White Sox Designate Osvaldo Bido For Assignment
The White Sox have designated right-hander Osvaldo Bido for assignment, per a club announcement. His spot on the roster will go to southpaw Tyler Schweitzer, who’s being recalled from Triple-A Charlotte.
Incredibly, this is the sixth DFA for Bido since mid-December — to say nothing of a seventh time he was placed on waivers in early December and went from the A’s to the Braves. In essence, that’s seven DFAs in a span of five months.
That may make Bido seem like an unwanted player, but the fact that he continues to land on major league rosters despite being out of minor league options is a clear indicator that big league evaluators think there’s another level to be unlocked in the wiry right-hander. Since Dec. 5, he’s gone from the A’s to the Braves, to the Rays, to the Marlins, to the Angels, to the Yankees, back to the Braves and finally to the White Sox. Despite hitting waivers seven times — soon to be eight, unless he’s traded first — he’s never once passed through waivers unclaimed.
Bido, 30, has pitched 18 2/3 innings between Atlanta and Chicago this season. In that time, he’s been tagged for 13 runs (6.27 ERA) on 15 hits and 10 walks with 11 strikeouts. He’s also plunked four batters and tossed four wild pitches. It’s the second straight season of unsightly results; Bido served up a 5.87 ERA in 79 2/3 innings as a swingman with the A’s in 2025 as well.
Back in 2024, the 6’3″, 175-pound righty logged 63 1/3 innings with a 3.41 ERA for the A’s in their final season in Oakland. He set down 24.3% of his opponents on strikes, issued walks at a 10% clip and did an outstanding job avoiding hard contact (85.6 mph average exit velocity, 27% hard-hit rate).
Bido spent seven seasons in the Pirates system before making his MLB debut as a 27-year-old in 2023. In 212 1/3 major league innings, he’s posted a 5.17 ERA (4.67 SIERA, 4.81 FIP). He’s an extreme fly-ball pitcher who’s shown passable but not great command and missed bats at a slightly below-average level. Bido averages 94.7 mph on his four-seamer and sinker alike, coupling those heaters with an 86 mph slider and a lesser-used, upper-80s changeup.
The White Sox have five days to trade Bido, place him on outright waivers (a 48-hour process) or release him. If they can finally be the team to pass him through waivers, he’ll head to Triple-A Charlotte, as Bido lacks the prior outright or three years of service time needed to reject a minor league assignment in favor of free agency.
White Sox Acquire Trevor Richards
The White Sox have acquired right-hander Trevor Richards from the Phillies in exchange for cash considerations, according to announcements from both clubs. Chicago has transferred right-hander Drew Thorpe to the 60-day injured list to open a 40-man spot. A corresponding active roster move will be required once Richards reports to the Sox.
The Phillies have had a number of bullpen injuries in the past few weeks. Closer Jhoan Duran hit the injured list with an oblique strain, while Zach Pop and Kyle Backhus also landed on the shelf. Duran was set to be reinstated tonight and Matt Gelb of The Athletic reported that Richards would be bumped off the roster for the closer. He is a veteran with at least five years of service time and therefore can’t be optioned to the minors without his consent. But instead of designating Richards for assignment, the Phils have found a trade partner and flipped Richards to Chicago.
Presumably, the Sox are interested in the recent form Richards flashed in the minors. The Phils signed him to a minor league deal in the offseason and started him at Triple-A this year. He got out to an amazing start. He faced 50 batters and struck out 26 of them, a massive 52% rate. He only issued three walks, a 6% clip. All that resulted in a 1.93 earned run average in 14 innings.
The Phils called Richards up to the big leagues a week ago when Backhus hit the IL. Between that promotion and today’s trade, he made two appearances for the Phils. He allowed one earned run over 4 1/3 innings, striking out five while issuing three walks.
Richards has shown flashes of potential in the big leagues before, as he’s been able to strike guys out but has also struggled with command. From 2021 to 2023, mostly with the Blue Jays, he logged 201 innings. His 31.3% strikeout rate was much better than league average, which is usually around 22 to 23%. But he also gave out walks at a 10.9% clip, about two ticks north of par. The end result was a 4.61 ERA for that span.
