The White Sox have selected the contract of outfielder Dominic Fletcher from Triple-A Charlotte and reinstated righty Dan Altavilla from the 15-day injured list, per a club announcement. Right-hander Jonathan Cannon and first baseman Tim Elko were optioned to Charlotte in a pair of corresponding transactions.
Fletcher, 28, was acquired from the D-backs in the 2023-24 offseason trade that sent pitching prospect Cristian Mena to Arizona. It hasn’t worked out particularly well for either team. Fletcher hit only .206/.252/.256 in 241 plate appearances with Chicago last year — a far cry from his strong .301/.350/.441 showing in 102 plate appearances during the 2023 season. The Sox designated him for assignment in spring training and passed him through waivers.
Fletcher has spent the entire 2025 season thus far in Triple-A, where he’s batted .260/.317/.453 with 17 home runs, 19 doubles, four triples and seven steals (in 11 attempts). He’s walked at just a 6.5% clip but also has a lower-than-average 19.5% strikeout rate.
Altavilla missed more than a month due to a lat strain but will return for the final few weeks of the season. He signed a big league deal with the ChiSox midseason after briefly opting out of a minor league deal with the club. In 26 2/3 innings, the 32-year-old righty (33 on Sunday) has posted a tidy 2.36 earned run average but with far less encouraging rate stats. He’s fanned only 15.5% of his opponents against a bloated 12.7% walk rate (leading to a 5.84 FIP and 5.08 SIERA).
White Sox ruined Fletcher. He is a scrappy line drive hitter, yet they made him change how he approaches at the plate so that he hits homeruns. Thats why he failed in 2024. I’ll take the high batting average guy over the .220 hitter that hits 10 hrs
Do you see how all these young rookies are doing this year. I hope Dominick does the same.
I think the tradeoff is high probability nobody compared to a low probability somebody.
Teach the scraper how to hit for power, and he might just become something more than a sixth OFer. But, probably, he will fail, and that seems to be the case with Fletcher.
Dom is a good dude. Hopefully he sticks at the MLB level this go round.