White Sox Should Take A Chance On This Former Top Prospect
With the White Sox coming off one of the worst major league seasons in the history of baseball, the expectations are low. While this makes for a tough product to watch, it allows the White Sox to get creative with some of their moves, as they aren’t expected to compete for anything meaningful in 2025.
This creates an opportunity for the White Sox to take fliers on former top-100 prospects and allow them to potentially get some significant playing time with no pressure, something that could unlock the potential of prospects who haven’t seemed to figure it out to this point.
The Dodgers just made someone who fits that criteria available, as they announced that they designated Diego Cartaya for assignment.
Dodgers announce they've DFA'd Diego Cartaya
Just a couple of years ago, he was the top prospect in LA's system and was a consensus Top 100 prospect
Still only 23 years old
— Blake Harris (@BlakeHHarris) January 3, 2025
This comes as a bit of a surprise, as at the start of 2023, Cartaya was a considered a top-20 prospect in all of baseball. A tough two years in the minors lowered his stock, but he was still ranked as the Dodgers’ 16th ranked prospect on MLB Pipeline as of yesterday.
Cartaya is the perfect flier for the White Sox. Last year was rough, as he hit .221 with 11 homeruns and 52 RBIs over AA and AAA, but he has shown flashes of being a very good hitter with power upside.
Diego Cartaya CRUSHED a no-doubt home run for Tulsa pic.twitter.com/nQmWGgSc7I
— Bruce Kuntz (@Bnicklaus7) April 19, 2024
Even in a down season in 2023 that saw him hit .189, he still managed to hit 19 homers. He clearly has a lot of power and the White Sox could use that in their system.
While Cartaya is a catcher, it might not make sense to acquire him, as the White Sox have two top-60 catching prospects, but general manager Chris Getz has not shied away from adding extra competition. Plus, he is known to be a very good defensive catcher, so it never hurts to have extra depth.
At this point the White Sox should be turning over every single stone to get as many talented players on their team as they can, as the White Sox have had a real talent problem as of late.
Now, another team can make a trade for Cartaya as he sits in DFA purgatory, but I think the White Sox should be the team to make that trade. He likely won’t cost much, if at all. These are the perfect buy-low scenarios that general managers dream of.
Cartaya is still just 23 so he is a very young hitter. Even if he doesn’t pan out, this is the exact move that Getz needs to be making. If you get him in camp you can put extra pressure on Korey Lee, Matt Thaiss, and the other catching prospects.
Additionally, if he shows that he can hit 15-20 homers in the major leagues, you will find a solution to get your best players in your lineup. Worst case scenario, he goes to AAA to become depth at one of the most important positions. The White Sox need to be all over this move.