MLB ready much sooner.
While reading through some reactions from Boston fans, it seems they are mostly relieved to be rid of Hicks, but some are unhappy that the prospect capital to salary-dump was as high as Sandlin — a testament to the optimism behind his development as a pitcher at this point in his career. The White Sox have pinpointed some strong, underrated players over the last couple of years (notably Shane Smith and Mike Vasil), and are actually making moves on the market to address the gaps on the team. Maybe we are actually in a new era of White Sox baseball.
It will be interesting to see how Getz and Venable work together to continue to build off of this roster, but at the very least the South Siders are moving in the right direction rather than remaining stagnant.
