The White Sox have re-signed right-hander Dylan Axelrod to a minor league contract, according to the team's official transactions page. Axelrod is represented by Prodigal Sports Group.
The 28-year-old Axelrod appeared in a career-high 30 games for the White Sox in 2013 (20 starts), posting a 5.68 ERA with 5.1 K/9, 3.0 BB/9 and a 40.3 percent ground-ball rate in a career-high 128 1/3 innings. Axelrod found himself very prone to the home run, averaging 1.7 homers per nine innings pitched. Part of his struggles could be velocity-related, as Axelrod averaged 88.1 mph on his fastball last season.
The White Sox non-tendered Axelrod on Dec. 2 despite the fact that he's not yet arbitration eligible. Though they apparently wanted to free up a 40-man roster spot, the White Sox clearly see potential in Axelrod. Chicago signed him out of independent ball after he was released by the Padres, and he's posted a sub-3.00 ERA across multiple minor league levels for the Sox since that signing. In 188 1/3 innings at Triple-A, Axelrod has a 2.58 ERA with 8.0 K/9 and 2.5 BB/9.
Axelrod will serve as a nice depth piece for the White Sox and could compete with Andre Rienzo, Erik Johnson and Eric Surkamp for a rotation spot in 2014. Chris Sale, Jose Quintana and John Danks are all locks for Chicago's rotation, and Felipe Paulino figures to get a crack at the rotation as well after sigining a one-year deal worth $1.75MM.
The White Sox should trade Chris Sale to Seattle for Zunino, Paxton and Walker. Then use the savings to sign Tanaka. Greatly improves both teams.
Sale is vastly cheaper to keep than trading him for a bunch of prospects and then paying vastly more for another guy when you have no idea how well he will pitch. I guess if you are a Mariners fan you think it is a good deal, but to this Sox fan that is just laughable.
The Mariners should trade Felix to the White Sox for Garcia, Davidson and Eaton and then sign Tanaka. Greatly improves both teams.
See what I did there?
‘Walker’ as in Taijuan Walker? The same Taijuan Walker who the Mariners said was basically untouchable when the David Price rumors were floating around? And then they’re also supposed to trade Zunino and Paxton as well, and then the White Sox will use the ~$30MM savings over the next four years (i.e. ~$7.5MM/season) savings to spend like $120MM (or probably like $20MM/season) on Tanaka? This wouldn’t happen on either side.