The White Sox announced Thursday that they’ve designated outfielder Charlie Tilson for assignment. His spot on the 40-man roster will go to recently signed Jon Jay, whose one-year, $4MM contract with the South Siders is now official.
Chicago acquired Tilson, now 26 years of age, from the Cardinals back in 2016 in a straight-up swap for reliever Zach Duke. Tilson quickly emerged in the Majors with the Sox and was viewed as a potential long-term option in the outfield, but the speedster suffered a torn hamstring in his MLB debut that largely derailed his opportunity in his new organization. He was further set back by a stress reaction in his ankle last season but eventually returned to the field, logging a sub-par .264/.331/.292 slash in 121 plate appearances.
A career .266/.321/.356 hitter in parts of two Triple-A seasons, Tilson does have a minor league option remaining, making it possible that teams with outfield needs (specifically in center) could take a look either in a minor trade or via the waiver wire. If Tilson does clear waivers, he can be sent outright to Triple-A Charlotte and attempt to work his way back into the big league picture for the Sox.
You know your career has derailed when Jon Jay sends you off the 40 man roster.
For the money, Jay’s a very useful player.
$4M is $3M too much for Jay.
Depends on how realistic your expectations are. He’s a decent leadoff hitter who can start until the young kids are ready.
He’s fast. Sounds like a Royal.
Cue the Charlie Tilson’s WAR jokes.
Yea but we already have abreu and alonso.
This reply was meant for the daniel palka as DH comment below. Whoops!
I hope Charlie clears waivers.
I watched his Sox debut. Terrible injury.
Hopefully, once he is healthy, he can be a above average MLB player. Maybe with the ChiSox.
When I initially saw the headline, I thought the Sox were making room for Manny!
Good Question!
Who will the Sox DFA to make room for Manny?
Anybody got an idea?
My guess would be Rondon. Cordell if Anderson gets moved to center
When 6 of your top 12 prospects are OFs…you know you have to go. Probably the A’s and he’ll hit .300 and steal 20 bases with a OBP of .400
And he’ll still find a way to slug under .300.
Should have DFA’d Palka who is the the worst outfielder ever. Just ask Santiago and especially Volstad. Killed his ERA.
Just wait until you see balls flying by and over Jon Jay’s head.
I think you may have judged Jay incorrectly. He’s a decent, versatile outfielder and a capable hitter. I’ve watched him with several teams over the years, and his performance certainly justifies his White Sox salary.
Agreed. Not sure what daved is whining about.
If you’re a Chisox fan, you will get an up close and personal look at Jay’s deficiencies. Steve Stone was basically laughing at him last year when Jay played for the Royals. The White Sox had 3 triples fly over Jay due to lack of speed and poor route running. I’ve watched him for 7 years. He’s bad.
Look, I get it. You don’t like the signing because he’s not an everyday starter. I’m simply saying it’s not worth losing sleep over. He’s a placeholder, meaning his job is to go out and play until Eloy, Robert, possibly others get a call-up. Teams do this all the time. He might play for a month or two, then he’ll ride the bench. And his contract is peanuts in MLB terms.
p.s. for what it’s worth, I watched him every game with the Cubs. He’s a professional contact hitter with decent speed on the bases. Defensively he’s average, not as bad as you suggest.
He is slow. Not decent…slow.. He’d be a great 4th OF if you could play 4 OF at the same time.
Arizona thought he was more than a placeholder and he killed them as he played almost every game. He’s living off this myth that Mozeliak created as some leader and clubhouse legend. Other GMs have bought into it and have regretted it. That’s why he’s now on his 6th team in 4 years.
The Sun will come out tomorrow.
I would make Palka a full time DH. Nobody with the Sox hits a ball harder than him, and his potential to improve his overall play is excellent.
PA’s will be hard to come by for a left-handed hitter at DH with the White Sox in 2019 due to the acquisition of Yonder Alonso who will share time there and at 1B with Jose Abreu.
