TODAY: Williams cleared waivers and was outrighted to the alternate training site, the team announced. Williams will remain as part of the White Sox taxi squad for their series against the Red Sox this weekend.
APRIL 15: The White Sox have reinstated shortstop Tim Anderson from the 10-day injured list and opened a roster spot by designating outfielder Nick Williams for assignment, per a club announcement. Anderson hit the injured list with a strained left hamstring last week, but his IL stint wound up lasting the minimum 10 days.
Williams, 27, had a big spring showing with the ChiSox, hitting .300/.364/.475 in 46 trips to the plate, but he’s opened the year hitless through 13 regular-season plate appearances. Williams has seen action in four games, including three starts in left field that have come at the expense of top prospect Andrew Vaughn, who is learning the outfield on the fly. At least on the surface, it would seem that Williams’ DFA could open the door for more regular playing time for Vaughn, who has somewhat puzzlingly started just half of the White Sox’ games thus far.
Williams himself once rated as one of the game’s top 30 overall prospects, per Baseball America, but that was five years ago. The former second-round pick has tallied 916 plate appearances in the Majors but carries a rather tepid .251/.312/.415 batting line in that time. The majority of his production came in a solid rookie effort back in 2017, however, and Williams has mustered just a .229/.297/.380 output in his past 573 MLB plate appearances.
The White Sox will have a week to trade Williams to another club, attempt to pass him through outright waivers or simply release him.
Oh no! Nick Williams era, closing. Nick, we hardly knew ya.
Oh, but we got to know him quite well these last couple of weeks. Perhaps a little too well.
Thank goodness TA is back.
Sox lose but 3 hits for TA#7!!
Seems that Collins may be taking playing time, away from Grandal. It’s a battle. But that $18M a year difference in salary could be the deciding factor.
They both are pretty inept.
It’s ironic that the starting rotation was their biggest question mark going into the season and it has been their only strength so far. The defense is shaky, the bullpen is horrible, and the entire offense is inept. Except for Yermin and Eaton. Who would’ve guessed those two would be carrying the offense so far this year.
Rodon has been really, really good. Honestly one problem has been how much ‘hype’ this team gets from the TV announcers. They pretty much avoid reality and just complain about balls and strikes continually during broadcasts. It’s as if the Sox have yet to lose a game, except for that reason.
Collins was always going to share time with Grandal and catch more games than people expected. Collins caught for Cease and Kopech throughout their days in AA and AAA. Plus, Grandal was having problems with his knee during spring training. Grandal will catch and DH through out the year.
shame. numbers dont look good though. really fell off a cliff.
Just shows how hard it is to make it in the bigs, man.
Fairly well regarded prospect & early on looked pretty good. Really, a .725 OPS is close to league average & it looks like he plays a decent outfield too.
Can’t imagine there is not at least one GM out there who’d be willing to take a chance on him.
Ducky Buckin Fent
, a .725 OPS is close to league average
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The .727 is for his career. He’s been on a straight downhill slide since his rookie year. He’s at .677 for the past three years and .424 for the last two years. Small sample size and all, but his 47/5 K/W over two years is pretty awful.
Noted.
&…ooof…424? & that K/BB rate is thoroughly untenable. SSS & all. Looks like ya got me on this one too. Perhaps no GM’s will actually have any interest, @Brady.
Questionable take is questionable take.
i dont think it’s outlandish for a team like, say, PIT to take a look given the struggles of Alford and the fact that Polanco might be gone by the deadline.
If you’ve read one of my posts, you’ve read them all. It isn’t the end-all and be-all of baseball, but your K/W is usually everything. The cut-off is probably 4/1. If your K/W is > 4/1, you probably have a 20% of being a league-average hitter. Driving in reverse, my guess is that the best you can do is 3/1 in the minors, but that is heavily age-dependent and position-dependent.
Past a certain age, maybe 23, if you have a 3/1 K/W in the minors, you’ll have a 4/1 K/W in the pros, and then you are finished. Pro pitchers and scouts are a merciless lot.
