The White Sox announced that they have claimed right-hander Ryan Cusick off waivers from the Tigers and optioned him to Triple-A Charlotte. Detroit designated Cusick for assignment earlier this week. Righty Miguel Castro has been transferred to the 60-day injured list to open a 40-man spot. Castro suffered a season-ending knee injury last week.
Cusick, 25, is a former first-round pick but he hasn’t yet been able to live up to that potential in the minor leagues. That’s why he’s been riding the transaction carousel lately. The A’s designated him for assignment just over a week ago. The Tigers claimed him but gave him the DFA treatment a few days later, which made him available to the White Sox today.
In the summer of 2021, Atlanta selected Cusick with the 24th overall pick and gave him a $2.7MM signing bonus. His time with that organization turned out to be brief, as Cusick was included in the March 2022 Matt Olson trade.
With the A’s, he didn’t pan out as a starter, both due to some injuries and his struggles to develop a changeup as a third offering. He had a 5.60 earned run average in 143 innings over the 2022 and 2023 seasons. The A’s moved him to the bullpen midway through 2024 and he showed promise there. He ended last year with a 1.73 ERA in 26 innings. His 11.8% walk rate was a bit high but he also punched out 28.2% of opponents.
The A’s put him on their 40-man roster in November to keep him out of the Rule 5 draft but he couldn’t keep that momentum going in 2025. He began this year with a 6.75 ERA in 14 2/3 innings. His 19.4% walk rate was actually higher than his 16.4% strikeout rate in that time. After the Tigers claimed him, he was able to add one scoreless inning before his second DFA of the year.
Cusick is clearly still a project but the Sox are a sensible landing spot for him. They are deep in rebuilding mode, having lost 121 games last year. They’re not quite as bad this year but they’re still the worst team in the American League. Most of their pitchers are young and inexperienced. If Cusick can get in a good groove with Charlotte, there’s a path to big league playing time. He has a full slate of options and can be kept in the minors for quite a while, though it’s also possible he gets nudged off the 40-man roster yet again if his struggles continue.
Photo courtesy of Rick Scuteri, Imagn Images
A match made in heaven. Both are works in progress.
White Sox have had some success with developing pitchers, especially starters, so this might work out.
Putting a lot of weight on “developing” in this sentence.
I’d say they’ve had the ability to cycle through arms in low stakes environments, giving those players a chance to experiment in roles where experimentation isn’t possible in other orgs.
There ARE benefits to being bad. DFA’d players are all at least borderline MLB talents. When you’re first in line for all of them, and you can give them low-pressure space, you will blind squirrel a few nuts.
I’ll never forget his Detroit tenure.
Nice signing, now bring up Teel, Baldwin and Elko!!
One out of 3 is a good start.
I don’t understand this… the Tigers had last waiver priority in the league when they picked him up off waivers not even two weeks ago, which means the Sox passed on him. Was it the one scoreless inning in Toledo that turned the tides for them to claim him this time around? Not that it comes as a surprise, but this is more evidence of incompetence in Chicago.
Maybe they figured that if the Tigers wanted him, he might be worth taking a chance on.
Or……maybe Castro hadn’t hurt himself yet.
I think the ChiSox had already made a waiver claim and had to go back in line.
…and the Getz transactional ‘hokey pokey’ continues
White Sox PR Dept is stoked thinking they just brought in John Cusack.
Shoutout White Sox Dave