A Potential Positive Development On The White Sox’ Roster
Most baseball fans are surely aware that not a lot is going right for the White Sox. They are currently 3-22, the worst record in baseball. But there are some hopeful signs with at least one player on the roster: catcher Korey Lee.
Now 25 years old, Lee was a first-round pick of the Astros, selected 32nd overall in 2019. As he climbed up the minor league ladder, he earned a reputation as a glove-first catcher. In terms of his offense, he clearly had some power but the production was fairly hollow apart from that.
In 2022, he played in 104 Triple-A games and hit 25 home runs. However, he also struck out 28.5% of the time and only walked at an 8.1% clip. Since he was playing for the Sugar Land Space Cowboys in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League, his .238/.307/.483 batting line only translated to a wRC+ of 90.
That production was 10% below league average overall but is around par for a catcher. He also got to make his major league debut that year but clearly did not get out to a roaring start in the big leagues. His first 26 plate appearances led to a batting line of .160/.192/.240.
He was sent back to Sugar Land in 2023 and took a step back. He got into 68 games for the Space Cowboys and hit just five home runs. He lowered his strikeout rate to 24.8% but his walk rate also ticked down to 5.6%. His .283/.328/.406 line led to a wRC+ of 77.
In spite of the tepid offense, the Sox decided to take a shot on him. When trading Kendall Graveman at last year’s deadline, they flipped him to the Astros for Lee straight up. His bat did not improve in the immediate aftermath of that deal. He hit .255/.309/.275 in Triple-A, striking out 40% of the time, and then .077/.143/.138 in the majors.
Coming into 2024, Lee still had an option remaining and the Sox clearly intended to use it. They grabbed a couple of more experienced catchers in Martín Maldonado and Max Stassi and were seemingly going to break camp with that pair, as Lee was optioned on March 20. But then Stassi required an Opening Day stint on the injured list due to hip inflammation, so Lee was recalled.
So far, the results have been good at the major league level. We’re talking about 46 plate appearances over 17 games, so small sample size caveats definitely apply, but Lee is slashing .279/.326/.465 for a wRC+ of 129. His 6.5% walk rate is a bit below average but he’s also only striking out a 19.6% clip so far.
Looking under the hood also shows some encouraging signs. Lee has a barrel rate of 9.7% thus far, almost triple the 3.3% rate he had over 2022 and 2023. His expected batting average, on-base and slug are all up.
Perhaps the most encouraging development is in the plate discipline department. He had previously swung at 36.9% of pitchers outsize the zone but has dropped that number to 29.1% this year. Even when he does chase, he’s missing less, as his 69.6% contract rate outsize the zone is a big jump from his previous rate of 51.3%.
On pitches in the zone, he’s up to an 86.8% swing rate compared to 78% in his previous seasons. His called strike rate was 11.6% coming into the year but is down to 8.2% this season. He had a 15.8% swinging strike rate in the majors in the previous two years, and even higher in Triple-A, but is at 13.6% so far this year.
This is obvious baseball stuff, but swinging at more pitches in the zone and chasing less, while also whiffing less often, is going to lead to fewer strikeouts. Again, it’s a very small sample size but it’s progress in the area that has been Lee’s biggest weakness.
Scouting reports on Lee have long highlighted that he has a cannon for an arm and is a strong blocker. Perhaps there’s still some room to grow in terms of framing but the overall defensive package is considered to be above average. At the plate, the power has been there but the strikeouts were a concern. Whether he can continue to show the positive signs from the early weeks of this season will be something for the Sox to monitor.
In the short term, it’s possible the Sox may have a difficult decision to make. Stassi started a rehab assignment early in the year but was injured again after a backswing hit his hand, per Scott Merkin of MLB.com. He hasn’t yet resumed his rehab assignment but will presumably be ready to rejoin the team at some point.
Perhaps they would consider optioning Lee to the minors when Stassi is back, but cutting Maldonado should also be on the table. He has a strong reputation in the league for his work with pitchers but he’s approaching his 38th birthday and is awful at the plate. He hit .183/.260/.333 for the Astros over the past three seasons and is down to a line of .048/.091/.071 so far this year.
Even if they value Maldonado’s intangibles enough to overlook that offense, moving on from Stassi could also be a consideration. He was acquired from Atlanta in the offseason with that club paying Stassi’s salary down to the league minimum, meaning the Sox aren’t financially committed to Stassi in any way.
