The White Sox have signed right-hander Joe Barlow to a minor league deal, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. He’s been assigned to Triple-A Charlotte for now but will presumably receive an invitation to major league Spring Training.
Barlow, 28, is coming off a rough year but is not too far removed from being a big league closer. He debuted with the Rangers in 2021 with 31 appearances, posting an earned run average of 1.55 in those. A tiny .143 batting average on balls in play surely helped him out that year and his 10.8% walk rate was a bit on the high side, but he also struck out 24.3% of opponents and racked up 11 saves. In 2022, the ERA normalized to 3.86 as he saved another 13 games for the club. He dropped his walk rate to 8.9% but he only punched out 19.2% of opponents.
But in 2023, the Rangers signed Will Smith to fortify their bullpen prior to the season, then later traded for Aroldis Chapman and Chris Stratton at the deadline. Those moves coincided with a drop-off from Barlow, who only tossed 9 2/3 innings for the Rangers last year with an ERA of 4.66 in that time. He spent most of the year on optional assignment in Triple-A and then went to the Royals in August via a waiver claim. Between those two clubs, he threw 44 innings at the Triple-A level with a 5.52 ERA. The Royals outrighted him off their roster in September and he was able to elect free agency at the end of the season.
It was obviously not a great year for the righty but he’s a sensible gamble for the White Sox to take. The club itself was also facing plenty of struggles in 2023 and ended up moving significant pieces at the deadline, and then into the current offseason as well. In the past six months, they have traded relievers Kendall Graveman, Reynaldo López, Aaron Bummer, Keynan Middleton and Joe Kelly out of the organization. Also, Garrett Crochet is planning to get stretched out as a starter going into the spring, potentially subtracting another arm from the relief corps.
That should leave plenty of opportunities available for a reliever or two to step forward. That could be an internal option like Gregory Santos, a major league signee like Tim Hill or Rule 5 pick Shane Drohan. As for Barlow, he was getting big league saves not too long ago and would be a nice pickup if he could make steps to get back into that form. If he is added to the roster at any point, he still has two option seasons and less than two years of service time, meaning the club could retain him well into the future if the results justify such a path.
It wasn’t me Joel.
Yeah I have. Just Flag him and put it in the note what’s going on. Wow, Look who I’m helping. Degrom has also.
It’s just my nature. I think the guys who do that are the lowest of the low. Beyond low. DeGrom had one , Then I had one. It’ll take awhile but they’ll get rid of him. No matter what kind of beef I had with anybody I wouldn’t pull that crap. Hope you lose him sooner rather than later. What’s he use so I’ll know? Oh never mind I saw below
If every post you make after mine is a personal attack then I eventually just ignore you. And it’s getting to that point. With you it’s always personal. I won’t mention the guy who I think it was because I don’t want to glorify him, But if you get personal in all of your posts sooner or later you’ll find one of these losers. Food for thought maybe. I got personal with a guy who has about 40 screen names and that’s what happened.
One can only wonder why people hate your guts. Consider us officially done. You haven’t made an actual baseball point in weeks. Your welcome for the help by the way. Don’t worry, It won’t happen again.
The mute button sadly doesn’t work for replies. It only blocks new posts.
It was Shaggy
Smart move sending and email an making a post about it. If there’s anything trolls dislike it’s when people vent their obvious frustration with getting trolled.
Almost as fascinating as the Joe Barlow news.
@Joel
No experience here, but you’d be able to change passwords and minorly change your user name on here, no???
I had the grief of being mistaken for A’sfaninUK who has thankfully disappeared. The only time I’ve muted a fellow A’s fan. Rather a tangent but he was a prize tool….
Good luck flushing the clown….
lol- can you say passive aggressive? You lead off a comment section with your drama. News flash. No one cares about your lovers quarrel.
Maybe the both Joel p’s could use some help.
It’s bad enough with one Joel now there’s two? They’re multiplying like gremlins
Everyone should change their name to some variation of Joel P. The site can rename itself to Joel P Rumors for a day, maybe even a week.
I think if we all work together on this we can drive out the scourge.
Or, perhaps, I am the one to trust. And the problem isn’t your screen name. It’s you.
@davey gee. It’s great right? One of the multiple Joel P’s just derailed the train before it even left the station.
