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White Sox Open To Offers On Luis Robert, Garrett Crochet

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The White Sox are baseball’s worst team by a long shot and seemed to acknowledge that likelihood even before the season began when they traded Dylan Cease to the Padres in spring training. San Diego is already reportedly interested in yet another Sox pitcher, lefty Garrett Crochet, and ESPN’s Jeff Passan reports that the Sox are open to offers not only on Crochet but on center fielder Luis Robert Jr. Passan categorizes the ChiSox as “open for business” and lists Robert, Crochet, Erick Fedde and virtually all of the team’s short-term veterans as players who could be moved between now and the trade deadline.

Fedde, Tommy Pham, Paul DeJong, Mike Clevinger, John Brebbia, Tim Hill and other players who aren’t signed long-term — Fedde is signed through next season, the others are all free agents this winter — all stood as obvious trade candidates to begin with. I wrote about Fedde’s trade candidacy for MLBTR Front Office subscribers a couple weeks back. DeJong recently said on 670 The Score in Chicago that he and Pham both fully expect to be traded. That anyone from that group is viewed as likely to change hands is only logical.

Names like Robert and Crochet being available is far less certain, even for a rebuilding club like the Sox, given the amount of club control each has remaining. In Robert’s case, he’s signed through the 2027 season in the form of a $12.5MM salary this season, a $15MM salary in 2025 and a pair of club options valued at $20MM apiece (both with a $2MM buyout). Crochet entered the 2024 campaign with three years of big league service, meaning he’s in his first arbitration season and has another pair of seasons of club control beyond 2024.

It bears emphasizing that the Sox being “open” to offers or “willing to trade” either player is far different from the team actively shopping said players. That open-minded approach is also far from a guarantee that either will be moved. The substantial control remaining beyond the current season means Chicago GM Chris Getz will set an enormous asking price on both players, and both will still retain tremendous trade value into the offseason and even into next year’s deadline if a deal doesn’t come together this summer.

Robert, still just 26 years old, returned from the injured list yesterday after an absence of nearly two months. He suffered a Grade 2 strain of his hip flexor early in the season and was sidelined for the bulk of April and the entirety of May. He wasted little time in reminding the type of impact he brings to a game, going 2-for-4 with a homer in his return effort. The Cuban-born five-tool standout has played in only eight games and taken just 33 plate appearances this season but carries a .250/.273/.594 batting line with three homers.

Last year saw Robert take his always tantalizing game to new heights. The dynamic center fielder stayed healthy for a career-high 145 games and posted a stout .264/.315/.542 batting line with a career-high 38 home runs, 36 doubles, a triple and 20 stolen bases (in 24 tries). Robert ranked in the 84th percentile of MLB players in terms of sprint speed, per Statcast, and was among the league leaders in barrel rate. He’s a premium outfield defender with plus range and an above-average arm — evidenced both by gaudy Statcast percentile rankings and by career marks of +13 Defensive Runs Saved and +24 Outs Above Average in 3116 innings of work.

Durability and an over-aggressive approach at the plate are the primary knocks on Robert, who is two months into his fifth MLB season and already has five career IL placements for injury (plus another shorter stay on the Covid-related injured list). Robert played in 56 of 60  games during his rookie showing in the Covid-shortened 2020 season, but he logged just 68 and 98 games in 2021 and 2022, respectively, and he could finish the 2024 season with fewer than 100 games played as well, thanks to one already lengthy absence. He’s now had significant strains of his left and right hip flexors, in addition to an MCL sprain and a wrist strain in his career.

In terms of Robert’s approach at the plate, the results are strong so it’s hard to be too critical. But Robert rarely walks (career 5.3%) and chases pitches off the plate more than nearly any player in the sport. Since his 2020 debut, only Salvador Perez, Harold Ramirez and Javier Baez swing at more balls out of the strike zone than Robert’s massive 46.3% (at least among qualified hitters). His 54.6% contact rate on such swings is well below average, and his career 83.2% contact rate on pitches in the strike zone is also a couple points south of par. It hasn’t led to an exorbitant strikeout rate just yet — Robert has fanned in 25.5% of his career plate appearances — but it’s a less-than-ideal trend that could worsen if Robert loses what Statcast currently measures as elite bat speed (seventh fastest in the majors, on average).

