TODAY: The Sox have officially announced Urena’s selection, and right-hander Declan Cronin was placed on the 15-day injured list (retroactive to September 6) in the corresponding move. Cronin is dealing with blisters on his throwing hand.
SEPTEMBER 8: The White Sox are planning to select José Ureña’s contract from Triple-A Charlotte, allowing the veteran to start on Saturday against the Tigers, as first reported by Scott Merkin of MLB.com. Chicago has an open spot on the 40-man roster, so a corresponding transaction will not be necessary. However, the White Sox will have to make a move to open up space on the active roster.
Ureña last pitched in the majors for the Rockies in April. He signed a major league deal with Colorado during the offseason but was designated for assignment and subsequently released after just five starts. The Rockies are still on the hook for his guaranteed salary, so the White Sox will only need to pay him the prorated portion of the $720K minimum salary for as long as he stays with the MLB club.
The right-hander signed a minor league deal with the Nationals in May but failed to earn a promotion back to the majors, pitching to a 6.31 ERA in 15 starts at Triple-A Rochester. He was released in early August and quickly signed a new deal with the White Sox, reporting to the Triple-A Charlotte Knights. Ureña has looked much better in his four outings with the Knights than he did with the Rochester Red Wings, posting a 3.37 ERA in 21 1/3 innings. He has increased his strikeout rate while decreasing his walk rate, and he has not allowed a home run in his last three games.
His recent turnaround at Triple-A is promising, but Ureña still has a ways to go to prove he can be a capable big league starter once again. He gave up 22 runs across 18 1/3 innings with the Rockies this year, and he owns a 5.61 ERA and 5.16 SIERA over the last five seasons.
Be that as it may, the White Sox will take any help they can get in the rotation right now. Their starters rank last in baseball with a 6.26 ERA since the trade deadline. Michael Kopech, who is moving to the bullpen in favor of Ureña, has been the number one culprit, walking 26 batters and pitching to an 8.10 ERA in his last six starts. It wasn’t so long ago that manager Pedro Grifol said, “[Kopech] not being a starter is not anywhere close to what we’re thinking.” However, Kopech’s poor performance has forced the team’s hand. Grifol confirmed to reporters, including Merkin, that the White Sox still view Kopech as a starter long-term, but he will spend the rest of the 2023 season in the bullpen.
With just over three weeks remaining in the regular season, Ureña will have the chance to earn another three or four starts. If he continues to perform like he has at Triple-A Charlotte, he could pitch his way to another major league contract for 2024.
I’m expecting 2 Innings 8 Runs from him against the Tigers, I’m calling it…
Na, he’ll be good thru September to convince the ChiSox he is worth re-signing. Then he will blow up in April.
1 yr. 7 million?
OKBaseballFan: That’ll be the day when Reinsdorf spends that much money on one player. Maybe 2/$3m. That’s Reinsdorf’s ceiling.
I’m expecting 7 innings of shutout ball from him. It is the Tigers, you know. If it were a team like Houston, yes, 2 Innings, 8 Runs would be more realistic.
tigerfan: I have to reply, it is the WSox, you know. They are a disgrace. Hard to watch. The only reason I am is because, how often do you get to see a player who legitimately belongs in the HOF play? Hope Miggy hits more than one HR this weekend
The White Sox just beat the Tigers 6-0 with Clevenger on the mound. Last week he gave up 8 runs to the Tigers in Chicago. I hope I’m wrong about Urena but Detroit performs the worst against the worst pitchers. Also, for some bizarre reason, they are an entirely different team at home this year, abysmal, than on the road, playing near .500 ball. The splits are usually the opposite. The aforementioned combination doesn’t give me hope for tomorrow night, even with Skubal starting.
tigerfan4ever: For better or worse, Clevinger might be the Sox’ best pitcher. He’s pitched games like tonight’s, dominating for 7 innings only to have the bullpen blow it. That’s who Grifol leaves him in as long as possible, I’m guessing.
Ethan Katz ruins everyone.
Exactly. Miss the days of Cooper
Exactly. Another idiotic move by an idiot.
I said Katz sucked 2 years ago and got vilified. Not only does Katz suck but the whole Minor League system of developing P’s sucks. And Getz is mostly responsible as he was in charge of scouting and Minor League assessment. And now he’s the GM. SaaaWeeeet.
Watch him shut out the Tigers.. LOL It often happens when bad pitchers pitch against Detroit.
Speaking of the Tigers, they will be promoting Sawyer Gipson-Long, their #19 Prospect to start vs. Chicago on Sunday. He came to the Tigers system in the Michael Fulmer trade to Minnesota a few years back.
Curious how you learned the info about Gipson-Long.
Tigers Facebook and Twitter announced the promotion.
Gipson-Long vs. Urena. The debut of a top prospect against a two-time dfa this year alone. Can’t wait. Also nice to see a prospect’s debut.
