TODAY, 11:17am: The White Sox announced the Velasquez signing, a one-year, $3MM deal.
YESTERDAY, 1:00pm: The White Sox are signing right-hander Vince Velasquez, pending a physical, per Robert Murray of FanSided. The terms of the deal are not known at this time.
Velasquez, 30 in June, had an up-and-down tenure during his time in Philadelphia. Acquired as part of the Ken Giles trade in 2015, he had a promising debut in 2016, throwing 131 innings over 24 starts with an ERA of 4.12. Unfortunately, his ERA has never been as low since, as its been 4.85 or higher in each subsequent season.
He’s often been undone by walks and home runs, as his career walk rate of 9.5% is above league average. It’s also gotten worse in subsequent seasons, with a mark of 11% in 2020 and 11.8% in 2021. As for the home runs, the league average for HR/FB is usually around 10%, but Velasquez has a career mark of 15.1%. In 2021, he was released by the Phillies and latched on with the Padres towards the end of the season, finishing the campaign with an ERA of 6.30 over 94 1/3 innings.
Despite all of that, he has still tantalized with an ability to generate strikeouts, as his rate has been above 24% in each of his seasons except for 2017. He’s also still relatively young, making it possible that he could right the ship and deliver on some of the promise he’s shown.
The market for starting pitching has been the wildest this offseason, both before the lockout and after. It could perhaps be a side effect of the lockout leading to a condensed Spring Training and a regular season that will feature extra doubleheaders to make up for the delayed start of the schedule. Teams may be anticipating extra injuries throughout the year. Furthermore, now that players can’t be optioned to the minors more than five times per season, there will be less opportunities for roster churn. The White Sox already have five capable starters in Lance Lynn, Lucas Giolito, Dylan Cease, Dallas Keuchel and Michael Kopech. However, Velasquez has served in a swing capacity before and could perhaps do so again for the Sox, making multi-inning appearances out of the bullpen and perhaps stepping into the rotation should a need arise.
The White Sox WERE the favorite in the AL Central. This drops them down two spots.
Lol.
So right
Why? If he gets used as a reliever, what harm could it do? If he doesn’t perform well, he could get demoted or released. If anything, maybe working with him strictly as a reliever and helping him work on/add another pitch could make him serviceable. Either you’re joking or you’re being melodramic about a pretty inconsequential move. It’s only been a short time since the rosters unfroze, there are still plenty of moves that can be made. I wouldn’t worry.
This sounds like a deal the 2018 or 2019 White Sox would make. In 2022, I’m scratching my head.
Dumpster Diving Rick.
Huh?
Are they going to use this guy as a bat boy? As a pitcher, he’s awful
The White Sox are so underwhelming. Is Jerry every going to let his GM make a big move and not all these crumbs?
Why do we need a big move when we already have some of the most solid players in baseball? Please explain. We seem like a complete team right now.
The only part of their team that’s complete is the bullpen. Rotation and offense are not good enough to win a title
I wouldn’t really say there’s anything wrong with the offense. Abreu, Grandal, Moncada, Anderson, Robert, Vaughn, Jimenez returning, now Harrison. Maybe Burger steps up and does something. Could add another starter so they don’t have to slot Keuchel into the 5th spot, but other than that, I don’t see how you can’t at least like the offense.
Their infield is fine but OF and bottom of their order is really underwhelming
They have the same problem now as the last 2 years. They need a left handed bat in right field. And not some bargain basement player. Most of the good ones are gone but they can pony up for Conforto and grab him or or trade
Ummm, an outfield with Robert, Jimenez, Engel, Vaughn, García, Harrison etc…. How is that underwhelming? All solid to great players
Vaughn isn’t an outfielder. Garcia and Harrison are utility guys who are already going to be overexposed playing too often at 2B. There’s no MLB starting quality right fielder in the bunch.
mattv- Adam Engel would like a word. Great defense and slightly above average offense. If that isn’t quality, then what is quality?
The infield errors are among the highest in the league. Being second from the bottom in turning DP’s adds to the stress on the relievers. The SS only played 120 Games and sat on the bench in uniform the last month. There are better infielders than what the Sox have now. Keep Abreu and Garcia and trade the rest for a better defense. DP’s help pitchers get out of jams.
