April 29: Santana has elected free agency, per an announcement from the White Sox. Daryl Van Schouwen tweets that the decision relievers the ChiSox from any further financial obligations regarding Santana, which seems to suggest that the veteran righty agreed to a 45-day advance consent clause as part of his contract.
Players with more than five years of service time earn the right to retain their salary even after being released or rejecting an outright assignment in favor of free agency. The 45-day advance consent clause, however, gives teams the option of cutting loose a veteran with six-plus years at any point within the season’s first 45 days (barring an injury) without being on the hook for the remainder of his salary. (Trade Rumors’ Zach Links examined 45-day advance consent clauses in depth a few years ago.)
April 26: The White Sox announced this morning that they’ve designated veteran right-hander Ervin Santana for assignment. His spot on the active roster will go to Eloy Jimenez, who has been reinstated from the bereavement list.
Santana’s stay with the Sox proved to be brief, as he made only three starts before the team shifted course today. The 36-year-old righty pitched just 13 1/3 innings for the Pale Hose, allowing 14 runs on 19 hits and six walks with only five strikeouts.
Chicago inked Santana to a minor league contract with a rather hefty $4.3MM guarantee at the MLB level in hopes that he could bounce back from an injury-ruined 2018 season. Santana underwent surgery to repair a tendon in his pitching hand in February of 2018, and lingering effects from that procedure limited him to just 24 2/3 ineffective innings with the Twins. Following that injury shortened campaign, Minnesota declined a $14MM option on the righty.
Prior to that injury, however, Santana was not only durable for the Twins but quietly one of the league’s more effective starters. Santana turned in 392 2/3 innings of 3.32 ERA ball with 7.2 K/9 against 2.6 BB/9 for the Twins from 2016-17. The 2017 campaign saw Santana toss five complete games — a rare feat in this era of baseball — including three shutouts. From 2010-17, Santana avoided any absences due to injury and averaged 30 starts and 192 innings per season (despite an 80-game PED suspension at the onset of the 2015 season).
It’s now uncertain whether Santana can reestablish himself as a viable rotation piece at the big league level, although given his track record and the sheer number of teams that could use rotation reinforcements, one would imagine that he’ll get the opportunity to do so. He’ll first have to clear release waivers — it’s unlikely that the Sox find a trade partner for the righty — but once he does, he can sign with any club on either a minor league contract or an MLB deal worth the prorated league minimum.
As for the Sox, they’ll look to internal options to help right the ship in what has been an awful rotation to begin the year. While Carlos Rodon has performed well through the season’s first month, each of Lucas Giolito, Reynaldo Lopez, Ivan Nova and Santana have pitched poorly. Dylan Covey, Jordan Stephens and top prospect Dylan Cease are all looming in Triple-A as potential options, or the team could simply plug Manny Banuelos into the fifth spot in the rotation moving forward. Some type of spot starter will likely need to be recalled in the coming days, however, as Giolito is on the shelf with a hamstring injury at the moment.
Thats $4 million + down the drain for the ChiSox
He might have signed the 45 day waiver?
Steve, any sign of that?
Pun not intended…..
Yeah if they have to pay him the full amount that’s pretty disastrous…they shouldn’t have brought him up unless he was absolutely killing it.
lol those people who were going: WhItE SoX GoT tHe StEaL oF tHe OfFsEaSoN
A Drop in the Bucket
Sox keep trying on these washed up guys
$17-18 million for Santana, jay, and Alonso. We didn’t want to guarantee machado 10 years though. Brilliant!!!
The White Sox should never have bothered with Manny Machado in the first place. They wasted money on both Jon Jay and Yonder Alonso in order to woo him when they already had plans to move Yoan Moncada to 3B in order to facilitate the arrival of Nick Madrigal to 2B within the next year or so.
If ownership and the front office were hell-bent on spending big bucks on a free agent this past offseason they should have ponied up for Bryce Harper who made more sense as a right-fielder and much needed high OPS left-handed bat in their lineup for now and the next 10 years. The White Sox do have some promising OF prospects in their pipeline but most bat right-handed. Their lefty-hitting options are currently limited system wide and none have the offensive potential to approach Harper’s metrics. A future OF of Eloy Jimenez in LF, Luis Robert in CF and Harper in RF could have been something special.
