Outfielder Dominic Fletcher was not claimed off waivers following last week’s DFA and has now been assigned outright to Triple-A Charlotte, the White Sox announced Monday. He’ll remain with the organization as a depth option.
Now 27 years old, Fletcher came to the ChiSox last winter in a trade that sent pitching prospect Cristian Mena to the D-backs. At the time of the swap, he was coming off a .291/.399/.500 showing in Triple-A and had slashed .301/.350/.441 in his first 102 big league plate appearances. Impressive as those performances were, the Snakes had an outfield contingent made up of Corbin Carroll, Jake McCarthy, Lourdes Gurriel Jr. and Alek Thomas. They’d also had talks with free agent Randal Grichuk, whom they signed just a few days after trading Fletcher. There wasn’t much space in the Arizona outfield.
A move to a rebuilding White Sox club with ample opportunity for playing time looked like a positive for Fletcher, but he struggled in his new environs. The Sox gave Fletcher 241 turns at the plate, but he mustered only a .206/.252/.256 batting line. His subsequent .121/.211/.212 batting line in 38 plate appearances this spring didn’t inspire any further confidence, and the Sox brought free agents Mike Tauchman, Austin Slater and Michael A. Taylor to join Andrew Benintendi and Luis Robert Jr. in the team’s outfield mix.
Now off the team’s 40-man roster, Fletcher will head to Charlotte and hope to play his way into another opportunity. Even with all of last year’s struggles, his .263/.333/.389 line in 106 Triple-A plate appearances was respectable, if a bit below average in a hitter-friendly setting. Fletcher is a career .293/.376/.462 hitter in 889 Triple-A plate appearances, so he does have a track record to suggest he could earn another look.
Sox have DFA’d like 5 guys in the past 2-3 months and not a single one was claimed haha
(besides Amaya who was DFA’d and claimed back anyway)
More accountability and merit to perform is a good thing. Guys like him and Colas it’s a good chance they will not be on the big league club again.
Baby steps. They need to keep applying it to Colson Montgomery, who is their most overloved prospect in a long time. He can’t defend at SS, and the bat isn’t impressive either. No entitlement.
Fletch lives! Laker or Tele evangelist
Barfield is horrible. Could have had Jake McCartney
Having some learning curves tbh.
But hey, pitching!
Was Cristian Mena a good prospect? If not, seems like Fletcher was worth taking a chance on for Sox.
Not really, but they still need OF prospects nevertheless.
He’s at least an Adam Engel, will take that any day as a 4th. Meantime Slater, Taylor and Jankowski all looking like keepers
The Sox misread his stats. Fletcher put up a .293/.376/.462 line in Triple-A, which looks solid—but in the modern Pacific Coast League (PCL) and International League, offensive stats are heavily skewed by hitter-friendly conditions (altitude, ballparks, and talent disparity). The league-average OPS in Triple-A in 2024 was over .780, meaning Fletcher’s numbers are not elite but just slightly above average. Teams keep making the mistake of overvaluing players who dominate in Triple-A but lack elite tools to translate that success to MLB.
“Impressive as those performances were” is NOT PROPER ENGLISH. You can’t just leave “as” out to begin the sentence. It’s not optional! Grammar is not optional when you’re being paid to write.