Daniel Palka and Nicky Delmonico will need to get their chances in one of the corner OF spots which will also be a hard get if Bryce Harper signs and when Eloy Jimenez makes his debut in mid-April. I wouldn’t be selecting either on a fantasy baseball team unless they were traded which is probably a good bet for at least one of them by opening day.
The AL still has a DH. Palka can play there.
It would be nice if just one of these rebuild period acquisitions could appear that they’ll even close to reaching their ceiling.
Maybe you should give it a little more time…
Takes time my dude. Look up Jimenez, Kopech, Cease, Madrigal and the rest on Ytube. We could easily have multiple ROY candidates out of this bunch.
I feel like I’ve heard this before.
Fulmer, Dunning, Burdi, Hansen, Collins, Giolito, Anderson, Moncada, Garcia,…..
Obviously all are still young, except Avi, but the total lack of break-outs is concerning. No faith in their player development.
Half of the guys you listed haven’t even had a chance to reach the big leagues yet. Fulmer and Garcia are trash, but the other guys aren’t even close to finished products yet.
CSC named players who haven’t reached the bigs as a group I should be happy/excited about. So I simply listed the players fellow Sox fans have said the exact same thing about the last 2 years.
Until maybe 1 stinking prospect makes good, my point stands.
I’ve been all in on the rebuild. But, to this point, the prospect development has left a lot to be desired.
How can you call yourself a White Sox fan?
Dane Dunning has been nothing short of excellent with his production in the White Sox system. His only blip was his mid-summer injury. Pretty much the same can be said for Zack Burdi as well.
Alec Hansen had an excellent first season after being drafted, much better than what he produce in his final year of college ball. His injury last spring set him back and hopefully he can return to form with better health in 2019.
Tim Anderson has shown gradual improvement in each of his first 3 seasons and actually looks like a legit MLB SS. His progress has been significant considering he really didn’t concentrate on baseball until his junior year in high school.
Yoan Moncada was the consensus #1 prospect in MLB. He’s just completed his first full season as a big leaguer and has shown flashes of of his 5-tools with the White Sox. He hardly looks overmatched and mainly needs to cut down on his strike outs which unlike most young players may be due to too much patience rather than chasing pitches out of the strike zone.
You conveniently cherry pick some players, some of whom have have been developed just fine in accordance with their expectations. You conveniently overlook a majority of other young talent and highly rated prospects like Reynaldo Lopez, Eloy Jimenez, Michael Kopech, Dylan Cease, Luis Robert, Nick Madrigal, Blake Rutherford and others who have progressed nicely and look like promising future MLB players.
Stop embarrassing yourself and the majority of the White Sox faithful.
People have every reason to be skeptical of the rebuild. Right now, all the team has are prospects, and the Sale trade is kooky like it could end up as a sketchy return. The jury is still out on the Eaton trade, as Giolito looks like he may not pan out, and Lopez looks like a back end starter. The biggest issue has been the draft, as this new strategy hasn’t yielded much in terms of homegrown talent. The team has also gotten little from the sign and trade deals like the one that brought Cordell. This year will really determine how solid this process is going, and given Hahn’s track record, people have every right to be skeptical. Last year was mediocre for development, especially in at the higher levels.
What is wrong with you? Seriously, a rebuild takes longer than two freaking years. What’s the alternative? You have a better plan?
The vast majority of the White Sox top-30 prospects spent significant time playing below the AA level last season. That might account for the excellent W-L records posted at A+ Winston-Salem and A- Kannapolis.
Three pitchers (Michael Kopech, Jace Fry, Ian Hamilton) made their MLB debuts last season and all showed promise. Eloy Jimenez dominated at AA and AAA and should have earned a promotion but will have to wait until mid-April due to the b.s. involving MLB service time. White Sox #3 prospect RHP Dylan Cease was equally as dominant at A+ and AA. He should begin the 2019 season at AAA Charlotte and follow a similar path the South Side that Kopech did last year.
