The White Sox have signed right-hander Odrisamer Despaigne to a minor league contract, per an announcement from their Triple-A affiliate in Charlotte. Francys Romero of Las Mayores was first to report the news.
Prior to Sunday, Despaigne had spent the entire season with the Reds’ Triple-A team in Louisville, where he logged a 3.92 ERA/4.60 FIP with 8.7 K/9, 3.48 BB/9 and a 53.4 percent groundball rate in 41 1/3 innings. Despaigne’s brief Reds tenure concluded Thursday when he opted out of the minor league deal he signed over the winter.
Considering the struggles of Chicago’s pitching staff, Despaigne could make it back to the bigs this year if he shows well with Charlotte. The 32-year-old is an experienced major leaguer who has piled up a combined 349 2/3 innings, 106 appearances and 47 starts of 4.94 ERA/4.35 FIP ball in stints with the Padres, Orioles, Marlins and Angels. Despaigne struggled at the major league level in Miami and Anaheim in 2018, though, thus relegating him to the minors this season.
hitless1
Uh…who??
hiflew
One of those “can’t miss” Cuban prospects that almost always missed.
Phillies2017
He wasnt cant miss at the time of his signing. He was a close to MLB ready who the Padres got for next to nothing.
tim2686
Love how they are picking from the bottom of the barrel hoping for some shiny pennies someone dropped when they clearly have the room with their payroll. Just spend some money on Keuchel (1yr $QO prorated) and let the team be competitive (when draft compensation drops).
DarkSide830
they dont want to lose a pick for Keuchel
jorge78
Tim2686 alluded to that but I imagine the White Sox will have some competition for Keuchel.
bitteroldman
One player will not make the White Sox competitive at this time. You’ve got your second baseman still getting needed experience at the minor league level ans several other top pitching prospects in various stages of recovery from TJ surgery.
Barring other setbacks, the White Sox should be a contender in 2021, and may make a late season run in 2020.
mjc71
As long as this FO/Reinsdorf are in place, Sox will not contend. This team is run like a small market operation and will continue to do so until there is new ownership.
bitteroldman
It’s run like a small market team because it is a small market team. The Cubs basically own the casual fans so decisions have to be made based upon that fact
When you see the team in a constant rebuild mode, selling off young talent when they are close to losing contractual control, then you can say ownership is cheap
mjc71
Reinsdorf will not pay for good talent. Besides I doubt Keuchel would sign with Sox (Even if they were the only option).
Aaron Sapoznik
If Dallas Keuchel settles for a prorated QO pillow contract following the June Draft it will be with a serious 2019 contender and not the White Sox. Hopefully the White Sox will be interested enough to offer him a 3-4 year contract with a vesting option or two. They could use a veteran southpaw in their future rotation who is a winner and knows how to pitch in a hitter/HR friendly ball park.
The Cubs wisely added veteran Jon Lester as they were finalizing their rebuild. The White Sox would be smart to do likewise with Keuchel who very much resembles former White Sox fan favorite Mark Buehrle in many ways including owning a World Series ring along with multiple All-Star appearances and Gold Glove Awards..
trace
God speed to the broadcast team who has to pronounce his name.
cysoxsale
Oh-Driss-Uh-Mer Dess-pá-ñyay
bitteroldman
Just call him what his teammates will: Oh Dee
HalosHeavenJJ
So hopefully his next picture will be in a Sox uniform and not remind me of his time here.
Aaron Sapoznik
Nice debut for Odrisamer Despaigne in Sunday’s game at AAA Charlotte. He earned a hold with 2 hitless shutout innings, fanning two and walking one batter.
In another new transaction today, the White Sox also announced following today’s game versus the Blue Jays that Nicky Delmonico was being optioned to AAA (mlb.com/whitesox/news/topic/white-sox-press-releas…). This move paves the way for the reinstatement of LF Eloy Jimenez from his AAA rehab assignment in time for the series versus the Astros starting on Monday. Jimenez was not in today’s lineup for Charlotte and is likely on his way to Houston as I post.
BaseballBrian
A crappy team signs a crappy vet in hopes of making them crappier. Makes sense to me.
Idioms for Idiots
@BaseballBrian
Troll logic makes me laugh. If you really believe there is any significance whatsoever to this meaningless minor league transaction, don’t let me stand in your way. The rest of us will sit back and laugh at you.
Selkies
People actually think the White Sox will be in play for Dallas Keuchel (LOL).
Maybe if we were… you know… a well run organization we’d make a move like that but we’re talking about Reinsdorf’s White Sox here. The same team that traded Fernando Tatis Jr. for James Shields and thought they were making a huge deal by getting Todd Frazier. While in the “Todd Father” we didn’t have to give up much; just Trayce Thompson, who was coming off an excellent August/September; Micah Johnson, who was considered a top-100 prospect at the time; and pitcher Frankie Montas, who is now starting for the Oakland A’s but at the time was thought to be merely just a relief project.
But yeah, with Carlos Rodon going down for the year with Tommy John Surgery, getting a good left-handed starter like Dallas Keuchel would be great. Especially if he’d consider a multi-year deal for say $60 million over four years or so. But I could almost guarantee that won’t happen. Keuchel is headed to the Yankees, I think.