The White Sox announced Wednesday that outfielder Corey Julks passed through waivers unclaimed and was assigned outright to Triple-A Charlotte. He’ll remain with the organization as non-roster depth and be invited to big league camp this spring.
An eighth-round pick of the Astros in 2018, Julks came to the White Sox last May after he’d also been designated for assignment in Houston. Chicago sent right Luis Rodriguez, a 20-year-old reliever in Rookie ball, to the ’Stros in that swap. Julks wound up logging 66 games and 189 plate appearances for the South Siders but hit just .214/.275/.306 with poor batted-ball metrics during that time (84.9 mph average exit velocity, 28.2% hard-hit rate). He fared quite a bit better in Triple-A last year, slashing .278/.372/.470 between the two organizations.
Julks has always hit well in the upper minors. He’s a .267/.360/.491 hitter in parts of three Triple-A seasons and sports a .275/.339/.459 slash in a pair of Double-A campaigns. He’s a good runner (80th percentile sprint speed) with above-average arm strength who’s best suited for corner outfield work but does have the experience to handle center in a pinch.
Given the state of the White Sox’ outfield, Julks could play his way back onto the big league roster. Andrew Benintendi, Luis Robert Jr. and Mike Tauchman are slated to start for rookie skipper Will Venable in 2025, but Benintendi is coming off a pair of down seasons, while both Robert and Tauchman will be trade candidates this summer if they’re healthy and playing well. Others in the outfield mix include Dominic Fletcher, Zach DeLoach and Oscar Colas, but none of that trio has established himself as a credible big leaguer yet.
I love Mike Tauchman but if he’s anything more than your 4th OF then Getz still has work to do.
cant deny they are in a better spot that last year
Mike Tauchman would be a solid 4th outfielder on many contending teams. Clearly the White Sox aren’t in that category and have no internal options who are ready or close to providing the type of production that Tauchman is capable of in 2025. The more he plays and produces, the more he’ll be worth to a contender by the summer trade deadline. 🙂
Hopefully Chris Getz is not done adding position players before opening day. He could still bring in a better RF option than Tauchman with a trade involving Luis Roberts but that would likely move the former to CF.
Haven’t seen you post on here in a long time, Aaron. Good to see you.
Who?
Corey Julks, MLB player. Who are you, McNasty1?
Remember when Josh Schriffen was talking about what great value Julks was when he came to the Sox and hit for about a week?
The one good thing about Reinsdorf pulling the plug on NBC Sports Chicago and starting his own overpriced station is not having to listen to schriffen, although his talent does match up with the teams.
I agree that John Schriffen sucks but unfortunately he’ll still be in the booth with Stoney this year.
Fletcher and Colas will never be major league level players. DeLoach should be the only one of those three that breaks camo with the major league squad.
This guy batted leadoff for the southside this season