Headlines

  • Mike Shildt Steps Down As Padres Manager
  • Tigers Extended Manager A.J. Hinch Earlier This Season
  • Munetaka Murakami To Be Posted This Offseason
  • Cody Bellinger To Opt Out Of Contract With Yankees
  • Angels, Albert Pujols Discussing Managerial Deal
  • Projected Arbitration Salaries For 2026
  • Previous
  • Next
Register
Login
  • Hoops Rumors
  • Pro Football Rumors
  • Pro Hockey Rumors

MLB Trade Rumors

Remove Ads
  • Home
  • Teams
    • AL East
      • Baltimore Orioles
      • Boston Red Sox
      • New York Yankees
      • Tampa Bay Rays
      • Toronto Blue Jays
    • AL Central
      • Chicago White Sox
      • Cleveland Guardians
      • Detroit Tigers
      • Kansas City Royals
      • Minnesota Twins
    • AL West
      • Athletics
      • Houston Astros
      • Los Angeles Angels
      • Seattle Mariners
      • Texas Rangers
    • NL East
      • Atlanta Braves
      • Miami Marlins
      • New York Mets
      • Philadelphia Phillies
      • Washington Nationals
    • NL Central
      • Chicago Cubs
      • Cincinnati Reds
      • Milwaukee Brewers
      • Pittsburgh Pirates
      • St. Louis Cardinals
    • NL West
      • Arizona Diamondbacks
      • Colorado Rockies
      • Los Angeles Dodgers
      • San Diego Padres
      • San Francisco Giants
  • About
    • MLB Trade Rumors
    • Tim Dierkes
    • Writing team
    • Advertise
    • Archives
  • Contact
  • Tools
    • 2025-26 MLB Free Agent List
    • 2026-27 MLB Free Agent List
    • Projected Arbitration Salaries For 2026
    • Contract Tracker
    • Transaction Tracker
    • Agency Database
  • NBA/NFL/NHL
    • Hoops Rumors
    • Pro Football Rumors
    • Pro Hockey Rumors
  • App
  • Chats
Go To Pro Hockey Rumors
Go To Hoops Rumors

White Sox Promote Nick Nastrini

By Steve Adams | April 15, 2024 at 3:40pm CDT

3:40pm: The Sox have now made Nastrini’s promotion official and also activated outfielder Eloy Jimenez from the injured list. To open active roster spots for those two, they optioned right-hander Justin Anderson and infielder/outfielder Zach Remillard. To open a 40-man spot for Nastrini, they transferred catcher Max Stassi to the 60-day injured list. The backstop opened the season on the 10-day IL due to hip inflammation but was hit on the hand by a backswing while rehabbing recently, per Scott Merkin of MLB.com. His exact timeline isn’t clear but he’s now ineligible to be activated until late May.

9:27am: The White Sox will call up right-hander Nick Nastrini to start today’s game in what will be his MLB debut, manager Pedro Grifol announced (link via Kyle Williams of the Chicago Sun-Times). He’s not on the 40-man roster, so the Sox will need to open a spot for his contract to be formally selected.

Nastrini, 24, is widely regarded as one of the White Sox’ top pitching prospects. Acquired from the Dodgers in the trade sending Lance Lynn to Los Angeles last summer, the 2021 fourth-round pick has routinely posted massive strikeout numbers throughout his minor league tenure but has also battled sub-par command for much of his professional career.

Scouting reports at Baseball America, MLB.com, FanGraphs, The Athletic and ESPN all rank Nastrini eighth or better among ChiSox farmhands, with BA listing him third in the system. The Athletic’s Keith Law ranked Nastrini 76th on his 2024 top 100 list, touting him as a possible No. 4 starter and with the ceiling to become quite a bit more than that, given the strength of his secondary pitches.

There’s little doubting the quality of Nastrini’s stuff; he runs his fastball up as high as 98 mph and complements it with a slider, curveball and changeup that all project as potentially average to plus offerings. Nastrini features high-end spin rates on his heater and breaking pitches, and his changeup helped him limit lefties to a .226 average with a 29.7% strikeout rate between Double-A and Triple-A last season. (Righties hit .216 and punched out at a 26.1% clip.) Law touts the changeup, in particular, as a potential plus-plus pitch (70-grade on the 20-80 scale).

If Nastrini had better control of his electric arsenal, he’d undoubtedly grade as one of the game’s elite prospects. At 6’3″, 215-pound righty has the size and deep repertoire to profile as a starter, but he’s walked 11.1% of his career opponents. His penchant for missing the zone leads to plenty of deep counts as well; in 2023 he averaged about 4 2/3 innings per start. There’s still some refinement to be made, though he’s improved his command since college ball at UCLA and has also seen further gains in that field since being traded from L.A. to Chicago (9.5% walk rate in the Sox’ system).

