The White Sox have swapped out veteran hurlers with a roster move today, placing James Shields on the DL and selecting the contract of Mike Pelfrey, as JJ Stankevitz (Twitter links) and Dan Hayes of CSN Chicago (Twitter link) report. Shields is dealing with a lat strain, though GM Rick Hahn says it’s not believed to be serious.
[RELATED: Updated White Sox Depth Chart]
While the prognosis looks good, it’s unfortunate timing for the 35-year-old Shields. He has turned in three impressive starts thus far, allowing just three earned runs on only nine hits over 16 2/3 innings while recording 16 strikeouts against ten walks.
There’s some sample-size noise here, to be sure. Shields has stranded literally every runner to reach base against him — he has allowed three solo homers — and is benefiting from a .150 BABIP. At the very least, though, it’s encouraging that he has been able to generate some soft contact and get some results after a brutal 2016 season.
Shields would seem a plausible trade chip this summer if he’s able to return to health. There’s little reason to expect he’ll keep up anything approaching his first three outings, but there’d surely be interest in the respected veteran if he can return to the form he showed in 2015, when he gave the Padres over 200 innings of 3.91 ERA ball. There’s still the matter of salary, of course; Shields is under contract for 2017 and 2018 at $21MM apiece, though the Padres are on the hook for $22MM of that. (Chicago also owes him a $2MM buyout on his 2019 club option.)
The 33-year-old Pelfrey, meanwhile, landed in Chicago when the Tigers cut him loose late in camp. He has not been very successful in his two Triple-A outings thus far, lasting just six total innings while coughing up five earned on ten hits. But Pelfrey has long logged serviceable frames at the MLB level, and he’ll look to get back on track while providing the rebuilding organization some innings — at the league-minimum salary — while they wait for Shields to return.
Karma would now have Pelfrey defeat both the Twins and Tigers…
I loved big game James in Kansas City. He left and everything started to fall off. This is actually a blessing for the Sox. I would like to see one of the youngsters get a shot to shine
Wait, what? When he left they won a WS.
Everything starting falling off him. Flat pitches, lost velocity, injuries. I can see where i worded it wrong, sorry.
It’s his first time on the DL… he fell off with the padres this year he isn’t too bad… he has 2 wins and a ratio of 1 strikeout to each inning
Hopefully he gets heathy and pitches well again in time to flip him.
He competes sometimes age factors in for a starting pitcher with a lot of innings on his arm. Hope he comes back healthy to show last year was his valley
BAHAHAHAHAHAHA – funniest thing I’ve read in a long while – are the Sux trying to tank the season already – wth? Pelfrey…really…..check out his stats this year – 0 and 2 with a 7.50 ERA and a 2.167 Whip…..all in 2 starts and 6 innings pitched. OMG I hate the Sux but love this move from a haters POV. Good Luck with that.
Hmm, Shields is walking everyone now and still giving up homers. His numbers are due for massive regression. A 100% strand rate isn’t quite feasible….
Once he lost the bit of velocity he had he became toast. He can’t challenge hitters anymore because his stuff is so sub-par. I’m sure the Padres are enjoying paying his salary this year and next.
While Hahn is the GM, Kenny is in charge of scouting talent. Hahn’s in an ineviable position in that he gets credit for the deals but Kenny is ultimately responsible for the talent. The depth chart shows the projected MLB rank & while Garcia & Davidson are far above their’s, Abreu, Melky, & Frazier are well below their’s. The same can be said of Quintana. If he can string some quality starts together his projection will move back into the top 25.
It was good to see Abreu get 3 hits vs NYY but he followed that with 0-3 vs CLE. So there’s little sign he’s breaking out of his slump.