Tarik Skubal starts tonight vs. Urena. Gipson-Long is pitching tomorrow.
tigerfan: I stand corrected
That scenario would’ve been intriguing to say the least, however.
Scholtens gets the start vs. Gipson-Long tomorrow. I’m looking forward to what the kid has to offer. Looking at Scholtens (not too familiar with him) he looks like he’s had troubles with run support from his ERA and 1-7 record. I’m hoping that this trend continues as that would mean Sawyer is pitching well. If he does, it’ll be just another quality arm in the Tigers depth. You can’t have too much pitching, especially with the disastrous injury bug the Tigers have gone through the last couple of seasons!
Monty Python had “Throw out your Dead Day.” The Sox have “Throw out your multiple-team DFA’s. We’ll come by, toss them in our broken-down bus since that’s our new slogan, and mail them to Charlotte.”
Why?
When pitchers they caliber of Urena keep getting chances at the MLB level that means it time for contraction not expansion. There are probably 3-4 guys on every MLB team that should not be in MLB.
Urena didn’t belong in the majors back when he was with the Tigers. How many teams has he been on since? I think four. That means he’s been one of those 3-4 guys you mentioned on at least FOUR teams. How bad is that?
The point I’ve been trying to make is that the Tigers seem to bring out the best of the very most putrid pitchers. This is why I think Urena will pitch well tomorrow night. I used Clevenger as an example because of his last performance vs, the Tigers, compared to tonight. He used to pitch well when he was in Cleveland, at least against Detroit…but his career has gone way downhill since. He might be the best pitcher the White Sox have but that says more about the state of pitching in Chicago than on his value on the mound.
Mercenary: I’ve been saying that for awhile. There isn’t enough players to go around as it is. Expansion is a bad idea. The only reason is money. But look at teams that are around now. TB’s pitching staff has been decimated by injuries and there’s not a lot of good pitchers out there to pick up for them. Same thing with the LAD. Most teams today don’t have more than 3 quality starters. One exception are the Braves. They’ve been without Kyle Wright all season, yet they have so much depth they can withstand an injury.
One bad pitcher is one bad pitcher. A whole staff being bad is on the coaching staff, namely the pitching ‘coach’. That is when Katz is not sleeping through a game. I get that they only have so many trips to the mound, but if Im a pitching coach and I see my pitcher looking flustered and out of control out there I would go to him to get his head on right.. 1st inning or not.
The most glaring example of Katz’s poor coaching and management to me was when they were showing the dugout for the Sox after one of Kopech’s bad games and I saw Kopech listening to, and talking with, Grfiol, for about 5 minutes.. Where was Katz? Next to them both, completely oblivious to the conversation, with his stupid clipboard and counter instead of dealing with Kopech’s bad outing.. Get someone else to hold a clipboard and count pitches and whatever else happens… Anyone can do that job. Katz should have been the one to be talking to Kopech.. That pretty much told me all I needed to see with Katz. His MO apparently is ” get a guy looking good enough to stay hired, then who cares”. NO adjustments made for this staff when hitters have obviously made their adjustments…. Katz is like a guy who tunes up his car once then wonders why it runs like crap the next year..
What was worse were the cheerleaders in the booth talking about how ‘good’ it was to be hearing that from Grifol since, yknow, and some point in his past he was a catcher….puleeeassssse….
However, this is the MO of an org run by the ‘chairman’. Have one good season for him and you are set for life (as long as you do not bad mouth him or the org anyway), I mean sure he fired Hahn and Williams, but only after HOW many years of mediocre results?! I mean both could likely easily retire off of what they made being this awful for this long. This is why the Sox are godawful most years, and why I really now think it was just a LOT of dumb luck that won them the Series in 05.
They play at Guaranteed Rate Field with an arrow down. That says it all for the White Sux.
You Do know that nobody reads a manifesto like you just wrote, right? Might wanna start a blog or something
Saw em early in season w/Colorado, opposing batters were crushing em like pinata, wasn’t fooling nobody n they were all over em, cpl “good” gms in AAA could be lil mirage lil luck, we’ll see, dont think he makes it outa 4th inn n prob gives up 4-5 runs
He made it through 4 but only gave up one run, on a Zach McKinstry infield single in the second inning which was deflected by him slowing the ball down.
Jose Urinary tract infection
9 Home Runs allowed in 5 starts this season. Even Miggy has a chance to hit one out tonight
Miggy didn’t play. Urena’s final line: 4 IP 4 H 1R 1 ER 2 BB 3K 1 HBP 75 P 44 Strikes. The run scored on an infield hit. Garbage pitches against the Tigers, pitch gems. It’s the same old story, different chapter. At least Skubal outdid him, only giving up a solitary hit, in the first inning. He went 5, striking out a season high tying nine batters. At this point, Tigers batting in the sixth, leading 1-0.
Tigers won, 3-1.
Correction, Skubal gave up two hits, not one.
White Sox are a AAA team at best, until Reinsdorf sells the team, they’ll be a joke