The White Sox have released outfielder Oscar Colas, according to an announcement from the club’s Triple-A affiliate Charlotte Knights. Colas was previously outrighted off the club’s 40-man roster back in March, so the move has no impact on Chicago’s major league roster.
It’s an unfortunate end to Colas’s time in the organization. The 26-year-old was a fairly high-profile player in Cuba and Japan before he came over to affiliated ball by signing with Chicago for a $2.7MM bonus in early 2022. He crushed minor league pitching that year and put himself on the map as a consensus top-100 prospect in the sport headed into the 2023 season. He broke camp with the team after a strong spring training, but ultimately struggled badly across 75 games with the White Sox that year. He hit just .216/.257/.314 in 263 trips to the plate, with an elevated 27.0% strikeout rate against a lackluster 4.6% walk rate.
Those numbers weren’t enough for the White Sox to continue riding with Colas even amid a disastrous 101-loss season, and he was shipped back to the minors. Once back in Triple-A, Colas regained his hitting prowess somewhat and slashed .272/.345/.465 with the Knights in 54 games down the stretch. As the White Sox dove headfirst into a rebuilding phase in 2024, many expected that Colas would receive another opportunity to come up and try to establish himself in the majors with the club. That never came to pass, however, as reps in right field were instead primarily split between Dominic Fletcher, Gavin Sheets, and Tommy Pham.
Relegated to Triple-A for almost the entirety of 2024, Colas hit .273/.368/.273 with a 26.3% strikeout rate and a 10.5% walk rate in the 13 games he did play in the majors last year but recorded no extra-base hits in the majors and saw his performance in the minors take a noticeable step back as he slashed just .246/.332/.400 across 400 trips to the plate. Colas did not factor into the club’s plans for the outfield this year either, as team brass added players like Mike Tauchman and Austin Slater to the mix rather than give Colas another opportunity. This year, he posted a brutal .163/.245/.255 slash line across the Double- and Triple-A levels in 29 games (110 plate appearances) before the White Sox decided it was time to pull the plug.
Now that the White Sox and Colas have parted ways, the outfielder is free to sign with any of the league’s 29 other teams. The outfielder won’t turn 27 until September and is not terribly far removed from sensational numbers in the upper minors, so it wouldn’t be a shock if an outfield needy club gave him a call to serve as a depth option or injury replacement. Another possible option would be to explore the possibility of playing overseas, building on his stint with NPB’s Fukuoka Softbank Hawks during the 2019 season. If Colas is unable to find an attractive stateside opportunity, he’s certainly young enough to find success overseas before attempting to make an MLB comeback as a handful of other players have done over the years.
No so called franchise destroys more “prospects”.
Truth. Hell..look what Gavin Sheets is doing this year. He’s playing at a near all star level now that he got out of there..
Ron: That’s why I think Robert will do better once he gets away from the Sox. Colas and Colson Montgomery are poster boys for this organization’s developmental team who not only fail to develop players but cause them to regress.
100% agree Avenger. I feel like when Robert gets traded to a team with a solid lineup around him, he’ll immediately go back to being an all star level player.
I wouldn’t give up much for him, and it should happen soon. What team is going to insert him in their lineup and CF during a pennant race?
100% agree and will add Vaughn to this list. He will leave then become an MLB hitter.
I am pretty sure every team wants Robert (even those in pennant races), They know the Sox and their coaching and instructional ability are a laughingstock. You have to remember the same hitting..um..’coach’, I guess we have to call him, was in the same job in last years clown show.Its a wonder anyone is hitting on that team this year (and that guy is still around.. I guess ol’ ‘Uncle Jerry’ likes him.. Maybe he took a pay cut and got ‘the Mummy’ all excited).
Also pretty sure that Robert goes somewhere else and is immediately is a .280 avg/20 homer guy with a few tweaks to his approach and much better once that team has an offseason to work with him.
Those teams are just want to see if they can get him cheap from Getz who is desperate to make moves.
Protection and warm weather are major factors.
Yeah, the fact that they went out and signed 30-year-old poo piles like Mike Tauchman, Austin Slater, Michael A. Taylor, and Josh Palacios instead of just letting some of the kid outfielders get that playing time is incredibly stupid.
Sucking with young players >>>>> sucking with old players.
I liked the Tauchman pick up.
Yeah Tauchman appears to be one of the better hitters right now, for what that is worth on this team anyway.
The problem is whether its the ‘instruction’ and ‘coaching’ in the minors or the majors, its all terrible for the White Sox.
Yuck. I really hate seeing everyday corner outfielders with an ISO below .100, and for some reason, the White Sox collect them like Pokemon.
Tauchman has only played in 5 games this season… too small a sample size to say one of the better hitters.
100% agree. Why do they keep doing the same thing each season and expect different results? They should be determining if their own players are major league talent rather than hoping some journeyman will bring back a single A wild card. Cutting Colas proves they don’t have good talent evaluation. For whatever faults he has, he didn’t deserve to be yanked around and treated like some un-drafted free agent? They need to give sufficient time to these suspects/prospects. Their catchers are the best hitters. Bring them up and get them in the lineup somewhere. Lee and Teel in LF and RF. Ship those seasoned pros anywhere.
