Trade deadlines get all the hype, but the night before the MLB Draft turned into its own mini-market Friday. Jeff Passan broke the news first: Pirates get infielder Jacob Gonzalez and lefty reliever Brandon Eisert, White Sox get the 34th overall pick and Triple-A lefty Jaden Woods. Deal done, sources told him, and within minutes the rest of the beat piled on to confirm it.
Trade news: The Pittsburgh Pirates are acquiring infielder Jacob Gonzalez and left-handed reliever Brandon Eisert from the Chicago White Sox for the 34th pick in tomorrow's draft and left-handed reliever Jaden Woods, sources tell ESPN. Deal is done.
It wasn't just Passan chasing it down either. Ken Rosenthal, Mark Feinsand and Jim Callis all confirmed the framework independently within about 10 minutes of each other, which is how you know a deal is fully cooked and not just a rumor floating around a hotel lobby. Rosenthal also flagged the mechanics that make this trade possible in the first place: the 34th pick is a competitive-balance selection, and those are the only draft picks teams are allowed to deal under current MLB rules.
And for those confused, the Pirates traded their competitive-balance pick. Those are the only picks that can be dealt under the current rules.
For Chicago, this is pure draft-pool arithmetic. Passan noted the White Sox now sit on picks 1, 34 and 41 heading into a draft that starts at 1:30 p.m. ET, and adding the 34th selection pushes their bonus pool to nearly $20.5 million. That's real financial flexibility for a club sitting on the No. 1 overall pick and reportedly still undecided on who they're taking. More draft capital means more room to get creative, whether that's steering money toward an over-slot prep player later in the draft or simply banking multiple shots at hitting on a franchise piece.
The acquisition of the 34th pick pushes the White Sox's draft bonus pool to nearly $20.5 million. Chicago, tied for first in the AL Central, will have the No. 1 overall selection in the draft, which starts at 1:30 p.m. ET. They've still yet to decide who they plan to select.
On the Pittsburgh side, this is about a roster hole that opened up fast. Gonzalez has been raking at Triple-A, and Passan pointed out he's OPS'd nearly 1.100 there while also holding his own in the majors. That production lines up with what's publicly known: Gonzalez hit .320 with 19 home runs and a 1.097 OPS across 53 games with Charlotte before Chicago moved on from him at the big-league level once Munetaka Murakami came off the roster crunch. The Pirates plan to plug him in at shortstop immediately.
That's because Konnor Griffin, Pittsburgh's 20-year-old shortstop and the No. 9 pick in the 2024 draft, is out with a torn sagittal band in his left ring finger, an injury that's expected to sideline him 8-10 weeks. It's Griffin's second IL stint of the season after a forearm strain earlier in the year, and general manager Ben Cherington has said Griffin could have tried to play through it, but doing so risked turning it into a surgical, four-month absence instead. Gonzalez, a left-handed bat, gives Cherington a stopgap alongside Nick Gonzales and Jared Triolo on the left side of the infield while Griffin heals.
The Pirates, meanwhile, plan to play Jacob Gonzalez at shortstop, filling in for Konnor Griffin, who is out with a torn tendon in his thumb. Gonzalez OPS'd nearly 1.100 in AAA and has more than held his own against big league pitching. Eisert joins a Pirates pen in need of help.
Eisert, for what it's worth, is the least glamorous piece of this trade but not a nothing one. He's been a steady bullpen presence for the White Sox, and Pittsburgh's pen has needed arms all year. In return, Chicago gets Woods, a former seventh-round pick who's worked almost exclusively in relief throughout his minor-league career. None of that moves the needle nationally, but it's the kind of secondary value that makes a deal like this pencil out for both front offices instead of just being a straight pick-for-player swap.
The real story here is timing. Teams almost never trade real big-league roster pieces the night before the draft, but the White Sox turned Gonzalez and Eisert into pure draft equity right when it mattered most, with the No. 1 pick and a swollen bonus pool in hand. Pittsburgh, meanwhile, solved an immediate lineup problem without touching its farm system's top-end talent. Watch what Chicago does with that $20.5 million pool Saturday afternoon, and watch how Gonzalez looks at shortstop in his first extended run as Pittsburgh's everyday option there.