Signs of Change or Just Rearranging?

New White Sox GM Chris Getz pulled off two trades of some import yesterday. Getz definitely looks to be of a more aggressive nature than his predecessor, Rick Hahn. Whether this amounts to anything more than rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic, I can’t say yet. Getz sent pitching prospect Christian Mena to the Diamondbacks for outfielder Dominic Fletcher. He also parted ways with reliever Gregory Santos, shipping him to Seattle for outfielder Zach DeLoach, a pitching prospect and a draft choice. So, would I have made these deals? Yeah, probably. Mena’s 21 and throws hard, amassing a 8-7 record and 4.85 ERA over Double-A and Triple-A. The thing with pitching is, you never know. Last season will either be Mena’s best or a total outlier for someone who goes on to win 100-plus games. Fletcher is already 26, though he hit .301 with fourteen RBIs in 93 at-bats for Arizona in 2023. His minor league stats show good pop and a nice batting average (.295 career) for the lefthanded-hitting outfielder. So, come on down, Dominic. DeLoach is a year younger and, like Fletcher, bats lefthanded. Without so much as a cup of coffee in the bigs, all I can do is go by his minor-league stats, and last year he hit .286 with 23 homeruns and 88 RBIs. So, there’s that. If nothing else, Getz went out and acquired yet more talent not affiliated with the Royals, and that’s a good thing. As to how good, spring training starts in two weeks.