White Sox Claim Sammy Peralta Off Waivers From Mariners
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
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”
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
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.
White Sox Recall Zach DeLoach For MLB Debut
2:30pm: The White Sox have officially recalled DeLoach and right-hander Nick Nastrini, with the promotion of the latter reported on yesterday. In corresponding moves, Jimenez has been placed on the 10-day IL with a left hamstring strain and right-hander Steven Wilson lands on the 15-day IL due to a back strain, the latter retroactive to May 20.
9:10am: The White Sox are set to recall outfielder Zach DeLoach for his big league debut prior to today’s game against the Blue Jays, reports Francys Romero, who notes that DeLoach is coming up in light of Eloy Jimenez‘s injury. The Sox DH suffered a strained left hamstring last night, and the promotion of DeLoach likely points to another IL stint for the frequently injured Jimenez. Daryl Van Schouwen of the Chicago Sun-Times writes that while Jimenez is set to be further evaluated today, an IL stint is indeed seen as probable.
DeLoach, 25, was a second-round pick by the Mariners in 2020 who came to the Sox organization by way of the offseason Gregory Santos trade. He entered the season ranked 16th among Sox prospects at Baseball America and currently sits 29th on MLB.com’s White Sox top-30.
The left-handed-hitting DeLoach has opened the 2024 season with a .263/.358/.351 slash, two homers and eight steals in 159 plate appearances down in Charlotte. That’s a drop-off from the .286/.387/.481 slash he posted in 623 Triple-A plate appearances last year, though DeLoach has noticeably cut his strikeout rate from 27.8% to 22.6% and done so while maintaining an excellent 11.9% walk rate. Keen plate discipline is a hallmark of his game; DeLoach has never walked at anything lower than an 11.2% clip in his minor league career and carries an overall 13% walk rate since being drafted.
DeLoach has played all three outfield positions in his career, but he’s spent the bulk of his time in right field. MLB.com’s scouting report credits him with an average arm, while BA has him slightly below and feels he’s best-suited in left field. Despite last year’s 23 homers and the eight bags he’s already swiped this season, DeLoach doesn’t draw plus grades for either his power or speed. He’ll give the Sox an OBP-focused corner bat who’ll probably need to improve either his power, glovework or speed in order to profile as an everyday option — particularly since he’s been inconsistent when it comes to facing left-handed pitching.
DeLoach posted strong numbers against southpaws in 2023 and 2021 but struggled against them in 2022 and so far in 2024. On the whole, he’s handled lefties better than the average left-handed bat, but DeLoach hasn’t been nearly as steady against same-handed opponents as he has against right-handed pitchers, who he’s consistently knocked around throughout his pro career.
With Andrew Benintendi, Tommy Pham, Gavin Sheets, Dominic Fletcher and Corey Julks all already on the roster, DeLoach will give Chicago six outfield options. However, Benintendi has been one of the game’s least-productive hitters this season, while Sheets could see more time at DH with Jimenez hurt and/or at first base, where Andrew Vaughn has struggled nearly as much as Benintendi.
White Sox To Add Nick Nastrini To Rotation
The White Sox will install Nick Nastrini back into their rotation, reports Daryl Van Schouwen of the Chicago Sun-Times (X link). Manager Pedro Grifol confirmed after tonight’s win over the Blue Jays that the rookie right-hander will take the ball tomorrow in Toronto, pushing Mike Clevinger back to Thursday’s series opener against the Orioles.
Chicago needed to settle on a new fifth starter after designating Brad Keller for assignment on Sunday. Nastrini and Jonathan Cannon, each of whom made his MLB debut in April, were the likeliest options. Nastrini took two starts for the Sox last month. He worked five innings of two-run ball against the Royals in his debut before surrendering six runs across three frames in a road matchup with the Phillies.
The Sox optioned Nastrini back to Triple-A Charlotte after his start in Philadelphia. Keller drew into the rotation for a couple turns, while Clevinger returned to the majors after his late free agent signing. The Sox quickly decided to move on from the veteran Keller in favor of a look at a younger pitcher.