Yes that’s very underwh.
Listing names in a row does not make a good argument. Especially when it ends with “and now Harrison” as if he is a difference-maker
Find me a team that has an overwhelming bottom of the order. Every team has defense-first guys or low-level veterans or young guys who haven’t figured it out yet at the bottom of the order. There’s not a single team out there whose middle of the order resembles the heart of their order.
I was already planning for a Braves/White Sox World Series but this changes everything.
@The Baseball Fan
Hi Jerry. This has to be either you or your mouthpiece, Rick. Either way (*middle finger emoji*)
we don’t have a right fielder, or second baseman. unless they hit it directly at Abreu, the right side is empty. Big Baby can’t stay healthy and even if you hit the ball directly at him it’s a nail biter
@the baseball fan
Did you happen to catch any of the Sox/Astros games last year, including the playoffs? Did you notice any differences between the two teams, maybe?
The Sox have had huge problems getting shut down by RHP the past 2 seasons, and nothing they have done this winter addresses that in the slightest. Their team is decent, yes, but their stats and record are over-rated because of the division they play in. They had the weakest strength of schedule in all MLB last year with no other AL Central teams over .500. They could have won no other division. They WOULD be championship caliber if their cheap-ass owner would sign somebody better than all these nickel and dime guys like Harrison who don’t match up with guys like Altuve on teams that are clearly better and much more seriously committed to winning. Let me guess… they win the Central again, and do another face plant in October vs the Astros or any team that didn’t play in a cream puff division. Only adding somebody like Schwarber is going to make that an unlikely outcome. Just once I’d like them to make a move that fans could get excited about. If they don’t, and ignore their biggest weaknesses, the results are exceedingly unlikely to change.
I don’t believe that Jerry makes the deals. He gives the GM the budget and trusts him to decide how to spend it. Only when there is a need for BIG MONEY to swing a deal does Jerry get asked.
Rick Hahn doesn’t need tons of money to make good moves. He just needs to know how to find good players on the cheap.
Have fun with that!!
Phillie fan favorite will definitely be missed.
He was already gone anyway. He finished last season in San Diego. Phils blew it with Vinnie Velo by not making him strictly a reliever.
Disagree. Phillies tried him in the pen quite a few times. He stunk. He’s a change of scenery candidate.
He’s pitched 19.2 innings out of the pen since being acquired by the Phillies. That’s all been intermixed with starts. He really hasn’t been given a chance “strictly as a reliever”, like positively said.
Phils never dedicated him to being a reliever permanently. They put him in there for a week or two and put him right back in the rotation. They never had the discipline to commit him to the pen, let him reduce his arsenal to his two best pitches, and let him know that he’s in the pen to stay. VV went back and forth and kept trying to improve a third and fourth pitch that never would improve. Dude could have dominated one inning at a time with only throwing two pitches. Phils wasted three or four years trying to get him to be a fourth starter. A total wasted effort for all parties involved.
Fair, but those were a rough 19.2 innings.
Yeah Japan or Korea type change of scenery
Phillies? Bullpen mismanagement? No no couldn’t be
Phils should have made him strictly a reliever three years ago. He had closer potential, but they kept trying for VV to become a solid 4th starter. Maybe the Sox will be smart enough to make a setup man out of him. He’s proven he can’t start successfully.
Great stuff. Terrible execution. Could be fixed.
My guess (and sincere hope) is that Katz was heavily consulted on this. As in, he was given a list of 4 or 5 guys to watch video on and asked to evaluate their issues and whether he could quickly fix them, if the pitchers were teachable.
Rodon and Cease have both long had high-end stuff, but trouble harnessing it. Last year was the best season so far for both of them. ReyLo has also teased high-end potential for a few starts at a time between some really miserable ones. He finished last year with some rough starts, but had an ERA below 3 going into his final start. Katz is largely responsible for a lot of this improvement. Depending, of course, on the dollars, I don’t mind this deal.
Agreed. If they keep him as a starter people in Chicago will excited when he strikes out 12 batters every 15th start. But they will be angry the other 14 starts screaming for him to be a pen guy.
The Phillies just let go their best Left Fielder.
honestly VV could benefit from a move to SS or OF. he’s got a great arm, is fast, and was a SS in HS so he might be able to bring the bat back.
