The White Sox have signed corner outfielder Ryan Raburn to a minor-league deal, Bruce Levine of 670thescore.com tweets. Raburn is a CSE client.
The Reds released Raburn late in Spring Training. He was subsequently connected to the Braves, but it appears he has selected the White Sox instead. The 35-year-old batted a modest .220/.309/.404 for the Rockies last season, failing to provide much offense despite the advantage of Coors Field. The White Sox, though, probably feel more intimately familiar with Raburn’s play from the prior seasons of his career, all of which was spent in the AL Central with Detroit and Cleveland. Raburn batted a terrific .301/.393/.543 for the Indians in part-time duty in 2015, continuing a recent pattern in which he’s alternated great seasons with poor ones.
The White Sox could potentially provide opportunities for Raburn down the line. He mostly played left field last season, but he has also played right in the past, and the White Sox’ current right fielder, Avisail Garcia, has had three straight underwhelming seasons. The White Sox also aren’t especially strong at DH, where recent minor-league signing Cody Asche currently tops their depth chart.
Help me out here – why didn’t the Sox sign one of the readily available lumbering 1B/DH types in the off-season? Going with Cody Asche/Matt Davidson seems dumb.
They’re trying to acquire and develop young talent for the future. They don’t need to add “lumbering 1B/DH types.”
I think Davidson will have a good year, he had the 3 run homer against the Tigers