Chicago Cubs Named As Serious Trade Contender for White Sox Ace Garrett Crochet

The Chicago Cubs could be a very serious contender to make a trade with their crosstown rival's ace Garrett Crochet.

Orlando Ramirez-Imagn Images

The Chicago Cubs could be a legitimate contender for one of the top pitchers on the market, not via free agency, but through a trade with their crosstown rival Chicago White Sox.

Coming off the worst season in the history of modern era baseball, the White Sox are looking to unload their ace Garrett Crochet, and there are numerous teams interested.

While the Cubs have been linked to starting pitching in free agency and signed Matthew Boyd this week, perhaps the biggest move of the offseason for Chicago comes in the trade market and they acquire Crochet.

According to a report from Jon Morosi of the MLB Network, the Cubbies are seen as a legitimate candidate to trade for Crochet along with their division rival Cincinnati Reds.

Morosi also noted the fact that the rivalry between the two Windy City ball clubs has not prevented trades being made in the past with four deals between them since 2017.

Crochet has spent his entire five-year career with the White Sox but did not play in 2022 due to injury.

Returning in 2023 and making just 13 appearances out of the bullpen, he looked solid and posted a 3.55 ERA in 12.2 innings pitched. In 2024 however, Crochet moved from the bullpen, where he had spent the entirety of his career in the Majors, to the starting rotation and found extreme success.

In 32 starts as Chicago's ace, Crochet posted a 3.58 ERA and had 209 strikeouts in 146 innings thrown, good for an unbelievable 12.9 strikeouts per nine innings rate with an irrelevant 6-12 record due to how bad his team was.

For a first-time starter, it was a wildly successful debut season and Crochet is one of the hottest commodities available for good reason still at just 25 years old.

There's reason to believe the young lefty is destined for future superstardom, and for a White Sox team that's about as far away from contending as a team can possibly be, it doesn't make any sense to hold onto him when they could net a massive return on the trade market that would assist in a rebuild.

If the price is right for the Cubs and they are buying into the notion that the best from Crochet is still yet to come, then making a trade for him could be a fantastic idea.