The White Sox announced that they have signed infielder Bobby Dalbec to a minor league deal with an invite to major league spring training. Chris Cotillo of MassLive reports that Dalbec will make $1.25MM if in the majors with $500K of incentives available to him as well. The CAA Sports client will also have opportunities to opt-out of the deal in June or July if not on the roster.
Dalbec, 30 in June, joins a new organization for the first time in his career. He was drafted by the Red Sox in 2016 and played for that club at the big league level for parts of the past five seasons. The book on Dalbec is that he has power potential but strikes out far too often to make use of it. He has taken 1,044 trips to the plate in his major league career thus far, hitting home runs in 47 of those but also getting punched out 36.8% of the time.
That’s something that’s actually gotten worse over time. He hit 25 home runs in 2021 while striking out at a 34.4% clip, with the Red Sox surely hoping for that number to come down as he got more big league experience. But he’s had 146 plate appearances over the past two seasons and been set down on strikes at a massive 48.6% clip in those. He was outrighted off Boston’s roster in September and elected free agency at season’s end.
The White Sox are a good fit for him, as there’s not much blocking his path back to the big leagues. Dalbec has mostly played first base in his career but has also seen significant time at third, while making brief appearances in the middle infield and in right field.
Chicago just wrapped up the worst season of the modern era and has very little settled in its position player mix. Andrew Vaughn is still the first baseman but his production has declined in each of the past two years. Even if he bounces back, the White Sox are highly likely to trade him since he can only be retained via arbitration through 2026.
Veterans like Josh Rojas, Mike Tauchman and Austin Slater have been brought in to shore up various parts of the roster but any of them could be cut loose or traded throughout the year, depending on how things go in 2025. Youngsters like Miguel Vargas, Bryan Ramos and Colson Montgomery will be allotted lots of future playing time but none of them are established in the majors just yet.
Despite the strikeouts, Dalbec has continued to produce in the minors. He’s had 956 Triple-A plate appearances over the past three years with 58 homers. Though he had a 34.6% strikeout rate in that sample, he also had an 11.8% walk rate, a combined batting line of .260/.358/.523 and a 121 wRC+. If he can bring some of that up to the majors with the White Sox, he has less than three years of service time and can therefore be cheaply retained beyond this year via arbitration if he has a roster spot at season’s end. He is now out of options, however, which could make it tricky for him to hold a roster spot even if he gets one.
Alex Cora’s favorite shortstop – good luck to BD in Chicago.
Cora’s favorite was and always will be Kike Hernandez.
Who doesn’t love Kiki?
Great signing. Another way to guarantee worst record in a year they can actually pick first if win lottery. Go grab Harrison Bader next and last is locked.
This is hard to understand: a formerly hyped prospect, given multiple major league chances, now statistically regressing in his prime years. How could this possibly help the Sox?
Cost is very little and if a change in scenery brings unexpected results, he’ll be flipped, etc.
Right, and I think it puts a little needed pressure on Vaughn if Dalbec even has a decent spring.
Good luck to him, great guy. I hope he learns to hit a curveball.
I was hoping the White Sox would sign Harrison Bader myself, I like Bader and he is still young, would be a good replacement for Luis Robert if they can ever get a trade done.
You’re Harrison Bader? What are you doing on chat
He won’t.
It’s a sad day for Red Sox Nation! We’re all rooting for you Bobby!
Fenway – Absolutely! Hope he can work out his issues, because when he does hit the ball it goes very, very far! Light tower power ….. just like Casas!
I still remember when Alex Cora was so desperate that he tried playing Dalbec at 2B
Reynaldo – That’s because Cora thinks every player can play just about every position. With only a 3-man bench (plus backup catcher) he wants the flexibility to throw any player into any position.
And yeah, it’s an awful way to manage an MLB team.
I am officially a white Sox fan too
Good luck to him. Good guy, good athlete, maybe could become a good player?
hayzee – You mean could become a good player again. He was a good player for a hot minute a few years ago.
He’s 30, and there’s only so much sand left in the hourglass
35% strikeout rate in the minors? Good luck with that. Sadly, Andrew Vaughn is better.
I sure hope you are right..
Good for Bobby D. While it is a step below playing in Korea there are lots of AB’s to be had between 1B/3B/DH with the White Sox
Rosox – I totally agree! It’s a great place to give him a nice, long opportunity to improve.
Modern day Phil Plantier. Another one of my favorite players. Hopefully Bobby Dalbec can turn things around. Good opportunity for him to compete.
Dan – Plantier had better shoes though ;O)
Hey, Plantier had one (1) really good season, after they traded him to the Padres…
Maybe he can carry the team to a winning record this year. And by “the team” I do mean the AAA Charlotte Knights.