Nastrini, 24, is a former fourth-round pick of the Dodgers. The Sox acquired him at last summer’s deadline in the Lance Lynn/Joe Kelly deal. Nastrini closed last season in Charlotte, where he has spent the majority of the 2024 campaign. His 5.83 ERA in 29 1/3 Triple-A frames isn’t particularly impressive, but the UCLA product has fanned nearly 27% of batters faced with a serviceable 8.2% walk rate. The longball has been his biggest issue, as Nastrini has allowed nine homers in six starts.
The Sox’s rotation has been one of the league’s worst overall, though it’s not without a few interesting performers. Garrett Crochet tossed six scoreless innings to earn the win tonight. He lowered his season ERA to 3.75 in the process. Crochet has punched out more than 32% of opponents in his first year as a starter.
Erick Fedde has allowed 3.10 earned runs per nine over 10 starts in his return to the majors. That mid-rotation production and his modest $7.5MM salaries through 2025 make him an intriguing trade candidate. Every other pitcher who has made multiple starts — Nastrini, Cannon, Keller, Clevinger, Chris Flexen and Michael Soroka — has an ERA above 5.00.
Chicago will officially recall Nastrini tomorrow. They’ll need to option or designate a pitcher for assignment to comply with the 13-pitcher maximum. It could be one of multiple moves, as the Sox will know in the coming days if Eloy Jiménez requires a stint on the injured list. The hulking DH left tonight’s game with a left hamstring strain.
White Sox Designate Brad Keller For Assignment
May 20: The team has now formally announced both moves. Keller’s weeklong DFA window will begin today.
May 19: The White Sox are designating right-hander Brad Keller for assignment, James Fegan of Sox Machine reports (links to X). Dominic Leone is being activated from the 15-day injured list to take Keller’s spot on the active roster.
After three increasingly rough seasons with the Royals, Keller caught on with Chicago on a minor league deal over the offseason and that contract was selected to the big league roster at the end of April. Keller’s five games in a Sox uniform have consisted of two starts and three relief appearances, and his most recent outing saw him allow five earned runs to the Yankees over four innings of work in yesterday’s 6-1 Chicago loss.
That boosted Keller’s ERA to 4.86 over 16 2/3 total frames, with an underwhelming 17.7% strikeout rate and an okay 7.9% walk rate. Keller’s 56.1% grounder rate is impressive but he has also benefited from a .231 BABIP and been hit hard when he hasn’t been able to keep the ball on the ground. Over his small sample size of work, Keller has allowed five home runs, including four from the Yankees yesterday.
To be fair, Keller had a 2.84 ERA in his 12 2/3 innings before facing New York, and he is hardly the first pitcher to have problems with the dangerous Yankees lineup. While this move might seem like something of a quick trigger from the White Sox, it could be that the team is looking to open a rotation spot for Jared Shuster, who has looked very sharp in multi-inning relief outings this season. Since the Sox are obviously looking ahead to 2025 and beyond, they could simply see more value in letting Shuster pitch more meaningful innings now, and parting ways with a veteran like Keller who isn’t in their long-term plans.
It should be noted that Keller’s 2023 season was cut short by thoracic outlet syndrome, and he underwent TOS surgery last October. While the procedure has led to diminished results for many pitchers in their returns to the mound, Keller’s work to date has been somewhat promising, and his numbers could improve once he gets more fully comfortable in the aftermath of such a notable surgery.
This means that Keller could certainly draw some attention on the waiver wire from any team looking for a quick influx of innings in the rotation or the bullpen. The White Sox could work out a trade or might let Keller go on waivers entirely without any return. If he clears waivers, Keller has enough MLB service time to reject an outright assignment and elect free agency.
