The White Sox announced Wednesday that they’ve reinstated lefty Martin Perez from the 60-day injured list. Triple-A lefty Jared Shuster was designated for assignment to clear a spot on the 40-man roster. Reliever Cam Booser was optioned to Triple-A to open a spot on the active roster.
Perez has been out since April 18 due to a flexor strain. He pitched quite well through his first four starts (3.15 ERA in 20 innings) but wasn’t healthy enough to develop into a potential trade deadline chip, as the rebuilding White Sox probably hoped when signing him to a one-year, $5MM contract over the winter.
Perez pitched a combined 6 2/3 innings over a pair of minor league rehab starts and will now at least get the opportunity to eat some innings for the Sox down the stretch — all while looking to showcase his health for interested clubs in the offseason. Perez’s deal contains a mutual option, but it’s been more than a decade since both ends of a mutual option was exercised by team and player alike. He’s all but certain to become a free agent again in November.
Shuster, 27, was a first-round pick of the Braves back in 2020 (No. 25 overall). He came to the South Side by way of the 2023 Aaron Bummer swap — a deal that netted the Sox five players but was more of a volume play wherein Chicago picked up several former top prospects in hopes of turning a couple of them around. It hasn’t panned out. Braden Shewmake, Michael Soroka and Nicky Lopez have all since been cut loose. With Shuster now designated for assignment and perhaps on his way out the door, 25-year-old righty Riley Gowens is the most promising remnant of that return. He’s posted a 4.05 ERA through 100 innings in his second go-around at the Double-A level and is not ranked among the system’s 30 best prospects.
In his two seasons with the ChiSox, Shuster has made 51 appearances — all but six of them out of the bullpen — and pitched a combined 89 innings with a 4.96 earned run average. He’s fanned only 16.9% of his opponents and turned in a 9.4% walk rate. Both, particularly the strikeout rate, are worse than league average.
Shuster has been up and down this season. Between his frequent shuttling from Chicago to Charlotte (where the Sox’ Triple-A club plays) and a 15-day IL stint due to blisters on his pitching hand, he’s pitched just 22 1/3 innings in Triple-A and 15 1/3 frames in the majors. His minor league work this year has also been lackluster, evidenced by a 6.04 ERA. Shuster’s 19.8% strikeout rate and 6.6% walk rate in Charlotte are at least moderately more encouraging than his MLB rate stats, but he’s also averaged two homers per nine innings pitched in Triple-A this year.
Shuster will be out of minor league options next year, so he was always a long shot to stick on the roster into next year’s camp. With the trade deadline behind us, he’ll be placed on waivers within the next five days. Shuster hasn’t been outrighted in the past and doesn’t have three years of MLB service, so if he goes unclaimed he’ll stick with the White Sox via an outright assignment to Charlotte.
Does AA go to Jared?
Back to Atlanta? I mean why not, Braves need pitchers and it wouldn’t hurt to get some tryouts for guys next season.
No.
No, he has everyone’s friend in the diamond business instead 🙂
Oh right, Jared’s! Wow forgot about his side hustle. Hopefully no blood diamonds involved…
No. He’ll be the spokesperson for Subway.
8.04 ERA and a 2.91 FIP?
There’s a story there.
Yeah give up 8 runs usually lose unless you’re playing Rockies
The story called “FIP is a dumb stat”. Similar to the less absurd pitchers WAR which believes Shuster out pitched guys like George Kirby (Kirby this year compared to Shuster last year, or both guys last year on an inning rate basis). Also believed he was 4 times more valuable than Laynce Lynn last year despite Lynn throwing 40 more innings. I know we have ballpark adjustments and what not but yikes.
He eats less than Lance so food and plumbing costs matter
Seriously though, what other stat can isolate pitching performance and not be victimized by a bad defense (notorious in CWS) sullying their ERA? A GB (groundball) pitcher is never going to be given any due on a below-average fielding team. If nothing else, I appreciate that FiP runs counter to glamorizing K-rate, like it’s the only thing a pitcher needs to succeed.
I get that intention my contention is merely that it does a horrendous job and that it may indeed be impossible unless we take a much deeper look at every single play (even in that case something like defensive positioning is gonna come into play). I wouldn’t say, especially in 15 innings, that a GB pitcher on a team with a bad INF defense is always gonna have a higher era than he should simply because as much bad luck as a GB pitcher can have they can also be extremely lucky (a fact which we rarely acknowledge in their favor-that they are just as likely to have good luck as bad luck).
One thing to note is people always assume I am merely against metrics when I bring this up when in reality I am just against the FIP stat, against metrics at 1B and C, and against pitchers WAR. And like yourself I get tired of the overemphasis on K’s for pitchers
Seems like Bummers ERA is almost always higher than his FIP which to me would indicate FIP overvalues him. If you watch him pitch it makes sense too. He is often wild in the zone. He doesn’t walk many but his pitches that get hit are routinely on the opposite side he is aiming for. Even when he’s good he’s often missing a lot. It’s the kind of profile FIP wouldn’t understand well as he seems to be pitching better (based on what FIP looks for) than he really is. He gets away with a lot just from having a funky angle and good stuff
Basically Bummer has a low FIP every year because he is the rare type that both strikes guys out (while not walking a lot) and is also a big GB pitcher. Of course FIP likes him. I think hes decent but he’s not the great pitcher FIP sometimes says he is (even earlier this year he was leading the league in FIP (maybe second I forget)just like last year).
There is a mental side to Bummer as well. He gets so irritated at the slightest thing (a single) and then starts missing location more until you look up and he’s given up 3 runs. This is more type of stuff that can make his stats seem to not make sense entirely.
His career ERA is half a run higher than his FIP. And besides I’m only really looking at his last several years.
All of this aside it is interesting to remember that Bummer was traded for a package including Shuster. Full circle here
But yeah it’s honestly just because it’s 15 innings and the walk rate is pretty good and he hasn’t given up a homer. Who cares about the 16 hits per/9? Hits are flukes unless they go over the fence.
FIP looks wacky in this case. He gave up no homers and only 2.9 BB/9, but gave up 15.5 hits/9. How sedentary is Chicago’s defense?
I hated this trade that got Bummer. But AA actually made out decent on it.
What did you hate about that trade? 1 year of Soroka? That year was a rehab and though he’s better in ’25 – he’s still not a future piece in most rotations. Maybe if he becomes a long RP with the decent RP stats he’s put up in a small sample size. Everyone else involved has moved on except Gowens, who at 25 y/o looks like he’ll soon suffer the same fate.