The control problems got even worse for him late in 2024. The Jays flipped him to the Twins at the deadline that year but Minnesota released him before the month of August was done. He faced 59 batters as a Twin and gave out 11 walks, an 18.6% clip. He also hit two batters and threw seven wild pitches.
Since then, he has only been briefly in the majors. He made five appearances last year, three for the Royals and two for the Diamondbacks. As mentioned, he had to settle for a minor league deal with the Phils coming into 2026. The White Sox will see if Richards can sustain any of the exciting numbers he showed in Triple-A to start this year.
As for Thorpe, he had Tommy John surgery in March of 2025. His 60-day count is retroactive to the beginning of the season, so he’ll be eligible for reinstatement in a few weeks. His current timeline is unclear but he hasn’t yet begun a rehab assignment, so it doesn’t appear as those he’s close to a return.
Photo courtesy of Morgan Tencza, Imagn Images
White Sox Sign Randal Grichuk
5:05pm: The Sox made it official, announcing that they have signed Grichuk. Hays goes on the 10-day injured list, retroactive to May 2nd, due to a left calf strain. Murray has been transferred to the 60-day IL to open a 40-man spot.
3:02pm: The White Sox and outfielder Randal Grichuk are in agreement on a major league deal, reports Robert Murray of FanSided. The Sox will need to make corresponding moves to open space for the Paragon Sports International client on the active and 40-man rosters.
Grichuk elected free agency just three days ago after being designated for assignment by the Yankees. The 34-year-old had broken camp on a minor league contract to work in a short side platoon role. He was essentially the last man on Aaron Boone’s bench and took more than two-thirds of his 33 plate appearances versus lefty pitching.
Despite the favorable matchup deployments, Grichuk didn’t hit over his scattered playing time. He batted .194 without a home run while striking out 10 times. He worked one walk and had a .212 on-base mark. Grichuk didn’t perform especially well against left-handed pitching last season either, batting .227/.273/.430. He was among the best hitters in MLB against southpaws from 2022-24, however, destroying them at a .317/.367/.573 clip. He connected on 25 homers, 34 doubles and four triples in just under 500 trips against lefties over those three years.
Grichuk hasn’t played center field in three seasons and has been a well below-average hitter against righty pitching. It’s a limited profile but one the Sox feel comfortable carrying on their bench. They lost right fielder Everson Pereira to the injured list last week with a pectoral strain. Jarred Kelenic was selected onto the MLB roster in his stead and is out to a 1-6 start over three games. The lefty-hitting Kelenic and right-handed Austin Hays — a similar player to Grichuk — are dividing right field work.
The White Sox could create a 40-man roster spot for Grichuk by transferring Tanner Murray to the 60-day injured list. However, they may need to designate someone for assignment given their lack of active roster flexibility.
Backup catcher Drew Romo is the only player on Will Venable’s bench who has minor league options. They’re presumably not going to move on from Hays a month into a $6MM free agent deal. Andrew Benintendi isn’t performing but is signed through 2027 and remains the team’s leadoff man. Rookie left fielder Sam Antonacci is playing too well to option out.
Luisangel Acuña has been ice cold to begin the season, but he headlined Chicago’s return for Luis Robert Jr. over the offseason. They haven’t made the same investment in Kelenic, an offseason minor league signee, or September waiver claim Derek Hill. Hill has decent numbers this season but has struck out 14 times in 44 plate appearances and has only started 10 of the first 34 games.
AL Injury Notes: Raleigh, Suarez, Jenkins, Smith
Cal Raleigh has missed the Mariners‘ last two games after he felt soreness in his right side in the aftermath of Friday’s game, and the team and the catcher are still waiting on MRI results to determine the extent (if any) of the injury. Speaking with the Seattle Times’ Ryan Divish and other reporters today, Raleigh said he felt better “compared to where it was feeling postgame Friday and [Saturday] early. Very positive, very encouraging. So that’s kind of where we’re at right now.”