Leone will return after just the minimum 15 days after dealing with some back tightness. The veteran right-hander has struggled to a 6.75 ERA in 14 2/3 innings out of Chicago’s bullpen this season, and has already allowed 11 walks and four home runs.
The White Sox Shouldn’t Wait Long To Make Their Next Trade
For the second time in the past ten years, the White Sox find themselves in a full-scale rebuild. Unlike many other clubs that have torn the roster down to the studs and built back up, there was no real halcyon period between the two rebuilds. The South Siders tore it all down after the 2015 season, finished no better than 72 wins in any of the next four seasons, and had a two-year run atop the AL Central -- one of which was the shortened 2020 season -- before their next nosedive. The 2020 Sox lost to the A's in a three-game Wild Card series. The 2021 Sox lost to the Astros in the ALDS. That was that. Chicago finished the 2022 season with a disappointing 81-81 record, and they drove off a cliff in 2023 with a 101-loss season that led to the firing of longtime baseball operations execs Rick Hahn and Kenny Williams.
Former assistant GM Chris Getz was tasked with turning things around. His offseason consisted of trading Dylan Cease, Aaron Bummer and Gregory Santos in a series of future-focused swaps. The ChiSox made mostly modest additions to the big league roster, with a heavy focus on improving the club's defense.
The rebuild continued into the early stages of the 2024 season. Getz's front office inked Robbie Grossman to a minor league contract in late March and managed to flip him after just 25 games. It was a rare sight, both due to Grossman's short tenure with the team but also because he netted the White Sox an actual prospect: Double-A reliever Anthony Hoopii-Tuionetoa. May trades of big league players -- particularly those who just signed in the offseason -- are exceedingly rare. Most early trades of this nature come on the heels of a DFA. That wasn't the case here. As Darragh McDonald and I discussed on this week's podcast, this was more akin to a lower-profile trade deadline swap. It was frankly a nice bit of business for the White Sox.
Getz and his staff shouldn't stop here, and their next swap should also come sooner than later. While there's any number of players on the White Sox' roster who make sense as a trade candidate, there's one in particular who stands as a logical early-season target for other clubs.
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White Sox Outright Rafael Ortega
Outfielder Rafael Ortega cleared waivers and been sent outright to Triple-A Charlotte, reports Daryl Van Schouwen of the Chicago Sun-Times on X. The outfielder was designated for assignment by the White Sox earlier this week. He had the right to elect free agency but has chosen to accept his outright assignment.
Ortega, 33, signed a minor league deal with the Sox in the offseason and was added to their roster in late April. He was put into 14 games but mostly off the bench, getting just 17 plate appearances. He hit .071/.176/.071 in those and was designated for assignment when the club acquired Corey Julks from the Astros a couple of days ago.
It’s been a rough few years for Ortega after a strong 2021 campaign that now looks like it may have been his peak. He hit 11 home runs in 330 plate appearances for the Cubs that year. His .291/.360/.463 batting line translated to a 122 wRC+. He also stole 12 bases and spent a lot of time covering center field.
But his production dipped to .241/.331/.358 in 2022 and he was non-tendered at the end of that season. He eventually got back to the majors late in 2023, getting called up by the Mets after the trade deadline to play out the final months of a lost season for that club. He hit just .219/.341/.272 in that time and was sent back to the open market at season’s end.
Ortega will now head to Charlotte and try to get back into good form. It’s not hard to imagine a path opening up that would allow him to get back to the big leagues. The rebuilding Sox will likely make any veteran player available this year and have already traded Robbie Grossman to the Rangers. 36-year-old Tommy Pham is on a one-year deal and will almost certainly be moved if he’s healthy and playing well. Gavin Sheets and Eloy Jiménez are also trade possibilities who could, along with Pham, open up playing time in the outfield/designated hitter mix. For now, the Sox will keep running out those guys and Andrew Benintendi, as well as younger players like Julks and Dominic Fletcher.