There’s little precedent for a player of this quality with this level of affordability and team control being traded. Robert is owed just under $8MM through season’s end as of this writing plus another $45MM over the next three seasons. Three-and-a-half years of an MVP-caliber talent at a maximum rate of $63MM is a raucous bargain by today’s contractual standards. Teams may be wary of Robert’s injury history and free-swinging ways, but he’s signed for the remainder of his 20s and would be a legitimately franchise-altering deadline acquisition if a team can put together an impressive enough trade offer. Robert might not quite command the type of haul the Padres sent to the Nats for Juan Soto a couple years back, but he’s closer to that level of value than the standard deadline trade candidates. Getz alluded to as much in the offseason, calling Robert “one of the best players in baseball” and noting that he was a “difficult player to trade.”

There are similarities, in terms of trade value, when it comes to Crochet. It’s rare to see a high-end pitcher with two and a half seasons of club control traded at the deadline. Crochet is extra appealing given that his injuries and former role in the bullpen have tamped down his first-year arbitration price. He’s being paid only $800K this season. He’ll be due a pair of notable raises in each of the next two offseasons but still isn’t likely to command even $15MM in salary over those two years.

The 24-year-old Crochet’s transition from reliever to starter hit a brief snag with a trio of rough outings in mid-April, but he’s on an absolute tear right now and looks the part of a frontline starter, as one might expect for a former first-round talent who has long been touted to have ace upside. In 13 starts, Crochet is sitting on a 3.49 earned run average with vastly better fielding-independent marks (2.87 FIP, 2.48 SIERA). That’s due largely to his elite strikeout and walk numbers; Crochet has punched out 33.7% of his opponents against just a 5.4% walk rate — all while keeping the ball on the ground at an above-average 45.9% clip and averaging a blazing 96.9 mph on his heater.

Since that set of consecutive rough outings in April, Crochet has been on another planet. Arguably baseball’s best pitcher in that time, he’s logged a 1.35 ERA with a 53-to-7 K/BB ratio over his past 40 innings. Crochet allowed five, seven and five earned runs in his run of three straight rocky April outings. He’s yielded two or fewer runs in each of his ten other starts this season.

Rival clubs might be wary of how well he’ll hold up over the course of a full season in the rotation. It’s a fair qualm, as Crochet pitched just 25 innings last season and didn’t pitch at all in 2022 while recovering from Tommy John surgery. This year’s 69 2/3 innings are already a new career-high for the lefty, who entered 2024 with only 85 1/3 professional innings total (majors and minors combined). That said, even if there are concerns about Crochet fading down the stretch, there’s considerable long-term upside, as one would imagine the effects of a full starter’s workload will be more normalized for him in 2025 and 2026. If he wears down later this year, he’s also quite familiar with pitching in short relief.

Any trepidation about how he’ll hold up this year hasn’t stopped the Padres from reaching out to the White Sox. They’ve reportedly inquired on the lefty and have strong interest in him, which makes sense given not only Crochet’s dominance and San Diego’s need for arms, but also his minimal salary and the Friars’ relative proximity to the luxury tax barrier. Adding one of the game’s most dominant pitchers while barely even advancing your luxury tax line ought to hold overwhelming appeal for the majority of the team’s highest-spending clubs. At the same time, Crochet’s minimal salary also makes him appealing to small-market clubs with payroll concerns. Short of the innings worries, he’s an ideal trade target.

Because of that, the asking price on Crochet figures to be extreme, just as it will be with Robert. If Getz and his team genuinely make both available and play some bidders against one another, the Sox could genuinely overhaul the entire farm system with this pair of trades — to say nothing of deals involving Fedde, Pham and the other previously mentioned veterans. It’s going to take an enormous package of prospects to pry either player from the Sox, but with widespread mediocrity permeating the National League and leaving few teams in position to truly wave the white flag on the 2024 season, it could be a seller’s market. There’s no salvaging this lost season for the South Siders, but getting one or both of these trades right could wildly accelerate their rebuilding efforts.

Padres Showing Strong Interest In Garrett Crochet

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The Padres are showing strong interest in left-hander Garrett Crochet of the White Sox, per a report from Dennis Lin and Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. The report cautions that no deal is imminent but it also states that the Friars have been the most aggressive club in pursuing Crochet.

Significant trades are fairly rare at this time of the year, with the trade deadline still almost two months away. However, there are reasons why it’s not so far-fetched with these two clubs. The two sides already lined up on a notable deal at an odd time not too long ago, when the Sox sent Dylan Cease to the Padres in the middle of March, just as the season was about to begin. Each club has also made a noteworthy trade since that time, with the Sox sending Robbie Grossman to the Rangers in early May and the Padres acquiring Luis Arráez from the Marlins around the same time.

For the Sox, they have been aggressively rebuilding for about a year now, selling off just about any player nearing free agency. For the Padres, it’s a part of their general modus operandi, as president of baseball operations A.J. Preller seems to have a strong will to explore all possible avenues for upgrading the club even if those overtures fall outside of standard operating procedure.