As a precaution, the Mariners called up catcher Jhonny Pereda from Triple-A on Saturday when Will Wilson was placed on the 10-day IL due to a thumb fracture. Infielder Ryan Bliss joined the taxi squad today as further infield depth in Wilson’s place if the decision was made to place Raleigh on the IL, and the M’s might have to make that call by tomorrow to ensure that Raleigh’s IL stint can start within the three-day backdating period.
More on some of the many injuries that arose during today’s action in both the majors and minors…
- A hamstring strain forced Ranger Suarez out of today’s game after four innings, but the Red Sox left-hander told The Athletic’s Jen McCaffrey that he is hopeful the injury isn’t serious enough to cost him even his next start. Suarez will stay in Boston to rest while the Sox make a three-day mini-trip to Detroit, and an MRI isn’t planned. It’s a situation to monitor over the next few days, as the Red Sox already have six starters (including Garrett Crochet and Sonny Gray) on the injured list. On top of those concerns, manager Chad Tracy told reporters that the team may use an opener ahead of Brayan Bello on Tuesday, so the struggling Bello can avoid the left-handed bats atop Detroit’s lineup.
- Top Twins prospect Walker Jenkins left today’s Triple-A game with a left shoulder injury after colliding with the outfield wall after making a catch. Jenkins was in obvious discomfort in the aftermath, and he’ll undergo testing to determine the extent of the injury. The fifth overall pick of the 2023 draft, Jenkins has hit .250/.389/.386 over 108 Triple-A plate appearances this season, and is expected to make his MLB debut at some point in 2026 if this shoulder problem doesn’t scuttle those plans.
- Shane Smith will miss at least two weeks on the Triple-A injured list due to a right rotator cuff strain, as the White Sox announced today. The injury is another setback for Smith, who posted a 10.80 ERA in his first two big league starts this season and then a 5.27 ERA in 13 2/3 Triple-A innings after being optioned to Charlotte.
White Sox Select Jarred Kelenic
The White Sox announced Wednesday that they’ve selected the contract of outfielder Jarred Kelenic from Triple-A Charlotte. Fellow outfielder Everson Pereira has been diagnosed with a pectoral strain and placed on the 10-day injured list. The Sox already had a 40-man vacancy, which Kelenic fills, so no additional moves are necessary.
A former top-10 pick in the draft and top-10 prospect in all of baseball, Kelenic has yet to find his footing in the majors. He’s been traded from the Mets to the Mariners (as a prospect) and then, after a lackluster run in Seattle, to the Braves in what effectively amounted to Atlanta paying close to $30MM (between bad contracts being eaten and the associated luxury taxes) in order to purchase Kelenic.
Now 26 years old, Kelenic has played in parts of five big league seasons between Seattle and Atlanta. He’s a career .211/.282/.376 hitter — about 16% worse than league-average, by measure of wRC+. The lefty-swinging outfielder has popped 49 homers and swiped 31 bags in 1488 career plate appearances, but he’s also gone down on strikes in just shy of 31% of his trips to the batter’s box.
The White Sox brought Kelenic in on a minor league deal this offseason after the Braves cut their losses and moved on. He’s hitting just .202 in Charlotte but has reached base at a .346 clip and has slugged .464. Kelenic started the season hitless in 21 plate appearances but has righted the ship since. Over his past 65 turns at the plate he’s hitting .262/.422/.600 with six homers and four doubles. He’s still fanned in a quarter of his plate appearances even during that hot streak, but he’s also drawn walks at a huge 21% clip.
Kelenic is out of minor league options, so he’ll have to stick on the roster or else be designated for assignment. With Pereira joining infield/outfield utilitymen Brooks Baldwin and Tanner Murray on the injured list, Chicago’s outfield collection right now includes Andrew Benintendi, Luisangel Acuña, Austin Hays, Tristan Peters, Sam Antonacci and Kelenic. It’s anything but a settled and established group, so Kelenic could well have an opportunity to carve out some playing time if he hits the ground running.
