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White Sox Sign Lucas Sims To Minor League Deal

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The White Sox have signed right-hander Lucas Sims to a minor league contract, per James Fegan of Sox Machine. The TWC client presumably be in camp as a non-roster invitee when pitchers and catchers report next month.

Sims, 31, opened the 2025 season with the Nationals but was cut loose after just 19 appearances. The right-hander’s command evaporated entirely while pitching in D.C. He tossed 12 1/3 innings and was tagged for 18 runs in that time, thanks largely to a bloated 19.4% walk rate and a staggering seven hit batters. He also tossed three wild pitches. Sims went on to sign a minor league deal with the Phillies, but his command in Triple-A wasn’t any better; he issued walks at an 18.6% clip and plunked nine more batters in 34 innings.

Though 2025 was clearly a lost season, Sims had a decent track record prior. From 2020-24, he pitched 189 2/3 innings between the Reds and Red Sox, combining for a 3.89 ERA with a 29.4% strikeout rate. Command was an issue for Sims even during that more solid run (13% walk rate), but certainly not to the extent he showed between the Nats and Phillies last season.

Even as he struggled in 2025, Sims appears to have been healthy. He didn’t make a trip to the major league or minor league injured list, and he wound up tossing a combined 46 1/3 innings despite a two-week layoff between those two clubs. His 94.9 mph average four-seamer in the majors was right in line (slightly higher, actually) than the 94.4 mph he’d averaged across the past three seasons. He dipped to 93.8 mph in Triple-A, but that wasn’t a particularly notable drop from the prior season’s 94.2 mph average.

The White Sox recently signed veteran reliever Seranthony Dominguez to a two-year, $20MM contract. He’ll enter the season as the favorite for closing opportunities, barring another addition, while righties Jordan Leasure and Grant Taylor will give manager Will Venable a pair of setup options who each punched out more than 30% of their opponents in 2025 (34.4%, in Taylor’s case). Righty Mike Vasil and lefty Tyler Gilbert are likely ticketed for swing roles after pitching well in ’25. That’s especially true for Gilbert, who’s out of minor league options.

The rest of the bullpen spots are largely up for grabs. Chicago currently has two Rule 5 picks (Alexander Alberto and Jedixson Paez) on the 40-man roster. Other bullpen candidates include Brandon Eisert, Jairo Iriarte, Wikelman Gonzalez and out-of-options lefty Bryan Hudson. Sims joins lefty Ryan Borucki and righty Tyson Miller as one of the more experienced non-roster invitees in camp who’ll be vying for one of those final spots.

The Opener: Moncada, Fan Events, Free Agency

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Here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world headed into the weekend:

1. Moncada to be made official:

The Angels agreed to re-sign third baseman Yoan Moncada to a one-year deal last week, but that deal still has yet to be made official. It’s unclear what’s caused the delay, as other clubs with agreements signed at a similar time have officially announced those deals. Regardless, an announcement figures to happen in the near future given that spring training is just around the corner. The Angels’ 40-man roster is at capacity, so Moncada will require a corresponding move to create space. There’s no indication that the Halos are planning to remove Anthony Rendon from the 40-man roster even after his contract was restructured and the club indicated that he won’t be with the team this season — they’ve already made multiple transactions that required 40-man moves since that revelation and have not removed him — so it seems they’ll simply place him on the 60-day IL when camp opens. That will give them some mid-February flexibility, but Moncada’s deal will surely be finalized before that point.

2. Fan events this weekend:

A number of teams are hosting fan events this weekend as spring training nears and fan excitement for the coming season grows. The White Sox will kick things off with SoxFest Live today and tomorrow, while the Braves, Royals, and Padres are all hosting one-day fan events tomorrow. The Giants’ Fan Fest tour will be in Sacramento tomorrow as well, while the Mariners will host their two-day FanFest tomorrow and Sunday. Details regarding each event’s schedule, ticketing, and location can be found at the team’s respective link, courtesy of MLB.com.