But there are also reasons why a deal may not get done. Crochet is in a very unique situation, which makes him less straightforward than other players the Sox have traded. He is still quite young, only 24 years old, turning 25 later this month. He is still under club control for two more years after this one and is only making $800K this year. That’s a reflection of both his quick ascent to the majors and his injury troubles, as he was in the big leagues by his age-21 season but has missed significant time and hasn’t been able to push his salary up.

The Sox put Crochet in the bullpen when they first called him up, an understandable move at the time given his youth and lack of experience. But he then required Tommy John surgery in April of 2022, which prevented him from pitching at all in 2022 and limited him to just 13 appearances last year.

His time spent on the injured list allowed him to reach arbitration in the most recent offseason, but the lengthy absence meant that he barely pushed his salary above the $740K league minimum. Despite a fairly limited innings tally, the Sox decided to stretch him out this year and the results have been excellent. Crochet has thrown 69 2/3 innings over his 13 starts this year, allowing 3.49 earned runs per nine innings. He has struck out 33.7% of batters faced, limited walks to a 5.4% clip and also gotten grounders on 45.2% of balls in play.

For the Sox, they suddenly seem to have an ace on their hands, one who is still young and cheap and doesn’t have a ton on mileage on his arm. But on the other hand, his early promotion and Tommy John layoff means that he’s getting close-ish to free agency. Given the state of the Sox, it’s hard to imagine them returning to contention in the time frame of his club control, as their current record of 15-45 is easily the worst in the league.

Signing Crochet to an extension would be one way to avoid the trade path, but the lefty would have to agree to that. Thanks to his early call-up, he’s currently slated to reach free agency shortly after his 27th birthday, a rarely young age that could leave him well positioned to cash in a couple of years from now. The most recent offseason was rough for a lot of players, as many of them had to settle for deals well below expectations. But two players who blew past predictions were Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Jung Hoo Lee, both of whom were 25 years old.

If that leaves the Sox open to a trade, the time to do it is now when Crochet’s value is highest. By the offseason, they will only be able to market two postseason runs instead of three, while Crochet’s salary will also increase via arbitration.

But whether the Padres can pull off such a trade is another question, something that Lin and Rosenthal highlight in their report. The Friars have traded away many prospects in recent years, including in the aforementioned deals for Cease and Arráez, as well as for Juan Soto, Josh Hader, Sean Manaea and others. Per today’s report, the Sox would probably need to bring back a significant position player in any Crochet deal. The report mentions prospects Ethan Salas and Leodalis De Vries as possibilities but adds that the Padres are reluctant to part with either of those two in a Crochet deal.

Whether a deal can be done remains to be seen, but it’s understandable why the Padres are sniffing around for starting pitching. They recently put Joe Musgrove and Yu Darvish on the injured list, subtracting two of their most established starters. They still have Cease, but the rotation gets flimsy after that. Michael King was mostly a reliever until about a year ago and is still in the process of cementing himself as a big league starter. Matt Waldron and Randy Vásquez each have less than 105 major league innings pitched in their respective careers while Adam Mazur is going to be called up to make his major league debut this week.

Despite the rotation struggles, the club is currently 32-31 and holding onto a Wild Card spot. Proactively acquiring Crochet or any starting pitcher now, as opposed to waiting until the deadline in late July, could help the club stay afloat in what is shaping up to be a very competitive National League playoff race.

White Sox Activate Luis Robert, Place Tommy Pham On IL, Designate Zach Remillard

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The White Sox announced a series of roster moves today, reinstating outfielder Luis Robert Jr. from the injured list, recalling outfielder Zach DeLoach and selecting the contract of outfielder Duke Ellis. In corresponding moves, outfielders Tommy Pham and Dominic Fletcher have each landed on the 10-day injured list, Pham due to a left ankle sprain and Fletcher due to a left shoulder strain. Both moves are retroactive to June 3. The Sox also designated infielder Zach Remillard for assignment. James Fegan of Sox Machine reported the Ellis news on X earlier today.

Robert returns to the roster after missing nearly two months with a Grade 2 strain of his right hip flexor. He hit .214/.241/.500 in 29 plate appearances before sustaining the injury while legging out a ninth-inning double. It’s a suboptimal way to kick off his follow-up to last year’s sensational year, which saw the five-tool standout bat .264/.315/.542 with 38 homers, 20 steals and plus center field defense in a career-high 145 games.