The 25-year-old Pereira is a former top prospect himself. He was out to a decent start this season, hitting .250/.310/.453 with three homers in 71 trips to the plate. Like Kelenic, he comes with major swing-and-miss concerns. He’d fanned in 29.6% of those 71 plate appearances and posted a well below-average 66.2% contact rate. The Sox picked him up in a minor offseason trade sending relievers Steven Wilson and Yoendrys Gomez to the Rays.
2026-27 Club Options: AL Central
Last week, MLBTR began a division by division series looking at the club/mutual option decisions facing every team in the American League East. We’ll continue with a move to the AL Central. There aren’t a ton of notable decisions in this division, but the Tigers will have a couple — one involving their likely Hall of Fame closer.
Chicago White Sox
- Austin Hays, OF: $8MM mutual option ($1MM buyout)
Hays signed a $6MM free agent guarantee with the White Sox over the offseason. He’s making a $5MM salary and will collect a $1MM buyout on an $8MM mutual option for 2027. That’s an accounting measure designed to delay paying the final million until the end of the season. This is essentially a one-year deal.
The righty-swinging Hays has worked mostly in a platoon capacity over the past few seasons. He signed with Chicago largely because he felt they offered the best path to everyday playing time. Hays started slowly, striking out 12 times in his first nine games. He landed on the injured list with a strained right hamstring and missed three weeks.
The Sox activated him on Monday but have turned left field over to rookie Sam Antonacci in the interim. With Everson Pereira out to a nice start in the opposite corner, Hays is probably back in a fourth outfield role.
Cleveland Guardians
- Shawn Armstrong, RHP: $8MM mutual option ($1.5MM buyout)
Cleveland reunited with Armstrong on a one-year, $5.5MM contract in free agency. The veteran reliever is making $4MM this year and guaranteed a $1.5MM buyout on an $8MM mutual option.
The Guardians are likely to decline their end even if Armstrong pitches up to expectations. He’ll be entering his age-36 season and doesn’t have the power arsenal that usually pays in free agency. Armstrong’s fastball sits around 93 mph and he has never had huge swinging strike rates. He’s more of a command-oriented reliever, though he has walked seven batters over his first 10 2/3 frames this season.
Armstrong has had a tougher time getting hitters to expand the strike zone, leading to the uptick in free passes. He has given up five runs but has fanned 13 of 47 batters faced. He has three holds while working in mostly medium leverage situations. Armstrong landed on the injured list on Monday with a right groin strain.
- Emmanuel Clase, RHP: $10MM club option ($2MM buyout)
Clase is on unpaid non-administrative leave pending the investigation into an alleged game-fixing scheme. He’s not making his $6MM salary this year, nor does it seem likely he’ll collect the $2MM option buyout.
- Trevor Stephan, RHP: $7.25MM club option ($1.25MM buyout)
Stephan’s career has unfortunately gone off the rails since he underwent Tommy John surgery in March 2024. His velocity was down three miles per hour when he returned, and Triple-A hitters teed off for 22 runs in 17 innings last year. Cleveland dropped Stephan from their 40-man roster in August. He made four appearances this spring but was working with even lesser velocity than he had last summer, sitting at just 90.7 mph after throwing 95-96 early during his early-career days as a setup arm. The Guardians haven’t assigned him to a minor league affiliate. This is an easy buyout.
Detroit Tigers
- Drew Anderson: $10MM club option (no buyout)
Detroit brought Anderson back to the organization after a season and a half in Korea. The right-hander was second among KBO pitchers with 245 strikeouts a year ago, partially because he added a “kick-changeup” he hadn’t fully trusted during his last stint in affiliated ball. The Tigers guaranteed him $7MM with a $10MM club option.
The righty was initially expected to compete for a rotation spot. That changed after the Framber Valdez and Justin Verlander signings. Anderson began the season in long relief. It has been an erratic start, as he has allowed 11 runs through his first 15 innings. Anderson has recorded 17 strikeouts but has walked eight batters and surrendered three home runs. Detroit opted to give Keider Montero a rotation spot when Verlander went down with a hip injury.