The one thing I’d interject, is that MiLB K/BB rates are sometimes due to passivity as opposed to selectivity.
Now, that was the knock on Solak & it looks like that was an incorrect assessment in his case.
I definitely pay attention to to OPS & K/BB rates at the big league level. Those seem to be the easiest for me to grasp & rarely lead to poor conclusions from what I can tell.
I’m just not a savvy (or honestly interested) fan when it comes to the minors to really have any kind of intelligible take.
But I do read a lot of those kind of posters here & I’m more than willing to copy their homework.
Nick Williams may have to look toward the Korean league if he wants a shot.
I think we have all seen enough to know he is a AAAA player.
His only hope is a ton of injuries or to latch on to a bad team. Or go far West.
“looks like he plays a decent outfield”
-24 DRS in the outfield… no
(sigh)
Schooled again. HOTTAKES! just are not my thing.
Yet another example of why. Man. & 6 upvotes for a really dubious take.
Appreciate the info.
As a Phillies’ fan, I can attest to his poor corner OF defense. Gets bad jumps and doesn’t take good routes.
If he could play CF he’d still be Phillies property. He should latch on in a non pressure cooker environment.
Can he play CF? Phillies are so desperate. They’ll take their failed experiments back. That sounds too harsh. Nick’s a good guy. But the Phillies can’t develop anything.
Obviously, I don’t follow them as closely as you do, @VonPH.
It does sound harsh, indeed.
Yet, a common take I’ve seen around, is they tried to spend their way out of their rebuild a year or two early. & that tallies with your take.
Which makes their reticence to spend this winter that much more puzzling to me.
Bradley would look pretty good there about now, for example.
to be fair, there is a need for another OF at the alt site now…
I’d rather see what Moniak can do honestly. Nick had his chance and he pouted like a baby when things didn’t go his way.
I don’t usually do this, but I have to question his top-3o ranking. That #27 was by BA pre-2016. He had a 20/3 K/W after the trade to Philly and a 97/35 for the full AA season. That followed a 117/19 K/W in A+. Those are pretty awful numbers. You might still be a prospect but can anyone (unless they are 18) be a #27 with that K/W?
And before Philly promoted him, he had a 90/16 K/W in AAA and a 136/19 K/W in the previous year in AAA. Your chances for success in the pros is really small. Did they not think he needed more seasoning?
i dont know what more seasoning would have likely done. by the time he came up he had ~1.5 years of AAA experience.
It’s one of the many lessons that tell you prospect rankings are mostly nonsense. It’s very hard to make it in the bigs.
Those are pretty similar to the numbers posted by Tim Anderson and Luis Robert in the minors, and they were both top 30, and in the case of Robert, top five, at least in BP.
Some guys just don’t walk a lot, especially in the minors, when they can make contact more frequently with inferior pitching.
And frankly, Williams early showing demonstrated he was deserving of the ranking. But the Phils have made minced-meat of several prospects over the past few years by changing their approach.
In the case of Robert and Anderson, there is a huge difference in defensive value. Part of their rankings, if I were doing the ranking, would be that the floor is pretty high, since you can play CF & SS in the pros, even with a .700 OPS. As a LF, Williams is more like guys like Chavis & Dalbec. You need to do a lot more to be worthy of such a lofty ranking. imo.
Williams played mostly CF in minors.
Look, I’m not a scout, and there was some variance on his ranking, but he was clearly viewed as a 5-tool player who could potentially stick in CF, but at worst could move to a corner.
It should also be noted that in 2018, he had a walk rate of almost 8 percent, and K rate was just under 25, which puts him ahead of players like Robert and Anderson. So there was progress in that area, which is what you expect out of young players.
His problem was that his defense never developed, and he stopped hitting. But for 2017 and 2018, he was clearly showing signs of growing into a more complete hitter.
Guys bust. All the time. But that doesn’t mean a projection was poor.
maximumvelocity
Williams played mostly CF in minors.
