The Red Sox swung another trade Sunday afternoon, dumping salary and clearing two pitchers from the 40-man roster in the process.
Boston traded right-handers Jordan Hicks and David Sandlin, along with $8 million in cash, to the Chicago White Sox in exchange for right-handed minor league pitcher Gage Ziehl, according to ESPN’s Jeff Passan. Both teams confirmed they will send other pieces in the deal with Boston trading two players to be named later to Chicago, while the White Sox will send one PTBNL back to the Red Sox.
Once finalized, the deal will be a six-player trade.
The move is entirely financially motivated, as Boston had been actively working to move most of Hicks’ salary off the books. Hicks’ contract—originally signed with San Francisco in January 2024—paid the hard-throwing right-hander $12 million in each of the next two seasons. Following the trade, Hicks will cost the Red Sox just $4 million total this year and next season (essentially the $8 million the Cardinals traded along with Willson Contreras), with Chicago assuming the remaining money.
Hicks is coming off a disastrous 2025 campaign. He recorded a 6.47 ERA across 48 2/3 innings with the Giants before being traded to Boston in the deal that sent Rafael Devers to San Francisco. Used exclusively out of the bullpen with the Red Sox, Hicks posted an 8.20 ERA over 18.2 innings.
Despite the results, Boston has been enamored with Hicks for years, including pursuing him during the offseason he signed with the Giants. From a tools standpoint, he still checks several intriguing boxes. According to Baseball Savant, Hicks ranked in the 92nd percentile in fastball velocity (97.5 mph), the 95th percentile in ground-ball rate (56.7%), and the 93rd percentile in barrel rate allowed (4.7%). However, his 23.1% whiff rate and 18.5% strikeout rate ranked near the bottom of the league, severely limiting his effectiveness in high-leverage situations.
Had Boston retained Hicks, both sides would have been banking on a rebound season, with the right-hander competing for a bullpen spot in spring training.
With Hicks out of the equation, Boston’s projected bullpen—excluding non-roster invitees—includes Aroldis Chapman, Garrett Whitlock, Justin Slaten, Greg Weissert, and Jovani Moran. Additional depth options include Shane Drohan, Tyler Samaniego, Kyle Harrison, Kutter Crawford, Patrick Sandoval, Ryan Watson, Zack Kelly, and Tyler Uberstine.
To move Hicks’ contract, Boston had to attach a prospect in Sandlin, an intriguing arm who was added to the 40-man roster earlier this winter to protect him from the Rule 5 draft.
Boston acquired Sandlin from the Royals prior to the 2024 season.
He has flashed impressive raw stuff, touching triple digits at times, but the results have lagged behind his velocity. The 2025 season marked Sandlin’s healthiest campaign as a professional and featured uneven performance, including a slow start in Double-A before settling into his most consistent stretch as a starter. Over a 10-start run, he posted a 2.63 ERA and earned a promotion to Triple-A Worcester.
A late-season audition for a major league bullpen role did not go well, and Sandlin did not receive a big league call-up, though he was protected on the 40-man roster during the offseason.
Sandlin worked with a five-pitch mix at Worcester, leaning heavily on a four-seam fastball that averaged 97.1 mph and accounted for 28.0% of his usage. The pitch generated 16.4 inches of induced vertical break from a high arm slot but proved hittable when left over the plate, allowing a 9.5% barrel rate. While he can touch 100 mph, modest extension and a high three-quarters slot give hitters a relatively clean look, causing the fastball to play below its raw velocity.
To compensate, Sandlin added a cutter and sinker in 2025. Both pitches showed promise in Double-A but were less effective following his promotion.
“He’s got a good chance to really impact our starting rotation this year,” White Sox general manager Chris Getz said after the trade. Sandlin manipulates multiple breaking ball shapes and velocities, with both a sweeper and slider flashing wipeout potential against right-handed hitters. His changeup remains inconsistent as an arm-side offering to lefties, while a firm 95.7 mph sinker with heavy arm-side run helped induce weak contact. An 85.3 mph sweeper flashed above-average shape but lacked consistency, while limited curveball and changeup usage rounded out the profile.
Ziehl is a mid-level pitching prospect who has now been traded twice early in his career. Drafted by the Yankees in the fourth round out of Miami in 2024, he was dealt to the White Sox at the 2025 trade deadline for outfielder Austin Slater.
Ziehl made his professional debut in 2025, starting 16 games primarily at Low-A before finishing the season with six starts at High-A Winston-Salem, where he posted a 4.01 ERA with a 20-to-5 strikeout-to-walk ratio over 24.1 innings. On the year, he recorded a 4.12 ERA, 1.26 WHIP, 90 strikeouts, and 19 walks across 22 outings (21 starts) between Low-A, High-A, and one Double-A appearance.
