All the smoke, which rose and rose for months, surrounding a Garrett Crochet trade finally materialized into fire on Wednesday. The White Sox sent him away. Not to Philadelphia. To Boston.

It wasn’t for lack of effort on the Phillies’ part, at least if you date back to the summer. That’s when the Phillies were most aggressive in their pursuit of the All-Star southpaw — and when, according to The Athletic’s Matt Gelb, the team offered prized prospect Aidan Miller in a return package for Crochet that also included Justin Crawford along with lower-level prospects.

It’s the type of aggressive offer president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski has made a career of, even though it bore no fruit this time around. Miller is Phillies Nation’s No. 2 prospect in the organization, Crawford No. 6.

The White Sox, obviously, refused — because they were thinking even higher. Chicago wanted Andrew Painter, but the Phillies would not include the pitcher who, per Gelb’s reporting, is “considered the lone untouchable in the organization.”

If Miller is not untouchable, he seemed to be the next-closest thing. Perhaps he still is. It would’ve taken a rare, controllable talent like Crochet for the Phillies to part with Miller and Crawford, and only even under certain circumstances: Gelb reports that the club never offered the two together this offseason, with one fewer postseason run remaining before Crochet’s team control expires after 2026.

It’s hard to blame them for not wanting to part with that pair this offseason, but their reluctance to do so now speaks to just how much of a difference-maker they saw in Crochet over the summer.

Miller is still just 20, but early returns suggest the Phillies struck gold with the No. 27 overall selection in the 2023 draft. It’s why they promoted him to Double-A this year after not three months at High-A Jersey Shore. Crawford, for his part, made strides at the plate this year, ending his season with a solid 40-game stint in Double-A, during which Miller joined him in Reading.

The two were excited to team up again for the last month of the season. In a perfect world, they rise through the rest of the Phillies’ system together and find themselves teammates in Philadelphia for the better part of the next decade. In an alternate world, they still remained teammates — but with another organization entirely. So close but yet, evidently, so far.