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Michael Kopech Opts Out Of 2020 Season

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White Sox righty Michael Kopech has opted out of the 2020 season, per a club announcement. He was working his way back from Tommy John surgery.

In other news from White Sox camp, infielder Yoan Moncada and righty Jose Ruiz have each been placed on the 10-day injured list. Further details are not known at this time.

Kopech did not reveal his personal decisionmaking process in the announcement. Pursuant to the modified rules for the 2020 season, players have the exclusive right to opt out without penalty. Those that have a particular medical basis for the decision can retain their salary and service time; others sacrifice those things.

It’s not clear in this case whether Kopech will continue to accrue service time in the 2020 season. If not, the 24-year-old will begin the 2021 campaign with just over one full season of MLB service.

Kopech is one of the most exciting young talents in the White Sox organization. He debuted in 2018, showing big stuff but ultimately coming down with a torn ulnar collateral ligament.

Two White Sox Players Test Positive For Coronavirus

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The White Sox announced today that two players have tested positive for COVID-19 (h/t to James Fegan of the Athletic). Fortunately, both players are currently asymptomatic. Per the announcement, they are in isolation in Chicago and are being monitored by team medical staff. As is their right, each player has chosen to remain anonymous.

Those positive tests took place during the intake process, meaning that those two players did not participate in any team activities during the beginning of camp.

The players will undergo follow-up testing in the coming days, the club announced. As per MLB’s COVID-19 protocols, neither will be allowed to return to action unless and until they are free of symptoms (as these two players currently are) and twice test negative for the virus, with the tests to be administered at least 24 hours apart.

White Sox Announce Initial Player Pool

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The White Sox on Monday announced their initial player pool for the 2020 season. Player pools can contain up to 60 players, and only players in a team’s pool will be eligible to participate in summer training camp or regular/postseason games. Teams are free to change the makeup of the pools as they see fit, but once a team’s pool reaches 60 players, a player must be removed (released, traded, waived, etc.) in order to make a new addition. That player becomes ineligible to return to that same team in 2020.

Not all players within a team’s pool are ticketed for MLB playing time, of course. Most teams will include well-regarded but still far-off prospects as a means of getting them training reps with no intention of running them onto a major league diamond this season. A comprehensive review of 2020’s unique set of rules can be found here.

Here are the 44 players in the White Sox initial pool (* indicates player not on 40-man roster)…

Right-Handed Pitchers

Left-Handed Pitchers

Catchers

Infielders

Outfielders

MLB, MLBPA Still Discussing Vesting Options, Retention Bonuses

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The length of the season, prorated salaries and protocols for health and safety are finally all set in place, but Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association are still negotiating the manner in which contractual options, performance incentives/bonuses and escalator clauses will be handled, per Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic (subscription required).

Fortunately, an agreement is believed to be “within reach,” per Rosenthal. The league had initially sought to prorate the value of 2021 options using the same formula as 2020 salaries, although the MLBPA obviously pushed back against that notion. There’s still some debate over the handling of vesting options — particularly those that are triggered by reaching a set number of games pitched or plate appearances over the life of multiple seasons. The two sides also must determine how those options would be treated in the event that the season is canceled at any point due to health concerns.

There aren’t too many vesting options in MLB this year, although some of the notable ones include:

  • Jon Lester, LHP, Cubs: Lester’s $25MM mutual option ($10MM buyout) for the 2021 season would become guaranteed with 200 innings pitched in a normal season.
  • J.A. Happ, LHP, Yankees: Happ’s $17MM club option for the 2021 season would’ve become guaranteed upon making 27 starts or totaling 165 innings in 2020.
  • Andrew Miller, LHP, Cardinals: Miller’s $12MM club option for 2021 would have been guaranteed if he totaled 110 games between 2019-20. As Rosenthal explores, there are various ways to interpret how many more games he’d need to pitch to trigger that option — some more beneficial to Miller and others to the Cardinals.
  • Charlie Morton, RHP, Rays: Morton’s option is another that comes with a multi-year criteria. His contract calls for a $15MM club option in 2021 if he spends fewer than 30 days on the injured list between 2019-20. The option value decreases if he spends additional time on the injured list. Morton avoided the IL entirely last year. Unlike Miller, who surely hopes the number of appearances he needs to make in 2020 can be prorated, it’d be beneficial to Morton for that number (30) to remain as is. That seems unlikely, but the disparity between the clauses of Miller and Morton illustrates that this isn’t exactly straightforward for the player side. The value of his option
  • Kelvin Herrera, RHP, White Sox: Herrera, too, needed 110 games between 2019-20 for his $10MM club option to become guaranteed. He pitched in 57 games last year, leaving him 53 shy of his target.
  • Wade Davis, RHP, Rockies: Davis’ $15MM mutual option would’ve converted to a $15MM player option in the event that he finished 30 games. He’d only need to finish out 11-12 games in the shortened 2020 season if the two sides go with a strictly prorated interpretation of the qualifiers.
  • Bryan Shaw, RHP, Rockies: Shaw has the same 110-game target for 2019-20 that Miller and Herrera have. He pitched 70 times in 2019 and needed just 40 appearances in 2020 to lock in a $9MM salary for the 2021 campaign.
  • Jake McGee, LHP, Rockies: With 60 games pitched or 40 games finished in 2020, McGee would’ve locked in a $9MM salary for the 2021 season. His contract also allowed the option to vest with a with 110 games between 2019-20, but he only pitched in 45 contests last year.
  • Stephen Vogt, C, Diamondbacks: Vogt’s contract included a $3MM club option that not only vests but increases to a $3.5MM base upon starting 45 games and appearing n a total of 75 games overall.
  • Dee Gordon, 2B/SS/OF, Mariners: Gordon would’ve been guaranteed a $14MM salary for the 2021 season with 600 plate appearances this year. That, of course, was extremely unlikely in the first place, though.