White Sox Acquire Corey Julks From Astros
The Astros have traded outfielder Corey Julks to the White Sox, per announcements from both clubs. The Astros, who designated Julks for assignment last week, will receive minor league right-hander Luis Rodriguez in return. Julks has been optioned to Triple-A Charlotte. To open a 40-man spot for Julks, the Sox designated outfielder Rafael Ortega for assignment and recalled outfielder Dominic Fletcher to take Ortega’s spot on the active roster.
Julks, 28, was an eighth-round pick of the Astros back in 2017 and wasn’t really considered a very noteworthy prospect in the years following that selection. He put himself on the radar with a strong 2022 season, hitting 31 home runs and stealing 22 bases in 130 Triple-A games. In the hitter-friendly environment of the Pacific Coast League, his .270/.351/.503 batting line led to a 108 wRC+.
That got him to the big leagues in 2023 but he didn’t immediately hit the ground running in the majors. He stepped to the plate 323 times for the Astros last year and hit .245/.297/.352 for a wRC+ of 80, though he also stole 15 bases and got solid grades for his outfield defense.
He’s been back at Triple-A this year and has another five home runs and six more steals in 31 games. His 12.8% walk rate is a few points higher than the 9.5% rate he had in 2022. His overall production this year is considered to be around league average for the PCL, but it’s an intriguing combination of skills.
Despite the interesting stats, Julks is 28 years old now and was blocked by a crowded outfield mix in Houston, so they nudged him off their roster. The White Sox have far more of a need and more of an ability to take a chance on a player like Julks, given their status as a rebuilding club.
Giving playing time to a veteran can yield to a positive result, as the Sox just recently traded Robbie Grossman to the Rangers for Anthony Hoopii-Tuionetoa. A similar path with a player like Ortega would have been ideal but he hit .071/.176/.071 in his 17 plate appearances for the Sox in recent weeks and wasn’t trending towards any kind of Grossman-like return. The Sox decided it was a better use of a roster spot to grab Julks and see how things go with him, while giving Ortega’s spot on the active roster to Fletcher.
Julks still has two options, meaning he could potentially be sent to Triple-A for the rest of this year and one more. He also has less than a year of service time, meaning he can be cheaply retained for the foreseeable future.
For now, Fletcher will share the big league playing time with guys like Andrew Benintendi, Tommy Pham and Gavin Sheets. Pham is on a one-year deal and will be a trade candidate this summer. Sheets could perhaps be on the block as well since he’ll reach arbitration for the first time this winter and has been in good form this year. That could perhaps open some playing time for Julks later in the year, though the eventual return of Luis Robert Jr. from the injured list will also be a factor. Oscar Colás and Zach DeLoach are also on the 40-man but neither is performing especially well on optional assignment right now.
For the Astros, they have Kyle Tucker, Yordan Alvarez, Chas McCormick, Jake Meyers, Mauricio Dubon, Joey Loperfido and Trey Cabbage in their outfield mix, with prospect Pedro León banging on the door as well. Since pitching depth is a greater concern for them, they recently grabbed Alex Speas off waivers and let go of Julks.
By doing so, they were at least able to add a pitching prospect to their system. The 20-year-old Rodriguez tossed 33 innings over 15 appearances in the Dominican Summer League last year with a 3.55 earned run average, 32.6% strikeout rate and 4.3% walk rate. In January, he got a brief mention on the FanGraphs list of top White Sox prospect from Eric Longenhagen and Tess Taruskin. They noted that Rodriguez has a fastball in the 88-90 miles per hour range and a strong curveball.
The Sox will now have a week to trade Ortega or pass him through waivers. He was signed to a minor league deal this winter and added to the roster in late April. He has received sporadic playing time which hasn’t gone well for him, as mentioned. He has enough service time that he can reject an outright assignment and elect free agency. He had a strong season with the Cubs in 2021, hitting .291/.360/.463 while stealing 12 bases and spending a lot of time in center field. But he hit .241/.331/.358 the next year and got non-tendered, with only limited big league looks since then.