The state of the White Sox’ roster amid their current rebuild gives Nastrini ample opportunity to show he can stick. The Sox are out to their worst start in franchise history, sitting at 2-13 on the season. The woeful state of their rotation has played a significant role in those struggles. Even with Garrett Crochet pitching like a borderline No. 1 starter through his first four turns, White Sox starters rank 26th in the big leagues with 72 1/3 innings pitched, 28th with a 5.60 ERA and dead last with a 5.20 FIP. Despite totaling MLB’s fifth-fewest innings, the rotation is tied for the MLB lead with 14 home runs allowed.

Nastrini will join Crochet, Erick Fedde, Michael Soroka and Chris Flexen in the rotation for the time being. Recently re-signed Mike Clevinger will join that group in a few weeks as well, once he’s sufficiently built up, and other prospects like Jake Eder, Jairo Iriarte and Jared Shuster (currently working as a long reliever in the big league ’pen) could eventually garner looks over the course of the season.

Even if Nastrini is in the big leagues to stay, he won’t accrue enough service time to reach a full year in 2024. Were it not for an illness that rendered Nastrini unavailable the first time Chicago needed a fifth starter, that may not have been the case, but he wasn’t healthy enough in the season’s first week to step onto the staff at the time. He’s still made just two starts in the minors this season, in part due to that illness. Further optional assignments could always alter his timeline anyhow, but for now, Nastrini will be controllable all the way through 2030.

Share Repost Send via email

Chicago White Sox Los Angeles Dodgers Transactions Eloy Jimenez Justin Anderson Max Stassi Nick Nastrini Zach Remillard

Marlins Option Max Meyer
Main
White Sox To Select Jonathan Cannon
View Comments (20)
Post a Comment

20 Comments

  1. Old York

    1 year ago

    Poor guy. He gets to face the high powered Royals offense. He does have a kwERA of 3.02 in AAA seasons but that’s only 26 innings. Either way, doesn’t look good for him tonight.

    Reply
    • Dotnet22

      1 year ago

      He’ll be ok. Look at the jawline on this guy.

      3
      Reply
    • rememberthecoop

      1 year ago

      High powdered.

      Reply
    • DeepDownSouth

      1 year ago

      Is there ever anything positive from you? Are you even a Sox fan? Red Sox most probably

      Reply
      • Old York

        1 year ago

        @DeepDownSouth

        I’m a baseball fan. Do I need to be a White Sox fan to analyze players?

        Reply
  2. SupremeZeus

    1 year ago

    Guy was loving life and on a rocket ship to the moon in the Dodgers developmental system. Then he wakes up in a sweat & he’s got Bernie Lootz whispering sweet nothings to him in the White Sox system.

    2
    Reply
    • Blackpink in the area

      1 year ago

      He’s getting an opportunity, one he probably wouldn’t be getting for the Dodgers.

      We can’t all play for a winner.

      Reply
  3. Brick House Coffee Tables Inc

    1 year ago

    May as well give him 13-14 batters every fifth day until Memorial Day and see what he can do. Figure out where his weaknesses are and send him back to Charlotte to work on them during June and July.

    2
    Reply
    • Banix12

      1 year ago

      Charlotte is such a a band box park that it’s not the best place to work on pitching. If Nastrini is coming up he’s probably staying up.

      I also don’t expect Flexen and Soroka to start much past May. They’re going to need innings.

      2
      Reply
    • Very Barry

      1 year ago

      He’s 24. It’s time to sink or swim. …. and it’s time to start adding rotation pieces to Crochet.

      Reply
  4. Terry O'Reilly

    1 year ago

    Keith Law and his obsession with Tony LaRussa seeps through in any of his writings. You can even see it here when you read between the lines. The guy is so out of touch.

    1
    Reply
    • lesterdnightfly

      1 year ago

      Let’s see your prospect evaluations, Terry.
      Got none, you say? Too busy taking down valid evaluators for imagined shortcomings, you say?
      Hmmm…..

      5
      Reply
    • rememberthecoop

      1 year ago

      That’s a really bad take. Law is one of the best.

      Reply
  5. mike127

    1 year ago

    First paragraph—“Sox need to open a spot”…..do you think they just throw about 30 ping pong balls in a bag and pull out the one that is falling off the 40 man??? So many to pick from….

    Reply
    • Terry O'Reilly

      1 year ago

      As good a method as any really. It’s not like you’d notice if 25 of those 30 were missing anyway.

      1
      Reply
  6. MadSkillsUniversity

    1 year ago

    I feel bad this this young man. He is facing the best team in the AL Central, and was not doing that well in AAA. Wow.

    1
    Reply
  7. PoisonedPens

    1 year ago

    Lemme guess, his nickname is “Nasty” ?