If he wasn’t such a turd crumb, I would applaud this masterful troll job.
@JimmyC
Your right. Come to think of it, it seemed to me like there already were about 6 or 8 Joel’s posting on here.
I’m currently in a running feud with PoelJ.
This is a nice signing for any team, non-contending or otherwise. Always worth taking a flier on a bullpen guy after a couple of down years. Barlow looked like a back-end cog for the Rangers not too long ago.
Brian Bannister will fix him. Its extremely rare that the white Sox hire outside voices.
Brian Bannister, Gene Watson, Josh Barfield, Jin Wong, Paul Janish(not sure if he counts). Sure 2 of them are Royals, but Dbacks, Dodgers, Giants and Red Sox are good organizations.
And hes only 28.
Yep.
I fixed Barlow already, he’s throwing the RB Football Slider.
RB taught Sonny Gray that same non traditional slider in late 2018, now he’s teaching his Cardinal’s staff.
Ill wait for results before I say anyone can be anything better than the perception of this org. I have been watching this White Sox org bungle its way around since ‘the Chairman’ locked the league, and his own team, out (and cost them a potential WS win) back in 94-95.
The Chairman likes bottom dollar, and more often than naught you do not get good talent for bottom dollar.
I like this as a flyer, but does anyone know more about what happened between ’19 and ’21 for him?
I mean, obviously there was a year with no minor league ball, but he went from seasons of 13, 14, 15 k/9 in the minors, to <9 over the last few years. Obviously it's hard to pitch in mlb, but you don't usually see such a huge drop in k rate without some sort of injury issues.
He badly injured his right wrist.
He is cheap and was good previously but not know, and good ol’ Jerry likes them that way…
Start diggin’ Trout.
That happened to me a few times with the same guy changing his name a few times. Wait it out, I guess.
I’ve seen them called JoelP I think
Dude has a ring!
Wait a minute – the White Sox have signed another player looking to rebound after a down year that has spent time in the KC Royals organization? That doesn’t sound right …
Well he never step a foot in Kaufman Stadium. He was released by the Rangers sometime late last season. KC claimed him and was sent down to triple A Omaha and then was waived after the season.
Yeah, starting to think Kenny snuck back into the building on this move.. I really hope this is not what Getz ‘learned’ from Williams and Hahn
Wasn’t he in Salem’s Lot (1979)?
Idk about that.
I hated that dang movie. That and Invasion of the Body Snatchers scared the heck out of me as a kid…and they regularly played them on TV
No that was Kurt Barlow, who I think pitched for the Padres last year.
AAA Charlotte Knights have been 60-90 the last two seasons so maybe Getz is going to try to turn them around first.
Getz has been making fine depth signings.
I would have thought this guy was right up Jed’s alley. This is Hoyers wheelhouse, Guys like this.
What?
Barlow- What else?
Thought you said something else.
Umm, That is what Getz’s Job WAS to do before he was ‘promoted’, and he did a piss poor job of it.
Even before he came to the white Sox the PD was still bad. I think the rapid drop from #1-30 was solely on Hahn. He brought up prospect after prospect. I don’t think Getz is having the same mindset as RH or KW.
The system is already ranked between 12 and 18. Baby steps. And 5 for 1 deals with the Braves and any deal w the Halos helps
Sorry but, to me, making trades for prospects does not make a minor league system good. What makes a system good is taking 4,5, 6, 7th round picks or throw in players in trades and turning them into above average, or star, MLB players. That’s a good minor league system,,.
“Also, Garrett Crochet is planning to get stretched out”
Are they going to add a y to his last name?
Might as well try since Sox aren’t competing in 2024.
Well that is where I am confused.. They are rebuilding,but not really saying that, and they will not let Colas be a regular in RF and let him sink or swim so you can make a decision on whether or not to jettison him. So does Getz even know what direction this team is going in?
Its a bridge year. Retool, bridge year is still a rebuild but shorter.
Ahh, semantics are fun.
Rubber band rubber band man. Cue the mud wrestling scene from Stripes and your emcee Dave Thomas.
Joel B.
Great. Now all the other commenters are muted. I’ll do a Depeche Mode and enjoy the silence.
The grabbing hands. Grab all they can.
It’s a competitive world
Joey Barlow was an avg pitchers before he learned the RB Football slider.
