- Meanwhile, the White Sox will also get back a notable lefty in Carlos Rodon, who will make his 2017 debut during the upcoming week, tweets Bruce Levine of 670thescore.com. Rodon, who just completed a four-start rehab assignment, hasn’t pitched in the majors this year on account of shoulder bursitis. The 24-year-old combined to rack up strong numbers from 2015-16, when he notched a 3.90 ERA, 9.08 K/9, 3.7 BB/9 and a 45.3 percent ground-ball rate over 304 1/3 innings.
White Sox Rumors
White Sox Sign Grant Green To Minors Deal
- The White Sox signed Grant Green to a minor league deal on Wednesday, the team’s Triple-A affiliate announced (on Twitter). The veteran infielder signed a minors contract with the Nationals over the winter and appeared in two games for the team before being outrighted off the 40-man roster in April and released in mid-June. Picked 13th overall by the A’s in the 2009 draft, Green has played for four teams over parts of five seasons in the big leagues, posting a .248/.283/.336 slash line in 353 PA.
White Sox Rumors: Frazier, Melky, D-Rob
- While the White Sox are known to be open for business, Heyman reports that there isn’t presently much of a market for Todd Frazier or Melky Cabrera. He hears that the Sox would “have to practically give [Frazier] away” or at eat virtually all of his salary in a trade. Frazier’s swinging a hot bat in June (.269/.351/.537, five homers), so perhaps he’s beginning to turn it around and boost that stock. Cabrera, meanwhile, is hitting quite well in 2017 after a slow start to the year, as he’s slashed .331/.386/.480 over the past calendar month. I’d imagine, however, that his $15MM salary and defensive shortcomings limit his market despite the improved production. Also of ChiSox note: Heyman writes that there’s no evidence of recent talks with the Nationals regarding David Robertson.
[SOURCE LINK]
- While the White Sox are known to be open for business, Heyman reports that there isn’t presently much of a market for Todd Frazier or Melky Cabrera. He hears that the Sox would “have to practically give [Frazier] away” or at eat virtually all of his salary in a trade. Frazier’s swinging a hot bat in June (.269/.351/.537, five homers), so perhaps he’s beginning to turn it around and boost that stock. Cabrera, meanwhile, is hitting quite well in 2017 after a slow start to the year, as he’s slashed .331/.386/.480 over the past calendar month. I’d imagine, however, that his $15MM salary and defensive shortcomings limit his market despite the improved production. Also of ChiSox note: Heyman writes that there’s no evidence of recent talks with the Nationals regarding David Robertson.
White Sox Sign Gavin Sheets To Over-Slot Deal
- The White Sox landed second-rounder Gavin Sheets, a first baseman out of Wake Forest and the son of former Orioles outfielder Larry Sheets, for an even $2MM bonus, Baseball America’s Hudson Belinsky reports (on Twitter). That’s a bit more than $600K over slot for Sheets, who is limited to first base but draws praise for his power and improvements to his hitting approach that he made this season.
White Sox Agree To Terms With First-Rounder Jake Burger
The White Sox have agreed to terms with first-round draft pick Jake Burger, according to MLB.com’s Jim Callis (via Twitter). Burger, the 11th overall selection, will reportedly take home a $3.7MM bonus. With a slot value of $4,199,200 available at that pick, Chicago will save a bit of cash to put towards other players.
Burger played his college ball at Missouri State, excelling there as a power-hitting third baseman. Scouts note that he succeeds despite lacking smooth baseball actions. Indeed, one who spoke with the MLB.com prospect team “compared him to Hunter Pence for his ability to get the job done in less than pretty fashion.”
MLB.com ranked Burger 16th overall among draft prospects, while Baseball America slotted him at 20th and ESPN.com’s Keith Law had him at 21st and Fangraphs’ Eric Longenhagen placed him 24th on his board. All agree that Burger has significant power potential and a solid overall profile at the plate, though those that are less bullish see a lower likelihood that he’ll be able to handle the hot corner at the major league level.
White Sox Activate James Shields, Place Miguel Gonzalez On 10-Day DL
- The White Sox have placed right-hander Miguel Gonzalez on the 10-day DL (retroactive to June 15) due to inflammation in his throwing shoulder’s A/C joint. After a solid first season in Chicago in 2016, Gonzalez has struggled this year, posting a 5.49 ERA, 5.1 K/9 and 1.73 K/BB rate over 78 2/3 innings. In a corresponding move, James Shields was activated from the DL to start today’s game against the Blue Jays after being out of action for almost two months due to a lat strain.
Avisail Garcia Switches Representation
- Speaking of the Braves’ Garcia, he has hired Michael Moye as his agent. In another representation change, White Sox outfielder Avisail Garcia hired Gene Mato in April. For more on who represents who in the baseball world, be sure to check out MLBTR’s Agency Database.
