History repeats itself: Red Sox acquire White Sox ace Garrett Crochet in blockbuster trade

DALLAS − It was eight years ago nearly to the day when the Chicago White Sox traded away their ace and future Cy Young award winner to the Boston Red Sox for four of their top prospects.

Well, history may have just repeated itself Wednesday when the White Sox sent Garrett Crochet to the Red Sox for four of their top-ranked 15 prospects, including two of the top 60 prospects in baseball.

The Red Sox sent catcher Kyle Teel (the Red Sox’s No. 4 prospect), outfielder Braden Montgomery (5^th-best), infielder Chase Meidroth (No. 11) and Wikelman Gonzalez (No. 14) to the White Sox in the five-player deal. Teel was ranked as baseball’s 25th-best prospect, according to MLB Pipeline, while Montgomery is ranked 54^th.

It was on Dec. 6, 2016, when the White Sox traded Chris Sale to the Red Sox for Yoan Moncada, Michael Kopech, Luis Alexander Basabe and Victor Diaz. It turned out to be a colossal bust for the White Sox, with Sale helping the Red Sox win the 2018 World Series and none of the prospects ever becoming a star for the White Sox.

The Red Sox can only hope they get the same return this time around with Crochet, 25, leading their team to the postseason and beyond.

“We feel like we got a legitimate No. 1 starter in Garrett," Red Sox GM Craig Breslow told Boston reporters. “Left-handed, ton of swing and miss, massive strikeouts and feel like the best is still in front of him. So we're excited about what he brings. And obviously, we needed to trade really good players in order to be able to do this.

“But that's the cost right now and we're very much focused on what we were able to get."

For the White Sox, who tried to trade Crochet in July but never got a team willing to provide the quality of prospects they desired, believe their patience will pay off.

“This is a deal that was above what we could have gotten at the deadline from our evaluations," White Sox GM Chris Getz said. “That more or less set the bar for us. It wasn’t met at the deadline, and we feel like we went past that."

The White Sox certainly could have kept Crochet, and had discussions with him about a long-term extension a year ago, but the two sides never were close to an agreement. They knew that Crochet was the key to their rebuild after losing a major-league record 121 games last season, and after he yielded a 3.58 ERA and struck out 209 batters in 146 innings last season, his trade value may have never be higher.

“It’s never easy to have to make decisions like this," Getz said. “Garrett, what he did this past season was nothing short of excellent. But when you look at the long-term health of the organization, and to inject the type of talent that we just did in this trade, is really exciting for us.

“We talk about accelerating a rebuild. This was a deal that we feel like can do that."

The White Sox had extensive trade talks with the Philadelphia Phillies in the summer and again after the offseason, but declined the Phillies’ offer of third baseman Alec Bohm and prized outfield prospect Justin Crawford. They had talks with the Los Angeles Dodgers, but they stopped when the Dodgers signed free-agent starter Blake Snell. The New York Yankees had interest until they signed Max Fried. The Baltimore Orioles were never willing to offer anywhere near the prospect package they desired. And the White Sox never considered trading Crochet to the crosstown rival Cubs.

The White Sox braced themselves to depart the winter meetings without a trade until the moment Fried signed his eight-year, $218 million contract with the Yankees. The Red Sox, who engaged in talks with the White Sox last summer and had touched base at the Winter Meetings, suddenly got quite serious and called the White Sox Tuesday. Less than 24 hours later on Wednesday, the Red Sox improved their offer again and the White Sox agreed to the deal.

“The urgency definitely picked up last night,’’ Getz said. “If that was a reaction to it [Fried signing], it was never spoken about. But it was definitely turned up.’’

While the White Sox are in a full-scale rebuild, losing a major-league record 121 games last season, the Red Sox are trying to win right now. They offered n excess of $700 million for free-agent outfielder Juan Soto before he signed for $765 million with the Mets. They were in the bidding for free-agent starter Max Fried before he signed for $218 million with the Yankees.

Now, instead of reaching for their wallet, they reached into their deep farm system to lure Crochet, considered the top-prized trade chip of the winter.

If Crochet pitches like the Red Sox expect, their three-year postseason drought could be over, thanks to yet another prized pitcher coming from the South Side of Chicago.

It certainly worked out beautifully eight years ago, why not again?

“Organizationally,’’ Getz said, “there’s a connection because of that trade.’’

Now, they’ve got another to deepen that bond.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Red Sox acquire White Sox ace Garrett Crochet in trade