The White Sox announced Friday that they’ve activated both Avisail Garcia and Leury Garcia from the disabled list. In order to clear roster space, infielder Jose Rondon has been optioned to Triple-A Charlotte, while outfielder Trayce Thompson has been designated for assignment.
Chicago has been without Avisail Garcia since April 23 thanks to a hamstring strain that proved severe enough to sideline him for almost two months. The slightly younger of the two Garcias activated today (he turned 27 last week shortly before embarking on a minor league rehab assignment), Avisail was off to a slow start prior to his injury, hitting .233/.250/.315 with no walks and 17 strikeouts in 76 plate appearances.
Of course, he’s also fresh off a breakout 2017 season in which he raked at a .330/.380/.506 clip, hitting 18 homers, 27 doubles and five triples along the way. A .380 BABIP undoubtedly contributed to that breakout to an extent, but Garcia’s career-best hard-contact rates and a .359 xwOBA lent some legitimacy to the breakout, even if he’s likely to regress a bit from last year’s pace.
As for Leury Garcia, he’ll return nearly a month due to a sprained left knee. The South Side Swiss army knife has seen action at every position aside from catcher since debuting in 2013 (including two innings of relief pitching), though he’s settled in primarily as an outfielder over the past couple of seasons. He was hitting .262/.308/.369 with a pair of homers and nine steals at the time of his injury. The return of both Garcias should will cut into playing time for each of Daniel Palka, Charlie Tilson and Adam Engel. Matt Davidson, too, could see fewer at-bats for the time being now that there’s a more crowded mix at DH.
Thompson, meanwhile, is being designated for assignment for the fourth time since Spring Training. After being designated by the Dodgers, he made his way from the Yankees to the A’s to the White Sox — the club that originally selected him in the second round of the 2009 draft. Unfortunately for Thompson, his return to the ChiSox didn’t prove to be productive. In 130 trips to the plate back with his original team, Thompson limped to a .116/.153/.215 batting line. He did provide some heroics in his return tour, launching a walk-off homer against the Twins back in early May, but his overall lack of production proved too great to hang onto his roster spot.
The Sox will have a week to trade Thompson or run him throughout outright waivers. He’s yet to clear waivers at any point in his career, though this current lackluster showing could allow the Sox to pass him through unclaimed and outright him back to Charlotte.
Too bad they don’t still have Willy Garcia, or they could have an outfield composed entirely of Garcias like last year.
Curse you. They all suck!!!!
¡Mas Garcias!
Can Thompson play basketball? Cause he sucks as a baseball player
He was doing pretty good on the Dodgers until he broke his back two years ago.
Thompson had his most impressive run after making his MLB debut with the White Sox on August 4, 2015. He slashed .295/.363/.533 good for a 1.5 WAR over 44 games and 135 PA’s. Those numbers surpassed any he had ever accomplished as a top prospect in the White Sox system.
Finally Trayce Thompson is designated for assignment.. Carrying a guy hitting.116 for you can only happen in a rebuild (tank) year. He should make it to Triple A Charlotte unless the recent prospect promotions gets him released.
Ummm is this not a rebuild year?
Hey Billy, please pick up the white courtesy phone. It may be Klay on the other end.
Ahhhhh yes the lesser version of Justin Maxwell
The White Sox will get some much needed offense with the reinstatement of both Garcia’s from the disabled list. Avisail Garcia reclaims his RF position while Leury Garcia becomes the clubs utility infielder and will also see time in LF and CF. Each will now have six weeks in which to reclaim their batting strokes and assure they are healthy leading up to the July 31st trade deadline when they can be potential trade candidates to some contender in need of their skills.
Meanwhile, Jose Rondon will get regular playing time in the infield at AAA Charlotte and provide the White Sox with insurance in case of an injury on their active roster. He would also be the likely candidate to replace Leury Garcia if the White Sox can deal him next month.
The White Sox did not ask for release waivers on Trayce Thompson so they will attempt to move him to another club or hope he clears them while in DFA limbo. The Charlotte Knights only have one decent defensive CF on their AAA roster in Jacob May so Thompson could provide some insurance there if no other team acquires or claims him in the coming week. The former White Sox top OF prospect could also teach their current one, Eloy Jimenez, his best basketball moves. lol
Even Trayce’s defense was disappointing in his latest opportunity with the White Sox.
