The White Sox announced today that catcher Seby Zavala has been reinstated from the injured list and designated for assignment. He was on a rehab assignment, working his way back from an oblique strain, but the club doesn’t seem to have room for him on the roster.
Zavala, 30, has been serving as the backup catcher to Yasmani Grandal for much of this year. Defensively, he’s been quite strong, with a tally of seven Defensive Runs Saved in just 464 2/3 innings. Only six backstops are ahead of him in that category this year, and Jose Trevino is the only one of those to do so with a lighter workload. He also has a positive grade from the FanGraphs framing metric, this year and each previous season as well.
Unfortunately, he’s paired that strong defense with a terrible season on offense. He has walked in just 5.7% of his trips to the plate and struck out in 38.6% of them. His .155/.207/.304 batting line amounts to a wRC+ of just 34, indicating he’s been 66% worse than the league average hitter. Only Austin Hedges and Brenton Doyle have a lower wRC+ this year, among hitters with at least 170 plate appearances.
Zavala landed on the injured list about a month ago due to a left oblique strain. In his absence, the club has been giving some playing time to 25-year-old Korey Lee, who is also hitting poorly but in just eight games this year so far. Zavala recently began a rehab assignment but it seems the club is going to continue with Grandal and Lee getting the playing time down the stretch, as they decide how to proceed next year. Since Zavala is out of options and the club apparently didn’t want to put him back on the active roster, that left them little choice but to bump him off the 40-man.
Despite his obvious struggles with the bat, it’s a bit surprising to see the Sox cut him loose. Grandal is an impending free agent, meaning they have a question mark at the catcher position next year. They will be hoping for Lee to take the job and run with it but he is hitting just .045/.160/.045 so far this year and will need a backup even if he does get some runway to prove himself next year. Zavala has also shown better offensive results in the past, including a line of .270/.347/.382 just last year. That was fuelled by a .404 batting average on balls in play but still made him a valuable part-time player when combined with his glovework.
The Sox will now put Zavala on waivers in the coming days, where it’s possible he could garner interest as a glove-first backup, though his out-of-options status means he would need an active roster spot. He would be ineligible to join that club for the postseason since it’s after the August 31 cutoff, but if some team does put in a claim, they can control Zavala for four more seasons beyond this one. If he were to pass through waivers unclaimed, he would have the right to elect free agency due to a previous career outright.
Going forward, the Sox will perhaps be on the lookout for help behind the plate this winter. As mentioned, Grandal is set to depart for free agency, meaning Lee and Carlos Pérez will be the only backstops on the 40-man roster soon. Both of those guys will still have an option year remaining, perhaps allowing the Sox to bring a veteran into the mix. Prospect Edgar Quero has yet to reach Triple-A but is playing well at Double-A and should move into the long-term picture at some point.
>has been reinstated from the injured list
> and designated for assignment
You’re healed and recovered?
Great.
Now you can carry your own $&@#.
Get your things and get out of here!!
I’m not a white Sox fan, so maybe the white Sox fans can explain, but I’m confused on why Grandal is still on the team at this point. I would have assumed he would have been traded at the deadline, or put on waivers or even DFAed
As a Sox fan I can tell you I have no idea. I mean I know Reinsdorf is a miser and even hates letting players go when they have amounts left on the contract, but yeah, he should have been DFA’s by midsummer, it just goes to show the utter dysfunction of the org over the past 1-2 years and how bad the owner was, is, and will be…. Grandal has no reason to be on this club anymore, and they have a couple of prospects that could come up to fill his place (could they do any worse?), but no.. the miser of the board wants to really get his moneys worth, even if there is no ‘worth’ left.
nrd1138;
How can the be disfunction on the Sox?
La Russa is gone, no?
It puzzles me that the Sox got rid of all their rentals except Grandal. My fear is that the Sox will re-sign. him. Unfortunately I think he might have an option but Reinsdorf won’t sign anyone making double digits. Even with Milwaukee, Grandal was terrible in the times I saw him. 3PB in one game. One inning. He is without a doubt the worst catcher I’ve ever seen. That is, until I saw Lee. He, too, is awful and should be in the minors where he and Sosa belong. Zavala was their only catcher who could actually catch.First McCann, now Zavala. Glad to see McCann doing well with the O’s Hopefully a contender will pick up Seby. They both deserve better than the Sox.