[SOURCE LINK]
Cafardo: Cardinals Linked To Avisail Garcia
- Given that they’re five games back in their division and 10.5 out of a wild-card spot, the Cardinals don’t look like surefire buyers at the moment. Nevertheless, a pair of right-handed-hitting right fielders – the Tigers’ J.D. Martinez and the White Sox’s Avisail Garcia – have been frequently linked to the Redbirds this year, relays Cafardo. Martinez, a free agent-to-be who’s on an $11.75MM salary, is hitting a torrid .310/.398/.681 with 11 home runs in 133 plate appearances for the scuffling Tigers. Garcia, who’s much cheaper than Martinez ($3MM) and under control through 2019, is in the midst of a career year (.337/.378/.549 with 10 HRs in 262 PAs) for the soon-to-sell White Sox.
[SOURCE LINK]
White Sox Reportedly Expect To Deal Quintana; Abreu Trade Less Likely
- On the American League side, Heyman focuses on the White Sox, who have quite a few interesting trade pieces, as recently examined by MLBTR’s Jeff Todd. He suggests that there are indications the Sox do intend to move lefty Jose Quintana this summer — and they don’t think they’ll need to accept a sub-par return despite his struggles so far. There’s some “belief” that Chicago could be hoping to draw interest in Quintana from the Dodgers, Heyman notes in the N.L. post. Meanwhile, the organization isn’t as interested in fielding offers for first baseman Jose Abreu, per the report.
Draft Notes: Lewis, McKay, Day 2, Gore, Greene, Wright, Beck
No. 1 overall draft pick Royce Lewis will take his physical with the Twins soon, tweets Mike Berardino of the St. Paul Pioneer Press. There aren’t expected to be any hangups in negotiations, per Berardino, who notes that the industry expectation is for Lewis to receive a bonus north of Dansby Swanson’s $6.5MM bonus from the 2015 draft. The top pick in the draft came with a slot value of $7.7MM, and MLB.com’s Rhett Bollinger wrote this week that Lewis could sign for around $1MM less than that sum. That’d put his bonus in the $6.5MM to $6.7MM range, saving the Twins anywhere from $1MM to $1.2MM from the slot value. FanRag’s Jon Heyman pegs the expected value at “just a tick over” $6.7MM. Rays top pick Brendan McKay, meanwhile, is expected to sign for somewhere between $7MM and $7.2MM, according to Berardino. That’d be the largest bonus ever given to a college player under the current draft structure, surpassing Kris Bryant’s $6.7MM sum.
More notes on the draft…
- The Twins “crushed” Day 2 of the draft, MLB.com’s Jim Callis opines. Adding high school right-hander Blayne Enlow, a potential first-round talent that dropped due to a strong commitment to LSU, kicked off a day in which Minnesota selected five players that ranked inside MLB.com’s top 200 draft prospects. Enlow, Callis writes, has the best curveball in the draft as well as a fastball that has touched 94 mph and has room to grow as his projectable frame grows. Callis also lauds the White Sox, Dodgers, Red Sox and Brewers for the talent they secured in rounds three through 10. ESPN’s Keith Law agrees that the Twins did quite well to land Enlow with the No. 76 pick and also gives quite a bit of praise to the Athletics, who landed a first-round talent (in his estimation) with the 81st pick by taking shortstop Nick Allen. Law opines that the undersized Allen, who is listed at 5’8″, would’ve been a top 10 pick if he were three inches taller.
- FanRag’s Jon Heyman provides some insight into the progress being made with the top five picks in the draft. The Padres, according to Heyman, are expected to sign No. 3 overall pick MacKenzie Gore, a high school left-hander, for the full slot value of $6,668,100. Reds top pick Hunter Greene, meanwhile, is expected to sign for a deal “close” to the $7,193,200 slot value of his No. 2 overall selection, per Heyman. (Also of note for Reds fans: Heyman spoke to a rival exec who heaped praise on the Reds’ draft, opining that they “won the draft by far.”) And the Braves look to be going well over slot to sign Vanderbilt right-hander Kyle Wright, as Heyman reports that they’re discussing a deal worth close to $7MM, while the No. 5 slot carries a value of $5,707,300. Of course, Wright was long rumored to be a potential No. 1 overall pick, so it stands to reason that he’d come with a fairly sizable price tag.
- Baseball America’s John Manuel reported yesterday that Stanford right-hander Tristan Beck, a potential first-round talent that missed the 2017 season due to a stress fracture in his lower back, will not sign and plans to head back to Stanford (Twitter link). That didn’t stop the Yankees from drafting him late (29th round), though New York would obviously need to give him a massive bonus in order to convince him to forgo a return to college, as a healthy Beck would do quite well in next year’s draft. The Yankees may not have the leftover money even to make a legitimate effort to sign Beck, though he makes for a nice contingency plan if the team unexpectedly finds itself with some extra pool money to play with.