The return of Robert will add some direly needed talent to a White Sox club that has overwhelmingly been the worst in MLB this year. Chicago’s .250 winning percentage is miles behind the 29th-ranked Marlins’ mark of .350. The ChiSox are slam-dunk sellers at this year’s trade deadline, and if healthy, Robert will command plenty of attention himself. However, he’s signed at a bargain rate through the 2027 season, and trading a player with MVP-caliber talent and three-plus seasons of club control left is almost unheard of. Other clubs will surely make an effort, but it would likely take one of the largest trade returns in recent MLB history for the Sox to make the move.

Pham, 36, is a far more logical trade candidate. If healthy, he’s perhaps the single most obvious and likely player in all of MLB to be moved leading up to the deadline. The 11-year veteran is playing on a $3MM base salary on his one-year deal and is out to a strong .280/.331/.402 start to his season (110 wRC+). He posted a similar .256/.328/.446 line in 481 plate appearances between the Mets and D-backs a season ago. Pham may not have the speed or power he possessed in his late 20s and early 30s, but he remains a talented hitter who can capably handle the outfield corners (even if he’s been miscast as a center fielder in Chicago with Robert on the injured list).

Fletcher, acquired in an offseason trade that sent pitching prospect Cristian Mena to the D-backs, has managed only a .173/.253/.227 output in 84 plate appearances. That pales in comparison to last year’s .301/.350/.441 showing in his MLB debut effort with Arizona. The Sox briefly optioned him to Charlotte but recalled him recently after he hit .238/.319/.405 in 11 games. For a 26-year-old whom the Sox hoped could be a controllable piece for them, Fletcher has received curiously sparse playing time since his recall. Manager Pedro Grifol has given Fletcher just 18 plate appearances over the past three weeks, during which he’s collected only one hit.

Ellis, 26, is hitting .258/.341/.308 (102 wRC+) in 39 Double-A games this season but has already racked up an enormous 34 stolen bases. Opponents have managed to catch him only one time thus far. Throughout his minor league career, he’s turned in worrying strikeout rates and displayed minimal power (career-high eight homers), but he’s also swiped 117 bases with an 88.9% success rate. Though he’s not considered one of the White Sox’ top prospects, Ellis clearly possesses high-end speed.

The Padres selected Ellis out of high school with their 20th-round pick in 2017, but he instead opted to attend Panola College in Carthage, Texas. He’d have been eligible for the 2020 draft, but that year’s event was shortened to five rounds during the pandemic-impacted season. He wound up signing with the White Sox as an undrafted free agent and has steadily climbed their ranks.

This will be the second DFA of the season for Remillard, who made his MLB debut as a 29-year-old rookie last season. He’s hit .250/.304/.322 in 199 big league plate appearances since that time but has struggled to a lifeless .114/.192/.157 slash in 19 Triple-A games this year. He cleared waivers and accepted an outright assignment to Charlotte following his last DFA and is a candidate to do so a second time.

White Sox Place Andrew Benintendi On 10-Day Injured List

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Prior to today’s game, the White Sox placed outfielder Andrew Benintendi on the 10-day injured list today due to left achilles tendinitis.  Oscar Colas was called up from Triple-A to take Benintendi’s roster spot, as Francys Romero was the first to report (via X) yesterday.

It seemed likely that Benintendi was headed for the IL after he was removed early from yesterday’s game.  Sox manager Pedro Grifol revealed to reporters that Benintendi had been playing with the injury for a while, and though the outfielder even homered prior to his early exit Saturday, the discomfort just became too much for Benintendi to bear.

The IL placement is yet another bad turn in Benintendi’s star-crossed tenure with the White Sox.  He signed a five-year, $75MM free agent deal with Chicago in the 2022-23 offseason, but then hit only .262/.326/.356 over 621 plate appearances last year.  The follow-up has been even worse, as Benintendi’s .195/.230/.284 slash line over 200 PA in 2024 has given him the lowest fWAR (-1.6) of any qualified player in baseball.  While there are still over three and a half years remaining on Benintendi’s deal, the largest contract in White Sox history is already looking like an albatross, which isn’t great news for a rebuilding Sox team that will be trying to move as much veteran talent as possible in order to reload with younger players.

Colas was in today’s starting lineup against the Brewers, and he has appeared in one other MLB game this season (a pinch-hit appearance in Chicago’s 7-6 loss to Cleveland on April 10).  The outfielder has otherwise spent the season at Triple-A Charlotte, hitting .244/.358/.406 with five home runs over 193 PA.  It seems possible that this could be another cup of coffee type of promotion for Colas, as Luis Robert Jr. is expected to be activated from the injured list this coming week, and possibly as early as Tuesday when the White Sox next take the field.

