The White Sox have re-signed right-hander Ryan Burr and lefty Caleb Frare to minor league contracts and invited them to Major League Spring Training, tweets Daryl Van Schouwen of the Chicago Sun-Times. Both were non-tendered yesterday but quickly rejoined the organization on new minor league pacts that don’t require the Sox to allocate a spot on the 40-man roster.
Burr, 25, pitched 19 2/3 innings for the ChiSox in 2019 and posted a 4.58 ERA with a 20-to-8 K/BB ratio and a 47.4 percent ground-ball rate in that time. He throws fairly hard, averaging 95 mph on his heater, but he wasn’t able to generate many swinging strikes in his limited time in the big leagues (8.4 percent). The Arizona State product was a star closer in college and has a strong minor league track record (2.02 ERA, 10.8 K/9 in 173 1/3 innings), so the Sox are surely glad to get him back in the organization as a depth piece.
Frare, meanwhile, has logged 9 2/3 innings with the Sox over the past two seasons with 12 punchouts against eight walks. The 26-year-old was acquired from the Yankees prior to the 2018 deadline in a swap that sent international funds to New York, but his 2019 campaign in Triple-A was the worst of his career. Frare whiffed an impressive 34 hitters in just 22 1/3 innings, but he also issued 19 walks, hit three batters and allowed five homers en route to a 7.33 ERA. He’s dominated up through Double-A in the minors and routinely posts big strikeout totals, however, so perhaps he can eventually unlock something more at the game’s top levels.
Noice
Did you mean nice?
Pretty sure Burr is coming off Tommy John surgery, which would probably be noteworthy to mention
Yes sir back in June
Ironside is back on board.
I kinda figured that would happen
They signed the right guys back.
why did they invite Burr to spring training knowing full well he wolnt be able to pitch until some time after March.
If Burr weren’t coming back from TJ surgery I’d have said he was a potential Rule-5 pick in the making. But assuming the comments are accurate that he is coming off TJ surgery I guess that rules that out.
Frare on the other hand is quite hard to get a read on – stats wise anyway. He’s gone anywhere from absolute domination in a season to completely terrible — quite a weird up and down career so far — maybe he can figure things out going forward and replicate some of the success that led him to an amazing 0.62 ERA the season he was traded from NY!