The White Sox have released five players – infielders Matt Skole and Ramon Torres, right-hander Zach Putnam, and lefties Caleb Frare and Matt Tomshaw – according to Daryl Van Schouwen of the Chicago Sun-Times. Frare, Skole and Tomshaw spent time in major league camp during the first version of spring training, but the White Sox reassigned them to the minors in March.
The most big league experience in the group belongs to the 32-year-old Putnam, who was rather adept at keeping runs off the board with the White Sox from 2014-17. During that 139 1/3-inning span, he posted a 2.71 ERA/3.34 FIP with 9.62 K/9, 3.62 BB/9 and a 47.6 percent groundball rate. Putnam hasn’t pitched in the majors since then, though, as he underwent Tommy John surgery in 2018 and then, as a member of the Red Sox organization last year, battled a hamstring injury. He returned to the White Sox on a minor league contract in March.
Skole was once a solid prospect with the Nationals, and while he did slash .248/.384/.497 with 21 home runs in 391 plate appearances with the White Sox’s Triple-A team last season, he hasn’t seen much action in the majors. The 30-year-old owns a meager .567 OPS at the game’s highest level in 93 PA. Likewise, Torres, Frare and Tomshaw have shown well at times in the minors, but they haven’t made noteworthy impacts in MLB in their small sample sizes of work (Tomshaw hasn’t reached the majors thus far).
I remember Ramon Torres when he played for the Royals. The dude was fast af. Could be a useful pinch runner.
I don’t know anything about Torres but if he’s really “fast af” the dude is a pretty god awful base runner. Really bad minor league base running record if that’s his calling card.
Usually, those kind of players don’t get picked up. But with expanded rosters and how extra innings work, pinch runners are more valauble than ever right now.
Um, Torres was a good defender and that was about it. He wasn’t “Fast AF” he was average speed, below average bat and above average fielding. Dude sucked
I’d scoop up Frare pretty fast to stick on a taxi squad.
Yeah. He may not be able to throw strikes but at least he’s left handed. That’ll give him at least 3 more years to bounce around
Him and Ryan Burr have had a strange tenure here on the South Side since they’ve arrived. They both were pretty highly touted but didn’t seem too special when they took the mound here or in Charlotte.
It sucks to see anyone lose their job during this global crisis but these five weren’t going to make an impact outside of our Triple-A team in Charlotte if there were actually going to be a minor league season.
I respect the heck out of Putnam as he was a very underrated pitcher for us in his time here but it seems like he has just hit that point in his career where his body can’t keep up with his ambitions anymore. I wish the best of luck to Putnam and really all the other gentlemen here.
@bodam
Agree. The best case scenario for any of these guys would’ve been as warm bodies for an extreme rash of injuries to the Sox roster. Even that would be a stretch.
I already forgot the Sox signed Putnam to a minor league deal this Winter. Best of luck to these guys, maybe one or more will hook on with a rebuilding team or overseas.
Skole would do well in the KBO