I actually wanted Harper’s left handed bat more than Machado also. I’m still not sold on Anderson as an effective SS though. Move him to the outfield and let him use his athleticism. Jimenez will be a DH anyways
Jimenez might also be the White Sox future first baseman. He certainly has the height at 6’4″ and more than enough athleticism for the position including a decent throwing arm, something that Frank Thomas lacked which helped facilitate his eventual move to DH.
Of course the White Sox also possess the #3 overall pick in this June’s Rule 4 Draft. They will have an outside shot at top catching prospect Adley Rutschman who is expected to go #1 to the Orioles. Five-tool shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. is the top rated prep star and figures to go to the Royals at #2. That would leave the White Sox with a chance to pick the best pure college hitter for the second consecutive year, first baseman Andrew Vaughn after selecting Nick Madrigal last June. I’m guessing that if the White Sox do select Vaughn they will be less likely to extend slugging first baseman Jose Abreu who can become a free agent following the 2019 season.
Harper is a temper tantrum and press conference apology waiting to happen. Who wants that?
Another boneheaded move by Williams. No one should wonder why Machado didn’t come to Chicago. This is more proof he never makes the right moves.
Reunion with the Angels forthcoming.
….or the Rangers
Royals?
Royals don’t need rotation help. They need some bullpen help
Braves?
he wouldnt BE any help
He’s already being fitted with a halo
Seems early to pull the plug. Only 3 starts? I see him succeeding elsehwhere this season
Cool hwip
Say cool then say whip. Now say cool whip!
Haven’t seen him pitch this season, but his stats are downright fugly so far. Santana has allowed 14 earned runs on 19 hits (6 HR) and a 9.45 ERA in just 13.1 innings of work. If a team claims him he’ll no doubt have to straighten himself out in AAA first.
I was thinking the Mets could do that.
Wow, that didn’t take long. This FO is embarrassingly bad. Their scouting, both internally and externally, is a joke. This is all on Reinsdorf, his inexplicable loyalty to inept front office clowns has rendered both the Bulls and White Sox irrelevant jokes. He’s just bad for Chicago.
Your hate for the Sox is just so bizarre. I see you hating on every single White Sox thread. Maybe focus on how awful Yu Darvish, Kris Bryant and the Cubs bullpen are. K, thanks. Bye.
The Cubs are fine, thanks. Also, my hate is not towards the White Sox, it’s towards Reinsdorf 100%. As I eluded to in my OP, he’s turned the Bulls (whom I’m a die hard fan of) and the White Sox, two major market teams, into irrelevant jokes because, again, his loyalty to inept front office clowns and the almighty dollar. No way in any circumstance he should have lost Machado to the F’n Padres – a team with 5 playoff appearances in their entire existence, no rings. Honestly, I don’t care enough about the White Sox to hate them, Reinsdorf though, an embarrassment to Chicago sports. I’m just thankful he doesn’t own the Hawks, Bears or Cubs.
Because the Bears have been great right? Lol two decent seasons in 10 years!?
That’s two more than the W Sox have had in 10 years.
Last I checked Jerry Reinsdorf along with the White Sox front office of Kenny Williams and Rick Hahn have just as many World Series championships as Tom Ricketts, Theo Epstein & Co. to brag about…one each. As a die-hard fan of both teams I like the White Sox chances to grab more than the Cubs in the coming 5-10 years. I see the Cubs window closing soon while the White Sox are just getting revved up with their next opportunity as their rebuild turns to competitiveness in the next season or two.
Go stroke your boy Theo. That’s on another thread.
Loyalty to the Sox management structure and coaches is killing us Reinsdorf. Don’t even start with how well the same crap is working for the Bulls. Can’t invent excitement, you have to create your own.
Not in Boston Please. Rather see Shawaryn, Hernandez, even 1 of the retreads they already have get emergency starts.
Looks like Ervin will Cease to exist with the Sox. (ducks)…
Seems like a really short leash for a veteran on a $4.5M deal. Santana isn’t one of those veterans who are way past their prime either, he’s just two seasons removed from success. I would’ve at least given him a shot to straighten things out in the bullpen (if he was willing to embrace the new role)
Not at all. Ervin is done. His FB velocity was 90mph again. He can’t be remotely effective at 90mph. Dropping 3-4mph with a simultaneous convergence of speed between his breaking balls and fastball is the end.
