White Sox, Nationals make trade right after Opening Day

The Chicago White Sox and Washington Nationals announced Saturday afternoon that they had completed a trade, sending infielder Curtis Mead to Washington for catcher Boston Smith.

Chicago acquired 23-year-old Smith, the No. 171 overall pick in the 2025 MLB Draft out of Wright State. He hit 26 home runs in his final collegiate season but has not appeared in a minor-league game. The White Sox assigned him to the Arizona Complex League. Chicago currently has young catchers Kyle Teel and Edgar Quero on its roster, with veteran Reese McGuire serving as depth while Teel deals with a hamstring injury.

The Nationals received Mead, a 25-year-old former top prospect who was designated for assignment earlier in the week after missing the White Sox’s Opening Day roster. The closing stretch of 2025 was a grind for Mead, who settled at a 64 wRC+ over 41 games with Chicago, and hit .233 with two home runs in 10 spring training games. Over the full 2025 season with the Tampa Bay Rays and the White Sox, he batted .233 with three home runs, 10 doubles, a triple, and 19 RBIs in 90 games. However, he made the most of 15 Triple-A games, hitting .300 with three homers and nine RBIs.

Mead owns a .238 career average with five home runs and 31 RBIs in 152 MLB games, while compiling a .298 average, 57 homers, and 237 RBIs across six minor-league seasons. Once ranked as Tampa Bay’s No. 2 prospect in 2023, he showed early promise with a .253/.326/.349 line in his debut season, but couldn’t stick in the lineup.

To create 40-man roster space, Washington designated left-hander Jake Eder for assignment. Eder had a 4.91 ERA over 18 1/3 MLB innings this past season and allowed seven earned runs in seven minor-league innings with the Nationals.

The move adds infield depth for Washington, which recently acquired Jorbit Vivas and Zack Short, while Chicago takes a long-term developmental flier behind the plate.