CLEVELAND — Thursday was the Fourth of July, and we all know the significance of that date in America:
Twenty-six days till the trade deadline.
The White Sox know it as well, if not better, than most, hearing their names on MLB Network and reading them in print or on the internet. They are the worst team in baseball, their not-so-embarrassing four-wins-in-seven-games stretch notwithstanding, and they have players to trade for prospects.
“You see it on the TV all the time,” said Sox reliever John Brebbia, whose nice run of pitching in June could make him an appealing target for a contending team.
Brebbia, right-hander Erick Fedde and shortstop Paul DeJong, who hit his 16th home run in the Sox’ 8-4 loss to the Guardians on Thursday, have taken the trade chatter in stride, but it definitely has their attention.
“It’s just like surrounding the team, it’s just something that is talked about constantly, so it’s kind of hard to avoid it,” said Fedde, whose two-year contract at $7.5 million per season makes him an attractive potential addition to the rotation of any contending team. “But in the reality of it, I’ve been trying to say this since the first time I asked about it: Start pitching bad, and those things go away quickly. So I’m worrying about one start at a time.”
Fedde has a 3.13 ERA and is averaging a fraction under six innings a start. Brebbia, who battled through a calf strain during spring training and into the start of the season, has allowed two runs in his last 16 games. His ERA is down to 4.86, and 3.57 in his seven-year career.
“It’s almost like it’s real, but it’s also not real,” Brebbia said of the midseason trade-rumor mill. “People get traded and moved around all the time. Half the time guys are shocked by it, half the time they’re not. I don’t care to hear the news because half of what you hear doesn’t happen anyway. It’s always exciting TV, and it’s fun to construct rosters in people’s minds before it actually happens. But we show up and we play, and there are precious few things you can control in baseball, and that’s one of them.”
Few players would say they want out, and Fedde, Brebbia and DeJong say they like playing for the Sox despite the record. They’ll let the events of the next few weeks unfold and would undoubtedly embrace the bump that would come from performing in a pennant race.
“I think it’s a little bit of excitement, though,” DeJong said. “Just trying to do your best to build your résumé. It’s a great opportunity for me to play every day, and I’m enjoying the process of coming to the field every day. We’ve played better baseball of late, so it’s more fun to be here and play the game right now.”
“I love it here; I’ve been happy here,” Fedde said. “But I’m just going to do what I do, and whatever happens, happens.”
“I play to win wherever I am,” Brebbia said. “I played with the Cardinals, I wanted to win every game; with the Giants, I wanted to win every game. Here, we all want to win. I want to be on a team that busts its tail, and this team does that.”
Brebbia can’t be faulted on that count. In 2022, he led the National League with 76 appearances for the Giants and had a 3.18 ERA. He and Mariners reliever Ryne Stanek led eligible American League Pitcher of the Month candidates with 15 appearances in June, when Brebbia had a 1.32 ERA with 20 strikeouts and three walks in 13⅔ innings.
“I’m a salaried employee of the Chicago White Sox, and if they ask me to pitch, I pitch,” said Brebbia, who signed a one-year, $5.5 million contract in the offseason that includes a mutual option for 2025.
“Just trying to keep the team in games when I can; it’s what I’m supposed to do.”
