Catcher Reese McGuire elected free agency after clearing outright waivers, as first reflected on the MLB.com transaction tracker. The White Sox designated him for assignment over the weekend.
McGuire was on the Sox’s roster for around a month. He was in camp with Milwaukee on a minor league contract but didn’t have a path to an MLB job after the Brewers signed Gary Sánchez to back up William Contreras. McGuire opted out at the end of Spring Training and pulled a big league deal from the White Sox.
The 31-year-old appeared in 11 games, hitting .172 without an extra-base hit across 34 plate appearances. He also had a tough time defensively, committing two passed balls and failing to throw out any of 15 base stealers. The pitching staff probably shoulders some of the blame for the latter issue. McGuire has a reasonably strong arm and threw out an above-average 26% of runners last season in a backup role with the Cubs.
In any case, the White Sox weren’t wedded to McGuire as a backup catcher. He has appeared for four teams, including two separate stints with the Sox, over a career spanning parts of nine seasons. They were paying him a $1.2MM salary, a little above the league minimum.
Players who have more than five years of MLB service time ordinarily can refuse a minor league assignment while retaining their full salary. However, some fringe roster players will sign contracts that include advance consent clauses. Barring injury, those deals aren’t fully guaranteed until 45 days into the regular season.
If McGuire’s deal contained such a clause, the Sox save a couple hundred thousand dollars by swapping him out for Drew Romo, who was selected from Triple-A to replace him. Edgar Quero remains the primary catcher as long as Kyle Teel is on the injured list.
McGuire will likely look for a minor league contract elsewhere. He was reasonably productive on the other side of Chicago last year, popping nine homers in 44 games for the Cubs. McGuire owns a .246/.292/.369 slash line in a little over 1200 career plate appearances.
Didn’t realize McGuire has had such a tough time offensively *and* defensively.
Any commenter ideas about where he might land a minor-league deal with a halfway decent path back to the majors between now and late summer?
Lansing Lug Nuts?
Catching the next TrevBauer no hitter for the Ducks
Reese has no shortage of parking lots; beware! He should do just fine!
Insert parking lot joke here
@sadmarinersfan
*Ahem.. some team will find him handy… Thank you, try the veal…
Or the chicken…
@99Captain Judge99
Bad news about the chicken. It’s served alive so he would have to choke it.
P.S. thanks for the set up 😁
Stay out of White Sox business
Wish him the best.
Surely the comments will be tame…
Wish there was a spot for him on the Cubs roster. I wouldn’t mind having McGooner back on the team.
Plenty of spots available for him.
Amaya or Kelly will be hurt soon, and Moises who may win ROY looked slightly above bad receiving his first game last night.
Its a shame the O is so broke that they cant develop him more at AAA, because I think he has a ceiling of a 40-50 game a year catcher at this level. ( esp w ABS)
Genius CC didnt even get him a few innings in blowouts the past month +. Just throws him out there w a Boyd whose not even right yet.
Watch out Weiss, CC going for manager of the year
yeah he looks bad. When and if they do it again the DH should be a catcher. That way Craig can double switch Mo Baller to DH and Kelly or Amaya. What’s crazy is I predicted he would hit a homerun before the game and 2 ABs prior. I replied to someone on Twitter that were gonna get a Mo-Shakalaka Bomb tonight.
McGooner- is that an acronym for a body part?
I’m not even sure who came up with it that name. Not sure if you’re on x/Twitter but there’s a guys on there CubsZone that has a discord for Cub fans. A handful of us would watch the Cubs games last year on Playback tv. Which unfortunately shutdown. Anyway someone in that group of people made up that name.
More than welcome to join if you’re interested. It can’t get very toxic though
I don’t have a link unfortunately. I don’t think links are allowed in the comments
He is probably headed for a minor league deal somewhere else.
My lord. When the 💩 Sox dump you, your life has taken a bad turn.
Teel is not back yet, and the rest of the catchers have been cough cough, not good on any level. Romo needs more AAA time w the glove, but perhaps hes a silver slugger light just waiting for an opportunity
Lucky the Sox have a pitching staff full of long time vets, so they dont need a catcher whose good at guiding and helping youngsters navigate a big league lineup
I thought the Jed was the only genius in chicago…… looks like hes got some competition for executive of the year
Get your car windows tinted
Reese might be an improvement defensively over Heineman. Valenzuela could use everyday at bats in Buffalo.
The Blue Jays don’t need Reese McGuire back, the two catchers they currently have are doing a fine job filling in til Kirk gets back.
Heineman has been less than fine and Valenzuela can’t hit. When Heineman’s not costing the team with his arm he’s costing them with his framing, and then running himself into outs. No, not fine whatsoever.
There’s nothing to see here!