Control and command are Ziehl’s calling cards. He averaged just 1.6 walks per nine innings in the minors after posting a 2.6 BB/9 over 227⅔ innings at Miami. The 6-foot, 223-pound right-hander doesn’t throw hard and uses his fastball sparingly. Baseball America noted he threw his below-average 92 mph four-seamer just 13% of the time in 2025.
Baseball America grades Ziehl’s sweeper as a 55, his cutter as a 50, and both his curveball and changeup as 45s, while his fastball received a 40 grade. He relies heavily on his mid-80s sweeper and 89 mph cutter, which together account for nearly 70% of his usage. His sweeper features above-average spin and serves as his primary swing-and-miss offering.
With adequate strike-throwing and a deep pitch mix, Sandlin still has a path to remain a starter, though a bullpen role in Chicago is also plausible. Sandlin is the clear upside piece in this deal, and the White Sox will have the opportunity to further develop him within their young pitching group.
Boston also attempted to acquire right-handed reliever Jordan Leasure, a power arm who fits the physical and performance profile Craig Breslow has targeted. Leasure pairs velocity and deception with elite swing-and-miss metrics, though his walk rate remains an area for refinement.
The trade clears two spots on Boston’s 40-man roster, opening flexibility to add an infielder and a left-handed reliever. According to a league source, the Red Sox remain heavily interested in adding another lefty to the bullpen.
Boston also needs another infielder with offensive upside ahead of spring training. The free-agent market continues to thin, with Eugenio Suárez signing a one-year, $15 million deal with Cincinnati on Sunday night. Internal options include Marcelo Mayer at third base and a possible platoon of David Hamilton, Nick Sogard, and Romy González at second—an uninspiring solution this late in the baseball offseason calendar.
That unease is only magnified by how badly the Devers trade is aging in front of the baseball world’s eyes. Harrison and minor league pitcher Jose Bello are the only two players from that deal still in the organization. Hicks is gone, and James Tibbs III, with another outfield prospect, was flipped at the deadline for Dustin May.
Boston has repeatedly stated the financial savings from moving Devers would be reinvested into the roster. So far, that money has gone to Ranger Suárez—with at least one more significant addition still needed to justify the reshuffling.
The Red Sox were never a natural fit for Suárez, despite the 49 home runs he launched last season. Breslow has spent the winter preaching run prevention as the organizational counter to losing Alex Bregman, focusing instead on upgrading the starting rotation and improving overall pitching and catching depth.
According to MassLive’s Chris Cotillo, Boston never made an offer to Suárez, who was projected to command a three-year deal this offseason. Suárez ultimately returned to Cincinnati, where he’ll once again serve as a key power bat in Terry Francona’s lineup.
Defense remains a driving factor in Boston’s roster construction. Suárez logged more than 1,340 innings at third base last season, but his defensive metrics have continued to trend in the wrong direction — a red flag for a front office prioritizing prevention over pure power.
As that philosophy continues to guide decision-making, the Red Sox remain active in exploring trade options for infield help. Names believed to be on their radar include Isaac Paredes of the Houston Astros, as well as Nico Hoerner and Matt Shaw of the Cubs.
Boston has already dumped one significant salary in Hicks, and could theoretically look to do the same with Masataka Yoshida and Patrick Sandoval.
After attaching Sandlin to move Hicks’ remaining years and cash, any attempt to free up Yoshida’s salary and 40-man roster spot would almost certainly require Boston to include a meaningful young player. Yoshida’s contract, paired with his defensive limitations, makes a pure salary dump unrealistic without real prospect cost.
Sandoval, meanwhile, hasn’t thrown a single pitch in a Red Sox uniform and is already emerging as a potential trade candidate. The left-hander is coming off a lost 2025 season while rehabbing from Tommy John surgery. Prior to Boston’s aggressive rotation overhaul this offseason, Sandoval had been viewed internally as a possible back-end starter for 2026.
With the additions of Suárez, Sonny Gray, Johan Oviedo, and others, including Crawford, Payton Tolle, and Connelly Early, it’s unlikely the former Angels lefty wins a spot in the rotation out of camp. As things stand, Sandoval’s clearest path to starting in Boston would require either an outstanding spring training or an injury ahead of him on the depth chart.
Sandoval is owed $12.75 million this season, and league chatters indicate multiple teams have already expressed trade interest in the southpaw. Following the Hicks trade, Boston’s payroll now sits around $260 million, with additional roster needs still looming before Opening Day — making further salary maneuvering very much in play.
