More than anything about this trade proposal from ESPN that caught my eye, is that there sure does seem to be more people thinking the White Sox will end up trading Lucas Giolito. At the very least, the right-handed starting pitcher is becoming a popular name to throw out there in trade hypotheticals.

ESPN’s Bradford Doolittle, along with David Schoenfield, came up with several trade ideas involving some of the most notable players who have been in rumors already, and the one involving Giolito has the 28-year-old going to the Tampa Bay Rays.

White Sox Trade Lucas Giolito to Rays for Brandon Lowe

Via ESPN.

Giolito is a good pitcher and a team leader in the White Sox clubhouse, a strong bounce-back candidate after a lackluster 2022 campaign and somebody Chicago should think seriously about extending. Without that extension, though, Giolito will be a free agent after next season, which is why he’s on trade candidate lists in the first place.

Meanwhile, I love the fit for Lowe, provided his defense holds up in a post-shift world at the keystone and that he’s healthy after an injury-riddled 2022 season. He would add another lefty bat to balance a White Sox lineup that still figures to tilt toward righty hitters. He adds power to a team that struggled to hit the long ball consistently in 2022.

Brandon Lowe: Positives and Negatives

The biggest reason the White Sox would do this trade is because they need somebody, anybody to start at second base. There is no way in hell this team can continue to rely on Leury Garcia. Cannot play him. Cannot win with him. Can’t do it. (shoutout Mike Singletary)

Lowe, 28, is fine defensively at second, but if you’re the White Sox you want his bat in the lineup every day. He has a career 129 wRC+ and that’s including his down 2022 season, when he was still an above league average hitter ending the year with a 104 wRC+. And hey, you can argue that the main reason for his struggles last season was because of injuries, which he had throughout the year.

In 2021, Lowe smashed 39 home runs for the Rays in 615 plate appearances and that came after hitting 14 in 56 games during the shortened 2020 season. He also has a 10.2 % walk rate, that helps his career slash line to the tune of .249/.335/.495. That’s a career .830 OPS since coming up to the majors in 2018.

Of course, there are negatives. Lowe isn’t going to hit for average, eclipsing .250 only in one year besides 2020. He also strikes out more than league average, at 27.7% of the time. However, that did go down to 22.9% in 2022, while maintaining his walk rate above 10%.

But we’ll finish out with another giant positive. Lowe is under team control for four more years at a very team-friendly price. Lowe signed a six-year, $24 million deal with the Rays, and that includes club options for 2025 and 2026.

Can This Trade Actually Happen?

The idea behind the trade proposal was fair, but it was also formulated before the Rays made a significant addition to their team. More on that a little later.

Each side gets to address a need, but it’s difficult to see how the White Sox can let go of Giolito without getting back a pitcher in return. They could always trade Giolito and sign a pitcher, but they’ve already allocated a good chunk of money to Mike Clevinger. There have also been rumblings that the White Sox payroll might go down in 2023, after reaching a franchise high this past season.

It’s not like the White Sox are known to be big spenders in the first place.

Also, Lowe, despite his down year, is under contract and has two club options, while Giolito is set to become a free agent following the 2023 season. You’d think the White Sox would have to add something more to entice the Rays in this scenario.

So, is there a chance this deal or something close to it could happen? Well, the White Sox do need to find a second baseman, so maybe they make a call to check the price on Lowe, but I highly doubt the Rays are interested in trading assets for Giolito after signing Zach Eflin to the biggest free agent contract in franchise history.

By the way, earlier this week on ESPN, a dozen MLB execs and insiders were surveyed about several offseason topics and a few think the White Sox will end up trading Giolito. You can read more about that here.

As I said above, I don’t think the Rays are interested in one year of Giolito, but on this week’s Pinwheels And Ivy Podcast, we discussed how a trade to the Dodgers could potentially make sense. Maybe. I still wouldn’t trade Giolito.