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White Sox Sign James Karinchak To Minor League Contract

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The White Sox announced that right-hander James Karinchak was signed to a minor league deal.  Karinchak’s contract contains an invitation to Chicago’s big league Spring Training camp.

Shoulder problems kept Karinchak on the shelf for almost the entire 2024 season, as his only game action came in the form of seven appearances and 6 2/3 innings with the Guardians’ Triple-A affiliate.  It broke a string of five straight seasons of big league work for Karinchak, who has a 3.10 ERA and a huge 36.3% strikeout rate over his 165 2/3 career innings in the Show, all with Cleveland from 2019-23.

Despite those impressive numbers, Karinchak’s ability to miss bats came with the cost of missing the strike zone, as he also has a 14.1% career walk rate.  While it initially seemed as though Karinchak was going to be the latest success story for Cleveland’s pitching factory, his propensity for walks made him unreliable, and the Guardians sent to Triple-A on a few occasions to see if he could sort out his control.  Karinchak also started to get a bit homer-prone in 2021, and he missed half of the 2022 season while recovering from a teres major strain.

The Guardians outrighted Karinchak off their roster after the season and then allowed him to enter free agency, which was essentially an early non-tender (Karinchak was projected for a $1.9MM arbitration salary).  Karinchak is arbitration-eligible through the 2026 season, so the White Sox have two years of control over his services.  It’s not a bad flier to take on a pitcher who, despite his struggles and the caveat of his .248 BABIP, has still enjoyed quite a bit of bottom-line success at the MLB level.

As a division opponent of the Guardians, the White Sox saw plenty of Karinchak as an opponent, and the team will now get a first-hand look at him in camp to see what he can offer heading into his age-29 season.  Karinchak’s 174 big league games make him one of the more experienced players within an overall young pitching staff, and there’s naturally plenty of opportunity for Karinchek to win a bullpen job on such an unsettled roster.  While Karinchak’s top priority is naturally to show that he’s healthy and can still be effective against big league hitters, he might project as a trade deadline candidate for the rebuilding Sox if everything goes well.

White Sox Notes: Free Agency, Robert, Montgomery

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White Sox general manager Chris Getz spoke with reporters on Thursday in advance of this weekend’s SoxFest. The second-year baseball operations leader indicated the team was unlikely to make any significant moves for the remainder of the offseason.

“For the most part, we feel like we’ve got our roster. Yeah, it’s just a matter of getting to Spring Training and prepping for Opening Day,” Getz said (link via MLB.com’s Scott Merkin). While he left open the possibility for “an addition here and there,” it doesn’t seem the Sox expect to do much else before the season gets underway.

That’s to be expected. The White Sox are coming off the worst season in modern baseball history. They certainly weren’t going to be major players in free agency. They’ve somewhat surprisingly signed five MLB free agent deals this winter, though none goes beyond this year. Martín Pérez ($5MM), Josh Rojas ($3.5MM), Mike Tauchman ($2MM), Austin Slater ($1.8MM) and Bryse Wilson ($1.1MM) are guaranteed a combined $13.4MM. They’ve added backup catcher Matt Thaiss and lefty reliever Cam Booser via minor trades.

While the Sox surely hope they’ll be able to flip some of their free agent acquisitions at the deadline, no one from that group is going to net more than a marginal return even if they play well in the first half. Chicago’s biggest decisions were tabbing Will Venable as manager and sending Garrett Crochet to the Red Sox for a four-player prospect return headlined by Kyle Teel and Braden Montgomery. Crochet was easily the Sox’s top remaining trade chip.

That title now falls to Luis Robert Jr. The star center fielder is coming off the worst season of his career. Robert hit .224/.278/.379 through 425 plate appearances. Few players had a sharper drop-off relative to their 2023 production. Robert finished 12th in AL MVP balloting two years ago. He played elite defense and hit .264/.315/.542 with 38 homers and 20 stolen bases.

Robert is the only player on the Sox roster who has the ceiling to net them a franchise-changing trade return. That very likely wouldn’t be on the table this winter, though, so it’s logical for Chicago to hold him until the deadline. While Getz didn’t firmly shut the door on trading Robert before Opening Day, he didn’t sound eager to deal the 27-year-old.

