Guardians trade of Nolan Jones to White Sox creates one of oddest trade trees in MLB

Last Thursday, Nolan Jones’ second stint with the Guardians came to an end when they traded him to the Chicago White Sox in exchange for $250,000 in international bonus pool money. 

While the deal may not be a huge blockbuster, it was a sneakily smart deal that helped free up some playing time for some of the younger players in the Guardians’ system. 

It also created one of the odder trade trees in recent baseball history. That trade tree started in November 2022 when the Guardians traded him to the Rockies in exchange for Nolan Jones, gained another branch last spring when Cleveland required Jones at the cost of Tyler Freeman, and got its (likely) last branch last week via that deal with the White Sox. 

That creates a bit of an odd trade tree, as Guardians prospect savant Justin Lada pointed out on X (formerly Twitter). 

The Guardians created an interesting trade tree by dealing Nolan Jones to the White Sox

While the trade is a bit of an underwhelming end to Jones’ time with the Guardians, it was a deal that needed to happen. 

Jones slashed just .211/.296/.304 in 136 games last season before suffering an oblique injury that kept him out of the postseason, but the Guardians still decided to tender him a $2 million contract for 2026. 

He got off to a good start in the spring but scuffled the rest of the way and was eventually outrighted off the roster. 

He hit .275 with eight home runs and 31 RBI in 52 games at Triple-A Columbus, but there wasn’t much of a path for him to make it back to the bigs thanks to him sharing an outfield with prospects Petey Halpin, CJ Kayfus and George Valera (who are all on the 40-man roster). 

They found a willing taker in the upstart White Sox, who had traded outfielder Derek Hill to the Braves earlier in the day in exchange for $250,000 in international bonus pool money (which they then re-routed to the Guardians). 

But that trade also created that aforementioned tree that now includes Jones (twice), Brito, Tyler Freeman and a fair amount of cash. 

In 2022, the Guardians traded Jones to the Rockies in large part because he was behind Steven Kwan, Will Brennan and Oscar González in the outfield hierarchy. Three years later, they re-acquired him because of their lack of outfield depth. 

The one remaining piece from the deal is Brito, who made his big league debut earlier this year but has spent most of the season as Jones’ teammate at Triple-A. 

If anything, the trade is another surprising it was to see the Guardians tender him a contract for 2026. Sure, he held some value as a good insurance option for DeLauter and Valera, but his contract seemed like a waste of money for the Guardians’ usually frugal front office. 

But now he’s not their problem (even if that comes with a chance he ends up haunting them in the future). 

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