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1,466 IPs in CF and 2,431 IPs in LF. And a lot of guys start off in CF and get pushed off. Just imho, if a guy splits time in the minors at two positions, they generally get relegated to the weaker position. To me, that sounds like he was always destined for LF.
Ok. Start your own scouting service. Create your own evaluation criteria.
This all sounds like you are cherry-picking the argument that fits your narrative, to discredit career professionals. And you are blatantly ignoring the fact that he was a successful hitter when he first entered the league, one who improved dramatically in the signature issue you wish to address.
But once you set up your service, let us all know.
1-He wasn’t that successful when he broke in. He had okay numbers, but mostly as a result of a high BABIP. Once the BABIP normalized, his OPS dropped rapidly.
2-He did not improve rapidly on my signature issue. He had a 4.85 K/W, followed by a 3.47, 10.75, and 4/1 this year (in limited ABs).
But that’s not important. If you want to simply accept the rankings, please feel free to do so. I like to look at the underlying numbers to see if I see any issues that would preclude my team’s prospects from succeeding.
FWIW, this could be a blessing in disguise for the Phillies. Moniak had a good ST, so maybe strike while the iron is hot.
Id be shocked if it isnt. allows Hase to get back in a good frame of mind and Moniak can now get a real look. Id still like to see him get some AAA ABs, but I prefer him over the other options right now.
Tribe! No way the Sox will trade him….but if he gets released he’d be a perfect fit for the lowly Indians offense.
I’d rather they bring up Daniel Johnson.
Me too….however it looks like they want to stick with Tony Gwynn (aka Ben Gamel) and Will Clark (Jake Bauers). What a struggle to watch! I’d take growing pains with Nolan Jones instead. Tito needs to scrap the matchups and this SHOULD Be the everyday line-up….just roll with it.
1. Cesar Hernandez (2B)
2. Andres Giminez (SS)
3. Jose Ramirez (3B)
4. Franimal Reyes (DH)
5. Eddie Rosario (LF)
6. Amed Rosario (CF)
7. Bobby Bradley (1B)
8. Roberto Perez (C)
9. Josh Naylor (RF)
Seriously…. Let these guys get comfortable in the same spot everyday. Giminez will struggle a bit in the two hole…but can move Cesar to second to open games. Naylor will see better pitches in the nine hole. This would be a competitive lineup.
I like that lineup, with one alteration. Need to switch out Johnson for Naylor, who has also been excruciating to watch. Kid tries to kill the ball every swing, and reminds me of Naquin when he’s chasing the high fastballs.
On a side note, Gimenez plays great D, but can’t hit a lick. Would love to see Tyler Freeman called up early.
I think the Jake Bauers experiment will conclude some time next month. He’s out of options, and CLE has given him every chance to succeed. Bradley needs to be at 1B, and everyone knows it. It’s a shame they’re letting this play out when the outcome is inevitable.
sufferfortribe
On a side note, Gimenez plays great D, but can’t hit a lick.
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Gimenez has a .967 OPS over the past 3 games.
Lounging at the Mendoza line and lower is not impressive.
You’re basically writing him off based on 2 games this year. You couldn’t possibly find a smaller sample. He has a .761 OPS in the minors, despite always being one of the younger guys. He has a .704 in the pros despite being one of the younger guys. And he is a GG-caliber SS.
Please trade him to the RS. Seriously, how can you not like this guy? IMO, he is one of the best young players in the league.
Yet you’re tooting his horn over a 3 game example?
(insert face palm emoji)
That was to make a point. You have apparently written the guy off after his first 4 starts. It has to be that way, because his last 3 starts.were good.
His prospect ranking varied from #30 to #90.
He finished 7th in the league in ROY voting.
He started off with 4 weak games and 3 good games.
So you are literally writing off a very good prospect on the basis of his first four starts with Cleveland.
I’m not “literally” writing him off. I’d just rather see Tyler Freeman playing instead of him.
That’s fair enough. I was a little put off by you saying Giminez can’t hit a lick.
I like seeing prospects move up as well. In this case, I’d liken it to Arroyo and Downs on the RS (since we all know the BB universe revolves around the RS), I look forward to the day when Downs gets promoted, but right now, Arroyo looks like he might be fulfilling some of his promise.