Then again, Colas’ time in the Show could also be elongated depending on Andrew Vaughn’s status, as Vaughn has missed Chicago’s last three games.  Vaughn hasn’t played since spraining his left ring finger while sliding into a base on Wednesday, and manager Pedro Grifol told MLB.com and other media that the plan was to see how Vaughn felt after 3-5 days of rest.  If Vaughn still isn’t showing improvement on Tuesday, he might go on the IL himself (with three days of backdated placement) if Robert is ready to be activated.

Vaughn is unfortunately not far ahead of Benintendi, as Vaughn’s -0.8 fWAR is the fourth-worst of any qualified player.  The former third overall pick had a 107 wRC+ and a .264/.317/.429 slash line over 1170 PA during the 2022-23 seasons, but he has taken a big step backwards with a .199/.264/.313 slash and four homers in his first 220 trips to the plate this year.  Gavin Sheets has been filling in at first base in Vaughn’s absence.

White Sox Outright Sammy Peralta

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The White Sox announced Thursday that left-hander Sammy Peralta, who was designated for assignment Tuesday, went unclaimed on waivers and has been assigned outright to Triple-A Charlotte.

It’s been a rollercoaster season for Peralta, whom the White Sox originally designated for assignment back on March 28 when setting their Opening Day roster. The Mariners claimed him off waivers and sent him to Triple-A Tacoma, where he was tagged for 13 runs in 12 2/3 innings of work. Seattle designated him for assignment over the weekend, at which point the White Sox claimed him back … only to again DFA him just two days later. This time, Peralta passed through waivers and will now remain in the Sox organization as a depth option in Charlotte.

Peralta, 26, made his big league debut with the Sox last season. In 20 innings he posted a 4.05 ERA with a 20% strikeout rate, 12.2% walk rate and 39.3% ground-ball rate. Peralta posted strong run-prevention numbers and big strikeout rates up through the Double-A level as he climbed through Chicago’s system following his 18th-round selection in the 2019 draft, but he’s been hit hard in 87 Triple-A frames (5.65 ERA) and had uncharacteristic struggles with his command dating back to last year’s initial MLB call-up.

White Sox Place Mike Clevinger On IL Due To Elbow Inflammation

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White Sox announced that right-hander Mike Clevinger has been placed on the 15-day injured list due to right elbow inflammation, retroactive to May 25. Fellow righty Jake Woodford has been selected to the roster and will start tonight’s game in Clevinger’s place. Left-hander Sammy Peralta has been designated for assignment to open a 40-man spot for Woodford. Daryl Van Schouwen of the Chicago Sun-Times was among those to relay the Clevinger and Woodford on X prior to the official announcement.

Since Clevinger is being scratched just hours before his schedule start, it seems fair to conclude that it’s something that popped up recently. He tossed 4 2/3 innings in his most recent start, finishing with 98 pitches thrown that day. He says he has received a cortisone shot and will be shut down for 48 hours, per Van Schouwen on X. The righty expects to return after the 15-day minimum is up.

Clevinger underwent Tommy John surgery in 2020 and hasn’t quite been the same pitcher since. He had a 3.19 ERA in his career before going under the knife but has a 4.20 mark since then. He had a 27.3% strikeout rate prior to the surgery but has punched out just 19.4% of batters faced after.

He lingered in free agency this winter and didn’t land a deal until the Sox signed him in early April to a modest one-year deal with a $3MM guarantee. He went to the minors to build up his workload and was recalled in early May. The Sox were likely hoping for him to stabilized the rotation a bit by eating some innings and perhaps turning himself into a midseason trade candidate. That plan hasn’t worked out so far, as he has a 6.75 ERA through four starts and is now going on the injured list for at least a short spell.

The Sox have traded away many of their starters in recent years as part of their ongoing rebuild, including Dylan Cease, Lance Lynn and Lucas Giolito. This year, some of the guys they have tried have not worked out. Michael Soroka has been moved to the bullpen while Brad Keller was bumped off the roster entirely.

The Sox are left with a rotation core consisting of Garrett Crochet, Erick Fedde, Chris Flexen and Nick Nastrini. Crochet and Fedde have pitched well but Crochet will likely hit some kind of workload limit eventually, given how little he’s pitched in previous seasons. Fedde is on a two-year deal and will be a trade candidate this summer. Flexen is an impending free agent and would be a logical trade candidate as well, though his 5.69 ERA this year doesn’t give him massive appeal at the moment.

For now, Woodford will step in and make at least one start for the club. The 27-year-old was signed to a minor league deal in the offseason and has been pitching in Triple-A this year. He has logged 49 2/3 innings in his ten starts with a 5.26 ERA, 19.6% strikeout rate, 7.9% walk rate and 40.9% ground ball rate.