In the long term, it will be quite nice for the Sox is Lee can hang onto this improved plate discipline. He came into this year with just 71 days of service time. Assuming he stays with the big league club for the rest of the year, the Sox will still be able for five more seasons after this one.
He seems destined to be joined on the roster by Edgar Quero at some point. Acquired from the Angels in the trade that sent Lucas Giolito and Reynaldo López to the Angels, Quero is effectively the inverse to Lee, as he is considered to be more of a bat-first catcher.
In 1,190 minor league plate appearances thus far in his career, Quero has drawn walks in 15% of them while only striking out at an 18.8% clip. He’s also hit 33 home runs and slashed .280/.407/.458. At Double-A this year, he already has five home runs and has a line of .294/.387/.627 for a 197 wRC+. Since he spent all of last year in Double-A as well, a promotion to Triple-A should be imminent. He’s currently ranked the #58 prospect in the whole league by FanGraphs while Keith Law of The Athletic recently gave him the #67 spot.
The glove-first Lee and the bat-first Quero should make for a nice pairing behind the plate for the Sox if all goes according to plan. Lee hits from the right side while Quero is a switch hitter. The inverse profiles should allow the club to deploy them situationally, depending on whether offense or defense is preferred on a given day or a given situation. Almost no club has an everyday catcher these days, so the Sox could split the playing time, with the designated hitter slot also giving them a way to have both in the lineup with regularity. If one of these two backstops takes a step forward and is ahead of the other, the team could tip the scales of the playing time accordingly.
For fans of the Sox, there’s not a lot to feel good about in the present. That means looking to the future is the best bet at finding hope or even just a reason to follow the team. When it comes to the catching depth, there seems to be a bit of sunshine peeking out over the horizon.
White Sox Designate Zach Remillard For Assignment
3:35pm: The Sox have now made it official, selecting Mendick and designating Remillard for assignment. They also reinstated John Brebbia from the injured list and optioned right-hander Nick Nastrini and infielder Lenyn Sosa to Triple-A Charlotte. Nastrini’s option means they will need another starter later this week.
11:15am: The White Sox will designate infielder Zach Remillard for assignment in order to open a spot on the roster for fellow utilityman Danny Mendick, reports Daryl Van Schouwen of the Chicago Sun-Times. Van Schouwen first reported last night that Mendick’s contract would be selected prior to today’s game.
It’s the second DFA of the calendar year for Remillard, whom the White Sox designated back in January but selected back to the 40-man roster nine days ago. Now 30 years old, Remillard has spent his entire career in the White Sox organization after the team selected him in the tenth round of the 2016 draft.
Remillard has seen big league time in each of the past two seasons, albeit in fleeting fashion. He tallied 160 plate appearances last year and another five this season. Overall, he’s a .250/.292/.316 hitter in that limited sample. Remillard posted a nice .280/.373/.400 slash in 491 plate appearances during his 2022 run in Triple-A Charlotte, but those numbers dipped in 2023 and he’s out to a dismal .120/.224/.160 start through his first 58 Triple-A appearances so far in 2024.
While Remillard has primarily played third base in his professional career (2356 innings), he’s also logged time at shortstop (1646 innings), at second base (961 innings), at first base (696 innings), in left field (333 innings), in right field (133 innings) and in center field (76 innings).
The White Sox will have a week to trade Remillard, pass him through outright waivers or release him. Because he was outrighted after clearing waivers back in January, he’d have the right to reject a second outright assignment in favor of free agency if he goes unclaimed a second time.
White Sox To Select Danny Mendick’s Contract
The White Sox will select the contract of infielder Danny Mendick prior to tomorrow’s game with the Twins, Daryl Van Schouwen of the Chicago Sun-Times reports (X link). Infielder Lenyn Sosa will be optioned to Triple-A to make room on the 26-man roster, and another transaction will need to be made to make space for Mendick on the 40-man.
Mendick is a familiar face on the South Side, as he made his big league debut with the White Sox in 2019 and hit .251/.309/.366 over 446 plate appearances from 2019-22. He played mostly second base and shortstop in a utility capacity, while also seeing sporadic action as a third baseman and in both corner outfield spots. A torn ACL in June 2022 ended not just Mendick’s 2022 season but also his tenure in Chicago, as the Sox non-tendered him that winter.
