The White Sox announced this morning that they’ve selected the contract of veteran righty Chris Volstad from Triple-A Charlotte. He’ll join the pitching staff tonight, with left-hander Carlos Rodon shifting from the 10-day DL to the 60-day DL to create a spot on the 40-man roster. Chicago already announced after yesterday’s game that right-handed reliever Gregory Infante had been optioned to Charlotte, so Volstad will take his place in the bullpen for now.
This’ll be Volstad’s second run in the Majors with the South Siders, as he logged 19 1/3 innings for the Sox last season and recorded a 4.66 ERA with a 10-to-5 K/BB ratio. The 2018 season actually represents Volstad’s third consecutive year with the White Sox organization, as he also spent the entirety of the 2016 season pitching for Triple-A Charlotte.
Now 31 years of age, Volstad debuted as a 21-year-old with the 2008 Marlins and impressed with a 2.88 ERA across his first 84 1/3 innings, though his 5.5 K/9 rate and 3.8 BB/9 mark prompted metrics like FIP, xFIP and SIERA to forecast a more pessimistic outlook. Volstad would go on to tally 584 innings for the then-Florida Marlins from 2008-11, working to a collective 4.59 ERA with 5.8 K/9 and 3.1 BB/9 before being traded to the Cubs in the 2012 deal that sent Carlos Zambrano to Miami.
Volstad’s one season with the Cubs was a disaster, and he’s since bounced around the game, seeing MLB time with the Rockies and Pirates, Triple-A time with the Angels and spending a season with the Doosan Bears of the Korea Baseball Organization.
As for Rodon, the move to the 60-day DL looks to be largely a formality. He opened the season on the 10-day DL while recovering from shoulder surgery that he underwent late last September and has been working his way back toward a big league return. At last check, GM Rick Hahn suggested that a late-May return could be a best-case scenario for Rodon, so he wasn’t expected to be activated in the near future anyhow. Rodon’s initial placement on the DL was retroactive to March 26, meaning the earliest he can now be activated would be May 25.
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Chris Volstad, along with all of the White Sox and Twins players might not have much opportunity to perform this weekend. It’s looking like the 4 game White Sox/Twins series in Minneapolis could be a one game set with a major snowstorm in the forecast beginning on Friday. If the teams weren’t division rivals with two other series scheduled later in the season MLB would have to consider playing those games elsewhere. As it is, they might wind up playing multiple doubleheaders in early June and late September although there is one common scheduled off day on the Monday preceding the June series.
Of course, the Twins used to play indoors in the forgettable Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome they once shared with the NFL Vikings. I’t’s surprising that their replacement baseball only stadium Target Field wasn’t built with a retractable roof like other newer venues in Milwaukee and Seattle. It’s not like snow or cold temps is an uncommon occurrence in the Twin Cities during March and April.
A retractable roof would’ve been more expensive. Plus, not having a roof allows them to have grass on the field instead of artificial turf.
Milwaukee has both a roof and grass.
So does Seattle
Not only do the brewers play with a dome and on real grass, they twins stadium was more expensive than the brewers stadium. Every twins fan ive ever talked to during the brewer twins interleague series every year just shrugs their shoulders, shakes their head and looks at the ground whenever i ask why they didn’t put a roof on it.
All five of the newest retractable roof venues have natural grass fields. baseballpilgrimages.com/grass-at-major-league-ball…
The only exception is the older Rogers Centre in Toronto where plans are in thew works to have natural grass installed by next season.
Sounds like someone spouted off without researching. Bad journalism, if you ask me. Next time, we read, digest, think, then and only then type.
yea why are all of our AL Central teams open roofs? This is going to be a scheduling nightmare. Im ok with it because the sox are rebuilding but this is seriously a handicapp for the twins who are competing for the division
so an extra 100-150 million, estimated, to play 8 baseball games so you can have a retractable roof?
Over the years you would recoup that money from increased ticket sales becuase when there is never a chance of a rain out or snow out people come in droves. Milwaukee’s attendance figures are all the proof you need. Not to mention the increased revenue from having fall and winter concerts and other events.
Truth. And I love Wrigley Field but it being 40 degrees in April is a big reason to delay going to a game until May. Not that the Cubs need my ticket money
Cheaper idea : tell MLB to have the Twins on the road in April for two long road trips. Then play at home in August-September . The taxpayers and baseball fans will thank you later.
I dreaded when both Infante and Holmberg came out of the bullpen last season. Volstad should’ve broken camp with the White Sox.
Chris Volstad hasn’t exactly set the world on fire himself. He has had a very pedestrian on and off MLB career spanning 8 seasons and he pitched to a 5.57 ERA for the White Sox AAA affiliate in Charlotte last season. He’s also allowed 5 runs in 4.2 IP this season in AAA before being recalled. The only thing he did do well was to have an outstanding spring camp which led many White Sox fans to believe he would make the opening day roster.
I believe the primary reason he was recalled instead of Thyago Vieira who was already on the White Sox 40-man roster was that Volstad has been sufficiently stretched out this spring to assume long relief duty with a club that has issues with getting innings from a rotation that features two journeyman starters and three youngsters.
How is this guy still around??
Said this in the “White Sox Sign Volstad” thread, I’ll say it again here:
Chris Volstad was traded by the Marlins, to the Cubs for Carlos Zambrano in a 1-for-1 swap, on January 5, 2012.
Like Volstad, Big Z is also seemingly ageless. (36 years old)