The biggest problem the White Sox faced last season was not production among their best prospects but rather injuries. Kopech’s TJ surgery cut his MLB debut short and will sideline him until 2020. Dane Dunning had to be shut down last summer after a second consecutive stellar season since joining the White Sox in the Adam Eaton trade. Fortunately he didn’t require surgery and hopefully will pick up where he left off at AA Birmingham. I would expect he will spend the majority of 2019 at AAA with an outside shot of making his MLB debut in 2019. CF Luis Robert missed significant time in his stateside pro debut but demonstrated his elite skills in the highly competitive AFL after regaining his health. Former #1 pick Jake Burger suffered two achilles injuries to the same leg and lost the entire 2018 season as a result. SP Alec Hansen also had a down 2018 following a breakout season the year before due to an early season injury. Other top prospects were also impacted negatively with injuries including RF Micker Adolfo who had to settle for DH’ing until he had TJ surgery last July. Bad luck with health haunted the White Sox last season, something they have generally avoided in the past decade, at least at the MLB level in comparison to most teams.
Bottom line: Most pundits remain extremely high on the White Sox chances of becoming a powerhouse in the coming years. I’d also wager that at least 28 other GM’s would love to trade their top 30 prospects with the White Sox, particularly their most elite which currently has 7 among the top 77, at least according to mlb.com rankings. I’ll settle for the opinions of those in the industry over any skeptical arm-chair GM’s any day.
I remain hopeful that this works out. But there is more than enough room for concern at this point.
The fact is, the players who have made it to MLB to this point have looked, at best, average. And yes, injuries played a role in last year, but that is all the more reason for concern. The timeline has been delayed by an entire year, and there is never any guarantee injured players return to form.
And like i said, the guys in the higher minors didn’t exactly impress last season.
This is the year that should really tell how well the rebuild is going, as you can assess the growth of players like Moncada, Giolito and Lopez, while see how well the lower-level successes do in the advanced minors.
I hope they do well, and have great faith in Moncada in particular, but again, fans have every justification to be nervous.
And no, I do not like their draft strategy of largely taking great college hitters with limited athleticism, who largely project as corner players. None of these recent picks look particularly special, outside of Gonzalez.
Nick Madrigal was just selected last June with the White Sox #1 pick. He is projected to be a top of the order hitter with great contact skills and few strike outs, something the White Sox desperately need going forward. As the most advanced hitter in the college ranks he is on a fast-track to his MLB debut. In addition to his hitting acumen which could see him in contention for annual AL batting titles, Madrigal is also said to possess a Gold Glove caliber glove at 2B.
I prefer the White Sox strategy of selecting “great college hitters” as opposed to high school players who have a greater chance at failure. Clearly Madrigal is an exception as a middle infielder, but when drafting corner players the need for elite athleticism is minimized. How many years did White Sox fans have to put up with Kenny Williams led drafts that resulted in great college athletes and a couple of high school ones who weren’t particularly great at playing baseball?
Rick Hahn has also demonstrated an ability to secure some of his best talent in other ways besides the June Draft. His trades for veterans have netted 5 of the White Sox top 7 prospects (#1 Eloy Jimenez, #2 Michael Kopech, #3 Dylan Cease, #6 Dane Dunning, #7 Blake Rutherford), each of whom currently resides in mlb.com’s top-100 list. The other two are international FA signing Luis Robert who is their #4 prospect along with Madrigal at #5. All this in addition to the young players he acquired who have already made their MLB debuts like Yoan Moncada, Reynaldo Lopez and Lucas Giolito.
The White Sox will have one more opportunity this June for securing a premium talent with the #3 overall pick. My guess is that they will continue their preference for college talent and come away with one of the top-2 catching prospects with their selection, each of whom is considered MLB caliber with both their glove and bat.
He’s a great platoon/4th OF if your OF is all righties.
He would be a good fit on the Tigers to platoon with JaCoby