That said, you won’t see Freeman for a couple of years. The issue is that he and Gimenez are statistical twins. The Indians will look to maximize Ginenez’s trade value (and salary) before the trade him and move on to Freeman.
Nick Williams just wasted a bunch of ABs for guys like Rutherford and González of whom are younger and been rotting in the minors for quite some time now.
Williams simply wants to keep trying to make it in the majors. If you want to blame someone for wasting those ABs, blame La Russa.
While I agree to a point, there is a reason they are rotting, and it’s because they aren’t very good. Gonzalez is near ready, but I wouldn’t be shocked if Rutherford never reaches the majors.
I also think they were hoping Williams might show some signs he would get his power back, but that wasn’t the case.
Nick Williams had a higher floor and ceiling than either of those two. Rutherford and Gonzalez are fodder for teams like Pittsburgh. They won’t make the Majors with any regularity on the Sox unless we see more injuries.
Unfortunately those guys have not done anything in the minors to warrant a call-up.
Chisox81.
Is Rutherford, the famous Clarence Rutherford, aka ‘Lumpy Rutherford’? Him and the Beav were tough outs.
Not a loss, but I was more expecting to see Lamb get the pink slip.
He has played in two games all season and they really should be playing Mercedes every day at this point. But I suspect his time is limited too, until Hamilton or Engel are ready.
Lamb really serves no purpose with Mendick still on the roster, except as a pinch hitter, frankly, for Mendick or Garcia, or Madrigal if they want power.
At least he got a front row seat to Rodon’s no-hitter last night
Forcing Tony to play Vaughn now
This might be the best comment here. You can definitely tell GM and company had a different idea of playing time with the current roster than “hall of fame baseball person” mr manager. Conflicting ideas going on inside White Sox camp… as usual.
I think Vaughn is going to plays regardless.
He’s actually been more productive offensively than other options because he walks a ton. And defensively, he has done his best impression of Carlos Lee. If it is hit to him, he catches it.
If he doesn’t turn it around, I expect a demotion, but under circumstances, it’s better to make sure he gets reps until AAA begins.
The White Sox want Vaughn in the lineup and Yermin Mercedes has not made the decisions easy. So the only way for both to play is putting Vaughn in LF. It’s not like Williams did anything to help himself (0-10) and Garcia hasn’t fared much better and has had to play SS while Anderson was out.
Nobody knows if Nick Williams has a higher floor over González of whom was drafted by the Sox and Rutherford was acquired when they gave up the entire bullpen to the Yankees. Both been in the farm system much longer than that terd Williams . See what you have in what you been trying to develop over the years.
Why not re-sign Keenyn Walker or Courtney Hawkins and see what they can do, based on that logic?
This is a playoff team. They do not have the time nor incentive to see if a guy who couldn’t put up a 700 OPS. in AA can stick at the majors.
The Rutherford deal was a bad one. That ship has sailed.
Any team with playoff aspirations is going to have a short leash… he was not a good fit for the Whitesox as the 6th/7th outfielder option behind Robert, Eaton, Jimenez, Engel, Vaughn, and Hamilton… the fact that he was getting any opportunity over Vaughn should be seen by him as a blessing… hope he gets an opportunity to play with a team that can tolerate some poor at bats because he did not look good at the plate with the Sox.
Once a consensus top-100 global prospect for several years running. A reminder not to hug prospects too closely. The fail rate is still high.
Williams gone…okay. I like Kendrick. When Engle comes back I see Vaughn or Garcia being moved.Garcia proves a lot of utility which is great but he does not hit.Vaughn is a future star with unlimited potential. Right now he appears overmatched and probably needs to be seasoned at AAA. When it comes to relief while the core has been shaky the potential is there. You cannot let Perez walk because he is out of options. Did anyone notice Lucroy is a free agent. Probably will get a minors deak
Kendrick? Perez? What team are you talking about?
Wow, I did not see this coming.