I dunno about anyone else, but Avi Garcia still has to prove he can hit. He killed it in AAA during his rehab, but the majors are the majors for a reason and he has to show he is not a 4A hitter.
I hope he does well as the Sox could use another trade chip.
Avisail Garcia could put up replacement level numbers and still be an improvement offensively over Trayce Thompson who he is supplanting on the roster and in RF..
There is little doubt that Garcia needs to approach his 2017 production in the next 5 weeks in order for him to be a valuable trade chip by the deadline. If not, there is always the offseason or the 2019 trade deadline since he still has 1.5 more years of arbitration eligible team control. Like teammate Jose Abreu, the possibility also exists that the White Sox could offer him a contract extension to remain a part of their future core.
Well yeah, saying Garcia should be better than Thompson is not saying much though. I hope he does well, but he did not start ’18 off very well in the first place.
However, the White Sox have had, and have had for about 15 years now, issues with ‘junk ball’ type pitchers. Too many of these guys with 5+ ERAs come to face the Sox, only to look like a Cy Young award winner when the game ends.
The good news is with Jimenez on the way, and, apparently, Basabe (who Im not sure many had any expectations for) , it looks like some good hitters are coming but likely still about 1 season away, at least (well Eloy likely will be up here by next spring at latest if he keeps doing what he is doing in the minors).
Finally, for all the vitriol aimed at Engel, he has looked better at the plate lately. I would figure that with his defensive work, if he can at least hit .250-.260 then he will be pretty good for the Sox.
The White Sox have an abundance of top OF prospects in their system including three currently on mlb.com’s top-100 list with Eloy Jimenez, Luis Robert and Blake Rutherford. The continued positive development of all these players will go a long way in determining the White Sox decision to offer an extension to Avisail Garcia as well as who they might pursue in free agency in the coming offseason or two.
As for Adam Engel, all White Sox fans can appreciate his defensive acumen in CF including a fan like myself who is old enough to have seen some great ones like Jim Landis, Ken Berry and Chet Lemon. Engel can patrol CF with any of them and even with little improvement at the plate could still be a nice 4th or 5th outfielder for a contending White Sox team in a couple of seasons. Eloy Jimenez looks to be their future left fielder and could be a defensively challenged one as he continues to age and bulk up. Engel could certainly come off the bench to provide some excellent defense to protect late leads as well a be a formidable pinch-runner with his 80 grade speed.
At the time of the Todd Frazier trade, very popular opinion that the Dodgers got the better package, which included Thompson instead of the Reds
How’s that working out now?
I was more upset at Montas leaving along with Thompson, but it appears neither really did much, then again. It remains to be seen what Frazier on the South side really did either.
The White Sox have made only a few are really horrible deals in the past 15 years, those they were godawful… Two were Gio Gonzalez getting traded away twice, Eduardo Escobar going to the Twins for Liriano, (during KWs ‘hey look at that guys baseball card stats from a few years ago’ GM run), and one can argue the Shields for Tatis JR was his doing as well..
I’m not sure that any of the three teams involved will want to claim bragging rights over that trade but at least the Reds still have all three of their prospects even if they are only putting up reserve or replacement level numbers in Cincinnati as we post.
The White Sox automatically lose because Todd Frazier never gave them what they needed in his tenure on the South Side, a contending team rather than a pretending one. That being said, they did receive top OF prospect Blake Rutherford from the Yankees in last summer’s trade that included Frazier so perhaps something good can still come their way in the future.
Thompson was a no risk move. I guess some casual Sox fans, or Cubs fans that are still angry that the Sox got Cease and Jimenez for Quintana,must still think the Sox are an actual competitive team that is really built to win now (They are not)…
Thompson was painful to watch but really cost the Sox nothing, and maybe he can find his way in going back in AAA to work on his game. If not, again no real loss here for the Sox.
He was doing awesome until he messed up his back with Dodgers. Then it was allllll down hill from there.. poor guy.