Right-handed reliever Rob Scahill has agreed to a minor league contract with the White Sox, reports Jon Heyman of FanRag Sports (on Twitter). The Marc Kligman client will receive an invitation to Major League Spring Training and compete for a bullpen spot.
It’s a homecoming for Scahill, who was raised in the Chicago suburbs and attended both high school and college in Illinois. The 30-year-old (31 in February) has seen action in parts of six Major League seasons with the Rockies, Pirates and Brewers and spent the entirety of the 2017 campaign in the Milwaukee organization. Scahill logged 22 1/3 innings in the Majors with the Brewers and pitched to a 4.43 ERA, albeit with just 10 strikeouts against 10 walks. He logged an additional 25 1/3 frames in Triple-A, where he posted a 1.40 ERA with 6.7 K/9 and 1.4 BB/9.
Overall, Scahill has tossed 144 2/3 innings in the Majors and averaged 6.0 K/9, 3.5 BB/9 and 1.0 HR/9 with a 54.8 percent ground-ball rate. Though he doesn’t miss many bats, he’s averaged better than 94 mph on his sinker and held righties to a fairly modest .232/.317/.389 batting line throughout his big league tenure.
A thinner and younger version of Matt Albers, another former Don Cooper project who had some initial success in the White Sox bullpen. At worst, Rob Scahill should provide some minor leauge insurance depth at AAA Charlotte.
The Sox will need some bullpen help going forward next year. Hopefully Scahill can pick up his game, and I wonder how Nate Jones is getting along.
Would be cool if he turned into another Tommy Kahnle type and provided some trade value at the deadline.
Welcome home Rob, Albers was great for the Sox if he can have half of his success here Sox will be thrilled. For all the people thinking this will be some 4-5 year rebuild Reinsdorf doesnt have the patience to wait that long. Cubs team was pretty barren when Theo started their rebuild. It shouldnt take Sox as long to be relevant with all the proven M.L. players they had to trade. Sale was pushed out the door after his jersey tantrum & voicing his displeasure about Laroche son nonsense. Kenny should have been the guy shown the door. My money is on them keeping Abreu & let’s try to win division in 2019
Why do we need AAA depth? We have Beck. Buh dum – crash!