The White Sox have signed left-hander Robbie Ross to a minor league contract, as announced by the team on Twitter. The deal contains an invitation to Chicago’s big league Spring Training camp.
Ross has been a durable and effective reliever in four of his six MLB seasons, apart from a disastrous 2014 campaign (that included 12 starts) and an injury-shortened 2017 season. Ross was limited to just 15 total innings last year (nine with the Red Sox and six in Triple-A) due to elbow inflammation and then a season-ending back surgery in August. Boston outrighted Ross off its roster following the season and the 28-year-0ld chose to become a free agent.
Over 330 2/3 innings with the Rangers and Red Sox, Ross has a 3.92 ERA, 7.5 K/9, 2.28 K/BB rate, and an impressive 52.2% grounder rate. He has been just about equally effective against hitters on both sides of the plate, holding left-handed batters to a .712 OPS and right-handed batters to a .723 OPS over the course of his career.
If Ross is healthy, he could be a very nice low-cost addition to a White Sox team that has aggressively shopped for relief help this offseason. Ross is one of many notable bullpen names (Xavier Cedeno, Jeanmar Gomez, Bruce Rondon, T.J. House, Rob Scahill, Chris Volstad, Michael Ynoa) in Chicago’s camp as a non-roster invite, plus closer Joakim Soria and Luis Avilan are also new additions to the White Sox roster. Avilan looks to be the top left-handed option, and thus Ross and Cedeno could be competing to be the second southpaw in the Sox pen, though Ross’ success against both batters doesn’t necessarily limit him to a LOOGY-type of role.
Guys a stud
Unfortunately his good looks won’t help him on the pitching mound.
Did the Red Sox let him go after he gave up 3 and lost his control against the Yankees? Like that’s crazy
I’m surprised the Rangers didn’t pick him up.
Wish he was as effective in real life as in mlb 18 the show, where he is shut-down. Worst example of art imitating life.
Grounders is where BABip is most likely to fluctuate with good/bad luck. A RP, because of their limited work load, will be more prone to either benifit or be hurt by those fluctuations
Add in his extreme inconsistencies across the board (Ks, BBs, HRs, even GBs) and you have a guy thats a true crapshoot to use at any given time – he might look okay, he might be a bit of a disaster
The Palehose can afford to use this type, I guess, but not surprising others passed
Not bad. Sox have little to lose with this pickup. If he sucks, they’ll get someone else next year. If he’s great, maybe they flip him or re-sign him. He’s not a star by any means, but if he’s healthy, he should be at least moderately effective.