Santana’s not going to suddenly regain that velocity. His career is over.
I wonder if he’d want to come back to Minnesota?? If he could just get his velocity back to where it was pre-injury he’d make that $4 million seem like a bargain. Perhaps, Wes Johnson could fix him…
I agree. If Santana clears waivers, and is released, I would not be surprised to see Minnesota ask him back. Send Ervin to the minors for 3-4 starts to get it back together. If Santana comes around again, and can get back to form, Ervin could press taking Gibson’s spot in the rotation. (Or an injury to one of the rotation might happen). Gibson’s a free agent at then end of the season anyway, so improving the rotation with a pitcher that would only cost the Twins league minimum would be a gift.
I’d be extremely surprised. Why not just ask Johan Santana to unretire and throw mid 90s again?
When an upper 30s starter as surgery, misses a year and loses 4mph, it’s not coming back.
Snatch him up, Blue Jays. The AAA pitching in Buffalo has been atrocious. He couldn’t be much worse. If he turns it around, call him up and trade him at the deadline.
Rodon has been very consistent so far in his career. Consistently average – or barely. Look for him to start stinking up the place too. This team is an embarrassment, but everyone already knew that
Sad but true and it all stems from Reinsdorf.
That comment isn’t even close to true. Rodon has never been average. He has either been excellent or some combination of hurt/bad pretty much his entire career; never average though.
Exactly, Priggs89. He will look like an ace for a couple games and then look like a AAA pitcher the next couple. I don’t really consider that “average” either. Inconsistent is a far better word than average.
That was a quick hook. I guess 3 starts were all the Sox needed to see from him. Sure, his numbers were horrible, but most of the staff’s numbers are horrible. It’s not like Sox are going to compete this year, not from what I’ve seen so far. I suppose it could’ve been worse, it could’ve been another Danks or Dunn contract. Still, $4.3MM for 3 bad starts isn’t exactly a nice return on the investment.
Banuelos is the obvious choice. It won’t be Stephens, has anyone looked at his numbers? At least Santana’s horrendous numbers were against MLB hitting. Definitely not Covey, I’d put Fulmer back in the rotation before I’d consider Covey, and I have very little confidence in Fulmer as a MLB pitcher.
At least they didn’t trade Tatis Jr to get him.
Ouch
I say promote Cease and see what he can do.
What happened. Our ace pitching coach couldn’t straighten him out!!
Orioles? Besides Cashner and the rookie Means, the rest of the rotation sucks so far, they are rebuilding so it is not gonna hurt them..
Go get him Daniels. After that whooping the Rangers took last night. Any pitcher would be an up grade.
Not much of a surprise. I believe the White Sox will give Manny Banuelos the Ervin Santana rotation spot for now and then hope to have Dylan Cease take Ivan Nova’s place later this summer. The White Sox were looking at both Santana and Nova as flip candidates to trade by the July 31st deadline and that number is now down to one. If Nova doesn’t start pitching better he could be the next DFA candidate rather than a trade option later this summer.
I don”t know. It just seems like they’re shooting from the hip. They always had gone with the two plan after two year plan after two year plan. Caught lightning in a bottle in 2005. I just don’t trust that they know what they’re doing.
The current regime was in a constant cycle of reloading and retooling. Rick Hahn finally convinced both Jerry Reinsdorf and Kenny Williams that a full-fledged rebuild similar to what the Astros and Cubs did in recent years was in order to break that failing cycle.
As year #3 of the rebuild unfolds we will get a better feel for the success of Hahn and the organization. He was commended for some astute trades that landed top prospects such as Yoan Moncada, Michael Kopech, Eloy Jimenez, Dylan Cease, Reynaldo Lopez, Lucas Giolito and Dane Dunning among others. The White Sox also signed top international prospect Luis Robert to that lucrative bonus before the rule change that prohibits such deals now. It remains to be seen how their recent Rule 4 Drafts pan out but there is a lot of promise among their recent picks who were mostly college bats and arms. Tim Anderson was a former #1 pick and his future double play partner at 2B in Nick Madrigal looks to be the real deal as a high contact hitter with Gold Glove potential. Injuries to many of their best prospects have set back their time line somewhat but most of those players still hold potential for excellence.
“the decision relievers the ChiSox from any further financial obligations regarding Santana”
The second sentance of the article….Why should people bother reading your articles if you can’t bother to read them?
