The White Sox have agreed to a minor league contract with infielder Michael Chavis, reports Jesse Rogers of ESPN (X link). The CAA client opted out of a non-roster deal with the Mariners over the weekend.
Brian Anderson, who opted out of a contract with Seattle at the same time, found an immediate MLB opportunity with the Braves. Chavis will need to play his way back to the majors, though a rebuilding Sox team could afford him that chance. Chicago hasn’t gotten much out of Andrew Vaughn, Nicky Lopez or Lenyn Sosa throughout the infield. Chavis wouldn’t be an option to step in at shortstop if the Sox trade Paul DeJong, but he can play any of the other infield positions.
Chavis will try to build off a solid start to his year in Triple-A. Over 46 games with the M’s top affiliate in Tacoma, he hit 290/.366/.485 with seven homers. That’s slightly better than average production in the Pacific Coast League. Chavis now touts an impressive .276/.347/.528 batting line over 521 career plate appearances at the top minor league level.
As one would expect, he hasn’t managed the same caliber of performance against big league pitching. A former first-round pick of the Red Sox, Chavis has taken nearly 1200 MLB plate appearances between Boston, Pittsburgh and Washington. He’s a career .238/.283/.401 hitter. While he has hit 43 homers with roughly average power numbers, a modest 5.4% walk rate and a strikeout percentage pushing 32% have kept his on-base percentage down. He appeared in 48 games for the Nats last year as a sparsely-used depth infielder.
Chavis has more than twice as many MLB PA’s than he does at AAA, so it’s hard to knock the lack of production at the highest level when he never really got the chance to hone his skills at the second highest level
He has had 2200 PA’s in MiLB. Pretty much double what he’s had in MLB. You say it ss tho he was just thrown to the wolves.
He’s 28 years old now, if he wants to stay on a MLB roster he’s going to have to produce.
Then maybe he shouldn’t have opted out and honed his skills further. Instead he will continue being terrible as a major leaguer. It’s understandable because this is a job and he wants a better paycheck. But, it’s not hard to knock him for being bad at his job.
You ever consider its just what he is as a player? Which there is nothing wrong with, he’s proven to be an elite talent as has anyone who has hung around at AAA or made MLB rosters.
I have considered that. My comment suggests that is who he is as a player. Anyone that makes AAA or MLB are elite talents compared to everyone else. But compared to other MLB talents, he’s not good and I don’t think any of the blame has to do with the number of AAA abs.
I was saying that in regards to the original comment. I agree, I to feel it’s just the player that he is.
My bad dude. Responses to comments on this site are all messed up. It used to not give you notifications when people didn’t directly respond to your comment. Now it’s like every response in a chain is treated like a response.
NO this comment has no business here. But so what!? The Cardinals have the best offense in baseball. Scoff if you choose, but, time will prove me right!!!!
We choose to scoff. Mightily scoff.
Lol
It was in my milkshake
What i find ironic is the Chisox have the Red Sox 1st rd picks 3y straight from ’14-16 now. Chavis, Benintendi and Kopech.
Let’s hope they don’t get their hands on 17-18, at least for some time since they are hands down best they have had for some time.. tanner houck and Triston Casas.
Big news coming to whitesox nation real soon. Word on the street in Bridgeport Chicago is that Ozzie is about to be hired as the new manager of the team. Yeah baby now we’re talking !!! You heard it hear first baseball fans
That’s just sad. I know Ozzie was jawing about Grifol and analytics, but that’s the Larussa mistake again. Oldhead that the game has long passed by trying to be more relevant than the team they manage.
You had Ozzie right there and you picked Pedro Grifol. This was an all time blunder!!
I always thought he’d be a nice fit to return to the pirates if they ever cut rowdy loose
Greatest 3b prospect anyone has ever seen. Just ask a Boston fan
Second base.
Soooky – lol
At this point, it couldn’t be that hard for him to make the White Sox roster.
Jar of Pickles is starting Sunday at 2B. He might end the game with more steals and RBI than Nicky Lopez has all year.