Prior to this year, he spent his entire career with the Cardinals. He threw 184 2/3 innings over the past four seasons with a 4.29 ERA. His 47.3% ground ball rate in that time was solid but his 15.1% strikeout rate well below par. He exhausted his option years in that stretch with St. Louis and they non-tendered him at the end of last season, which led to his deal with the Sox.

Since he’s out of options, the Sox will have to keep him on the active roster or else remove him from the 40-man entirely. If he manages to last on the roster all year, he can be retained beyond this season via arbitration. He came into 2024 with his service time count at three years and 48 days. If the club needs another starter down the line, Jonathan Cannon is on the 40-man but tossed six innings on Sunday. He wouldn’t have been available today but will perhaps get consideration going forward. Chad Kuhl and Touki Toussaint are non-roster options with some major league experience.

Peralta, 26, was just claimed off waivers from the Mariners two days ago. That brought him back to his original organization, as the Sox drafted him back in 2019 but lost him to the M’s off waivers in April of this year.

He made 16 appearances for the Sox last year with a 4.05 ERA in 20 innings. He struck out 20% of batters faced and walked 12.2%. With Triple-A Tacoma this year, he had a 9.24 ERA in 12 2/3 innings. His 20% strikeout rate and 13.3% walk rate with Tacoma were quite similar to last year’s major league work, but three home runs, a .361 batting average on balls in play and 57.7% strand rate pushed some extra runs across the plate.

The Sox were clearly still intrigued by their old friend and tried to bring him back, but the need for a roster spot nudged him off in short order. They will now have one week to trade him or pass him through waivers. He can still be optioned for the rest of this year and one more season as well. In the minor leagues in 2022, he tossed 62 innings with a 3.77 ERA, 29.2% strikeout rate, 8.5% walk rate and got grounders on roughly half the balls in play he allowed.

White Sox Claim Sammy Peralta Off Waivers From Mariners

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The White Sox announced this afternoon that they’ve claimed left-hander Sammy Peralta off waivers from the Mariners and optioned him to Triple-A. The White Sox had an open space on their 40-man roster, so no corresponding move was necessary to bring Peralta into the fold.

Peralta, 26, returns to the south side of Chicago just a few weeks after being claimed off waivers from the club by Seattle. An 18th-round pick by the White Sox in the 2019 draft, Peralta ascended the minor league ladder to arrive in the big leagues with the club in 2023. In 16 appearances with the big league White Sox last year, the lefty pitched to a solid 4.05 ERA with a 4.41 FIP in 20 innings of work. While he struck out a decent 20% of batters faced during his time in the big leagues, control was a problem for the lefty as he surrendered free passes to 12.2% of his opponents. In 69 innings of work at the Triple-A level last year, Peralta managed to keep his walks to a minimum but had a problem with the home run ball, resulting in an ugly 5.09 ERA across his 29 appearances at the level that year.

Peralta’s lackluster minor league numbers and worrisome big league peripherals were enough to make him expendable for the White Sox as they sorted through their Opening Day roster crunch, and he was designated for assignment to make room for right-hander Jordan Leasure on the 40-man roster. That led the Mariners to claim him off waivers and stash him at the Triple-A level, but Peralta struggled to a 9.24 ERA in 12 appearances with the club and quickly found himself squeezed out of the organization in favor of righty Eduardo Salazar.

Fortunately for Peralta, the roster crunch in Chicago had lessened over the first two months of the season, and the club was able to add him back to their 40-man roster when the Mariners once again exposed him to the waiver wire. As such, he’s now set to return to his first MLB organization and act as optionable depth for the club capable of pitching multiple innings out of the bullpen alongside Prelander Berroa. Tim Hill, Tanner Banks, and Jared Shuster currently occupy the club’s bullpen as options from the left-hand side.

White Sox Notes: Robert, Trades, Ramos, Leone

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Luis Robert Jr. began a minor league rehab assignment this week with two games in the Arizona Complex League, and the outfielder will soon be headed to Triple-A Charlotte, White Sox manager Pedro Grifol told MLB.com and other media.  “He’ll have that Minor League day off on Monday, get a workout in and then he’ll start playing his Charlotte games on Tuesday,” Grifol said.  “We’ll see after that.  I think probably by the middle of next week or something like that, he’ll be cleared with his leg, and then it becomes [at-bats] and timing and stuff like that.”

While there’s still some fluidity within this timeline, it does seem like Robert is perhaps a week or so away from returning to Chicago’s lineup.  Robert suffered a Grade 2 hip flexor strain in the first week of April, and given his past history of hip injuries, there was an initial concern that Robert could be facing an extended layoff — another flexor strain cost Robert almost three months of the 2021 season.  However, this latest injury ended up being less serious, and Robert appears to be on pace with the six-week recovery timeline that GM Chris Getz floated in mid-April.