Seriously, if you’re going to talk about someone’s writing, at least learn how to spell sentence.
Because it’s friggin free, and there are no ads that pop up every 25 seconds. Don’t like it go read bleacher report or espn. Com
this 45-day clause is a sick subnote to the otherwise acceptable salary “guarentee” for a player who makes the MLB roster.
“Guarantee”. The player is aware of the clause. If he wanted a 1.5-2MM fully guaranteed salary he probably could’ve found a team willing to roll the dice on that. Instead he signed this one that offered more. He sucked and got cut. Sometimes it pays off and sometimes it doesn’t. He got a prorated portion of his deal for his ineptitude. And a million bucks from the twins for buying out another deal he didn’t lived up to.
Signs minor league deal, says no to minor league assignment.
Yep, that’s why I don’t understand why people on here get excited when they sign vets to “minor league” deals. The vast majority of these vet players aren’t going to spend a day in the minors so really what’s the point?
No velocity on the fastball anymore. If he can’t get that back, I’d be willing to bet he’s pretty much done as a big leaguer.
I just don’t get why MLBTR continues to skip over the fact Ervin Santana has lost a ton of velocity and had obvious complications from surgery. Talking about who Santana was is moot at this point.
He’s missed a year, perpetually had recovery setbacks and lost 4mph on his fastball. If I was a GM, I’d rather sign Tim Lincecum at this point.
Wow, when is this team going to call back their tanks? Rebuilding for a few years which is fine, but their team still looks awful and I guess since they made an effort to sign Machado, they just gave up?
Whitesox were not expecting so many pitching issues coming out of ST. Righting the ship involves making some changes, and Erwin had to go. I thought it was too soon, maybe give him another month. Likely there was another issue other than his poor performance.
It’s only year 3, relax. Moncada and Anderson are hitting extremely well right now, and they’re really 2/3 of the important position players this year. Outside of them and Eloy, nobody is going to be a major factor when they’re actually competing. You can maybe add Abreu to that list if they resign him, but even then, that’s only half of the regulars. Most prospects need a little time to develop…
Tim Anderson and Brian Roberts are the only players in MLB history to score 35 hits and 10 SBs in first 25 games.
The decision RELIEVERS? C’mon Steve, I expect this from Connor, but not from you! Clean it up man
I know it’s early, but I like what I see from Banuelos so far. Nice under the radar pickup. The pitching won’t really take shape until Cease comes up and Kopech comes back. Lopez is looking much better.
The Sox have to figure out the other two in the next year or so. Most likely they will have to trade for one of the two spots. If Dunning can return to form (big “if”), he’s the obvious answer for the other spot. If he can’t, I’m not crazy about the alternatives right now. Rodon’s too inconsistent, Banuelos is too risky right now to commit, and Giolito is simply not the answer. They may have to trade for both open SP spots if Dunning (or even Kopech for that matter) doesn’t return to form. But that’s still a couple years in the future.
Half of the future offense is still in the minors. TA, Moncada, and Eloy are penciled in. Abreu also, if Hahn extends him. Robert, Collins, and Madrigal will be up either this year or next. All that’s left is another OF, a DH, and a 1B if Abreu isn’t extended. It’s possible Burger takes a spot, but who knows when (or even if) he plays another game. You can’t really commit to him right now.
The bullpen’s a mess that will take a least a year for the dust to settle to see who sticks and doesn’t. Way too many “ifs” right now.
This is why I didn’t expect much this season. They might win 75, which is a vast improvement, but 75-87 is still a bad record. If that’s the case, they might as well lose 100 again, at least they’ll get one more great draft pick.
Banuelos showed a lot of guts yesterday. Here’s hoping he moves forward with the positive confidence coming along with co-starter Lopez. It’s a no doubter Nova gets back in the win column. So that leaves Giolito and Rodon, two players who Chicago fans probably have the least questions about what they can do.
Right now, Banuelos is a fortunate substitution for E. Santana. His mission is continue to grind and work to keep moving forward. If he and Cease share some time they’re both getting innings, experience and gearing up. I’d expect Dunning at some point as well.
Offense is gellin. The guys are a great mix of hungry and having fun, mostly executing various AB strategies to keep the line moving and bring in runs. Looks like we just got rained out…