Beyond those options, there are myriad escalator clauses throughout baseball that could be impacted by the shortened schedule. It’s fairly common for club options and/or future salaries to be boosted by steady performance — particularly among players returning from injury. Take Dellin Betances, for instance. His contract with the Mets calls for the value of next year’s $6MM player option to increase by $800K upon pitching in 40 games. He’d receive additional $1MM boosts to that figure for appearing in 50, 60 and 70 games apiece.

The league and the union are also still discussing potential retention bonuses for six-year veterans on non-guaranteed deals. In a typical year, any player with six-plus years of service who finished the preceding season on a 40-man roster qualifies as an Article XX(B) free agent. Such players must either be added to the 40-man roster, released five days prior to Opening Day or paid a $100K retention bonus to remain with the club in the minor leagues. Many players in that situation are released and quickly re-signed to a new minor league deal, but that won’t be possible in 2020 due to the fact that players who are removed from a team’s 60-man pool become ineligible to return to that team this season.

Amateur Draft Signings: 6/27/20

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The latest draft signings…

Latest News

  • The Brewers have signed third-rounder Zavier Warren, who made the news official today on his own Twitter feed.  Warren will receive “slightly” less than the $637.6K slot value attached to the 92nd overall pick, Tony Paul of the Detroit News reports (Twitter link).  Milwaukee is also reportedly close to an official agreement with fifth-round pick Hayden Cantrelle, as MLB.com’s Adam McCalvy reports that Cantrelle took his physical earlier this week and will receive a below-slot deal.  Cantrelle’s 151st overall draft position has a $353.7K slot value.  [UPDATE: Cantrelle has signed for $300K, as per Robert Murray]

Earlier Today

  • The Reds inked third-round pick Bryce Bonnin and fifth-rounder Joe Boyle, as reported by Bobby Nightengale of the Cincinnati Enquirer.  Details on Boyle’s bonus aren’t yet known, though Bonnin signed for $700K, per MLB.com’s Jim Callis.  This falls slightly below the $721.9K slot value attached to the 84th overall pick.  Bonnin is a right-handed pitcher from Texas who previously went to the Cubs as a 26th-rounder in 2017. After attending Arkansas, Bonnin transferred to Texas Tech and became their Sunday starter in 2019, helping his club to a 12-1 record on days he took the hill. He finished the year with a 4.08 ERA before struggling over his four starts in 2020 (7.36 ERA).
  • Second-round pick Logan Allen signed yesterday with the Indians, but the financial details of his deal have come in. Allen signed for $1.125MM, a touch below slot ($1,276,400), tweets Callis. Allen was a two-way player in college, but like the Indians’ other Logan Allen, the southpaw’s most likely future is on the hill.
  • The Pirates announced today that they’ve signed fifth-round pick Logan Hofmann, with details first reported by Marc Delucchi and confirmed by Callis. Hofmann will receive a $125K signing bonus, which is under the $402K slot value for the 138th overall selection. Hofmann is a right-handed pitcher from Northwestern State, where he didn’t concede an earned run in 28 IP this spring.
  • The White Sox have signed fifth-rounder Bailey Horn, according to Callis. Horn, a left-handed pitcher from Auburn, will earn $150K, which comes in at less than half of the $386,600 slot value for the 142nd pick. Per Callis, Horn features a four-pitch mix, of which the slider is his best offering. By signing Horn and second-rounder Jared Kelley today, the White Sox now have all five of their draft picks under contract.

