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The Student News Site of Lake Forest High School

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The Future Gets Brighter on the South Side: White Sox Trade Adam Eaton to Nationals for Top Pitching Prospects

The rebuilding process for the White Sox continues. On Wednesday, it was announced that the White Sox would trade outfielder Adam Eaton, one of their best players, to the Nationals for top pitching prospects Lucas Giolito, Reynaldo Lopez, and Dane Dunning. The White Sox GM Rick Hahn continues to trade away high quality talent this offseason in return for prospects. The Sox’s main goal going into the offseason was stacking up their minor league farm system and needless to say, the White Sox have overachieved this offseason. In this featured trade the White Sox get some of the best right handed pitching prospects in the minor leagues. The prospects the White Sox added yesterday make the future of the organization seem brighter than ever before.

The main star the White Sox got out of this deal is Nationals top prospect Lucas Giolito. Giolito, who was the Nationals’ first round draft pick back in 2012 has now spent four years in the minor leagues and maintains a winning record of 25-15 along with a 2.73 ERA. Some of his best attributes feature an elite fastball that is in the mid to upper 90s and a mad 12-6 curveball that he backs with tremendous power. His changeup has improved over the past couple years, but some scouts say that it still needs some work. Otherwise, Gilito is very dangerous against left handed hitters and has the talent to develop into the White Sox ace, especially with the departure of Chris Sale earlier in the week. Currently he is ranked as the White Sox 2nd best prospect behind Yoan Moncada.

Reynaldo Lopez was the 2nd of three prospects the White Sox acquired Wednesday, who akin to Lucas Giolito, is a right handed starting pitcher and has been in the minor leagues for four years. In his minor league career he is 19-19 with an ERA of 3.16. Scouts report that Lopez had one of the fastest and hard to hit fastballs in the Nationals’ system with speed that can scrape triple digits. His curveball is said to have “above average potential” and his changeup is also said to have “significant development”. The only negative comments that were reported by scouts is that his fastball has a tendency to be slightly wild, but his control is beginning to improve. He is the fourth ranked prospect in the White Sox system.

Finally, there is Dane Dunning, the third and final pitcher the Sox acquired Wednesday. Dunning was drafted last year in the first round by the Nationals, which means he may be in the White Sox system for a few years before he plays his first game on a major league diamond. He has only pitched five games this year in the minors going 3-2 with an ERA of 2.02. From the few games baseball scouts have witnessed, they’ve reported that he has a fastball averaging around 92-93 MPH that has outstanding movement and a very good change up. He is ranked tenth among the Sox prospects as he gets ready  for his second season in the minor leagues in 2017.

The Winter Meetings could not have gone better for Rick Hahn and the rest of the White Sox organization. Although they had to trade away some of their best players, they stacked up their minor league system full of phenomenal prospects, rendering the future quite bright for the club. If all of these prospects the Sox traded for this offseason develop into all around solid players, the team could very soon have a potential playoff run. The rebuilding process on the south side has officially begun and is off to a fantastic start.

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About the Contributor
Joe Thomas, Author
Joe Thomas is a staff writer for The Forest Scout who has a burning passion for sports. He covers high school football, hockey and baseball along with the MLB and college basketball. He constantly dreams of being a writer for a professional sports organization when he is older. You can find the majority of his work in the In Between The Lines section.
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