Bobby has put up huge HR numbers in AAA!
Print the playoff tickets! The Boston media thought he was the second coming when he first came up! LMFAO!
He was when he FIRST came up. The rest of it was a slow motion face plant.
No they didn’t. He never had much hype.
Perhaps a different color sock will help.
Lord – It worked for Schilling in 2004 ;O)
🙂
There goes the Red Sox option for a right-handed bat… he might not be right handed, but Joey Gallo might be worth looking at now.
I like Joey Gallo but he’s cooked. He’s too established to take a minor league deal and he’s lost too much legitimacy as a player to be considered any kind of an option at the major league level.
Don’t worry about Gallo, he’ll be signed by the White Sox very soon, also
That would not be a surprise. Draw walks, play decent D and try to launch HRs under no pressure.
Yeah, Gallo is beer league material at this point.
I worry that a local beer league team of guys in their 30’s and 40’s who’ve never played beyond high school or maybe like some community college and only just started playing again a year or two ago and do not take it seriously would be forced to *cut* him from their team… he’s that bad now… and again, I like the guy.
Oddly enough I actually saw Gallo eating with a woman at an outside table at a restaurant as I walked by a few weeks ago while running errands in my neighborhood.
Schilling POS of a human being, you need to change your nickname.
I’m not woke. He pitched great when he needed to.
So ummm ur sleeping. Got it
Nope, just as fan of Schilling’s MLB career. Next!
Well, ST is fast becoming a true competition to make the OD roster and keep the MLB dream alive for most position player spots. That’s especially the case if Robert is traded and they find a taker to offload a decent enough chunk of okay Benintendi’s deal.
They have another 1B prospect who had a good season in AAA, Andre Lipcius. He has good power numbers and good K/BB ratios.
A trade of Robert and Benintendi gives Colas another look. I don’t know if I care to see Dominic Fletcher again but Colas still has a shot to put up some power numbers and he has a good arm.
I like Bader too, he played some good games with Yankees. I was in Tampa that season and listened to the Yankees games. He always seemed to be getting a big hit or making a big play.
Colas and Fletcher stink. Little effort. The addition of Slater and Tauchman along with the other rejects they have signed will help. Tauchman can even show half the team how to approach a major league at bat and get on base. Bader stinks with a bat too.
chem – Yes!! If Bobby straightens himself out, the ChiSox have their cleanup hitter!
sneaky good signing for the Pale Hose. He could well be an opening day starter and if he figures things out can be a possible middle of the lineup bat.
43 strikeouts in 83 AB last year!
To quote the famous Lloyd Christmas…..so you’re telling me Dalbec has a chance
Yeah tiki, as the article says – Dalbec ‘is a good fit’ for the Chisox. Any breathing body, might be. Uncle Jerry Reinsdorf is throwing caution to the wind. He’s pulling all stops and masterfully playing all his hunches. Jerry is putting it all on the line!
I think Jerry is still mad at the Sox fans for demanding he resign Buherle to that last contract.
Still young enough to go to the KBO and get paid but obviously the Sox should have opportunities too
Dalbec is one of the higher profile prospect busts of the last few years- I wonder if he will figure it out. A lot of guys fail on their original club, come back quietly with another club and put together a very nice career. It can happen.
Sure, why not. Maybe playing with a Double A team like the White Sox gets him back into form. White Sox need guys like this to hopefully flip at the trade deadline and get some prospects back.
I think that there’s something left in Dalbec. Maybe I’m wrong, we’ll see.
Bobby’s a good kid, knowing Bostons luck he’s going to drop 30 bombs for chitown…I really hope he does.
What? They’ll be worse this coming year. They are a godsend to the other teams in the AL Central. Move or sell or both.
My comment got shunted to moderation limbo because I had a typo replacing the “w” in White Sox with an “s.”
S.hite Sox.
A good guy, Easy to root for.
Always loved Bobby, just never panned out for him in the bigs. Hopefully he gets a little run in Chicago
Will be considered great if they lose 99 games. Since 95 percent of their players were below replacement level last season I was calling for them to sign 25 rejects from other teams, keep most, and stash the rest in AAA to swap out as needed. Apparently Uncle Jerry and Getz had the same idea. They have signed at least 15 rejects so far this off-season. This is the only solution. The entire team and system stinks. There was little effort shown by most of their players on the field the last two seasons. Something has to change.
The first change needed is for the White Sox to have an ownership that wants to win and make money. Both can be had, this team gets revenue when they have winning seasons, but it starts with new ownership.