He probably would have been a cool minor league “project” signing with that in mind. However, I wonder if he would have been open to the idea. With his ERA, I think he should have been a minors contract regardless. That way he could have shown that he deserves to be here. Maybe working with him to add an additional pitch to his repertoire could help. Something off-speed.
he’s still a few years out from needing to make that change, that’s the issue.
“The White Sox already have five capable starters in Lance Lynn, Lucas Giolito, Dylan Cease, Dallas Keuchel and Michael Kopech.”
———
Should Kopech, who will be 26 this season and has had all of four starts in the majors, be included in this group?
Not knocking his talent, but he’s far from proven as a capable MLB starter.
All of those starts he was lights out tho.. he’s looked better as a starter then when he comes out of the BP.
yep
You’re knocking them calling Kopech capable and not Keuchel? Ok.
Keuchel, is the question mark. He completely fell apart last season.
The White Sox FO completely blew the process coming out of their long rebuild. The Kimball trade was the worst I’ve seen in years.
They now need a cheap 2B that can play half as well as Madrigal; their defense is awful; they’re out of quality prospects in the high minors; and they’re maxed out on their budget which is set based on revenues they take in. There was no reason for this except they got greedy and thought that in 2021 they had to go for it. Their actions were normal for teams that have core key players on expiring contracts with the FO knowing they couldn’t afford to pay them all – so they make a last ditch attempt to go all in.
Desperate moves like this is all they have left.
Eeee gads. They should take a night course in how the Braves came out of their rebuild – with subsequent post-season appearances and a WS victory while most of their core is still in place and more players are coming up from the high minors. The Sox seem to have taken the Cubs/Epstein model as opposed to the Astros/Luhnow model.
Sounds like they should just hire you as a consultant.
Kimball? Detective John Kimball?
Dr. Richard Kimball
Half as well as Madrigal? Have you actually seen Slappy play? They were willing to cut bait on him regardless
This is a depth move. Harrison will split the time with Garcia at second. Not the worst situation. Let’s see
If they get Conforto. Engel is a great fourth outfielder. Why always the bashing when a team signs a player with major league experience to be an insurance/depth piece? If anything VV would be a good long man.
Because they need a defensive second baseman with speed and who can get on base. They also need a legitimate starting pitcher. Ketchup isn’t reliable and Lynn wears down. Management claims they want to win it all but all they didn’t address their needs. They signed mediocre players and hope they have a great year. Then at the trading deadline they realize their mistakes and overpay to try and correct them. I’m not even sure they can win their division.
Romy Gonzalez could be that guy if they give him a chance.
The Tigers got much better, but even so, finished 16 games behind a beat-up Sox team. The Indians haven’t really improved and were similarly beat up, but finished 13 back. The Twins appear to be punting on this season and it remains to be seen how effective the Royals rebuild has been.
I won’t argue that the Sox are worse than they ended last season. Rodon + Tepera > Graveman, Kelly, VV, and Harrison. But I doubt they’re seriously challenged for the division until ’23.
RJ , Good point, I don’t know why people knock Garcia, he has to play 5 different positions for the Sox. It tough to get in a groove when you show up not knowing where or when you will play. Team player all the way.
Thinking josh Harrison is helpful…good luck this year
Feels like one of those signings everyone criticizes and then becomes the biggest steal of the off season.
I’m certainly hoping so. Like Rodon, he’s a guy who undeniably has good talent, but has struggled to display it consistently. Considering his control has gotten worse the last few years, I tend to think it’s mechanical issues. If he’s willing, though, those can be fixed, often a lot easier and quicker than mental or health issues.
This
Lol and rangers signed Perez for 33% more. Jon Daniels is terrible.
Just some factual information for those above Jimenez and Anderson played in less than 120 games and Robert and Grandal less than 100, not to mention Engel’s season was a waster due to injuries. They still ran away with the Central….Velasquez is just an arm that they apparently believe can make some adjustments and be available in case of injuries to the rotation.
Msq, you are right but the problem could potentially exist again. How does a SS with the athletic physique sit on the bench suited up with “tired legs” the last month only 100 games played.or a left fielder who gets injured while sitting on the bench in uniform or hits the fence in spring training. Its called having a heart to play the game which isn’t there