The White Sox have signed Conor Jackson to a minor league contract, reports Mark Gonzales of The Chicago Tribune (on Twitter). The SFX client was assigned to Triple-A.
Jackson, 29, was released by the Rangers earlier this month. He hit .244/.310/.341 in 390 plate appearances for the Athletics and Red Sox last year. Jackson has plenty of experience in both outfield corners and first base, and he typically does his best work against left-handed pitchers.
Chicago Tribune, not Tribute
With this whole $100K clause for six-year veterans, teams will just release them and sign somebody else to stash at AAA. Kinda pointless, ain’t it?
That being said, Conor Jackson hasn’t been serviceable in four years and was awful for the Rangers this spring, who, by the way, badly needed at righty bat who could play the outfield some to platoon with David Murphy in left field.
I think him having Valley Fever really destroyed his career…
I’m glad to see he’s been picked up by someone. If he gets a chance to play everyday (which he MIGHT in AAA), he’ll get a chance to get back to being the Connor Jackson of 2008.
As for not being serviceable for years, he’s only 3 seasons removed from hitting .300. The first two of those three seasons he basically didn’t play at all, not, in any meaningful way. He was trying not to die of Valley Fever, and his recovery took several hits when he tried to come back, both in AZ and in OAK.
Last year his numbers were nothing special, but they weren’t horrible, especially for someone who had never before been a part-time player.
Why? Conor Jackson will never be anybody’s best option even as a plan B. If he is good enough to play for your MLB team, your MLB team is no good – and you should probably give some ‘kid’ the experience and the ABs, and not this guy. It wasn’t valley fever that ruined him. It was marginal talent – and a sense of entitlement. He’s just never been that good. Time to look at his .300 and see that IT was the outlier, and not the other way around.
It’s a minor league deal…obviously they know hes not good enough to play on the MLB team