– The White Sox made just two trades before last week’s deadline, perhaps a lower number than expected given the team’s ongoing rebuild.
General manager Chris Getz mentioned after the trade deadline that players like Luis Robert Jr., Mike Tauchman and Grant Taylor drew interest from teams. But he wasn’t going to simply make trades if their offers didn’t line up with his evaluation.
“With players on our roster, we had a mark that needed to be met,” Getz said. “And we were not highly motivated to move anyone, quite honestly, and we had a threshold.”
A trade partner that met the threshold was the New York Yankees, who acquired veteran outfielder Austin Slater in exchange for pitching prospect Gage Ziehl.
Slater’s value to the White Sox revolved around his .814 OPS against left-handed pitching and nine years of MLB experience that set an example for an otherwise young roster. But with Slater set to be an unrestricted free agent after the season, it made sense to flip him for someone who could help the White Sox if and when they’re ready to compete.
That’s what they hope to get with Ziehl, who slots in at No. 14 among White Sox prospects, per the MLB Pipeline rankings.
“To be able to get a pitching prospect like Ziehl for Austin Slater, we felt like was well above the line and took advantage of that,” Getz said. “Ziehl’s a guy that, he’s in his first full season, was a fourth-rounder last year. We liked him in the draft. When we did that deal, multiple people from other organizations credited us for finding Ziehl in this trade, and we’re excited to add him to our pitching group.”
Ziehl, 22, is a 6-foot, 223-pound right-hander in his first professional season. The Yankees selected Ziehl in the fourth round of the 2024 MLB Draft out of the University of Miami (FL), where he posted a 3.87 ERA and a 1.20 WHIP with 89 strikeouts and 28 walks across 100 innings in the starting rotation.
Lauded for his command, Ziehl pairs a mid-90s fastball with a slider and a changeup. He has spent most of the 2025 season with the Single-A Tampa Tarpons. In 74.1 innings as a starter, he recorded a 4.00 ERA and a 1.21 WHIP with 63 strikeouts and 14 walks.
Following the trade, he reported to the High-A Winston-Salem Dash and made his debut with the White Sox organization on Saturday. As the starting pitcher, Ziehl finished with 4.1 innings, three hits, two earned runs, one walk and four strikeouts.
It also turns out that Ziehl received an omen of sorts shortly before the trade.