The White Sox announced Monday that they have designated right-hander Zack Burdi for assignment to clear a spot for right-hander Mike Wright, whose contract has been selected from Triple-A Charlotte. Chicago also placed outfielder Adam Engel on the 10-day IL with inflammation in his left shoulder, recalled righty Ryan Burr from Charlotte and optioned righty Matt Foster to Charlotte.
Burdi, 26, was a first-round pick out of Louisville back in 2016. As was the case with his older brother, Nick, he was drafted as a flamethrowing righty with the potential to emerge as a dominant late-inning reliever. Unfortunately, both Burdi brothers have been repeatedly hindered by injuries. Both had Tommy John surgery — Zack’s back in 2018 — and Zack has also missed significant time due to a torn patellar tendon in his knee.
Those injuries, as one would expect, have limited Burdi’s time on the field. He’s pitched just 16 1/3 innings in the Majors, all coming since Opening Day 2020, and allowed 15 runs in that time. The damage has come largely on the strength of an alarmins seven home runs, which have been a problem for the younger Burdi throughout the upper minors (combined 1.40 HR/9 between Double-A and Triple-A).
Despite being drafted back in 2016, Burdi has thrown just 141 1/3 innings total innings between the big leagues and the minors. He’ll have one more minor league option remaining beyond the 2021 season, however, so a club that’s intrigued by the raw arm strength could potentially overlook the 7.30 ERA and eight home runs he’s logged in 24 2/3 innings of Triple-A this season in order to take a speculative look. With the trade deadline now passed, Burdi will be placed on outright waivers within the next week.
Wright, 31, has pitched 258 innings in the big leagues and had his own struggles, working to a combined 6.00 ERA between the Orioles and the Mariners. He spent the 2020 season with the NC Dinos of the Korea Baseball Organization and posted a 4.68 ERA in 157 2/3 innings before returning to the U.S. on a minor league deal with the ChiSox. He’s made 16 starts and compiled a 3.40 ERA in 95 1/3 frames with the Knights this year, striking out 23 percent of his opponents against a 7.4 percent walk rate with a 47.7 percent ground-ball rate.
The loss of the 29-year-old Engel for a yet-to-be-determined period of time stings a bit, given the outfielder’s breakout showing at the dish. Engel had a terrific 2020 season, albeit in just 93 plate appearances, and has largely backed that up with a similarly strong showing in 121 trips to the plate this year. He’s hitting .269/.336/.492 across the past two seasons, with 10 homers, 11 doubles, a triple and eight steals in his past 214 big league plate appearances.
Chicago recently welcomed stars Luis Robert and Eloy Jimenez back from the injured list, and the South Siders have also gotten fine work from Brian Goodwin and first baseman-turned-outfielder Andrew Vaughn. They’re certainly equipped to handle the loss, particularly with the AL Central already effectively wrapped up, but the hope is obviously that Engel will return in short order to give the club as much depth as possible for the forthcoming postseason run.
Surprising, he’s been terrible with the Sox but I always thought he would have potential. Sucks that Engel is out hope he comes back soon, Burr is great and Foster has a bright future. Wright… he deserves a chance
2016 draft was not Hahn’s finest moment, with Collins, Burdi and Alec Hansen as first three picks.
Who did Collins piss off to get Zavala starting over him? I mean, Collins hasn’t been great, but omg Zavala is awful. Take away his 3 HR game and his slash line is .148/.246/.241… with 6 passed balls? I get it, Collins is not a great defensive catcher and his offense has been disappointing (.655 OPS is still monumentally better than Seby’s)… but to not give him a shot when Grandal went down is just crazy to me.
Seems obvious that they will be looking to get rid of him as soon as this offseason now.
The pitchers like throwing to Zavala: better game plan, pace and framing. His passed balls over the past 10 days or so have been unacceptable.
The Sox were idiots with Collins. They didn’t give him enough playing time during the lean years.
While I agree to an extent, Collins has been catching a pretty long time now going back to college.
I had high hopes, but he’s not a good catcher.