“We’re open minded, we’re not looking to move anyone,” the GM said (link via Andrew Seligman of The Associated Press). “With that being said, there are other teams that are working through the free agent process perhaps and there could be some opportunities to have dialogue. We do feel like the majority of our moves have been made. But with that being said, we’re not quite there yet and I look forward to getting this group together out in Arizona.”

Robert will be the Sox’s most important player in the season’s first few months. He’s playing on a $15MM salary in the final guaranteed season of his pre-debut contract extension. He’s guaranteed at least a $2MM buyout on $20MM club options covering the 2026-27 campaigns. If Robert finds anything near his ’23 form, Chicago would market two and a half seasons of club control over a star outfielder. If he plays like he did last season, they’d be looking at middling returns on a player who might get bought out at the end of the season. The Sox have already seen the latter situation play out with Tim Anderson and Eloy Jiménez, each of whom struggled enough to get bought out of what initially seemed to be very team-friendly contracts.

In either case, it’s hard to envision Robert remaining on the White Sox into the 2026 season. By that point, Colson Montgomery could be the new face of the franchise. The lefty-hitting shortstop was one of the sport’s top 15 prospects at this time last year. Montgomery underperformed in his first crack at Triple-A. He hit .214/.329/.381 while striking out at a 28.6% clip during his age-22 season. That has dinged his prospect value to some extent, though he still ranks among Baseball America’s Top 50 minor league talents.

The White Sox added Montgomery to their 40-man roster in November. That was a formality to keep him out of the Rule 5 draft. They’d be justified in starting him back in Triple-A, but Getz left the door open for the former first-round pick to take the shortstop job out of camp. “He’s going to get a lot of opportunity come Spring Training,” Getz said (via Merkin). “We expect to see Colson Montgomery playing shortstop for the White Sox this year at some point. … He’s going to get a shot to make the club. Now, we’ve got other players on the roster that are going to compete for shortstop opportunities.”

Brooks Baldwin, who started nine games at shortstop last year, is the only returning player who logged any time at that position. Rojas has been their only major league infield acquisition this winter. He had a bit of run at shortstop early in his career with Arizona but hasn’t played there in four years. Chase Meidroth, whom the White Sox acquired in the Crochet deal, is coming off a .293/.437/.400 showing with Boston’s Triple-A club. His bat seems big league ready, but most scouting reports suggest he’s a better defensive fit at second or third base who can play shortstop on occasion. Meidroth is not yet on the 40-man roster, but it stands to reason that Chicago will give him an MLB look at some point this year.

White Sox Trade Ron Marinaccio To Padres

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The Padres have acquired right-handed reliever Ron Marinaccio from the White Sox in exchange for cash, per announcements from both clubs. Chicago designated Marinaccio for assignment earlier in the week. San Diego’s 40-man roster is now up to 35 players.

Marinaccio, 29, has appeared in each of the past three big league seasons, with all his MLB time coming as a member of the Yankees. He’s posted a sub-4.00 ERA in all three of those individual seasons, working to a composite 3.22 mark with a strong 28.2% strikeout rate but an ugly 12.6% walk rate. Marinaccio averaged 93.6 mph on his heater this past season and paired that offering with a changeup and slider, both of which reside in the low 80s.

The ChiSox claimed Marinaccio off waivers from the Yankees on Sept. 23. He didn’t make it into a game for the South Siders, but given the general state of disarray within their roster, he seemed like he’d have a chance to factor into the 2025 bullpen mix. General manager Chris Getz ultimately felt differently, as Marinaccio was bumped from the 40-man roster this week to open space for veteran innings eater Martin Perez.

Marinaccio’s track record in Triple-A is generally supportive of his output in the big leagues, making it something of a surprise that the White Sox moved on for next to no return. He’s pitched in parts of four seasons there and logged a 3.35 ERA in 91 1/3 innings, fanning 29.9% of his opponents against an 11.3% walk rate along the way. Marinaccio still has one minor league option year remaining, and he’s controllable through the 2028 season as things currently stand (though future optional assignments could change that calculus). He won’t be eligible for arbitration until next offseason at the earliest.

White Sox Designate Ron Marinaccio For Assignment

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The White Sox announced that right-hander Ron Marinaccio has been designated for assignment. That’s the corresponding move for left-hander Martín Pérez, whose one-year deal has now been officially announced.

Marinaccio, 29, hasn’t appeared in a big league game for the Sox. He was claimed off waivers from the Yankees with about a week remaining in the 2024 season, but was kept on optional assignment. He has held onto his roster spot for the past four months but has now been nudged off.