There’s still a chance for Anderson to make some starts throughout the season. He’ll at least provide some swing-and-miss upside to a bullpen that lacks that element. It’s too early to have a definitive call on the option, but the early showing points toward it being declined.
- Kenley Jansen: $12MM club option ($2MM buyout)
Coming off a quietly excellent season with the Angels, Jansen signed for $11MM with Detroit. He’s making $9MM this season and has a $2MM buyout on a $12MM team option, making it a $10MM call for the front office. That’s a reasonable enough sum that the Tigers would probably exercise it with a typical Jansen year.
The four-time All-Star is 6-8 in save opportunities so far. Seven of his nine appearances have been scoreless. Detroit has taken the loss in the other two — both of which came on go-ahead home runs (to Jose Fernandez and Nathaniel Lowe, respectively). Tigers president of baseball operations Scott Harris pointed to the still strong swing-and-miss numbers on Jansen’s cutter at the time of the signing. He’s missing bats at the same rate as he did last year and has the second-highest strikeout rate (28.1%) in the Detroit bullpen. If the home runs turn out to a blip, this should get picked up.
Kansas City Royals
- Carlos Estévez, RHP: $13MM club option ($2MM buyout)
The first season of Estévez’s two-year, $22MM free agent deal with Kansas City was a success. He led MLB with 42 saves while matching his career low with a 2.45 ERA across 66 innings. Estévez’s personal-low 20.1% strikeout rate and 8.2% swinging strike mark were red flags, but he entered this spring with a clear hold on the closer role.
Estévez hasn’t looked the same in 2026. His velocity was way down both during Spring Training and in the World Baseball Classic. The Royals expressed some optimism that’d come with more adrenaline during regular season play. It didn’t happen during his debut, as the two-time All-Star’s fastball averaged just 91.2 mph after sitting around 96 a year ago. His slider and changeup also had precipitous drops. Estévez retired just one of seven batters in a meltdown loss to the Braves that culminated in a Dominic Smith walk-off grand slam.
After the game, the Royals placed Estévez on the injured list with a left foot contusion. He sustained that injury during the March 28 appearance against Atlanta, as he took a Michael Harris II comebacker off his foot. That doesn’t explain why the stuff was so poor during camp, though it has given the Royals a month and counting to hopefully get him right.
Coming into the year, the Royals probably anticipated exercising this option. That’s much tougher to see unless they find some kind of mechanical tweak that gets him back into the mid-90s.
Minnesota Twins
- Josh Bell, 1B: $10MM mutual option ($1.25MM buyout)
Minnesota signed Bell to a $7MM free agent guarantee over the winter. That includes a $1.25MM buyout on a $10MM mutual option. Bell’s first month in the Twin Cities has been a microcosm of his last few years. He came out on fire, hitting .317 with three home runs through his first 13 games. He’s hitting .180 with just one extra-base hit (a double) over his past 16 outings. The end result is a league average .235/.331/.373 line through his first 118 plate appearances. Each Bell season has big highs and very tough lows, though they all tend to conclude with slightly above-average offensive production overall.
Bell is a low-end regular at this stage of his career. The Twins — or a potential taker at the trade deadline — are likely to pass on their end of the option. If he does get traded, Minnesota might need to cover a portion of the buyout, as he’d otherwise cost an accruing team nearly $3MM for the final two months of the season.
- Justin Topa, RHP: $5MM mutual option ($250K buyout)
Topa and the Twins built a $5MM mutual option into his agreement to avoid arbitration last November. He has played on salaries just above $1MM throughout his arbitration window. Topa gets ground-balls but has the American League’s lowest swinging strike rate (3.8%) and has battled injuries throughout his career. The Twins are likely to pass on their end.
Joe Ryan’s arbitration deal includes a $13MM mutual option ($100K buyout) for 2027. He’d remain under club control if the option is declined and won’t hit free agency until the 2027-28 offseason.