He can’t frame. He can’t block. He can’t throw runners out. And fact that Savala is getting bulk of work tells me he can’t call games well either, because Savala can’t throw guys out and is a passed ball machine. But he can frame and calls a better game in the opinion of likely every pitcher besides Rodon.
And he has always been bad, going back to his college days.
I’m much more concerned with why the team, given the other options, didn’t give Mercedes a chance. He can’t block either – none of them can – but he has a strong arm and is a better framer than Collins.
In any case, they are going to need another catcher next season to back up Grandal if they don’t think Mercedes is an option.
Even the guy all you Chisox fans think, ‘walks on water’, Steve Stone himself, said on the air last week – that over this winter the Sox will have to address their poor catching situation. First time I ever heard the Stoned Pony be fairly honest.
Stone isn’t happy with any of the three.
Stoney wah. Benetti wah. Reinsdorf wah. No replies because everyone has the insipid Trollbone on mute.
Hello Jed. Rick here. What’s the asking price for Wilson Contreras.
I’m pretty sure that Steve is very disappointed in. U mr. Dogboney, as it is time that ur mom has potty trained you . I can’t understand why your parents can’t buy you a case of Depends. What a burden you are !
Don’t look now, but Yermin has been absolutely mashing. As a catcher. If Jerry Narron works with him some, wondering if he has more of a long term future than Collins, who seems overmatched- now that the sample size is no longer small.
It just goes to show that the draft is mostly luck (unless you have one of the top picks, and even then…). Collins, Burdi, and Hansen were all good picks at the time (especially Hansen in the 2nd round, where they were talking about him going #1 the prior year).
I don’t know if Burdi’s injuries did him in, or he just wasn’t that great to begin with. Just because you throw 100 doesn’t mean you’re good.
As for Collins, what bothers me about him is he had a golden opportunity when Grandal went down and he let that slip right through his fingers. Granted, they handled him badly last year, but this was the time to show them they made a mistake last year. He’s been far short of that, to put it kindly. He better figure it out soon if he wants any kind of career in MLB.
Speaking of which, I’m curious to see which one they keep when Grandal comes back. You have to think it’s 2 weeks tops (probably sooner), since he’s already on rehab assignment.
How was it a “golden opportunity” if they didn’t give him the starts?
@CalcetinesBlancos
I’m talking just these last several weeks. I will say I was a bit surprised they gave Zavala as many starts right off the bat as they did, but Collins still didn’t do himself any favors when this was his time to shine. Zavala should never have beat him out, as it looks like he has over these last several weeks (based on playing time). As one of the others said above, take away his 3 HR game, and Zavala’s offensive numbers are bad.
I wonder if he has a bad attitude (which I don’t get that vibe from when he talks to the media or in other videos), or he just rubs people the wrong way. I wonder if that’s why they seemed to give up so quickly on him in the past. I still say he can put up some decent (or even good) numbers in the future, but it’s all up to him at this point. He must prove to them they need to give him more chances.
I’m thinking he’s getting sent down when Grandal comes back, whether it’s the right or wrong decision.
I definitely think that Dallas Keuchel talks s–t on him, which is funny to me because he’s so bad.
Now your talking Cal Blancos.
Dog bone , mommy said ur s sandwich is ready. Most people here don’t know that dogbone is 23 yeRs old and is a sophomore in high school, and has to wear diapers.
Collins is a AAAA player with slider bay speed. I was really rooting for him to turn it on, but now I can not wait for him to be optioned after the season is over.
burdi will catch on somewhere.
it’s a shame that he’s dealt with so many injuries because that arm was dynamite.
mike wright is a bit of an odd replacement but whatever.
I agree about Collins. I don’t get it. Do the pitchers hate throwing to him that much?
I guess that has to be it, but seriously how bad can he be? His framing numbers are getting better and he caught a no-hitter from Rodon earlier this year?
I mean, we know Dallas Keuchel doesn’t like throwing to him, but all he seems to do is pitch like crap and whine so take it with a grain of salt.
Keuchel’s issue with Collins is legit. He is a sinkerballer. Collins cannot frame low strikes, and struggles blocking low pitches. There have been 33 wild pitches when he is behind plate, which is far higher than Grandal.