3. Free agents linger with February on the horizon:

The month of February is just days away. Pitchers and catchers report in just a couple weeks. Despite that, a number of notable free agents remain unsigned. Framber Valdez, Zac Gallen, and Eugenio Suarez are arguably the most impactful names still on the market, but solid mid-rotation pieces like Lucas Giolito, Chris Bassitt, and Justin Verlander have also yet to sign. Will the impending arrival of spring training increase pressure to get a deal done, or will some of these players be content to continue holding out for the best deal possible? Max Scherzer, for his part, has indicated a willingness to hold off on signing until after the season begins in order to ensure he finds the right fit.

Does Kristian Campbell Have A Role On The 2026 Red Sox?

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Kristian Campbell was one of the most exciting players in the sport at this time a year ago. Baseball America had ranked him the #4 prospect in MLB on the heels of a .330/.439/.558 showing in the minors. Campbell was generally viewed alongside or even slightly above Marcelo Mayer as the Red Sox’s second-best prospect behind Roman Anthony. The organization seemed to share that assessment, as they built their trade package for Garrett Crochet around Kyle Teel and Braden Montgomery rather than including anyone in their top three.

Campbell broke camp despite a mediocre Spring Training performance. He started at second base on Opening Day and got out to a roaring start, hitting .301/.407/.495 through the end of April. Boston quickly locked him up on an eight-year extension that guaranteed $60MM and extended their club control window by as many as four seasons.

Nine months later, it’s not clear if he has a path to playing time in the short term. Campbell’s bat cratered after the scorching start. He hit .159/.243/.222 over 140 plate appearances between the start of May and the middle of June. The Sox optioned him to Triple-A on June 20 and kept him in the minors for the rest of the season.

Campbell posted good numbers in the minors, at least on the surface. He hit .273/.382/.417 across 319 Triple-A plate appearances. It certainly wasn’t on par with his breakout 2024 season, but that’s above-average production at age 23. Yet it came with an elevated 26.3% strikeout rate that was more than six points higher than his mark from the previous season. Campbell also averaged a paltry 84 MPH off the bat with a 30% hard contact rate, and he put more than half his batted balls on the ground. He took a lot of walks and the results were good overall, yet the batted ball data wasn’t all that encouraging.

The track record is strong enough that Campbell remains a promising offensive player, albeit with less confidence that he’ll be an impact bat than they probably had a year ago. The biggest concern is on the other side of the ball.

Campbell’s second base defense was a disaster. Defensive Runs Saved graded him 16 runs below average in 471 2/3 innings. Only Luis García Jr. had a worse DRS mark at the position, and that came in twice as many innings. Campbell was tied for third from the bottom in Statcast’s Outs Above Average metric (again behind players who got more time at the position). He committed seven errors and had a .968 fielding percentage that was last among the 38 second basemen to play 400+ innings.

It was bad enough that it seems the Red Sox have essentially given up on Campbell as a viable second baseman. He only started 11 games there in the minors, none of which came after August 8. Campbell closed the season bouncing between left field, center field and first base.

The Red Sox have a question at second base but don’t appear to be seriously considering Campbell there. They’re reportedly focused on defense as they look outside the organization for help at the keystone. Chief baseball officer Craig Breslow acknowledged last week that the Sox are “going to give (Campbell) a look in the outfield” (link via Christopher Smith of MassLive). David Hamilton, Romy Gonzalez and Nick Sogard lead an uninspiring internal group of second base options. They’ve traded for Willson Contreras and still have Triston Casas — who is ironically in a somewhat similar spot as Campbell — ahead of him on the first base depth chart.

Campbell is a good enough athlete that it’s not out of the question that he’ll be a solid outfielder. The Red Sox don’t have many at-bats to offer him there, though. They’re already loaded across the outfield with Jarren Duran, Ceddanne Rafaela, Wilyer Abreu and Anthony. Breslow has consistently downplayed their desire to trade Duran or Abreu. That seems less likely now that they’ve addressed the rotation in other ways. They’re not going to move an established above-average regular merely to open playing time for Campbell.