Cubs Claim Doug Nikhazy, Designate Ben Cowles For Assignment
The Cubs have claimed left-hander Doug Nikhazy off waivers from the White Sox and optioned him to Triple-A Iowa. There wasn’t any previous indication Nikhazy had been removed from the Sox roster but it appears they tried to sneak him through waivers in recent days. The Cubs designated infielder Ben Cowles for assignment to open a 40-man spot. Jordan Bastian of MLB.com was the first to report the moves.
It’s mildly surprising that the Sox put Nikhazy on the wire. He has options and has mostly been in the minors as depth since they claimed him off waivers three weeks ago. They don’t have 40-man pressure, as guys like Tanner Murray and Drew Thorpe are 60-day IL candidates. Perhaps the Sox felt now was a good time to try to pass Nikhazy through waivers since he has an 8.71 earned run average in Triple-A this year.
Instead, the Cubs have swooped in and put the kibosh on that plan. The North Siders are looking past this year’s struggles and focusing on Nikhazy’s better numbers in previous seasons. The southpaw had a strong 2024 campaign in the Guardians’ system, tossing 123 2/3 innings on the farm with a 2.98 ERA. His 10.8% walk rate was high but he struck out 25.4% of batters faced.
He hasn’t been in amazing form since then. He made a brief major league debut in 2025 but spent most of the season in the minors, where he posted a 5.02 ERA. As mentioned, this year has been even worse so far. Despite the poor results of late, he clearly still has interest around the league. The Guards put him on waivers a few weeks ago, which is when the Sox scooped him up. Now the Cubs are taking a turn.
The Cubs have had a large number of pitching injuries this year, moreso in the bullpen than in the rotation. Nikhazy gives them some extra starting depth but perhaps could be recalled if they need a spot start or another long relief option in the bullpen. His stuff isn’t overpowering, as he averages around 90 miles per hour with his fastball. Between that and his subpar control, perhaps he should be moved to the bullpen so that his stuff could play up, but he’s mostly been a starter/swingman to this point in his career.
Cowles, 26, is clearly in a fringe zone where he’s considered a borderline roster guy. The Cubs put him on their 40-man roster in November of 2024. He was designated for assignment in September of last year and claimed by the White Sox. In the offseason, he went to the Cubs, to the Blue Jays and then back to the Cubs via waiver claims. Now he’s been bumped into DFA limbo once again.
Despite all that time on various rosters, he is still looking to make his major league debut, since he hasn’t been producing much in the minors. Back in 2024, he slashed .286/.372/.457 in Double-A, which is why the Cubs gave him a roster spot in the first place. But since then, he has a .235/.305/.372 line in Triple-A.
DFA limbo can last as long as a week. The waiver process takes 48 hours, so the Cubs could take five days to explore trade interest. Cowles hasn’t been hitting for the past year-plus but he does provide speed and defensive versatility. He’s generally good for about 15 to 25 steals per year. Defensively, he has spent time at the three infield spots to the left of first base as well as left field. He still has options and could be stashed in the minors for the rest of this season and one additional campaign.
Photo courtesy of Ed Szczepanski, Imagn Images
Reese McGuire Elects Free Agency
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.
Tanner Murray Suffers Shoulder Fracture
White Sox manager Will Venable announced (as reported by Scott Merkin of MLB.com) that Tanner Murray suffered a dislocation (h/t James Fegan of Sox Machine) and a shoulder fracture that will require surgery, with an expected 4-6-month recovery timetable. Murray injured himself laying out for a CJ Abrams flyball during the top of the tenth inning of yesterday’s 2-1 Nationals win. The White Sox have placed Murray on the 10-day IL
The 26-year-old Murray made his MLB debut this season with the White Sox after a half-decade working up the ranks in Tampa Bay’s organization. Drafted in the fourth round out of UC Davis in 2020, Murray looked quite good at Single-A Charleston in 2021 before struggling somewhat at High-A Bowling Green the following year.