The righty was generally a high-strikeout and low-control guy for the Yanks. He tossed 91 1/3 innings over the 2022 and 2023 seasons, allowing 3.05 earned runs per nine. He struck out 29% of batters faced but also gave out walks at a 13.2% clip. In 2024, he got his walk rate down to 10.1% but his strikeout rate also fell to 25.3% as he posted a 3.86 ERA.

Overall, Marinaccio has a 3.22 ERA in 114 2/3 innings, with a 28.2% strikeout rate and 12.6% walk rate. It’s generally been fairly similar in the minors. Over the past four years, Marinaccio has thrown 132 innings on the farm with a 2.86 ERA, 33.5% strikeout rate and 11.5% walk rate.

The control is clearly an issue but Marinaccio is likely to draw interest based on the strikeouts. He also still has an option remaining and barely two years of service time, meaning he still hasn’t qualified for arbitration and can be sent to the minors fairly freely for another year. The Sox will have a week of DFA limbo to figure out what’s next for the righty, though the waiver process takes 48 hours, meaning any trade talks would need to come together in the next five days.

White Sox Sign Martín Pérez

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January 21: The deal has now been officially announced by the White Sox.

January 8: The White Sox and left-hander Martín Pérez are in agreement on a deal, reports Robert Murray of FanSided. It’s a one-year, $5MM deal, per José F. Rivera of ESPN. That comes in the form of a $3.5MM salary and a $1.5MM buyout on a $10MM mutual option for 2026, per Jon Heyman of The New York Post. The deal is pending a physical for the Octagon client. The Sox have a full 40-man roster and will need to make a corresponding move once this deal becomes official. Their Josh Rojas deal is also still not official, so the club now needs to open two spots.

Pérez, 34 in April, is a soft-tossing veteran innings eater. He split last year between the Pirates and Padres, making 26 starts and logging 135 frames. He allowed 4.53 earned runs per nine innings, striking out 18.1% of batters faced, issuing walks at an 8.3% clip and getting grounders on 44.4% of balls in play. He averaged 91.3 miles per hour with his four-seam fastball.

Those stats are pretty close to his career numbers. Dating back to his 2012 debut, he has thrown 1,575 2/3 innings with a 4.44 ERA, 16.2% strikeout rate, 8.3% walk rate and 48.7% ground ball rate. His fastball velocity was naturally higher when he was younger, but not by much. His highest four-seam velocity in a season was 94.2 mph, back in 2019.

He did end the 2024 season on a high note. He posted a 5.20 ERA with the Bucs before being traded to the Padres at the deadline, then went on to allow 3.46 earned runs per nine after the deal. His 20.3% strikeout rate after the trade was a few ticks higher than the 16.9% rate he had with Pittsburgh. He changed up his pitch mix a bit, throwing more changeups and curveballs with the Friars, while reducing his usage of cutters and sliders.

That’s somewhat encouraging but Pérez has previously flashed better results without sustaining them. He posted a 2.89 ERA over 32 starts for the Rangers in 2022, which prompted Texas to issue him a $19.65MM qualifying offer for 2023. The southpaw accepted that but then his ERA normalized to 4.45 that year. As mentioned, he held pretty steady in 2024, with a 4.53 ERA.

It’s not the most exciting profile but he’s a sensible fit for the South Side of Chicago. The White Sox had a poor rotation last year and it’s in worse shape now. They traded Erick Fedde to the Cardinals and the deadline and then flipped Garrett Crochet to the Red Sox last month. Chris Flexen reached free agency at season’s end. That means that Jonathan Cannon is the only guy still on the roster who made more than ten starts for the Sox last year.

Pérez has made at least 26 appearances in five straight full seasons. in 2024, he went on the injured list due to a left groin muscle strain but was back in less than a month. That was his most significant IL stint since 2018. While no pitcher is guaranteed to stay healthy, Pérez is perhaps one of the safer bets to take the ball when it’s his turn, even if the results are more passable than outstanding.

Given the uncertainty in the club’s rotation, it’s a logical pick up. The Sox also added Bryse Wilson earlier this offseason, another move designed to bolster a group fairly lacking in experience. The final three spots are up for grabs, with Cannon, Davis Martin, Sean Burke, Drew Thorpe, Nick Nastrini, Jairo Iriarte, Jake Eder, Wikelman Gonzalez, Ky Bush and Juan Carela around to battle for opportunities. Prospects Noah Schultz and Hagen Smith aren’t yet on the roster but could push into the mix during the season.