Ethan Katz got hired cause RB taught Flaherty, Fried and Giolito his football slider in May 2018. Fried Jack then avg over a k an IP for the 1st times in their career.
Sox need to get Yariel Rodriguez
Reliever or starter?
Dumpster divin Getz w/ yet ANOTHER minor league deal. Yes, the Northwest Indiana White Sux have one of the worst farm systems in the game but they also have a bottom ML roster. We all know they can’t attract legitimate FA talent, but at least over pay for a MID FA type.
I feel so bad for their dwindling fanbase. 3 total playoff series wins in over a century (all 3 in 05’)
Sad. Pathetic.
Sell the team Jerry! All you did was fire Hahn and replace him with another inexpensive lap dog.
Farm system is ranked I believe 20th-23rd. Its meh at best. They do have one of the worst PD that’s for sure. White Sox almost never overpay for FA.
Ranked between 12 and 18 in latest
Can we really say if Hahn had full control of his job with Jerrys step son ,Kenny Williams standing over his shoulder ?
Not really, I felt Rick Hahn could of been better wo KW in the picture.
I agree, Hahn was always shackled in some way by Jerry and/or Kenny. No reason to think that Getz won’t be the same. Jerry coulda hired an up and coming FO guy from a team like LA, ATL, TB etc… but instead he just hired another lap dog.
Bottom line, nothing will change on the Southside until Jerry dies or sells.
I still feel that Getz is better wo Rick or Kenny tbh. At least you can say that Getz hired outside hires.
It certainly would have kept Burger around. Now thanks to Kenny, the Sox fan base has another ‘hope’ that the guy that they got for Burger pans out.
Your absolutely right, the only problem with him he was misused as a sole DH. Sure fine depth piece but he had bad stats and had poor defense before he was traded to Miami for Jake Eder.
He was the only guy busting his ass on the field last season . Does not speak well when your Vice president of ‘sitting around with a title’ pulls a power play over you as GM and moves him. Glad he is gone, but the fact that ‘the Chairman’ allowed that type of stuff to occur is just astounding.
How many more “over-the-hill” ballplayers are left that have not yet played for Reinsdorf’s White Sux under the less-than-dynamic neo-GM Chrissy Getz? The sad things are:
1} Regardless of how many games we lose in 2024 (and there will be plenty of that) I bet you if Sorotka returns to form, he ships out ASAP into free agency to get away from this cult of losing on the Southside.
2) Grifol is still the manager
3) LaRussa is backstage, perhaps calling the shots as he is Reinsdorf’s guilty conscious that needs to be nurtured..
4) we drew 5th pick this year in the draft lottery. We will lose 100 games and the best we can get next year is the number 10 pick.
We have a better defense but at the expense of hitting. C, 2B, RF, SS are all non-hitters. LF might hit or just be as mediocre as in 2023. How long before Roberts Jr demands to be traded? Moncada can’t wait to leave. Jiménez wants to play Def. He’ll walk as well unless traded for more damaged players on the mend.
Perhaps this is all designed to move to Nashville………
Well I think what you are betting on is fairly common sense. The Sox are mediocre except for their rentals they will try to flip them for whatever, but most rebuilding teams do this.
After Grifol saying, after 2/3 of the season over and Middleton calling the org out, that he did not know that the locker room was leaderless, burned any capital with me that he could be a good manager and should have showed the rest of the fan base the same thing. I guess since the ‘Chairman’ hates to cut bait on mistakes we suffer with Grifol for another season (at least)
I think LaRussa is nursing an iced tea on a porch somewhere in AZ if he is smart.
Robert will not demand a trade, he likes it here. Not as much pressure on him to be a great player (like most guys in any Reinsdorf org). Moncada is not ‘waiting to leave’ he has to be good enough to be wanted by another club.. Oh wait, its time for him to be injured again?
Reinsdorf said he does not want to move the team, but then again you have to have something someone wants to overpay for and the Sox are not that, not by a long shot. As ‘The Chairman’ will demand Yankee performance money for his pathetic org.
Avoiding 100 losses isn’t guranteed, your right about TLR and defense. Grifol likely won’t return after 2024. I do hope clubhouse culture improves. Getz basically ruled out LRJ trade. Highly doubt Sox move to Nashville. I do believe that AB will rebound.
Chat rooms still a thing? America Online?