No, he isn’t. He is a special advisor to the GM
@Samuel; LaRussa is ‘gone’ (still an ‘adviser’)but his poor management of this club is still evident (ie no leadership to speak of, that did not just start this season). To be fair, its not all his fault, as I’m guessing Reinsdorf sold LaRussa on a false bill of goods in where this team was. Its just obvious to most that the game has clearly past LaRussa by (Was LaRussa a better manager 10 years ago, absolutely. Now? Nope), and when you enter a locker room after the last manager was stabbed in the back its not going to bode well for you. Also trying to get one of your own players hurt because of an unwritten rule tends to further sour a team.
However, its evident that likely no one will want this management job due to two things:
-The owner’s actions of stabbing a manager in the back after Renteria finally get the rebuild to a better place (I mean look at the results.. Was LaRussa really better, at this time, than Renteria?
-Said owner does not want to actually spend money on a good management candidate.
Grifol is also a lot like Ventura, and we saw how that worked out.
nrd1138: Finally! Someone besides me remembers it was Renteria who got the Sox back in the PO in the third year of a five year rebuild. Stabbed in the back is right. Reinsdorf would rather stop a successful rebuild cold just to give his body a job, to take the team to the next level. He did the exact opposite. He rode Renteria’s coattails to the PO In 2021 but they hit rock bottom mentally under his “leadership”.
because they’re trying to win for next year. so the most important thing is having an aging catcher who has attitude problems and does not work well with pitchers still be playing for a 100 loss team.
There is no reason other than they had no one else to catch for the rest of the season.
John Kappel. Everyone talks about the A’s losing 100 games a year. The Sox have 84 losses. I say if their dfa’s, minor leaguers, having one pitcher who can pitch in their starting rotation and a slew of players who are underachieving, darn it, they’re going to reach that mark.
I don’t know why he wasn’t traded but he’s their only catcher that can hit. Korey Lee can’t hit a lick and hasn’t learned to throw to the first base side of the bag.
ponytail: I’m surprised Grandal hits the ball at all, and I’m including foul balls. All he does is stand there and hope for a walk.
Nrd, your comment is spot on re Grandal and Reinsdorf. I’d have released Grandal long ago as he serves no purpose. Zavala is the better player.
Grandal didn’t have any trade value and wouldn’t have been claimed on waivers.
They might just be done with Zavala, which isn’t a stretch. But it seems unlikely that he gets claimed at this point and maybe he sticks with the club as a non-roster guy.
If he’s not on the roster, Zavala will be a minor league FA. Why would he stay around?
Don’t try to make sense out of the White Sox.
My best guess is the front office wants to be nice to the veterans and let them finish out the string on the roster.
They usually keep veterans far longer than they should.
thegreatgoodbye;
1. Because the team was out of the pennant race the first week of the 2023 season.
2. Grandal is a bad contract that no other team would take on, and the White Sox owner isn’t the Mets owner with money to burn that would eat the contact to get a so-so prospect…..even the Yankees owner won’t do that with Stanton and others.
3. The Sox roster is pretty much junk, and the farm system is worse. A new GM and FO is coming, and at least 85% of that roster will be turned over in the next few years.
4. There’s no Jackson Holiday in the White Sox farm system that Grandal was blocking on the 26 man roster. In fact, there’s no player of consequence the White Sox farm system that’s ready to be called up anytime soon.
Their big call-up this year has been Oscar Colas, he of the epic slash:
.215 / .255 / .303 / .558 with a wRC+ of 48 and an fWAR of -1.0
Samuel: One of the many lies Reinsdorf said at his press conference is that they’ve spent 180m on players, “so don’t say I don’t spend money.” OK. But he doesn’t spend it wisely. He way overpaid for Grandal and, even though I like him, Moncada. Any owner can spend money. Reinsdorf spends it the wrong way.
@Samuel
They already replaced the GM internally with Chris Getz, the guy who’s done such a bang up job with the farm system. I’ll make a bet Getz thinks more of those non-prospects than anyone else. Get ready to see them paraded to the bigs, so he can try to prove his worth.