Apart from Pérez and Wilson, no one in that cluster of rotation options has even one year of major league service time. The Sox can use Pérez as a veteran anchor, at least for a few months. If he’s pitching well, he could be flipped to a contending club at the deadline, just as he was last year. That would then open up second-half starts for whichever young pitcher has earned them.

Jeff Torborg Passes Away

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Longtime former big league catcher, manager, and broadcaster Jeff Torborg passed away today at age 83, the White Sox announced.  Torborg played for 10 seasons with the Dodgers and Angels from 1964-73, and then managed the Indians, White Sox, Mets, Expos, and Marlins over parts of 11 seasons from 1977-2003.

Torborg was the Dodgers’ backup catcher behind John Roseboro and then Tom Haller during his seven seasons in Chavez Ravine, and this tenure was highlighted by a World Series with Los Angeles’ 1965 championship team.  That same season saw Torborg play a big role in one of the most memorable pitching performances in baseball history — Sandy Koufax’s 14-strikeout perfect game against the Cubs on September 9.

Torborg holds a unique place in baseball history as the only catcher who caught no-hitters from both Koufax and Nolan Ryan, as Torborg was behind the plate for the first of Ryan’s record seven career no-nos on May 15, 1973.  Torborg also caught Bill Singer’s no-hitter on July 20, 1970, and is one of only 18 catchers to ever catch three different no-hit games.

Over 574 games and 1525 plate appearances, Torborg hit eight home runs with a career slash line of .214/.268/.265.  He retired after the 1973 season at the end of a three-year stint with the Angels, and quickly moved into coaching with a job on the Indians’ staff in 1975.  This led to Torborg’s first managerial gig, as he was promoted to become Cleveland’s skipper partway through the 1977 season, and he managed the club through the end of the 1979 campaign.

It took a decade for Torborg to become a manager again, as after he spent the next decade on the Yankees’ coaching staff, he was hired as Chicago’s new manager prior to the start of the 1989 season.  He won only 69 games in his first year, but after the Sox surged to a 90-win season in 1990, Torborg was named the American League’s Manager of the Year.  The White Sox won 87 games in 1991 to finish second in the AL West for the second consecutive season, as Torborg’s Sox were beaten out first by an Athletics team that won three straight AL pennants, and then by the upstart Twins who won the 1991 World Series.

This successful run in Chicago led the Mets to lure Torborg away to become their next manager, with Torborg receiving a hefty four-year, $1.7MM contact.  Unfortunately, the 1992 Mets were one of the more infamous teams in franchise history, as the club’s splashy acquisitions of Bobby Bonilla, Bret Saberhagen, and others resulted in only a 72-90 record.  After the Mets stumbled again to a 13-25 start in 1993, Torborg was fired with more than two and a half years remaining on his contract.

Torborg returned to the dugout in 2001 as the Expos’ manager, but when then-Expos owner Jeffrey Loria took over as the Marlins’ new owner prior to the 2002 season, Torborg also went to South Florida as the Marlins’ new skipper.  Torborg had a 95-105 record in parts of two years with the Marlins, and the 2003 team went on to win the World Series after Jack McKeon stepped in as Torborg’s replacement.  Torborg’s overall managerial record was 634-718 over 1352 games with his five clubs.

Both before and after these stints in Montreal and Florida, Torborg worked as a TV and radio broadcaster.  He worked for CBS Radio throughout the 1990’s and for Fox in both the 90’s and 2000s, with Torborg calling Braves games in 2006.

MLB Trade Rumors sends our condolences to Torborg’s family, friends, and loved ones.

Orioles Claim Jacob Amaya, Designate Roansy Contreras For Assignment

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The Orioles announced they’ve claimed infielder Jacob Amaya off waivers from the White Sox. Chicago had designated him for assignment last week when they finalized their signing of Josh Rojas to a one-year free agent deal. Baltimore designated righty reliever Roansy Contreras for assignment to open a spot on the 40-man roster.

Amaya is a defensive specialist who can play anywhere on the dirt. The majority of his experience has come up the middle. Amaya has nearly 4500 professional innings at shortstop and more than 1000 frames at second base. He has made 13 minor league appearances at third base as well, though his MLB experience has been exclusively in the middle infield.