@mohoney: Tauchman is a good player. (The fact that you haven’t noticed it doesn’t mean it’s not so.) Palacios is coming into his own. Meidroth is a Tommy Edman-type, and Quero has been very good. You are right that the Sox make a lot of mistakes in player procurement and player development, but you are over-generalizing.
And the Sox are much improved over last year–not really a surprise, as few of last year’s players are on the team, and they have been replaced by better players. (Again, the fact that you have not been watching carefully does not mean there has been nothing to see.)
The Sox are better than 3 or 4 AL teams this season, including the one they are about to sweep this weekend. They have a ways to go, sure, but the arrow is pointing up.
I think Tauchman is a fine player that had no place on this team in this condition. He would have been perfect for a Sox team fighting for a division championship.
Quero and Meidroth should be playing everyday. Is Palacios significantly better than any of their 3A outfielders? Capra? What is the point of these acquisitions when they serve to stifle their own prospects opportunities? Sosa and Vargas should play everyday. Rojas is another one that is more valuable to a contender. I’m a believer in using your own players until they prove they aren’t major league talent. Every game given to the likes of Taylor and Tauchman and Slater are lost opportunities. Are the Sox better than last season? Seems like a yes is in store, but there’s a long ways to go. I’m reserving judgment until after the halfway point.
Mike Tauchman sucks. I have seen nothing in his whopping total of 18 plate appearances to convince me otherwise.
Corner outfielders need to hit the ball over the fence once in a while. None of those guys qualify.
And for all this talk about being “better,” the only guys in the current lineup who may have any future value whatsoever are Meidroth, Quero, and Vargas. Everybody else is fodder for the scrap heap, and unfortunately, Robert is right there with them.
At least Robert is showing some soft skills that may impress other teams, with the stolen bases, drastically increased walk rate, and reliable CF defense. Maybe another team will see something that they think they can fix in his swing, or maybe another team will take a chance that better lineup protection will help him turn things around.
As for the middling journeymen, they do absolutely nothing for me.
Marlins have entered the chat
Colas bad for the WS’ health..
Very high in fructose
While I see the pun, its really the other way around. Colas probably could have been a good player if the Sox had any coaching to speak of.
He’s probably going to do better with another team just like Gavin Sheets.
“Another possible option would be to explore the possibility of playing overseas, building on his stint with NPB’s Fukuoka Softbank Hawks during the 2019 season.”
“If Colas is unable to find an attractive stateside opportunity, he’s certainly young enough to find success overseas…”
I dig ya, Nicky…you put the (H)umor in Rumor!
The Royals just gave up on Hunter Renfroe. They make a pretty perfect landing spot for Colas, although they aren’t great a fixing hitters themselves.
Honestly that (KC) may be a good spot. If the Colorado organization wasn’t such a train wreck, that would be another option for the Oscar Cola Wars.
A better spot for Tauchman. He should have signed there to begin with. Sox can try to pry another future for a bit of the present. Royals need on base ability and Tauchman has always offered it.
Hey Reinsdork, another can’t miss prospect cut? I
He never was a can’t miss prospect.
Oscar Mountain Dew
Julks is hitting, he deserves a shot to win the job in ’26. Colas doesn’t. Fletcher could stick around in the outfield mix. Braden Montgomery should be a can’t miss prospect, should be in the OF by the end of ’26.
White Sox didn’t have much to lose by seeing if he can pitch again. I would have tried that before releasing him.
He could replace Pittsburgh legend Alexander Canario.
The White Sox Cuban pipeline has been disastrous: Colas, Moncada, Grandal, Eloy, LouBob. Maybe it’s just systemic.
Another ridiculous racially biased post from one Reynaldo. That’s some Cuban pipeline for Eloy, who hails from the D.R. and Yaz, who a) was already an established major league regular when the Sox signed him as a free agent b) grew up in Miami. Why not bring up Luis Tiant?
Just another juicer…
RC Colas
I think a team should sign him to a minor league deal as a pitcher at this point. He was a two way player in Japan.
Maybe he just isn’t good enough.
He gives a lackluster effort. Can’t hit major league pitching. Watching him and other players from the 23-24 teams was brutal. Worst baseball I’ve ever seen.
Does this mean the Birmingham Colas bobblehead I got a few years ago is worth more now?
Its a shame the Sox once again could not bring out the potential in a player. Was he going to be a 5 tool guy? Probably not, but likely could have been an above average player if the Sox had any clue how to develop position players. Good thing Getz did ‘so well’ in his previous role before being an assistant to the GM and then GM….
But its what happens when ‘the Mummy’ spends ‘bottom dollar’ on everything.
If I were the Sox management, my money would be going into scouting and development over all else as now is the time to do that since salaries are at an all time low (though it was also supposedly done back when Hahn started the rebuild). That helps turn ‘B’ type players into ‘A’ type players and ‘C’s to ‘B’s. Its what finds and develops guys like Tatis Jr into superstars instead of trading them for ‘has been’ pitchers who had good stats 5 years prior.