{"id":443439,"date":"2026-02-01T20:40:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-01T20:40:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/443439\/"},"modified":"2026-02-01T20:40:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-01T20:40:07","slug":"white-sox-to-acquire-jordan-hicks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/443439\/","title":{"rendered":"White Sox To Acquire Jordan Hicks"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Red Sox are sending right-hander Jordan Hicks<\/a> to the White Sox, according to a report from ESPN\u2019s Jeff Passan<\/a>. Right-handed pitching prospect David Sandlin<\/a> is also headed to Chicago, as noted by Passan. Two players to be named later will head to the White Sox alongside Hicks and Sandlin. The Red Sox are receiving right-handed pitching prospect Gage Ziehl<\/a> and a player to be named later in return, according to James Fegan of SoxMachine<\/a>. Chris Cotillo of MassLive<\/a> reports that the Red Sox are including some cash in the deal, while the White Sox will take on the majority of Hicks\u2019s salary. Will Sammon of The Athletic<\/a> specifies that Boston will send $8MM cash to Chicago as part of the deal. Chicago will need to clear 40-man roster spots for both Hicks and Sandlin in order to make the deal official.<\/p>\n

The move is a salary dump for the Red Sox, who clear $16MM of the $24MM Hicks was owed over the next two seasons off their books. The move lowers their current luxury tax payroll to $258MM according to RosterResource<\/a>, just below the $264MM marker that represents the second threshold of the luxury tax. There have been some indications<\/a> dating back to the early parts of the offseason that Boston prefers to stay under that second threshold this winter, though trades for pricey veterans such as Sonny Gray<\/a> and Willson Contreras<\/a> in addition to the signing of Ranger Suarez<\/a> had previously pushed them over that line. Trading away the bulk of Hicks\u2019s salary has allowed them to sneak back under, though with the team still known to be looking for infield help it\u2019s entirely possible that additional moves could change that positioning.<\/p>\n

In order to get Hicks off the books, the Red Sox are parting ways with Sandlin. Sandlin was ranked as Boston\u2019s #11 prospect by Baseball America<\/a> headed into the 2026 campaign. The soon-to-be 25-year-old righty struggled in a 23 2\/3 inning look at Triple-A last year, but pitched to an impressive 3.61 ERA across 17 outings (13 starts) at the Double-A level with a 25.4% strikeout rate. Sandlin\u2019s viewed as a player with a chance to stick in a big league rotation who could\u2019ve helped Boston\u2019s bullpen as soon as this year, but now he\u2019ll head to Chicago where he\u2019ll have an easier chance to find a big league role in the short-term. Shane Smith<\/a>, Davis Martin<\/a>, Sean Burke<\/a>, Anthony Kay<\/a>, and Sean Newcomb<\/a> currently stand as the team\u2019s projected starters entering Spring Training, but Sandlin could join players like Jonathan Cannon<\/a>, and fellow former Red Sox hurler Chris Murphy<\/a> in standing as a primary depth option behind those players, with a chance to earn a job on the big league club out of camp this spring.<\/p>\n

Going the other way is Ziehl, who Baseball America ranked<\/a> as Chicago\u2019s #21 prospect headed into the 2026 campaign. Acquired from the Yankees over the summer in the Austin Slater<\/a> trade, Ziehl made his pro debut last year with a 4.12 ERA in 22 appearances (21 starts) across the Single-A, High-A, and Double-A levels. The righty has a five-pitch repertoire led by a solid sweeper, but the rest of his arsenal draws unimpressive marks despite previous scouting reports that suggested his fastball could top out at 97mph. The righty figures to start the year at Double-A for the Red Sox, but questions remain about whether he can be more than a long reliever in the majors.<\/p>\n

The deal is a sensible one for the White Sox to make as they look to accelerate their rebuild and gather more credible MLB talent. After trading Luis Robert Jr.<\/a> to the Mets in a deal that garnered infielder Luisangel Acuna<\/a>, the Sox have reinvested in the big league club by signing Austin Hays<\/a> to replace Robert in the outfield and adding Seranthony Dominguez<\/a> to a bullpen that needed a competent closer. This latest move adds another young pitcher close to the majors in Sandlin while also bringing an intriguing bounce-back candidate into the fold. While Hicks wasn\u2019t likely to have a role with the Red Sox this year after struggling to an 8.20 ERA with the club, there\u2019s little reason for Chicago to not roll the dice on a player with an upper-90s fastball and a history of success in the majors.<\/p>\n

Hicks has primarily pitched as a starter in recent years after signing with the Giants as a rotation piece, but his biggest successes (including a dominant 2023 season with the Cardinals and Blue Jays) saw him pitch in relief. It\u2019s unclear what role Hicks will take with the White Sox this season, but given their lack of quality bullpen pieces (outside of Dominguez) and their deep group of potential starting options, perhaps a move back to the bullpen could make some sense for the hard-throwing righty. Should he return to the bullpen this year, he\u2019ll have the chance to join the likes of Mike Vasil<\/a>, Jordan Leasure<\/a>, and Grant Taylor<\/a> in handling setup duties behind Dominguez.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Red Sox are sending right-hander Jordan Hicks to the White Sox, according to a report from ESPN\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":443440,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[208663,208664,24066,99],"class_list":["post-443439","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-david-sandlin","tag-gage-ziehl","tag-jordan-hicks","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/443439","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=443439"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/443439\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/443440"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=443439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=443439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=443439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}