The 26-year-old drew praise from scouts for his athleticism and plus arm strength. He ranked among the top 30 prospects in the Dodgers system at Baseball America in each season from 2019-22. Los Angeles traded him to the Marlins for veteran shortstop Miguel Rojas on the eve of the ’23 season. BA ranked Amaya as Miami’s #11 prospect (albeit in a weak farm system) as recently as last spring.

Amaya’s offensive upside is limited. He has shown a patient approach and worked plenty of walks in the minor leagues. Amaya has minimal power, though. MLB pitchers haven’t been afraid to attack him in the strike zone in his limited big league work. Amaya has hit .182 with just one extra-base hit (a double) in 81 plate appearances. He has walked only four times while striking out on 29 occasions.

The middling production at the dish has led Amaya to bounce around via waivers. He has gone from Miami to the Astros to Chicago and now to Baltimore since the start of last season. Amaya didn’t have a good season in Triple-A, combining for a .221/.308/.330 slash with five homers over 76 games between Miami’s and Houston’s affiliates.

Baltimore is one of the most active teams on the waiver wire. The Orioles frequently use waivers to churn through the back few spots on their 40-man roster. Amaya is out of minor league options and has an uphill path to cracking a Baltimore infield that could include Gunnar Henderson, Jordan Westburg, Jackson Holliday, Ryan Mountcastle, Ryan O’Hearn, Ramón Urías and Jorge Mateo. Third baseman Emmanuel Rivera is also out of options. There’s a decent chance the O’s try to sneak Amaya through waivers in the next couple months.

That’s a cycle in which Contreras has found himself. The former top prospect has been a part of five organizations since the start of the ’24 season. He opened the year with the Pirates, who traded him to the Angels in May. The out-of-options hurler stuck in Ron Washington’s bullpen for the remainder of the season. The Halos waived him at the beginning of the offseason. Contreras has subsequently gone to the Rangers, Reds and Orioles via waivers but hasn’t held a spot for more than a few weeks. Baltimore just claimed him last Friday.

Since the start of the 2023 season, Contreras owns a 5.47 earned run average over 136 2/3 innings. His 18.5% strikeout percentage and 10.5% walk rate are worse than the respective MLB averages, as is his 1.4 home runs allowed per nine. The performance and the inability to send him to the minors without putting him on waivers could lead to him continuing to bounce around the league. Contreras has intrigued a few teams as a depth arm, as he sits around 95 MPH with his four-seam fastball and throws six different pitches.

Notable International Signings: 1/15/25

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January 15 marks the official opening of the international signing period. The majority of top talents have reached verbal agreements with teams months or years in advance, they’re allowed to formally put pen to paper to begin their affiliated careers. The signing period technically runs until December 15, but many of the top signees ink their contracts as soon as first eligible.

This year’s international market has been thrown into disarray, to an extent, by the emergence of star NPB right-hander Roki Sasaki on the market. While Sasaki is an established professional in every sense of the word over in Japan, his age (23) and the fact that he has fewer than six seasons of pro ball in another country under his belt make him an “amateur” under the purview of Major League Baseball’s international free agency structure.

As such, we’ve seen both the Dodgers and Padres both hold off on finalizing longstanding agreements with other teams and, in some cases, let players with whom they’ve had standing verbal agreements instead pursue other opportunities. The Dodgers, for instance, saw Dominican shortstop Darell Morel instead agree to a $1.8MM bonus with the Pirates. That worked out for Morel, who’d agreed to sign for roughly half that amount with Los Angeles (likely more than a year prior). Baseball America’s Ben Badler reports that Venzuelan outfielder Oscar Patiño also walked away from his Dodgers deal ($400K) to sign for a $570K bonus with the White Sox. FanGraphs’ Eric Longenhagen reported yesterday that Dominican outfielder Teilon Serrano, another Dodgers commit, will instead sign with the Twins now. He’ll receive roughly $1MM from Minnesota, per Francys Romero of BeisbolFR.com.

Those defections will sting for the Dodgers if they’re unable to ultimately sway Sasaki to sign in Los Angeles, though there will be other opportunities to spend those dollars down the road. Unexpected amateur players can pop up well after a signing period has commenced, and Los Angeles would also have the ability to trade some any unused international money. The Dodgers have long been regarded as the Sasaki favorite — so much so that agent Joel Wolfe had to publicly deny speculation regarding a predetermined agreement between the two sides — and the recent run of prospects bolting from their international class does little to quell that perception. The Dodgers, Padres and Blue Jays are the three finalists for Sasaki, whose posting window closes on Jan. 23.

