2:28pm: Both teams have officially announced the trade. The White Sox are designating right-hander Duncan Davitt for assignment to clear a 40-man roster spot for Doyle.
11:56am: The White Sox are close to acquiring center fielder Brenton Doyle from the Rockies. Right-hander Mason Adams and shortstop Carlos Vielma are heading to Colorado in return. The deal is currently in medical review and has not been finalized.
Doyle is the latest in a string of right-handed hitting outfielders to change teams at this year’s deadline. Lane Thomas, whom the Royals dealt to the Braves on Saturday, was the first domino to fall. Taylor Ward and Jo Adell were the other popular targets, and they’re now heading to the Mariners and Guardians, respectively. A couple of teams have checked on the Giants’ Heliot Ramos as well.
Doyle is several notches below those players at the plate and more of a buy-low pickup than a difference-maker. In 129 plate appearances this year, he’s batting just .214/.287/.282 with a single home run. Doyle is striking out at a 32.6% clip, and 54.8% of his batted balls are on the ground, a marked increase from 46.2% last year and 41.0% in his solid 2024 season. He is walking at a career-best 9.3% rate, but that’s about the only thing going well for him at the dish.
In that 2024 season, Doyle produced a line of .260/.317/.446 in just over 600 plate appearances. He struck out at a more manageable 25.4% clip while showing decent power and speed, including 23 home runs and 30 stolen bases. The end result was a 97 wRC+, indicating that Doyle was 3% below league average when adjusting for Coors Field.
Doyle was still worth 3.6 WAR in 2024 according to FanGraphs’ calculation. That was largely due to his exceptional defense. Both Defensive Runs Saved (+11) and Outs Above Average (+14) saw Doyle as one of the game’s best center fielders that year, while Statcast rated his sprint speed and arm value in the 94th percentile or better.
An excellent defender at a premium position who also hits around league average is always an appealing trade asset. Unfortunately, Doyle’s performance has fallen off dramatically since then. He followed up the 97 wRC+ in 2024 with a mark of 65 in 2025, then 48 in limited action this year. He’s also been worth -2 DRS in just under 300 innings in center. Part of that can be attributed to injury, as Doyle went down for a left oblique contusion in late May and missed the next two months. He just returned from the injured list on Friday.
The recent struggles can’t be ignored, but there’s still some sense in the White Sox taking a chance on Doyle. He’s only 28 years old and just two seasons removed from being a solid regular. He’s playing on an affordable $3.1MM salary, of which $921.6K remains to be paid out, and he can be controlled through the 2029 season. At his best, Doyle is a competent hitter and plays an elite center field, so the Sox are hoping he can get back to that level with a change of scenery and further distance from the oblique injury.
Chicago has turned to Tristan Peters up the middle in 2026. He’s batting .267/.325/.417 with a 108 wRC+ in 333 plate appearances. Defensive metrics also view him favorably, as he’s accrued 4 DRS and 8 OAA in just under 700 innings in center this year. That all amounts to 2.5 fWAR for Peters, not bad considering he came over in a cash trade with the Rays in December. Doyle is not going to challenge Peters for the starting job. In the short term, the former could serve as a defensive backup and a platoon partner against left-handed pitching. Peters, who hits left-handed, has a 112 career wRC+ against righty pitchers but an unplayable 8 wRC+ in limited time against southpaws.
As for the Rockies, this trade signals a greater willingness to deal from their roster than in prior seasons. They infamously held onto Trevor Story and Jon Gray at the 2021 deadline, instead making Story a qualifying offer at the end of the season. They did not extend the QO to Gray, so they got no compensation for him when he left for the Rangers in free agency.
Doyle was one of many Rockies players garnering interest this time around. The team is also fielding interest in pitchers Kyle Freeland, Tomoyuki Sugano, Michael Lorenzen, and Antonio Senzatela, in addition to controllable outfielders like Mickey Moniak and Jake McCarthy. Righty Seth Halvorsen was dealt to the Dodgers a couple of weeks ago, and Doyle is now the first to go among the position player group. There’s no guarantee that others will be dealt before the deadline, but in any case, the Rockies remain a team to watch in the next few hours.
In exchange for three-plus season of control over Doyle, the Rockies are getting Chicago’s No. 8 prospect in Adams. A 13th-round draft pick by the Sox in 2022, Adams reached Triple-A in 2024, but spent the following season on the 60-day IL. He has a 4.25 ERA in 36 innings at Triple-A, along with a 24.3% strikeout rate. Adams is walking a bit too many hitters, but he’s also generated ground balls over 50% of the time in the upper minors. He tends to work backwards on the mound, leading with a plus curveball and slider as opposed to his low-90s fastball.
Adams has not yet debuted in the majors but should be ready to do so in 2027, if not late this season. The Rockies, ever in need of pitchers, are happy to add him to their system. Adams is the the more immediate value of the two prospects. In contrast, Vielma was a recent international amateur signing and figures to join the low levels of the Rockies’ system.
MLBTR’s new Payroll Tracker has the White Sox at $94.3MM in cash payroll and a luxury tax balance of $115.7MM. Doyle adds under $1MM to both sums, leaving the Sox with plenty of room to add more pieces before the deadline. They got Luis Castillo from the Mariners on Saturday and reliever Huascar Brazobán from the Mets last night. More additions should be expected as they look to secure their hold on the AL Central.
The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal and Will Sammon first reported that Doyle was being traded. MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand was first on the Rockies’ return. An earlier report from Francys Romero of BeisbolFR had the White Sox as favorites to land Doyle. Photos courtesy of Ron Chenoy, Imagn Images
