The intrigue around All-Star pitcher Garrett Crochet overflowed during Major League Baseball's July trade deadline, with everyone in the industry wondering whether the Chicago White Sox would trade him. Four months later, some of the mystery has evaporated.

"They're going to trade him this winter," said a rival evaluator in attendance at last week's general manager meetings. "It's not a matter of if; it's a question of when."

It's no surprise. Chicago binged on defeat in 2024, going 41-121, and the franchise desperately needs an influx of major league players, particularly among its position player group. If the rebuilding job were a football field, the White Sox would be at their own 1-yard line, with years of development ahead of general manager Chris Getz and new manager Will Venable.

The front office seems to be in the preliminary stages of this round of Crochet talks, with a lot of surface-level conversations so far. The collective takeaway from rival executives is that its preference in a deal now is the same as it was back in July: In return for a difference-maker left-hander who whiffed 209 batters in 149 innings last season, Getz wants a package of prospects constructed around at least one high-ceiling youngster to anchor the deal. Chicago's preference is for that main piece to be a position player, but sources say that depending on the depth and quality of the prospects offered, it would consider taking a pitcher as the centerpiece.

Last year, Crochet's representative, Andrew Nacario, conveyed the message that the pitcher would need a contract extension in order to pitch in the postseason, but interest remained high. The Philadelphia Phillies, Los Angeles Dodgers and Atlanta Braves were the best-positioned team to make deals in July.

But Getz and his staff decided that unless somebody met their high bar in an asking price, they would keep Crochet. Right after the deadline, some evaluators with other teams believed that Getz absolutely should have dealt the pitcher -- both because Crochet was the most sought-after option in the pitching market, and also because of the inherent risk of injury or a decline in performance in a season in which he was destined to throw a career high in innings.

But Getz' gamble seems to have paid off. Over the past two months, Crochet continued to pitch under a reduced workload, maintaining his dominance and demonstrating that he could be effective as a starter over a full season. "I think [Getz] is going to get at least as much" as he asked for back in July, said one executive.

This winter, Crochet's value will be heightened as the best alternative to the more expensive free agent starting pitchers. Corbin Burnes, Blake Snell and Max Fried will likely each make more in a couple of months of their forthcoming deals than Crochet has made in his career, to date. It goes without saying that any team could use someone like Crochet, whose strikeout-to-walk ratio in the first innings of games was 23.5, and who held opponents to a .189 average when he faced hitters for a third plate appearance in his starts.

But there are probably only a handful of teams that would be willing to pay the high prospect price for Crochet, with two more years remaining before he'll become eligible for free agency. (The presumption among multiple evaluators involved in the Crochet trade talks is that the team that acquires him will negotiate the contract extension he wants -- perhaps in January, when Crochet is scheduled to go through arbitration.)

Based on conversations with sources around the majors, these are teams that could be a fit for a Crochet deal.