The Mets inked Mendick to a one-year, $1MM big league deal and he hit .185/.232/.277 in 69 PA and 33 games of part-time action in 2023. Mendick then reunited with the White Sox on a minor league contract, and he has booked a ticket back to the Show thanks to one of the biggest hot streaks of his professional career. The 30-year-old has homered in each of his last five games with Triple-A Charlotte, and is hitting an absurd .317/.388/.817 over 67 PA this season.
While nobody expects Mendick to keep up this kind of production against big league pitching, the White Sox can’t be faulted for going with the hot hand given the dire state of their lineup. Sosa is one of several Chicago players producing next to nothing at the plate, and Mendick might well cut into the playing time of starting second baseman Nicky Lopez (who is batting only .176/.288/.176 in 61 PA). Shortstop Paul DeJong is also day-to-day after being hit on the elbow by a pitch in Saturday’s game, so Lopez could slide over to shortstop with DeJong out and open up the keystone for Mendick entirely.
White Sox Outright Josimar Cousin
April 20: The White Sox announced today that they’ve assigned Cousin outright to Double-A Birmingham. Cousin cannot reject the assignment as he has neither been outrighted previously in his career nor the requisite service time to do so. As such, he’ll remain with the White Sox going forward as a non-roster depth option for the club as he continues working to establish himself in stateside baseball.
April 16: The White Sox announced that they have selected the contract of right-hander Jonathan Cannon, a move that was reported yesterday. In corresponding moves, they optioned left-hander Jared Shuster to Triple-A Charlotte and designated right-hander Josimar Cousin for assignment.
Cousin, now 26, is from Cuba and played six seasons in that country’s Serie Nacional de Béisbol. He appeared in 88 games in that league, 68 starts, with a 4.80 earned run average. He struck out 15% of batters faced while walking 9.3%. The Sox signed him to a minor league deal in May, per reporter Francys Romero, with a $100K bonus.
He then tossed 55 innings in the minors last year, going from the Complex League to High-A and Double-A. He had a combined 5.56 ERA in that time as well as a 19.6% strikeout rate and 6.3% walk rate.
The Sox added him to their 40-man roster in mid-December, though the timing was unusual as it had nothing to do with minor league free agency or the Rule 5 cutoff. Speculatively speaking, it’s possible that Cousin had some kind of opt-out in his contract or maybe an overseas opportunity that the Sox wanted to prevent him from pursuing.
Cousin was optioned to Double-A Birmingham but hasn’t pitched yet this year. According to his transactions tracker at MiLB.com, he was on the minor league injured list from April 5 to April 12. The Sox will now have one week to trade him or pass him through waivers.
White Sox Sign Cody Sedlock To Minor League Deal
The White Sox have signed right-hander Cody Sedlock to a minor league deal, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. He’s been assigned to the Complex League for now but will presumably move up to a higher affiliate after ramping up.
Sedlock, 29 in June, has a tiny amount of major league experience, more like a sip of coffee than a cup of coffee. He appeared in one game for the Orioles in 2022, tossing three innings. He allowed five earned runs that day while issuing one walk and striking out three opponents. After that one outing, he was outrighted off the roster and traded to the Tigers. He become a free agent at season’s end and didn’t sign anywhere for the 2023 season.
Prior to that major league debut and gap year, the righty was a notable prospect for the Orioles. Selected 27th overall in 2016, he was considered the #2 prospect in that club’s system by Baseball America in 2017. However, injuries have largely gotten in the way since then, something that Keith Law of The Athletic attributes to a heavy workload during Sedlock’s college years.
The righty tossed 101 1/3 innings for Illinois in his draft year and then another 27 frames at Low-A after being selected, but he hasn’t been able to reach 100 innings pitched in any season since then. Along the way, he had forearm and shoulder injuries and also required surgery for thoracic outlet syndrome. He has a combined 4.46 earned run average in the 422 minor league innings that he’s thrown over the years, striking out 21.6% of batters while walking 10.7%.
It’s hard to know what to expect from Sedlock at this point. There will likely be some rust after sitting out all of last year but it’s also possible the rest allowed his body to recover in some way. For the Sox, there’s little harm in taking a flier on a former first-rounder to see what happens.
