The White Sox have agreed to a minor league deal with reliever Alex Colomé, according to the hurler’s transaction log at MLB.com. Daryl Van Schouwen of the Chicago Sun-Times tweets that the Wasserman client will head to Triple-A Charlotte tomorrow.
Colomé is a familiar face for Sox fans. He spent the 2019-20 seasons on Chicago’s South Side, combining for a 2.27 ERA over 83 outings. Despite middling strikeout and walk marks, Colomé held opposing hitters to a woeful .183/.262/.313 line in 339 plate appearances. The righty departed Chicago for Minnesota on a $6.25MM free agent deal over the 2020-21 offseason.
Things have gone downhill for Colomé since leaving Chicago. He tossed 65 innings for Minnesota, working to a fine but unspectacular 4.15 ERA. The next winter saw him sign another one-year deal, this time worth $4.1MM to join the Rockies. Colomé played the 2022 campaign in Denver, struggling to a 5.74 ERA over 47 appearances. Over the last two seasons, he’s allowed 4.82 earned runs per nine innings with a modest 17.8% strikeout percentage and an average 8.9% walk rate. He’s induced grounders at a strong 54.5% clip but not replicated the success he showed from 2016-20, when he combined for a 2.62 ERA in 275 appearances.
Colomé was limited to minor league offers over the winter. The 34-year-old latched on with the Nationals and spent the spring in Washington’s camp. The veteran hurler was tagged for seven runs in 9 2/3 exhibition frames, walking and striking out seven batters apiece. That wasn’t enough to get him a spot in the season-opening bullpen, and he was granted his release last week.
Chicago opened the season with three relievers — Liam Hendriks, Garrett Crochet and Matt Foster — on the injured list. Hendriks recently completed chemotherapy treatments after being diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Crochet is rehabbing from 2022 Tommy John surgery, while Foster has been slowed by a forearm strain. The White Sox have given high-leverage innings to Jake Diekman, Kendall Graveman, Reynaldo López and Aaron Bummer in the early going. Chicago carried a league-worst 9.36 bullpen ERA through 25 innings entering play today.
Chump team that never recovered from letting michael jordan’s sorry ass wear a uniform.
Chump that never recovered from getting punk-slapped by girl scouts selling cookies.
Except they won the World Series ten years after that.
Ace chump (chimp?) trolls everybody.
Chimps would take exception to being mentioned in the same sentence with Ace the Chump.
What an odd reason to troll. And Jordan did just fine for AA. He hit in .280 range until about August when he started seeing nothing but curveballs. Stole a lot of bases and probably had a lot of fun in the middle of a career that was all work.
AA baseball is tough. What MJ did with no reps at the pro level prior, was amazing.
Not exactly picking from column A to get Colome’
He did have 30 saves in 2019 during Renteria’s successful rebuild of the Sox leading to two PO appearances in a row.
And now he’s an aging declining reliever
I’m fine with it, but it’s a transitional move. Rearranging deck chairs. This will not have an impact on their playoff chances.
Playoff chances? This team? They certainly weren’t built with that in mind.
SELL THE TEAM JERRY!!!
Colomé might be the best reliever on the team if they were to bring him up:)
Bummer
Not even close
Colome was solid in two seasons with the White Sox and despite a poor showing in Colorado last season is a better 9th inning option than what is currently on hand until Hendriks comes back
Lopez, Graveman, and Bummer are all better options at this point.
Graveman, Diekeman and Lopez should be the next to go. Lopez is occasionally effective in mid- to long relief. Bummer has his moments but Graveman and Diekeman have to go. There isn’t a closer on the team but the way the Sox are playing, a closer might not be necessary.
I’d definitely take Colome over Kimbrel.
Smells like winning…
The man’s arm is shot. Terrible signing. Sure you don’t need to throw a 100 to get batters out. However there is nothing left in the tank here.
One of the worst signings in baseball history. The contract they’re now saddled with will set the team back decades if he doesn’t show life in his minor league stint.
All the best to him, but he looked like a shell of himself in the Nats spring camp.
When you deem my Nats trash as your treasure, you are hard up indeed.
As an Os fan, it reminds me of the number of 2017-21 discards that are still on MLB rosters. Phillips, Shawn Armstrong, McGough, Zach Pop, Cole Sulser, Tanner Scott, etc. etc. But those were young guys. No one picked up Cesar Valdez. Colome is a real commentary that the Chisox hate their MILB pitching.
I dunno, can Colome really be any worse than Kelly or Diekman?
After Cease you really don’t know what you are getting on the mound. The schedule isn’t going to help the next 30 days. They could start trading at that point. With other teams in injury trouble why not start now.
As soon as TA and Eloy get back, first to go.