The Sox did lose lefty masher Rob Refsnyder in free agency, but they’re planning to give Abreu more at-bats against southpaws. Relegating the righty-hitting Campbell to a short side platoon role isn’t ideal for his development. Breslow pointed to 29-year-old Nate Eaton as a possibility to pick up some of the at-bats that Refsnyder had taken.

It leaves Campbell without a clear role as Spring Training approaches. If the Red Sox don’t feel he’s a viable infielder, he’s not going to have much utility off the bench. He still has two minor league options and could go back to Triple-A. That’s the likeliest outcome to begin the season and would at least give him continued work in the outfield. They can bide their time that way, but it’s clearly not an ideal setup for a player who very recently looked like a franchise player.

There hasn’t been anything to suggest the Red Sox are considering trade possibilities this offseason. Although Campbell’s extension doesn’t preclude them from trading him, it’d be essentially without precedent for a team to sell low on a top prospect who is one season into an eight-year deal. The Sox could probably shed the entire contract if that were their only goal, but they’d need to accept pennies on the dollar in terms of the trade return.

Maybe the situation will sort itself out early in the season. An outfield injury or two could get Campbell into the lineup. No one is writing off his career before he turns 24. It’s nevertheless rare for opportunities to dry up as quickly as they have for a player who was held in this regard as a prospect. If Campbell spends the first half of the season in the minors and the Sox are contending, he may become a more realistic trade candidate around the deadline.

Image courtesy of John Jones, Imagn Images.

White Sox Notes: Acquisitions, Acuña, Murakami

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The White Sox finalized their two-year, $20MM free agent contract with Seranthony Domínguez this afternoon. The hard-throwing righty is expected to step into the ninth inning for skipper Will Venable. That deal came on the heels of the Sox trading Luis Robert Jr. to the Mets, a move which dropped the center fielder’s $20MM salary from the books.

General manager Chris Getz said after the Robert trade that the Sox would be “very active” in using that payroll space. Domínguez will make $8MM in the first season of his slightly backloaded deal. Even if the White Sox don’t intend to reallocate all $20MM into this year’s roster, there should be room in the budget for another addition.

Getz acknowledged as much, saying on Thursday that the front office remains involved on both free agent and trade targets. “We’re still fairly active in free agency and also talking to other clubs,” Getz said in a TV appearance (video via CHSN). He made similar comments in a fan event before this weekend’s SoxFest Live event. “I believe that there are going to be more adds. To what level, (I’m) unsure,” the GM said (link via Scott Merkin of MLB.com). “What we can provide is opportunity and a runway, and some of these players we’ve acquired just haven’t gotten that runway in other places for various reasons.”

This remains a rebuild even if the White Sox have had a bigger offseason than anticipated. Domínguez is an established reliever, but the rest of Chicago’s pickups have been upside shots on young players or those whose roles might change. They jumped on the opportunity to add Munetaka Murakami on a two-year, $34MM contract when the Japanese slugger’s market didn’t develop. The Sox signed NPB returnee Anthony Kay to a two-year deal that likely includes a rotation spot. Sean Newcomb worked mostly out of the bullpen last year but could battle for a starting job in camp. On the position player side, they’ve taken fliers on former highly-regarded prospects Luisangel Acuña and Everson Pereira in trades.

Acuña came over from the Mets in the Robert deal. He’s a .248/.299/.341 hitter in 233 MLB plate appearances but never had consistent playing time in New York. Acuña has primarily been a middle infielder in his career, but he’s also playing a good amount of center field in the Venezuelan Winter League. He has plus-plus speed that could be an asset in the outfield. Jon Heyman of The New York Post writes that Acuña is likely to get an opportunity to step directly into Robert’s role as Chicago’s primary center fielder.

The versatility means Acuña will probably still see some infield work. Chicago’s middle infield tandem of Colson Montgomery and Chase Meidroth is more exciting than their post-Robert outfield, which may be the worst in MLB. Andrew Benintendi is back in left field. Pereira, Brooks Baldwin, Derek Hill and Tristan Peters — along with minor league signees Jarred Kelenic and Dustin Harris — make for an unimposing right field mix. There’s a decent chance they’ll make another outfield move or two before Opening Day. There’s also ample opportunity in a rotation that is led by Shane Smith, Sean Burke, Davis Martin and the free agent signees Kay and Newcomb.