Injuries have been a dominant theme of Robert’s MLB career, though the outfielder’s star potential has been evident whenever he has been able to take the field.  Robert hit .264/.315/.542 with 38 homers and 20 steals over a career-high 595 plate appearances and 145 games last season, finally staying healthy long enough to deliver a top-quality season.  Between his offensive production and solid defense, Robert generated 4.9 fWAR in 2023, a number topped by only 16 position players in all of baseball.

Assuming that Robert returns soon and continues this good form, more trade rumors will inevitably surface as the deadline approaches.  As per the terms of the contract extension he signed with the Sox prior to his MLB debut, Robert is owed roughly $8.6MM for the remainder of this season, $15MM in 2025, and then the White Sox have club options on his services for both 2026 and 2027 (each worth $20MM with a $2MM buyout).

The rebuilding Sox have no bigger trade chip than Robert, though Getz didn’t sound too motivated to move Robert when asked about his availability last offseason.  In comments to Kyle Williams of the Chicago Sun-Times and other reporters yesterday, Getz again signaled that the White Sox are generally open for business on everyone, but “some players on the team that I think make a little more sense than others” to be dealt by the deadline.

“We’re open on players on our club just because we know we’ve got to make strides to get back to being a competitive team here in the AL Central,” Getz said.  “We’ve got our pro scouts monitoring other clubs’ prospects closely….The minor leagues are the strongest avenue to improve your Major League club.  We are excited about what we are building at the minor league level, and we are going to look for opportunities to add to our group.  We look forward to July and the opportunity to insert more talent into our group.”

Getz will surely be looking for a premium return in any Robert trade, which could impact the outfielder’s chances of being moved at the deadline or perhaps in the offseason.  If questions about Robert’s health persist among potential suitors, Getz could hang onto Robert in the hopes that two more healthy and productive months throughout the remainder of the 2024 campaign would help clear any doubts about his readiness.  Waiting until the winter could also open up Robert’s trade market to more teams, even though his added years of contractual control means that his deadline market wouldn’t necessarily be limited just to this season’s contenders.

Even if the White Sox don’t pull the trigger on swapping Robert, there are plenty of other players up and down the roster that might traded by the July 30 deadline in a variety of big and little deals.  A veteran rental reliever like Dominic Leone could be a natural candidate to be moved in a low-level transaction, yet Leone’s trade value is pretty minimal right now after another trip to the injured list.

Chicago placed Leone on the 15-day IL yesterday (with a retroactive placement date of May 21) due to inflammation in his throwing elbow.  That placement came almost immediately after another 15-day IL stint due to back tightness, and Leone made just one in-game appearance in between those two stops on the injured list.  Grifol expressed hope that Leone would again be able to return after just the minimum 15 days, as “everything came back clean and clear” on Leone’s elbow after testing.

Beyond just the injury problems, Leone also has a 7.04 ERA over 15 1/3 innings.  His career-long troubles with the home run ball have again surfaced, as the right-hander has allowed four homers over his 15 1/3 frames, as well as an ungainly 15.7% walk rate.  It thus far hasn’t been remotely the bounce-back Leone was hoping for after he joined the White Sox on a minor league deal this past winter, coming off a 4.67 ERA in 54 combined innings with the Mets, Angels, and Mariners in 2023.

The White Sox called up righty Justin Anderson from Triple-A as the corresponding move for Leone yesterday, and brought another familiar face back to the active roster today when third baseman Bryan Ramos was reinstated from the 10-day IL.  Outfielder Zach DeLoach was optioned to Triple-A to create roster space for Ramos, who will miss just a minimum amount of time after being sidelined with a left quad strain.

Before the injury, Ramos hit .281/.294/.344 over the first 34 plate appearances of his big league career.  Ramos was receiving everyday work at third base and should resume that role upon his return, as the White Sox seem eager to explore his potential as a possible third baseman of the future.  The Sox promoted Ramos to the big league straight from Double-A, and Ramos hadn’t received any Triple-A playing time until two games with Charlotte during his just-completed minor league rehab assignment.

Grifol: Eloy Jiménez To Miss “Extended Period Of Time”

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7:05pm: On the broadcast of tonight’s game, general manager Chris Getz said Jiménez would miss a month or so, as relayed by Scott Merkin of MLB.com on X.

5:40pm: White Sox manager Pedro Grifol spoke with members of the media today, with Daryl Van Schouwen of the Chicago Sun-Times relaying video on X. Grifol relayed the latest on slugger Eloy Jiménez, which wasn’t great news. “He beat it up pretty good,” Grifol said of Jiménez’s left hamstring. “Exactly how much time, I mean, who knows? But it will be an extended period of time.”

