The White Sox optioned starter Jonathan Cannon to Triple-A Charlotte this afternoon. They recalled Wikelman González and will work with a nine-man bullpen for the time being.
Aside from a three-week injured list stint in June, Cannon has held a spot in Chicago’s rotation all season. The former third-round pick has struggled to a 5.34 ERA with below-average peripherals in 19 appearances. Cannon’s 17.7% strikeout rate and 1.69 home runs per nine innings are both concerning. He has hit a particularly rough stretch of late, giving up 18 earned runs on six longballs over his past three starts.
Cannon, a second-year player, entered the season as one of the more experienced pitchers in a very young rotation. He made 23 appearances as a rookie. Cannon turned in a 4.49 ERA with a 17.4% strikeout rate during his debut campaign. If he spends at least 20 days in the minors, this will be his second of three option years.
Scott Merkin of MLB.com writes that Tyler Alexander will take the bulk work when Cannon’s turn through the rotation comes up next week against the Tigers. Alexander has worked in multi-inning relief since signing with Chicago in early June. He has turned in a 2.89 ERA across 37 1/3 innings. Alexander has gotten up to 3-4 innings out of the bullpen. He’ll slot behind Shane Smith, Aaron Civale, Sean Burke and Davis Martin in Will Venable’s rotation.
It might not be long before Martín Pérez rejoins the group. The veteran southpaw tossed four innings and 58 pitches in a rehab start with Double-A Birmingham this evening. That was his second rehab start as he works back from elbow inflammation that sidelined him in April. Pérez had made four starts before the injury, posting a 3.15 ERA while striking out 22% of batters faced. A return in the next couple weeks would allow him to make five or six more appearances before he heads back to free agency.
Meanwhile, GM Chris Getz spoke with reporters on Friday about the team’s decision not to trade Luis Robert Jr. (link via Vinnie Duber of The Chicago Sun-Times). The general manager talked about a desire to build around up-the-middle talent, also highlighting catchers Edgar Quero and Kyle Teel and a potential middle infield pairing of Colson Montgomery and Chase Meidroth.
Getz included Robert in that group. “We are excited about having Luis Robert in the White Sox organization. … When he’s playing well, the team is seemingly playing well and we are getting wins,” he said. “He’s a guy we like having in this organization, and we are planning on having him as part of the future.” None of that comes as a surprise after they elected to hold him beyond the deadline. Robert had started the season terribly, at least against right-handed pitching, but has mashed at a .365/.435/.554 clip since the beginning of July.
While that wasn’t enough to convince other teams that he’d found his star form, it has seemingly pushed the Sox into planning to exercise their $20MM club option. That could change if Robert slumps in the final six weeks, but not trading him wouldn’t make sense if the Sox don’t think there’s a good chance he’ll play well enough to be worth the option price. They could shop him again in the offseason or carry him into next season with the continued hope that he’ll play well enough to rebuild his trade value. His contract contains an additional $20MM team option for 2027.
I would expect a pitcher of his profile to have a GB rate that is much higher. He is below average at everything this year. Pitchers like that (with heavy use of sinkers and also a cutter in his case) almost always succeed in getting GB at a higher rate than the bottom 1/3). He likely needs to figure out a different approach to mixing those 5 pitches. But admittedly I haven’t seen him pitch this year.
Tbf, Cannon has performed as expected. He wasn’t supposed to be more than a depth guy.
That doesn’t mean he can’t grow into something better, just that what we’ve seen from him is a 50th percentile outcome.
Not really even commenting entirely in the sense of “he stinks” moreso in the sense of this is an odd pitcher statistically (not exactly going deep diving on him statistically though)
It makes some sense what he said about Robert. The WS are a better team when he’s in the lineup. 17-18 over their past 35 games against some decent competition.
“When he’s in the lineup” (and hitting lefties). Getz is playing with fire.
Getz is all-in on Robert rebuilding his value.
As a fan, I’m not excited.
April: .170/.288/.310
May: .195/.245/.276
June: .194/.275/.371
Had a great July, has had a good start to August, is hitting .282/.335/.464 since June 1st because of it but hit .224/.278/.378 in ’24.
You could say it was a bad season for the entire team, difficult to stay motivated when you are losing so much and dealing with a bad clubhouse. To keep him around says that he wasn’t the problem.
Robert picked it up when Vaughn was traded. Those two must be diametrically opposed.
How can you judge personnell decisions as a fan, difficult, can’t get a full read on who is a good teammate, who is a bad teammate.
As a fan, something about Robert that I don’t like. I got the impression that he tanked it. And the fact that he turns it on when he gets his way, I guess that speaks to his talent but I’d think to be free and clear from him despite his potential is better for the future of the team despite the thin group of OF on the farm. It’s all I’m going to say about it.
I’m from Chicago, lived here for most of my life. I was an A’s fan as a kid, jumped the ’86 bandwagon and remained an A’s fan through all the losing in the nineties. I got to see McGwire and Canseco at Old Comiskey. Bob Welch started that game and Mike Gallego hit a homer, all the White Sox fans had there brooms out and the A’s won the clincher to avoid the sweep. Best game I ever went.
I moved to the big city in ’01. I used to wear my fitted A’s hat, green and gold, all over town. One day, I got mugged and almost killed and somebody took my hat and my wallet. I bought Sox hat. Have been a Sox fan ever since. I got in a fight at night club in 2016, bouncers choked me and I lost my Sox cap. Moved to Tampa and was a Rays fan and a Yankees for a couple years because I could tune them in on the AM Radio – didn’t have Internet for two or three years. Got all my games on the radio and it was nice. Some days I could listen to two games, an early Rays game and a late Yankees game. Got to listen to old John Sterling before he retired.
In 2024, I hiked across the state of Georgia with my AM radio and listened to Braves games. I used to root against them every day, it was great. I got to root for a new team every three or four days, was a great summer. I couldn’t bring myself to like the Braves just like I can’t bring myself to like the Cubs.
Back in Chicago, have been a White Sox fan all season and have been excited about the current rebuild. But I’m losing my enthusiasm. And I don’t care so much about it. I can find a new team and will be happy.
Wow. Hard to tell if being a Sox fan created your bad luck in life or if bad luck in life made you a Sox fan.
Keeping Roberts around doesn’t say he wasn’t part of the problem. It simply says that Getz is in denial of Roberts’ value. He thinks he will still get All Star value back. Not happening. It will cost the Sox $20MM for this error in judgement.
Bwm79
Wow…… Holy shat…… Wow
Mr. Reinsdorf please sell the team. Terrible brand of baseball from ownership to low minors. Ask the Southside. Nashville is calling.
@bw: I don’t agree with every point, but I like your maturity, perspective, and writing style–three things that are in short supply here.
I don’t like the Cubs either, but I love them. They are my team. May they prosper.
It’s hard being a fan sometime, this site can get personal and that makes it more difficult. I want to be clear, I dont like getting in people’s business, dont want to put no bad mojo on anybody, player, team, front office. Sometimes the emotion gets the best of you and I think thats normal. I dont like grinding anybodies nuts, directly or indirectly. My feelings towards the Sox rebuild was that it was a new start after a difficult five years, and Ive been looking forward to that.
Baseball been very very good to me. (Pedro Martinez voice)
I think it’s foolish to gamble $20M on Robert bouncing back. Great July, solid August so far, but he’d have play like an MVP from here out to get anyone interested in taking that contract. I have my doubts.
As for Cannon, development is rarely linear, especially for pitchers. Let him find his stuff again and come back stronger next year. Lots of pitchers struggle early in their careers.