While there are a lot of moving pieces, Murakami should be a staple as the everyday first baseman. Major league clubs clearly had big reservations about the rate at which he swung and missed in Japan. Murakami may have as much raw power as any hitter on the planet, though, and the Sox will no doubt have a long leash as he tries to acclimate to MLB pitching. It’s the kind of upside play that virtually no one saw coming at the beginning of the offseason, when Murakami was widely expected to command a nine-figure deal.

That skepticism extended to the White Sox themselves. Getz spoke with Scott Merkin of MLB.com about the signing and acknowledged that the NPB superstar was not a player they expected to add. “Candidly, I didn’t think it was going to be a realistic target for us. I didn’t. The speculation was big, whether it be years, and dollars. … We did our due diligence. But I still didn’t feel like it was going to be realistic, even into when free agency opened up.”

It carried well into the offseason, as Getz said he still didn’t view Murakami as a viable addition into the Winter Meetings in early December. Talks didn’t accelerate until a few days before the close of the player’s 45-day posting window, which expired on December 22. Once it became apparent that Murakami wasn’t going to find a long-term deal he desired, the Sox made their move.

“We just view this as truly upside,” Getz said of adding a marquee player from Japan. “The baseball side, the business side. There’s a big impact and it’s leading to things that perhaps we didn’t even anticipate, quite honestly.” Sox fans will want to read Merkin’s full column, which includes more specifics from Getz and Venable on the process leading up to the agreement.

Marlins Sign Daniel Johnson To Minor League Deal

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The Marlins announced their slate of non-roster invitations to MLB camp on Thursday. Outfielder Daniel Johnson is among the group, as the MLB.com transaction log indicates he agreed to a minor league deal with Miami around the holidays.

Johnson played in a career-high 31 MLB games last season between the Giants and Orioles. The former fifth-round pick took 57 trips to the plate, batting .189/.246/.302 with one home run. Johnson is a career .196/.243/.322 hitter in sporadic looks spanning four seasons in the big leagues.

The 30-year-old has played parts of six Triple-A campaigns. Johnson has a .257/.323/.452 line at the top minor league level. That includes 52 contests last season, in which he had a solid .267/.314/.490 mark with a career-low 17.3% strikeout rate. Johnson has always had strong physical tools. He’s a good runner with an excellent arm and above-average bat speed. His approach and well below-average contact skills have kept him from securing consistent playing time at the MLB level.

Johnson is another left-handed bat in an outfield mix that includes lefty swingers Kyle Stowers, Jakob Marsee, Owen Caissie and potentially Griffin Conine. He’s likely to begin the season at Triple-A Jacksonville.

Astros, Tom Cosgrove Agree To Minor League Deal

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The Astros are in agreement with lefty reliever Tom Cosgrove on a minor league contract, reports Jon Heyman of The New York Post. The CAA client gets a non-roster invite to MLB camp and would be paid at a $900K rate if he makes the team.

Cosgrove has pitched in the majors in each of the past three seasons. The majority of his experience came in his rookie year with the Padres. He tallied 51 1/3 innings of 1.75 ERA ball in 2023. His underlying numbers weren’t nearly as impressive, and Cosgrove hasn’t gotten much of an MLB look in the past two seasons. He was blitzed for 19 runs across 14 2/3 innings in ’24. The Padres designated him for assignment and sold his contract to the Cubs last April.

The 29-year-old only made two appearances in a Cubs uniform. He worked four innings of one-run ball with three strikeouts and a walk. Chicago ran him through waivers in early September. Cosgrove finished the season with a 4.53 ERA across 49 2/3 Triple-A frames. He punched out a quarter of opponents but walked almost 13% of batters faced. He elected minor league free agency at year’s end.