Turning back to the rest of the class, Badler has a team-by-team breakdown of the most prominent signings over at Baseball America, as well as scouting reports and (in some cases) projected bonuses for as many as 100 players. Longenhagen runs through his own list of 50 international prospects with their expected team and signing bonus over at FanGraphs, as well as a detailed look at some of intricacies and idiosyncrasies of Sasaki’s unique free agent saga. Romero runs through 35 high-profile international talents and their expected team/signing bonus at his site as well. At MLB.com, Jesse Sanchez and Jesse Borek have their own ranking of the top 50 in the class, with scouting reports on each. Those interested in the finer details of this year’s collection of international amateurs are highly encouraged to check out those resources in full. Badler, Longenhagen, Romero, Sanchez and many others around the baseball world dedicate enormous portions of their time and efforts to covering this topic to the fullest.

Note: This is not a comprehensive list of all international signings, nor is it intended to be. If your favorite team is not listed here, it’s not because they’ve sat out the IFA market. There are a few dozen players who’ll sign $1MM+ bonuses and a few hundred who’ll ink six-figure bonuses. Those interested in a comprehensive rundown of the international class can check out links to the excellent work from Badler, Romero, Sanchez and Longenhagen provided above. We’ll run down some of the top signing bonuses here, focusing on those that check in at $2.5MM or more. These are ordered by reported signing bonus, and this list will be updated multiple times today:

  • Elian Peña, SS, Mets: The Mets paid a reported $5MM bonus to Pena, per Badler, which represents a whopping 80% of their $6.261MM bonus pool. Currently listed at 5’11” and 170 pounds, Pena is a lefty-swinging shortstop who’s expected to move down the defensive spectrum but have more than enough bat to profile at third base or second base if all pans out. Badler and Romero both liken his power potential to that of Rafael Devers, praising his pitch recognition, plate discipline and willingness to draw walks. He turned 17 in October.
  • Andrew Salas, SS/OF Marlins: The younger brother of Twins infield prospect Jose Salas (originally signed by Miami but traded to Minnesota alongside Pablo Lopez) and current Padres top prospect Ethan Salas, Andrew will turn 17 in March. He’s a switch-hitter who’s touted for his patient approach, good swing decisions and balance on both sides of the plate. MLB.com lauds him as a potential plus defender both at shortstop and in center field. Salas was born in Florida but moved to Venezuela, his family’s native country, and is already bilingual as a result. The Marlins are committing a $3.6MM bonus to the youngest of the three Salas brothers, per Romero.
  • Cris Rodriguez, OF, Tigers: Rodriguez receives a $3.2MM bonus from Detroit, per Badler. Already 6’4″ and 200 pounds with his 17th birthday still two weeks away, Rodriguez stands out for his bat speed and raw power. Badler calls him a potential 30-homer slugger who’ll probably settle into a corner but for the time being runs well enough to have a chance in center. MLB.com’s report calls Rodriguez a “near carbon copy” of Eloy Jimenez at this same age, even down to hailing from the same city in the Dominican Republic and possessing a similarly aggressive approach. The Tigers will hope Rodriguez can do a better job of avoiding injuries, but Rodriguez possesses thunderous power — more so than any other player in this class.
  • Josuar de Jesus Gonzalez, SS, Giants: Badler and Romero both note that some scouts have graded De Jesus as the top prospect overall in this year’s class (Sasaki excluded). MLB.com indeed ranks him as the top non-Sasaki talent in the class. Listed at 5’11” and 175 pounds, the 17-year-old switch-hitter draws 70 grades for his speed (on the 20-80 scale) and also plus bat speed and the defensive tools required to convince scouts he can stick at shortstop. He’s landing a $3MM bonus from San Francisco, Badler reports.
  • Diego Tornes, OF, Braves: Tornes won’t turn 17 until July. He’s younger than many of the players in this year’s class but still received a $2.5MM bonus (per Badler) thanks to a projectable 6’4″, 200-pound frame that scouts think is a portent for plus power. He’s a switch-hitter who’s praised for plus bat speed and physicality that are well beyond some of his older peers on this year’s class. MLB.com feels he’ll eventually settle into an outfield corner, where he has an above-average arm and — at least at present — above-average speed.

