White Sox infielder Nick Maton has cleared waivers and been sent outright to Triple-A Charlotte. Maton was designated for assignment on the weekend. He has the right to reject this assignment and elect free agency, though it’s not clear if he will exercise that right. Scott Merkin of MLB.com was among those to relay the news of the outright today.
Maton, 28, signed a minor league deal with the Sox in the offseason. He cracked the club’s Opening Day roster and got into 23 games. In his 61 plate appearances, he walked at a strong 14.8% pace but was also struck out at a 29.5% clip. He hit .173/.295/.327 for a wRC+ of 84. It’s possible he would have performed better in time, since his .219 batting average on balls in play is well below league average, but the Sox decided to move on.
He played a bit of first base, second base and left field but was primarily in the designated hitter slot. That seemed to be a bet on his minor league production. While he has hit just .202/.302/.354 in his big league career, he slashed .269/.382/.466 on the farm over 2023 and 2024 for a 124 wRC+. He then had a nice spring showing with the Sox this year, hitting .289/.357/.632. Unfortunately, it didn’t translate to the regular season, giving the club tepid production from the DH spot.
Maton is out of options, so he had to be removed from the 40-man roster entirely when the club grabbed Gage Workman from DFA limbo. As a player with a previous career outright, he can head to the open market and look for opportunities elsewhere if he so chooses.
If he sticks with the Sox, it’s possible that at-bats will open as the season rolls along. They are 7-21 and sure to be deadline sellers. Players like Andrew Benintendi, Luis Robert Jr., Andrew Vaughn and others will likely be traded this summer if they are playing well. That could open a path for Maton to return, though the Sox could also give playing time to prospects like Kyle Teel or Colson Montgomery.
Photo courtesy of Jesse Johnson, Imagn Images
Worst record at season’s end: Rockies or White Sox?
Rockies for sure. The Sox have a few young hitters who are showing improvement, and some good young pitchers too. The team will improve as the season goes on, and probably won’t lose 100. I’m guessing something like 66-96–bad, but not historically so.
What are you talking about? They’ve already lost 21 and they will have very little help from the minors this year. They will be lucky if they don’t lose 110 or more.
@roob: You might be right–but have you been watching carefully in the last couple of weeks? Some of their young hitters are visibly improving. Small sample size, but their swings are better, like something finally clicked. And there might be more help from the minors this season than you think: Quero is already up, for instance.
The loss total might wind up somewhere between my 96 and your 110–but I still like my number better. And it could be lower than that. We’ll see.
“Last couple of weeks…..something finally clicked.” Yep, they’re 3-10 over that span which is worse than that .250 clip they are playing at for the season.
If the minors were gonna be of any help they would be here already.
@Cubby, Well, we’ll see. Certainly the Sox are not a good team. I think it’s almost as certain that they are better than last year, which admittedly won’t take much. Some of the recent losses were a little wonky. But I won’t fight you on this; we’ll see what we see, and I couldn’t care less about the Sox anyway.
Re/”If the minors were gonna be of any help, they would be here already”: Certainly that isn’t true. Teams often bring up prospects after April. You are a smart guy, and I assume you meant that rhetorically.
The Cubs have six games to play with the Sox, the first three in a week or so.The Cubs won last year’s four games by a combined five runs, and Mike Tauchman is on the Sox this time. The Cubs need to take those games seriously, or they might lose a few of them. And the Cubs are going to need every win they can get to be contending for the postseason at the end.
Tim Elko coming up soon!
Will lead 2025 Sox in HR’s.
55 wins will be tough to accomplish, Sox are stank
Must be hard putting that lipstick on the pig.. The Sox are abysmal and if lucky avoid 100 losses this season. While I guess some could call that ‘progress’ most call it what it is: a horrible embarrassment for a team that plays in Chicago and could spend, but chooses not to.
Get an owner in who is willing to spend and actually build an org that will continue to be competitive, and not just hope they luck into the playoffs and World Series every once and again, and fans will show up. Heck the city may be actually willing to help fund another stadium in town…
Actually I would hope that happens during Reinsdorf’s life: A new owner gets in, spends a lot to make the team and org better, and then works with the city to get a new stadium.. I hope that happens in Reinsdorf’s life just to further show what sort of inept miser he was. Im guessing that is why he does not want to sell his ownership, he is too vain and afraid to see that happen.
It will be the Rockies. Not because they’re worse but they play in the toughest loaded division.
If you combined both of those teams together you still couldn’t make a .500 team.
Rockies are looking really bad. Last year the White Soxs were in a lot of games but the relief pitching let them down. They definitely look better this year. Rockies need to do something or they will set a new loss record.
Has Tim Elko arrived yet?
The consistent sky high K rate in minors for Elko is likely an issue at MLB level, but nothing to lose on the 26yo mid-round draftee if he can launch some HRs the roster sorely lacks.
They need to develop some surprises when you have AA quality bat Colson M who is overmatched even in AAA and not an acceptable defensive SS…..but but but did you see his BA prospect ranking and draft day comp to Corey Seager lol!
Montgomery is in Arizona.
Getting private hitting lessons.
Mr. Reinsdorf please sell the team. Terrible brand of baseball from ownership to low minors. Ask the Southside.
Do you think Jerry is reading this?
A window into just how petty and lame the White Sox are as an organization: When the radio post-game guy reads the out-of-town scores, he omits the Cubs score, every time.
Imagine some director of broadcasting ordering an on-air talent to do that.
Andrew Vaughn Check:
.162 /.208/.473
Gavin Sheets check
.281 /.343 /.804
Just sayin…..