His 2023 season, spread across three levels, was successful, but Murray’s performance at the upper levels of the minors left something to be desired. He had arguably his strongest showing in 2024: a .290/.328/.424 line in 470 plate appearances at Double-A Montgomery, good for a park and league adjusted 121 wRC+ (100 is average), but a below-average 2025 at Triple-A Durham (.241/.299/.400 in 572 PAs for an 81 wRC+) curtailed his ascent to the majors.
Last offseason, Murray became one-half of the White Sox return (alongside Everson Pereira) for righties Yoendrys Gómez and Steven Wilson. This time, Murray’s Triple-A showcase with Charlotte (in an admittedly small 30 PAs) was stupendous: a .304/.467/.609 line, good for a 177 wRC+. That was enough to convince Chicago to give the 26-year-old rookie his first taste of MLB action.
In terms of tools, Murray profiles more as a jack-of-all trades. He likely lacks the offensive upside to be an everyday starter. He hit only .214/.281/.321 (58 wRC+) in his first 33 MLB PAs, but his defensive versatility offers flexibility at the end of the bench. Roughly half of his appearances have come in left field for the White Sox, but he has also been able to effectively cover third base and short (his primary defensive homes in the minors) at the big league level in a small sample.
Lucas Sims Elects Free Agency, Re-Signs With White Sox
April 27: Sims cleared waivers and rejected an outright assignment to Triple-A in favor of free agency, per the transaction log at MiLB.com. He re-signed with the Sox on a new minor league deal, per Brooke Fletcher of Chicago Sports Network.
April 23: The White Sox shuffled up their bullpen Thursday, announcing that veteran righty Lucas Sims has been designated for assignment. Right-hander Tyler Davis has had his contract selected from Triple-A Charlotte and will join the big league relief corps.
Sims, 32 next month, pitched 10 innings for the South Siders prior to this morning’s DFA. He was tagged for seven runs (five earned) on nine hits, seven walks and a hit batter. He fanned 10 of his 46 opponents (21.7%), but his perennially spotty command also led to 17.4% of his opponents reaching base without even needing to put a ball in play.
The White Sox added Sims on a minor league deal over the winter. He had a nice spring, firing six shutout innings with three hits, three walks and eight strikeouts, but didn’t make the Opening Day roster. He began the season in Charlotte and tossed a scoreless frame before being selected to the majors when the Sox parted ways with Rule 5 pick Jedixson Páez.
A veteran of 10 partial major league seasons, Sims has more than six years of service time. He was a useful middle relief and eventual setup arm at his peak in Cincinnati, pitching to a combined 3.93 ERA in 183 1/3 innings from 2019-23. Sims punched out a hearty 31.9% of opponents in that time but was far too prone to free passes, issuing walks at a 12.2% clip.
Sims collected 39 holds and four saves in 2023-24, but a 2025 stint with the Nationals saw his shaky command erode to untenable levels. Sims walked more than 19% of his opponents (14 of 72) and plunked another seven batters before being cut loose in Washington. This year’s command was better than that low point, but Sims has walked or plunked more than 15% of the 1429 batters he’s face in the majors. It’s unlikely he’ll ever end up with even average command over a sample of any note.
The White Sox will have five days to trade Sims or place him on outright waivers. If they go the waiver route, that’d be an additional 48-hour process, meaning his DFA will be resolved within a maximum of one week.
As for Davis, he’ll be making his major league debut the first time he takes the mound. The 27-year-old was never drafted, instead signing with the Sox out of the independent Pioneer League in 2024, when he played for the Oakland Ballers. He’s a Sam Houston State product who’s pitched 103 innings in pro ball since signing. In that time, Davis has logged a 3.41 earned run average with a 27.1% strikeout rate and 12.4% walk rate.
Davis has some experience as a first baseman as well, having worked as a two-way player in college. However, he’s focused solely on pitching in affiliated ball and will come to the ChiSox with a four-seamer that’s been sitting 96.4 mph in Triple-A, a splitter that’s averaged 86.2 mph and a slider at nearly the same velocity as that split.