I doubt you can give up on Colas after one season. Colas should get better.. at least if given a chance (and with some better tutelage). Unfortunately seeing Grifol being rewarded for mediocrity (and his staff likely sticking around, although that third base coach of theirs is horrible), I’m guessing we will see more of this ‘effort’ next season as well and Colas being the same. But given what we have finally seen out of Robert, Id give the kid a second chance.
Because the Sox didn’t want to keep any portion of his salary on the books. It’s one of Jerry’s usual hang ups.
Lot of babip luck last year. His soft contact found holes last year, but not this year. He’s a good receiver though and he calls a decent game.
nm, double post
Lee seems to like working with Grandal, considers him a mentor.
It really doesn’t matter as neither Grandal nor Zavala should figure into next season’s plans. If Lee looks good enough, they are likely to go with him plus a veteran they acquire by trade or free agency.
slidingintobase: You obviously haven’t seen Lee play. He’s deficient in every aspect of the game. If Grandal is his mentor, that explains a lot.
Zavala can go, I mean its great that he is reportedly is good with the pitchers, and when he actually hits for the game or two during a season, but otherwise he just is a giant hole in a lineup with a lot of other holes. I guess Grandal is still around due to the Owner’s hubris and that he can switch hit.. Well, he bats from both sides of the plate anyway.. not sure about the ‘hitting’ part anymore…
Big fall from 109ops+ last season. Appeared
to have a good future as a platoon/ part time DH. Have to believe injuries played a part in this. Why not dfa Grandal?
Zavala will get a chance with another team. You could do a lot worse for a backup catcher.
Zavala was the catcher when O’Neil Cruz was hurt. Yelled at Cruz when he was down. Carlos Santana took up for Cruz. And then both benches emptied. Glad the Sox got rid of him.
Fortune favors the just!
Good riddance to that punk.
Yeah, it’s unbelievable in this day and age that a light-hitting, backup catcher on a major-city’s second team failed to use his platform to promote the overreliance of fossil fuels and the plight of the white rhino as well.
pretty sure this is the LOL-est comment of the day!
wvpirate: I saw that game. It was a clean play by Zavala. He didn’t land on Cruz’s ankle or twist his leg or say anything to him. He was looking at 2b to make sure the runner didn’t advance. I know Pirates fans are upset at losing Cruz, but don’t make up stories that didn’t happen to justify your lingering anger.
I find much of what I read on MLBTR to be like that. Remove superfluous language and these articles could be cut by half
I expect the Guardians to be all over this – a solid defensive catcher who works well with a pitching staff but can’t hit worth a damn. Right up their alley.
Maybe if they didn’t already have Cam Gallagher locking down that spot on the roster
White Sox are unwatchable, I live in Phoenix now, Dodgers are on all the time, it’s like the White Sox are playing a different game, Sox are unlikable, they look like they’re not even trying, till Reinsdorf sells the team, they’ll be mess
Jack Buckley: You’re absolutely right. After they purged their starting rotation, they have one legit starter (Cease). Then there’s Kopech, who can’t make it out of the second inning, Scholtens, a let’s-put-anyone-who-can-throw-the-ball-in-the-vicinity-of-the-plate choice, and the great Touki Toussaint, who has an adorable name but manages to find a way to blow a good 4 innings of work. They kept Clevinger, who sometimes pitches decently only to have the BP lose it. Since the deadline purge the Sox have lost by double-digits a number of times. I just can’t watch them anymore. Fortunately the networks showed all four of the Braves/Dodgers series. Nice to see BB again.
Someone must tell this manager to play outfielders in the outfield, infielders in the infield. This organization is the laughingstock of baseball.
In just over one full seasons worth of AB’s (444) Zavala has struck out 182 times. Other than that 14 Home Runs out of the Catchers spot wouldn’t be terrible if he could do anything else offensively
I’d like to start a Sox team of players who are good defensively but can’t hit. Zavala and Billy Hamilton – one of my favorites – would be my first two picks.
Thank God.
Maybe he can take Tanner Banks with him wherever he goes.