While Houston has lacked left-handed relief depth over the past few seasons, that looks like a strength after last year. Josh Hader will be back in the ninth inning. Steven Okert and Bennett Sousa are coming off career years, while Bryan King had an impressive first full season in his own right. Cosgrove probably doesn’t have a path to an Opening Day job barring multiple Spring Training injuries. All of Houston’s previous non-roster invitees were right-handed, though, so it’s sensible to add at least one southpaw to the camp mix.

Rangers, Cal Quantrill Agree To Minor League Deal

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The Rangers are in agreement with starter Cal Quantrill on a minor league deal, reports Evan Grant of The Dallas Morning News. The Excel Sports Management client finished the 2025 season in the Texas organization and will be back in camp as a non-roster invitee.

Quantrill split his MLB work last season between the Braves and Marlins. Signed to a $3.5MM contract over the offseason, the former eighth overall pick made 24 starts for Miami. He ate 109 2/3 innings but struggled to a 5.50 earned run average with a 17.4% strikeout rate. Quantrill had a terrible April, and a solid three-month run thereafter wasn’t enough to drum up any trade interest. Things went back off the rails in August, as opponents tagged him for 15 runs in his first three starts of the month.

Miami released Quantrill at that point. Atlanta gave him a very brief look as they cycled through journeymen starters while their rotation was wrecked by injury. Quantrill gave up three runs in 4 2/3 frames against the Mets in his team debut. The Phillies put up a nine-spot five days later and the Braves moved on. Texas added him on a minor league contract. Quantrill started twice for Triple-A Round Rock, tossing 11 innings of four-run ball with 14 punchouts and one walk.

It was a solid enough first impression that Texas brings him back as a minor league free agent. The Rangers have as strong a top three in their rotation as any team in MLB with Jacob deGrom, Nathan Eovaldi and MacKenzie Gore. They’re well set with Jack Leiter as the fourth starter. It falls off sharply from there. Jacob Latz and Kumar Rocker are probably competing for the fifth starter role. Latz pitched well last year but was mostly a reliever. Rocker fought mechanical issues.

The Rangers are well served to stash veteran depth options in camp and potentially to begin the season with Round Rock. They’ve also brought in Nabil Crismatt and Austin Gomber on minor league deals.

Giants Trade Kai-Wei Teng To Astros

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8:12pm: The teams announced the deal, which also sends an undisclosed amount of international bonus money to the Giants.

7:51pm: The Giants and Astros are in agreement on a trade that’ll send swingman Kai-Wei Teng to the Astros for catching prospect Jancel Villarroel, reports Chandler Rome of The Athletic. San Francisco needed to create a 40-man roster spot in order to finalize their two-year deal with Harrison Bader. It appears a Teng trade will be that corresponding move. Houston designated J.P. France for assignment to open a roster spot.

Teng, a Taiwanese-born righty, has made 12 MLB appearances over the past two seasons. They haven’t gone well, as he has been tagged for 7.30 earned runs per nine across 40 2/3 innings. Teng has managed a solid 23.7% strikeout rate but has been plagued by a lack of command. He has walked nearly 13% of opponents and plunked eight more (4.1%). That’s far too many free passes around which to work even with decent swing-and-miss stuff.

The 27-year-old has shown a similar approach in the minors, though he’s coming off a much better season in Triple-A. He worked mostly in a relief role and managed a 3.63 ERA behind a fantastic 37.1% strikeout percentage across 57 innings. Teng trimmed his walk rate to 9.2% at the level last season, but he has walked at least 10% of opponents at every other stop since he was in Low-A.

Teng throws five pitches and sits in the 93 MPH range with his four-seam fastball and sinker. A mid-80s sweeper is his preferred secondary pitch and got good results in a small sample of big league work. Teng has a couple minor league options remaining and can work as rotation depth or in long relief. The Astros evidently preferred his higher swing-and-miss ceiling to France after the latter has battled shoulder issues for a couple seasons.

San Francisco has a deeper rotation mix than Houston does. Teng, whom they non-tendered after the ’24 season before re-signing to a minor league deal, was a candidate to again be designated for assignment. It’s a nice bit of business to acquire a prospect for a pure depth arm. Villorroel, a 5’8″ backstop out of Venezuela, ranked as Houston’s 20th-best prospect at Baseball America. That comes with a caveat that the Astros’ system is as thin as any in the league.