    Reply
  8. Atlanta Jack

    1 year ago

    Last in power rankings, we couldn’t have done it with out you Jerry. Please sell the team.

    1
    Reply
  9. avenger65

    1 year ago

    Sure, why not. The Sox players are all interchangeable so we might see Nastrini playing third, or De Jong pitching, or Sosa behind the plate. Doesn’t matter.

    Reply
  10. Jack5102

    1 year ago

    What is the over/under on this guys TJ surgery!!!

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Please login to leave a reply.

Log in Register

    Top Stories

    Mike Shildt Steps Down As Padres Manager

    Tigers Extended Manager A.J. Hinch Earlier This Season

    Munetaka Murakami To Be Posted This Offseason

    Cody Bellinger To Opt Out Of Contract With Yankees

    Angels, Albert Pujols Discussing Managerial Deal

    Projected Arbitration Salaries For 2026

    Rangers Hire Skip Schumaker As Manager

    Albert Pujols To Interview For Angels’ Managerial Vacancy, May Be “Leading Choice”

    Bill Schmidt Will Not Return As Rockies’ GM

    Brian Snitker Will Not Return As Braves’ Manager In 2026

    Angels To Have New Manager In 2026

    Rays Sale To Patrick Zalupski’s Group Officially Completed

    Guardians Promote Chase DeLauter For Wild Card Series

    Bruce Bochy Will Not Return As Rangers Manager Amid Financial Uncertainty

    Liam Hendriks Undergoes Ulnar Nerve Transposition Surgery

    Twins Fire Rocco Baldelli

    Giants Fire Bob Melvin

    Pirates Sign Manager Don Kelly To Extension

    Pete Alonso To Opt Out Of Mets Contract, Enter Free Agency

    Padres Place Ramón Laureano On Injured List Due To Finger Fracture

    Recent

    Pirates Claim Will Robertson, Designate Ryan Kreidler

    Blue Jays Notes: Santander, Bichette, Rotation

    Trade Rumors Front Office Subscriber Chat, Today 3pm CT

    Sandy Alomar Sr. Passes Away

    Submit Your Questions For This Week’s Episode Of The MLBTR Podcast

    Rob Thomson Will Return As Phillies’ Manager In 2026

    Mike Shildt Steps Down As Padres Manager

    Tigers Extended Manager A.J. Hinch Earlier This Season

    Chris Owings Announces Retirement

    The Opener: ALCS, NLCS, Lukes

    MLBTR Newsletter - Hot stove highlights in your inbox, five days a week

    Latest Rumors & News

    Latest Rumors & News

    • Every MLB Trade In July
    Trade Rumors App for iOS and Android App Store Google Play

    MLBTR Features

    MLBTR Features

    • Remove Ads, Support Our Writers
    • Front Office Originals
    • Tim Dierkes' MLB Mailbag
    • Front Office Fantasy Baseball
    • MLBTR Podcast
    • 2025-26 MLB Free Agent List
    • 2026-27 MLB Free Agent List
    • Projected Arbitration Salaries For 2026
    • Contract Tracker
    • Transaction Tracker
    • Extension Tracker
    • Agency Database
    • MLBTR On Twitter
    • MLBTR On Facebook
    • Team Facebook Pages
    • How To Set Up Notifications For Breaking News
    • Hoops Rumors
    • Pro Football Rumors
    • Pro Hockey Rumors

    Rumors By Team

    • Angels Rumors
    • Astros Rumors
    • Athletics Rumors
    • Blue Jays Rumors
    • Braves Rumors
    • Brewers Rumors
    • Cardinals Rumors
    • Cubs Rumors
    • Diamondbacks Rumors
    • Dodgers Rumors
    • Giants Rumors
    • Guardians Rumors
    • Mariners Rumors
    • Marlins Rumors
    • Mets Rumors
    • Nationals Rumors
    • Orioles Rumors
    • Padres Rumors
    • Phillies Rumors
    • Pirates Rumors
    • Rangers Rumors
    • Rays Rumors
    • Red Sox Rumors
    • Reds Rumors
    • Rockies Rumors
    • Royals Rumors
    • Tigers Rumors
    • Twins Rumors
    • White Sox Rumors
    • Yankees Rumors

    Navigation

    • Sitemap
    • Archives
    • RSS/Twitter Feeds By Team

    MLBTR INFO

    • Advertise
    • About
    • Commenting Policy
    • Privacy Policy

    Connect

    • Contact Us
    • Twitter
    • Facebook
    • RSS Feed

    MLB Trade Rumors is not affiliated with Major League Baseball, MLB or MLB.com

    Do not Sell or Share My Personal Information

    hide arrows scroll to top

    Register

    Desktop Version | Switch To Mobile Version