The White Sox announced Tuesday that they’ve agreed to a new minor league contract with infielder Brandon Drury. He’ll head to extended spring training for now. Drury was with the ChiSox this spring and enjoyed a monster performance in the Cactus League, hitting .410/.439/.821 with three homers and seven doubles in 41 plate appearances. He looked like a lock to make the team until he suffered a broken thumb right at the end of camp. The Sox released him from that minor league pact, but the two parties have now come to terms on a new deal.
Drury, 32, has run pretty hot and cold in his career. At the end of the 2021 season, he had a career batting line of .249/.296/.415. That production translated to a wRC+ of 83, indicating he was 17% below league average overall.
He then snapped off a really good performance over the next two years. He has never walked much but managed to launch 28 home runs with the Reds and Padres in 2022. He slashed .263/.320/.492 for a 123 wRC+. He signed a two-year, $17MM deal with the Angels going into 2023 and the first year went quite well. He launched another 26 homers and hit .262/.306/.497 for a 114 wRC+.
But everything went south last year. He battled various minor ailments throughout the year and produced a tepid line of .169/.242/.228. The White Sox were able to grab him on a minor league deal and it seemed for a while like they would get him on the upswing, though his aforementioned excellent spring performance was cut short by a broken thumb.
He will once again try to play his way onto the White Sox, which is certainly possible. He has played everywhere but catcher in his career, though he hasn’t played shortstop or the outfield recently. Still, the ability to play the non-shortstop infield positions gives him a chance to crack the lineup if he’s in good form. Miguel Vargas and Andrew Vaughn are taking most of the playing time at the corners right now with Lenyn Sosa at second, though none of them are performing well. Vargas and Sosa can be moved to other positions while Vaughn is only under club control through 2026 and is playing himself into non-tender territory.
If Drury can get healthy and back in form, he would be a candidate to spend some time in the majors with the White Sox. If he produces numbers like his spring performance or his 2022-23 seasons, he would be an intriguing midseason trade candidate.
Photo courtesy of Jayne Kamin, Oncea-Imagn Images
I thought he would be placed on the disabled list. White Sox must of wanted a better deal.
To put him on the MLB IL, they would have to first put him on the 40-man..
It hasn’t been called the “disabled list” for over 6 seasons. Get with the times.
It was called the disabled list for 100 years. Chill.
Was. Not is. Relax rando.
Guessing you’re an Indians and Redskins fan?
Give us old timers a break. It was the DL for 100 years before it was the politically correct version IL.
Well I wonder how much of an old timer @stymeedone is
Yeah as discussed earlier, it wouldn’t have made sense to cut someone else from the 40 man for someone who’s status is unclear until well into May. He was DFA’d as a procedural move with the mutual understanding that they were going to come to agreement on a minor league deal. These days most minor league Spring training deals comes with boilerplate that requires teams to add them to the 40 man else grant him free agency. The parties even discussed whether Drury could agree to be sent down without triggering free agency but apparently the contract structure didn’t allow this to happen.
They can certainly use several pro bats if he can heal quick. The new hitting guru doesn’t seem to be helping Luis Robert-on his way to being a declined option next offseason for WSox or trade partner like other can’t misses Moncada and Eloy.
As bad as they are at developing bats, none of them seemed too motivated to build on their raw talent hype or be durable with contract extensions. JR outsmarted himself trying to get grand bargains on hitters, not realizing it’s worked only with SPs b/c they know how to develop them.
Eloy, Moncada, and Robert all seemed to lose their way after Abreu was cut.
cws: Robert could hit 100 home runs and bat .600 and Reinsdorf is still going to let him go. With jer, it’s all about money, not performance.
Robert has shown life at the plate and was aggressive tonight in their 1-0 loss, getting on base 3 times, stealing twice and advancing to 3rd on aggressive baserunning. Just couldn’t get the lucky break to drive him in. Meanwhile the Guardians started their rally on an unfortunate ricochet and IF single, followed by former Cleveland civil party boy Clevinger’s wildness
Kind of looks like the Reds avoided being fleeced by giving up top prospects for a 1 hit wonder. This is why you don’t panic and give up the farm for a Robert.
they could use Robert as DH occasionally. They have a gold gloveback up
Play him at 1B. Vaughn is terrible
I wish White Sox had kicked the tires on Anthony Rizzo to play 1B. Good bounce back candidate and could be used as a trade chip at the deadline if he had decent numbers, but who knows how much Rizzo was looking to get paid.
Rizzo’s toast. Back issues at his age don’t get better. Drury was by far the smarter signing.
True, at least Drury is an upgrade over Vaughn.
Rizzo is an older version of Vaughn
Brandon Drury should provide some needed short term punch to a feeble White Sox lineup when he is up to speed with his health and game readiness. Just reinstated OF Mike Tauchman is also a huge offensive upgrade over DFA Travis Jankowsky. Hopefully both players will also become worthy assets as the summer trade deadline nears.
The biggest lineup boost should come in a matter of days or weeks with the promotion of INF Chase Meidroth who continues to tear up AAA just as he did in the Red Sox system last year. He is an on-base machine and looks to be the White Sox core second baseman. He also figures to be a fixture at the top of their future lineup, either leading off or as a “traditional” #2 grunt.
Hopefully Colin Montgomery can regain some confidence after a brutal start to his 2024 season at AAA. Any level of offense he can provide will surely exceed that of current SS Jacob Amaya.
***Brutal start for Colin Montgomery this season. Much of his 2024 AAA season also saw him struggle until a late season rebound and a solid AFL showing.
Colson
So when did 169/.242/.228 qualify as tepid? It’s absolutely abysmal!
ChiSox need Drury back to help with that offense.
You can’t make this stuff up. Sox adding back scrubs they’ve already cut. I couldn’t believe it when I saw Clevinger’s name in a box score. They cut him last year, how in the world did they end up signing him again? Scum of the earth owner begets scum of the earth players.
Getz just keeps recycling junk. None of these losers is ever really cut, just sent back to AAA. How does that add up to a rebuild? Any half decent players are going to be flipped and the so-called wave of the future fall flat on their faces under the crack coaches in the minor leagues.
Clevinger is friends with one of the minority owners. Since the team is going nowhere anyway, there really is no problem in Getz doing a favor for ownership.
“Non-tender territory” for Vaughn? How about “DFA territory?” Why waste the whole season?