The 20-year-old Villarroel is coming off a solid .259/.351/.388 line with eight homers in 100 games in A-ball. He walked at a 10.4% rate while striking out roughly 18% of the time. He also stole 20 bases in 27 attempts, though he’s unlikely to be a huge threat on the bases as he climbs the minor league ladder. Baseball America credits him with advanced pure hitting ability and plus arm strength, though his strike zone discipline and finer defensive skills are works in progress. He’s a development flier who appears to project as a future backup.

Royals Sign Eli Morgan To Minor League Deal

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The Royals announced they’ve signed reliever Eli Morgan to a minor league deal. The CAA client receives a non-roster invite to big league Spring Training. Morgan had been non-tendered by the Cubs in November.

Morgan returns to the AL Central, where he has spent the majority of his career with Cleveland. He pitched parts of four seasons there, starting 18 games as a rookie before moving to the bullpen. Morgan was a solid middle reliever between 2022-24. He combined for 176 innings of 3.27 ERA ball while striking out more than a quarter of opponents. The righty held batters to a .224/.279/.384 slash line and turned in a sub-2.00 earned run average across 32 appearances in 2024.

The quality of the raw stuff never really lined up with the strong results. Teams generally look for big velocity and a plus breaking ball from their late-inning relievers. Morgan is a changeup and control specialist whose fastball sits around 92 miles per hour. He missed some time in ’24 with elbow inflammation and even spent a month on optional assignment to Triple-A. His strikeout rate also dropped steadily over his final three seasons in Cleveland, falling from a career-high 28.1% mark down to 20.4% by his last year. The Guardians soured on him and dealt him to the Cubs for an A-ball outfielder (Alfonsin Rosario).

The trade didn’t pan out for Chicago. Morgan only pitched seven times as a Cub. He was hit hard, giving up 10 runs on 12 hits — including a trio of home runs — across 7 1/3 innings. An elbow impingement cost him the majority of the season. Morgan’s final MLB appearance came on April 14, and he was limited to 12 outings (mostly on a rehab assignment) in the minors.

Kansas City has a strong pitching staff, but they’ve made a few non-roster pickups in recent days. Morgan joins Héctor Neris and Aaron Sanchez as veteran minor league signees this week. Sanchez may be rotation depth, while Morgan and Neris will try to push Alex Lange, Daniel Lynch IV and James McArthur for a middle relief opportunity. Morgan still has a minor league option and could bounce between Kansas City and Triple-A Omaha if he wins a 40-man roster spot.

Astros To Designate J.P. France For Assignment

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The Astros are designating right-hander J.P. France for assignment, reports Chandler Rome of The Athletic. That’ll open a 40-man roster spot to finalize their acquisition of righty Kai-Wei Teng from San Francisco.

A 14th-round senior draftee who signed for $1,000 as an amateur, France overcame significant odds to reach the majors at all. Injuries pushed him into a more prominent role than anticipated as a 28-year-old rookie three years ago. France stepped up with a 3.83 earned run average across 136 1/3 innings. He started 23 of 24 appearances and was included on Houston’s playoff rosters.

Unfortunately, France hasn’t been able to contribute much over the past two seasons. He battled a shoulder injury during Spring Training 2024. France pitched through it but was hit around in five starts and optioned to Triple-A. He suffered a setback while pitching in the minors and underwent surgery in June that came with a recovery time longer than a full calendar year. He remained on the injured list until last August.

France made it back to the mound at the end of the season. He was tagged for 17 earned runs across 24 innings in Triple-A. The Astros called him up in September as a low-leverage reliever. He tossed a scoreless inning in mop-up work on September 14. His only other appearance consisted of three innings of one-run ball to pick up a win once the Astros were officially eliminated from playoff contention.

The Astros have five days to trade the 30-year-old France or expose him to waivers. He has a little over two years of big league service and one minor league option remaining. If the Astros get him through waivers unclaimed, they’ll be able to keep him in the organization as a non-roster invitee to Spring Training.

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