White Sox Sign Second-Round Pick Jared Kelley

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The White Sox have agreed to a deal with second-round draft pick Jared Kelley, according to Jonathan Mayo of MLB.com. Kelley, an 18-year-old right-hander from Refugio High School in Texas, will receive a $3MM signing bonus, which comes in well above the $1.58MM slot value for the 47th overall pick.

Despite being chosen in the second round, Kelley by all accounts boasts the talent to warrant a first-round selection, with MLB Pipeline touting Kelley as the 12th-ranked prospect in this year’s draft class. That, along with a commitment to the University of Texas, means that Kelley commands a considerable signing bonus.

Kelley’s a big right-hander with a fastball to match, running the pitch up to 98 with an effortless delivery. The changeup is a surprisingly polished pitch for a high-schooler, and it’s easily his second-best offering. All that said, the biggest question in the way of Kelley’s path to becoming a top-flight Major League starter will be the development of his breaking ball, which is at best an average offering. Even if Kelley fails to develop and quality third pitch, the fastball-changeup combination will be enough to carry him to a high-leverage bullpen role. And while there’s value in that, such an outcome would still be considered a disappointment given Kelley’s high potential.

White Sox Release 5 Players

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The White Sox have released five players – infielders Matt Skole and Ramon Torres, right-hander Zach Putnam, and lefties Caleb Frare and Matt Tomshaw – according to Daryl Van Schouwen of the Chicago Sun-Times. Frare, Skole and Tomshaw spent time in major league camp during the first version of spring training, but the White Sox reassigned them to the minors in March.

The most big league experience in the group belongs to the 32-year-old Putnam, who was rather adept at keeping runs off the board with the White Sox from 2014-17. During that 139 1/3-inning span, he posted a 2.71 ERA/3.34 FIP with 9.62 K/9, 3.62 BB/9 and a 47.6 percent groundball rate. Putnam hasn’t pitched in the majors since then, though, as he underwent Tommy John surgery in 2018 and then, as a member of the Red Sox organization last year, battled a hamstring injury. He returned to the White Sox on a minor league contract in March.

Skole was once a solid prospect with the Nationals, and while he did slash .248/.384/.497 with 21 home runs in 391 plate appearances with the White Sox’s Triple-A team last season, he hasn’t seen much action in the majors. The 30-year-old owns a meager .567 OPS at the game’s highest level in 93 PA. Likewise, Torres, Frare and Tomshaw have shown well at times in the minors, but they haven’t made noteworthy impacts in MLB in their small sample sizes of work (Tomshaw hasn’t reached the majors thus far).

Tim Anderson Changes Agencies

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White Sox shortstop Tim Anderson has hired Klutch Sports for representation, according to Robert Murray. Anderson, who’s celebrating his 27th birthday today, is now part of an agency that also counts the likes of Marcus Stroman, Keston Hiura and Kevin Gausman as clients. MLBTR has made note of his switch in our database.

It may be at least a couple years before Anderson’s new agency negotiates a deal for its latest client. After all, the White Sox could control Anderson for another half-decade. Shortly before the 2017 campaign, they signed Anderson to a six-year, $25MM guarantee with a $12.5MM club option for 2023 and a $14MM team option for the 2024 season.

The extension has worked out well for Chicago, which landed Anderson when it drafted him 17th overall in 2013. Anderson was a 2.0-fWAR player in two of his first three years from 2016-18, but he found another gear a season ago. Despite walking in a paltry 2.9 percent of plate appearances, Anderson slashed .335/.357/.508 (130 wRC+) with 18 home runs, 17 stolen bases and a personal-best 3.5 fWAR over 518 PA en route to an American League batting title.

White Sox Sign Garrett Crochet

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The White Sox announced today that they have signed their first-round draft pick, southpaw Garrett Crochet. He will receive a $4,547,500 signing bonus.

Garrett Crochet (via Andrew Ferguson/Tennessee Athletics)

 

That payday precisely matches the slot value allocated to the eleventh overall selection. The Chicago organization is still working on agreements with fifth-rounder Bailey Horn and second-rounder Jared Kelley, the latter of whom is expected to sign for well north of his slot value.

Crochet is valued for his big left arm. He pumps upper-nineties heat and controls it reasonably well. While his slider and change will both require fine-tuning, there’s said to be some real hope that he could round into a high-grade big-league starter.

If everything doesn’t quite come together? In that case, it still seems reasonable to anticipate that Crochet will be a compelling power arm from the bullpen, perhaps in the sort of multi-inning role he occupied at times at the University of Tennessee.