Jiménez, 27, landed on the injured list yesterday due to a left hamstring strain, the latest in what has become a mounting injury track record. Although this is his sixth season in the big leagues, he has never played more than 122 games in a season. He’s only reached 85 games twice and has only gone beyond 55 games three times. He has gone on the injured list due to a high right ankle sprain, a right ulnar nerve contusion, a left adductor strain, a ruptured left pectoral tendon, an appendectomy, a torn hamstring tendon and multiple left hamstring strains.

When healthy enough to take the field, he has shown himself to possess a potent bat. He has 94 home runs in just under 2,000 plate appearances in his career and has slashed .271/.321/.479 for a wRC+ of 116. But the missed time due to injuries has often prevented him from providing that kind of offense to the Sox on a consistent basis.

Before even making his major league debut, the Sox signed Jiménez to a six-year, $43MM extension for the 2019-24 seasons. That deal also has two options for 2025 and 2026, respectively valued at $16.5MM and $18.5MM, each with a $3MM buyout.

The Sox were rebuilding at the time of that deal and hoped to be opening a new competitive window. They ended up making the postseason in 2020 and 2021, remarkably the first time the franchise made the playoffs in consecutive years, but the window slammed shut after that. The Sox fell to .500 in 2022 and then slid even farther last year, kicking off yet another rebuild.

The club was undoubtedly hoping for a strong season here in 2024 so they could trade him this summer, now that he’s in the final guaranteed season of his contract, but an extended absence will make that even less likely.

As of January, the club was reportedly finding little trade interest in Jiménez, surely on account of his increasing health issues and his diminished performance more recently. He hit .276/.327/.504 from 2019 to 2022 but has hit just .263/.310/.427 since the start of 2023, the latter line translating to a wRC+ of 102. Since Jiménez doesn’t really steal bases nor play the field well, he really needs to hit, especially with his contract.

The timeline on Jiménez is still vague, but with the trade deadline now just over two months away, the Sox may be squeezed out of finding a trade partner. Even if Jiménez is back and healthy a few weeks before the deadline, his ongoing injury problems will tamp down the interest from other clubs.

For the same reasons that the trade interest may be muted, it’s possible that the clock is ticking on his tenure with the White Sox. In the most recent offseason, bat-first players like Justin Turner, Joc Pederson and J.D. Martinez signed one-year deals for less than the value of Jiménez’s 2025 option. Even Teoscar Hernández, whose career offense is roughly comparable to that of Jiménez but with more speed and defensive ability, had to settle for one-year and $23.5MM with a decent chunk deferred.

That may have the Sox leaning towards turning down their 2025 option, since it would appear to be above market value for a defensively-limited slugger, especially one with the recent track record that Jiménez has. That will be a decision for the future. For now, he and the club will be focused on getting him healthy to see how things go in the latter parts of the season.

Brad Keller Elects Free Agency

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Right-hander Brad Keller has elected free agency after going unclaimed on outright waivers, tweets Daryl Van Schouwen of the Chicago Sun-Times. The White Sox had designated him for assignment on Sunday.

Keller signed a minor league pact with Chicago about halfway into Spring Training. He made three starts for their Triple-A team before being called up in late April. He started two of five appearances at the major league level, pitching to a 4.86 ERA through 16 2/3 innings. Three of Keller’s first four outings were solid, but he gave up four homers in as many innings against the Yankees on Saturday. The Sox decided to go in a different direction, eventually recalling rookie right-hander Nick Nastrini to take the rotation spot.

The 28-year-old Keller has pitched in parts of seven major league seasons. All of that time has been spent in the AL Central. The Royals plucked him out of the Arizona farm system as a Rule 5 pick back in 2017. Keller turned out to be one of the better Rule 5 selections in recent history. He posted a 3.08 ERA as a rookie and turned in 28 starts of 4.19 ERA ball during his second season. His results have fallen off following a strong showing in the abbreviated 2020 season.

Keller allowed more than five earned runs per nine in both 2021 and ’22. He was carrying a 4.57 mark with 14 more walks than strikeouts through 45 1/3 innings last year when he was diagnosed with thoracic outlet syndrome. Kansas City let him walk in free agency last winter.

Teams seeking rotation depth could offer Keller a minor league deal. While his recent production hasn’t been great, he’s still adept at keeping the ball on the ground. He racked up grounders at a 56.1% clip during his brief run with the Sox. He has only had one season where opponents got the ball in the air more than half the time they put it in play against him.

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