New details from Chris Getz’s trade talks with the New York Mets reveal the Chicago White Sox return for Luis Robert Jr. could have looked drastically different.
According to Jon Heyman of the New York Post, the two sides were engaged in trade talks centered around Robert since June, with “ a thousand iterations” of trade packages for Robert thrown around.
After failing to strike a deal at last year’s trade deadline, the White Sox picked Robert’s $20 million player option at the end of the season, before ultimately trading their All-Star center fielder for Luisangel Acuna and minor league right-hander Truman Pauley.
While Acuna’s name had been thrown around in trade rumors, he reportedly wasn’t the White Sox first choice. According to Heyman, the White Sox were initially interested in former first-round pick Brett Bady.
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It’s easy to see why the White Sox were interested in Bady. The 26-year-old infielder hit 18 homers and posted a .748 OPS after playing in a career high 130 games last season. Given the crowded Mets infield, the White Sox had assumed he would be the odd man out in New York.
However, per Heyman, the Mets quickly shot that proposal down and instead offered Mark Vientos before last year’s trade deadline, a 26-year-old corner infielder, who Mets brass believed was going to have a diminishing role on the team.
But Getz reportedly preferred Acuna, which raises the question: Did Getz make the right decision?
Vientos, who has slugged a combined 44 home runs over the past two seasons, offers a much higher offensive floor than Acuña. Across five MLB seasons, he owns a .732 OPS, hitting .239 with a strikeout rate near 28 percent. But he made up for the swing and miss concerns by launching a career-high 27 home runs and driving in 71 RBIs in 2024. He has also proven that he can draw hard contact consistently, with an average exit velocity of 91.4 mph last season, which ranked in the MLB’s 82nd percentile.
Meanwhile, Acuna, who entered the season with just 109 games of MLB experience, had posted a .248/.299/.341 slash line with three home runs and 14 RBIs during his two seasons in Queens. However, given Acuña’s skill set, he offers a higher ceiling than Vientos, albeit with more risk attached.
The White Sox already have a crowded infield, with Miguel Vargas and Munetaka Murakami holding down the corner infield positions, and Andrew Benintendi expected to handle the bulk of the DH duties, leaving Vientos without a clear path to everyday at-bats. Had the White Sox agreed to that deal before the deadline, there’s a strong chance they wouldn’t have later signed Murakami to a two-year, $34 million contract.
Acuna, meanwhile, offers far more versatility. While he has spent most of his time in the infield, the White Sox believed his speed and athleticism could make him an intriguing candidate to play centerfield, despite logging just three innings at the position before getting traded. On top of that, Acuna also had two more years of club control than Vientos.
Vientos is also a sub-par defender, owning a -6 defensive Run Value in each of the last two seasons, which would have been hard to justify swapping a Gold Glove-winning centerfielder for.
While Acuña comes with more risk, he also remains largely unproven, having yet to receive an extended opportunity to show what he can do. While Vientos is a solid bat, he has done nothing to suggest he can be a long-term piece to build around. Acuna might not get to that point either, but his wide-ranging skill set makes Chris Getz’s bet on him a worthwhile one.