Keuchel hasn’t been great this season, but metrics indicate Collins is one of worst three defensive catchers in the league.
Wright is garbage.
Who the f–k is Mike Wright?
@CalcetinesBlancos
My sentiments exactly. I’d just keep Lopez as the opener until Rodon comes back.
Wright has been best starter in AAA this season. It’s not even close, really.
If they don’t like idea of Lambert or Steiver, and have learned their lesson about Lopez, no harm in seeing if this guy can handle the role. He wouldn’t be the first nobody to get called up and contribute after struggling elsewhere. White Sox have had multiple examples of such pitchers. No problem with giving him a shot, especially given lead in division.
Zavala over Collins
I just hope Grandal is back near 100% going into October. About Zack,,,. It’s always felt like all Sox nation has maintained high optimism on Collins, whereas I’ve always doubted. Ive always supported the guy nonetheless of course. This year, most fans still believed he could develop into solid MLB catcher/hitter with more playing time, so I thought maybe I’ve just been wrong about him. Ive always hoped he’d prove me wrong. I still do!! I understand that Zavala’s offensive numbers may be similar, but he’s had some key hits in clutch situations and better AB’s overall in his short time here. How bout that walk he battled for to get on base before TA’s legendary stalk off in Iowa? In key situations, right now at least, I have more confidence in Seby sparking something or keeping the momentum going, including tougher ABs and drawing walks to keep the line moving, than I do with Zack. For now, Seby has my vote fir #2. Hopefully Seby improves on passed balls. It’s been too many, but he’s got time to improve on that with more repetitions receiving this Sox team’s nasty hard throwing pitchers, especially the straight filth being dealt from the fireballers in this Sox bullpen with incredible potential. Theoretically, Seby could get better the more he receives them.
They’ll give Wright a pair of starts to stretch out rotation and keep some innings down. If he does well he’ll spot start or long relief through August until mid-September.
A shame about Engel. He has made the case that he is a pretty decent all around player, but now appears to be injury prone with several DL stints this year. He seems like a great backup more than a good starter, and should not prevent them from finally getting a real RF this winter.
@jhomeslice
Yes. Engel could be the ideal 4th OF for the Sox, but they better make sure they also have a good 5th OF in the future as insurance for Engel (and obviously the others).
I love my White Sox but if they don’t start stepping it up they’re not gonna go very far in the post season (which isn’t guaranteed yet). They’re a good team and I wanna believe they can do well in October but I’m also realistic as they’ve broke my heart before. Hell, just last year they looked like they had the division in the bag only to blow it in the final month and had to settle for a wild card and we all remember how that went down.
Bye Bye Burdi
The Tigers and Chris Fetter will straighten him out. We can make room.
Bummer bout Burdi. Had high hopes for this DG alum Sox fan. I thought this might be the season it clicked for him when he had a decent couple outings early season. Sucks to see high draft choices DFA’d no matter what their back story is, but woulda been cool to have a locally raised bullpen fireballer. I doubt he clears waivers so Good Luck to him wherever he ends up. Sox coulda traded him in July, along with OF Gonzalez last week, for SOMETHING? Anything? He throws high 90’s and already recovered from TJ so that’s in his rear view.
Perhaps they tried, but no one was interested.
Dogbone is hoping for onations to buy himself several cases of men’s Depends.
What a great battery in spring training, Carson Fulmer pitching and Zack Collins attempting to catch, every time I see Walker Buehler throwing 99 on the black, I go why
I think teams passed on Buehler in the 1st round because of his injury history, if I remember correctly.
The draft is a crapshoot anyway. Look at Trout being picked #25 overall, or DeGrom picked in the 9th round as two shining examples. And think of all the players picked ahead of them that turned out to be turds.
Fulmer and Collins were highly regarded picks at the time of their drafts. In fact, the Sox were seen as lucky (at the time) to have both fall in their laps. Just goes to show many high picks don’t pan out. And you never know with Collins, maybe he will eventually figure it out, even though it may not look like it now. There are a long history of late bloomers in MLB.