Most draft pundits (Fangraphs, MLB.com, Baseball America, ESPN.com) graded Crochet as a mid-first round talent. Keith Law of The Athletic acknowledged the upside, but obviously was swayed more by the concerns in grading Crochet as his 39th overall prospect.

Photo courtesy of University of Tennessee athletics department.

The Slow Decline Of A Former Top-3 Pick

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With the third overall pick in the 2014 draft, the Chicago White Sox selected Carlos Rodon out of North Carolina State. Rodon was a consideration for the top overall pick in the draft, but the Astros and Marlins each went with a high school arm in Brady Aiken and Tyler Kolek. As the top college arm in the draft, Rodon came with high expectations and a presupposed shorter timetable for reaching the majors.

Sure enough, it didn’t take Rodon long to reach the majors. He was the second-fastest from the draft class to make his debut, trailing only Brandon Finnegan of the Royals (debuted in September of 2014). Rodon made his debut in 2015, along with other top-10 draft picks from 2014 like Kyle Schwarber of the Cubs, Aaron Nola of the Phillies, and Michael Conforto of the Mets. Rodon came out of the gate hot, going 9-6 in 23 starts with a 3.75 ERA/3.87 FIP.

Rodon has now played parts of five professional seasons with the White Sox, but he has yet to put together a complete campaign. All in all, he’s largely been a disappointment. For his career, he’s 29-31 with a 4.08 ERA/4.25 ERA with 8.8 K/9 versus 3.9 BB/9 across 529 innings. Rodon’s numbers fit comfortably at the back end of a rotation, but the White Sox hoped for much more out of Rodon.

Rodon’s track record cannot be separated from his injury history. A sprained wrist in 2016, biceps bursitis in 2017, shoulder inflammation when he returned in 2017 that bled into the 2018 season, and then Tommy John surgery that ended his 2019 season after just 7 starts. It’s been a rough road since making his debut.

Entering 2020, the 27-year-old Rodon is a legitimate afterthought. He’s lost velocity over the years, with his four-seamer peaking early in his career with a 94.2 mph average and dropping to 91.4 mph over his seven starts of 2019. He’s gone away from the sinker that was his trademark early on, relying more and more on a fastball-slider mix that profiles more like the repertoire of a late-inning reliever. As he returns from Tommy John surgery, it’s hard to know what kind of pitcher Rodon will be.

Because of the delay to the 2020 season, however, he will be healthy and ready to go when/if the seasons starts, per Daryl Van Schouwen of the Chicago Sun-Times. That’s good news for Rodon and the White Sox, though it’s unclear if there’s room for Rodon in the rotation. Lucas Giolito and Dallas Keuchel are locked into the first two spots in the rotation. Gio Gonzalez was given a $5MM contract to do what Rodon hasn’t been able to: provide innings. For the other two rotation spots, Rodon will have to beat out a pair of young arms in Reynaldo Lopez and Dylan Cease.

Lopez, 26, has taken his turn every fifth day for the last two seasons in Chicago, but the results haven’t been tremendous (4.64 ERA/4.83 FIP) – and he’s just a year younger than Rodon. Cease, 24, made his debut last year and struggled, but he remains a promising, hard-throwing righty. They’re slotted into the rotation for now, but there’s never been more uncertainty heading into a season than we face in 2020. Rodon could very well push for a rotation slot, but his future is no longer guaranteed. Michael Kopech could also join the fray, as Van Schouwen notes that the former Red Sox farmhand should be recovered from his own Tommy John surgery.

The fact is, the rotation is the biggest question mark of the White Sox roster heading into 2020 – despite the high-ceiling potential therein. Given the bizarre circumstances of the current climate, the bigger question is how much rope Chicago will give their young arms. With a shortened season and expanded playoffs, the White Sox have increased expectations. Fans will expect the Southsiders to join the crowded playoff field. To that end, the early games will matter like never before. A guy returning from injury like Rodon won’t have the leeway to round himself into shape. What’s worse, he might not have minor league games to provide that extra runway either.

If Rodon can come back as effective as pre-surgery, he won’t be the ace that some imagined, but he can hang in a rotation. Whether he’ll get that opportunity in Chicago is unclear. Injuries take their toll, and Rodon has been through the wringer. Whether through side sessions or spring training 2.0, Rodon will have to prove he’s ready to contribute.

If the season takes place, Rodon will have just one more season of arbitration eligibility before reaching free agency, and the White Sox will have to decide whether it’s worth giving him a raise on the $4.45MM (full-scale rate) he’s due in 2020. Rodon is still young enough to turn things around in Chicago, but the injuries are piling up, and time is running out.

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