White Sox Sign Jonathan Heasley To Minor League Deal

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The White Sox announced that they have signed right-hander Jonathan Heasley to a minor league deal with an invite to major league spring training. The righty is represented by Icon Sports Management.

Heasley, 28 this month, has some limited big league experience stretched over multiple seasons. He has appeared in each of the past four major league campaigns, throwing a combined 139 innings, allowing 5.89 earned runs per nine. His 14.4% strikeout rate is well south of league average, though his 8.9% walk rate is near par.

Most of that came with the Royals from 2021 to 2023. Last winter, he was acquired by the Orioles and started the 2024 season with that club. The O’s mostly kept him on optional assignment, only giving him four big league appearances on the year. He was designated for assignment and then released in July.

That’s not a terribly impressive body of work, but it’s a fairly small sample and the White Sox are likely focused more on his minor league numbers. In 2021, he tossed 105 1/3 innings over 22 Double-A appearances, 21 of those being starts. He had a 3.33 ERA, 27.7% strikeout rate and 7.9% walk rate. Over the past three years, he has thrown 164 2/3 innings at the Triple-A level, with his ERA at 5.47 in that time. His 22.4% strikeout rate and 8.8% walk rate in that stretch were still respectable, but he allowed 30 home runs, pushing more runs across the plate.

Heasley has worked both as a starter and a reliever in his career, so he should be able to provide the Sox with depth in both areas. Their bullpen had a collective ERA of 4.73 last year, which was 28th in the league. The rotation was a bit better, with a 4.62 ERA that ranked 25th, though they traded Erick Fedde at last year’s deadline and Garrett Crochet last month.

The Sox do have a number of intriguing young arms, as one would expect from a rebuilding team, but adding in other arms is a sensible offseason goal. They have signed guys like Martín Pérez and Bryse Wilson, as well as having acquired Cam Booser and Wikelman Gonzalez via trade and Penn Murfee via waivers. Heasley now comes aboard as non-roster depth. If he eventually gets a roster spot, he is out of options but has barely a year of service time.

White Sox Sign Omar Narváez To Minor League Deal

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The White Sox announced that they have signed catcher Omar Narváez to a minor league deal with an invite to major league spring training. The veteran backstop is represented by ISE Baseball.

Narváez, 33 next month, has had a fairly unusual career. Once a bat-first catcher with defensive question marks, he later flipped that profile and became a solid defender with a tepid bat. Last year, he didn’t succeed in either category and ended up spending most of the season in the minors.

From 2016 to 2019, with the White Sox and Mariners, he slashed .276/.361/.411 for a 113 wRC+. But thanks to his poor defensive metrics, he was worth only 3.1 wins above replacement in 353 games over that stretch, per the calculations of FanGraphs. He then spent 2020 to 2022 with the Brewers, hitting .233/.318/.350 for an 84 wRC+ but producing 4.6 fWAR in 247 games thanks to his superior work behind the plate.

The Mets signed him to a two-year, $15MM deal going into 2023, which turned into a bust. A significant left calf strain put him on the shelf early in the first year of that deal and he only played 49 games on the season, hitting just .211/.283/.297. Early in 2024, he produced a dismal line of .154/.191/.185 in 69 plate appearances. He was released by early June and signed a minor league deal with the Astros, then hitting .196/.325/.304 in 169 Triple-A appearances.

It’s obviously been a rough patch for Narváez but he has a track record of past major league success, both offensively and defensively, though usually not at the same time. He’s a sensible flier for the Sox, who had little proven behind the plate. They currently have two catchers on the 40-man roster: Korey Lee and Matt Thaiss. Lee is a former prospect who could still break out but has hit .188/.227/.313 in his career thus far. Thaiss, picked up in a cash deal last month, is a bit better at the plate but isn’t considered a strong defender.

The club’s future probably lies in Edgar Quero or Kyle Teel or both. Quero was acquired from the Angels in the Lucas Giolito/Reynaldo López trade and Teel from the Red Sox in the Garrett Crochet deal. Both are consensus top 100 prospects but they may not be immediate solutions. Neither is on the 40-man roster yet. Quero has just 26 games at the Triple-A level while Teel has 28. Getting to the majors this year is certainly possible for both of them but there are no guarantees that they will immediately succeed even if they get there. Narváez gives the club an experienced backstop that they could lean on if their younger options get injured or hit speed bumps.

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