If Sedlock looks good after getting into game shape, he’ll give the staff some non-roster depth. The Sox have recently traded away most of the best pitchers as part of their ongoing rebuild and are likely to make make even more trades this summer since they are currently the worst team in the league at 3-15. If Sedlock gets into good form in the next few months, there could be a path for him to get back to the big leagues.
2023 Rule 5 Update: April Edition
We’re three weeks into the 2024 season, and this year’s crop of Rule 5 picks has had an atypical amount of staying power. That’s perhaps in part due to the fact that only ten players were selected in the 2023 Rule 5 Draft, but as of this writing, only one Rule 5 selection has been returned to his original organization.
For those unfamiliar, in order to be eligible for the Rule 5 Draft, a player must not be on his team’s 40-man roster and must have played in either parts of five professional seasons (if they signed at 18 or younger) or four professional seasons (if they signed at 19 or older). The deadline to protect players from the Rule 5 by selecting their contracts to the 40-man roster typically falls in mid-November and spurs a good deal of player movement as teams jettison borderline players and non-tender candidates from their roster in order to protect younger prospects.
A player who is selected in the Rule 5 Draft must spend the entire subsequent season on his new club’s Major League roster and cannot be optioned to the minors. The player can technically spend time on the injured list as well, but at least 90 days must be spent on the active roster. If not, the player’s Rule 5 status rolls into the following season until 90 days on the active roster have been accrued. If a team at any point decides it can no longer carry a Rule 5 selection, that player must be passed through waivers and subsequently offered back to his original organization. Any other club can claim the player via waivers, but the same Rule 5 restrictions will apply to the claiming team.
Broadly speaking, the Rule 5 Draft rarely produces impact players. There are plenty of exceptions over the years, though, with names like Johan Santana, Dan Uggla, Shane Victorino, Joakim Soria, Josh Hamilton and, more recently, Garrett Whitlock and Trevor Stephan thriving in new organizations. The Rule 5 Draft dates back more than a century and has even produced a handful of Hall of Famers: Roberto Clemente, Hack Wilson and Christy Mathewson.
It’s unlikely we’ll see any Cooperstown-bound players come from this year’s crop, but the teams who opted to select a player will be content if any of these names become a viable reliever or role player for the next several seasons. Here’s a look at this year’s group of ten Rule 5 players and where they stand. We’ll do a few of these throughout the season, keeping tabs on which players survive the season and formally have their long-term rights transferred to their new clubs.
On a Major League Roster
Mitch Spence, RHP, Athletics (selected from Yankees)
Spence, 26 next month, was the first overall pick in this year’s Rule 5 Draft, and understandably so after the 2023 season he had. His 4.47 ERA might’ve been pedestrian, but the 2019 tenth-rounder led all Triple-A pitchers with 163 innings while delivering a nice blend of strikeouts (21.8%), walks (7.5%) and ground-balls (50%). For an A’s club desperately thin on starting pitching after the slew of rebuilding-driven trades for minor league arms have failed to produce much, adding a 25-year-old arm with that type of season held obvious appeal.
Spence made Oakland’s decision easy with a monster spring showing. He pitched 17 2/3 innings and allowed only six earned runs (3.06 ERA) on 15 hits and six walks with 21 punchouts. He’s worked out of the ‘pen so far in Oakland but could very well find himself making starts later in the year. Through his first 11 2/3 MLB frames, Spence has yielded four earned runs on 10 hits and four walks with a 48.4% grounder rate. He’s not in danger of losing his spot anytime soon.
Matt Sauer, RHP, Royals (selected from Yankees)
Another 25-year-old righty out of the Yankees organization, Sauer came to his new club with a much heavier draft pedigree than his now-former teammate, Spence. The Yankees selected the 6’4″ righty with the No. 54 overall pick back in 2017, but Sauer didn’t develop as quickly as hoped. He was set back by 2019 Tommy John surgery and the canceled 2020 minor league season. He’s never topped 111 innings in a season, but Sauer rebuilt some prospect pedigree with a nice 2023 season that saw him pitch 68 1/3 innings of 3.42 ERA ball in Double-A. He whiffed 29.5% of his opponents, albeit against a less palatable 10.3% walk rate.
Like his former teammate, Sauer had a nice spring that made the decision relatively easy for his new club. In 10 2/3 innings, he held opponents to three earned runs (2.53 ERA) on 13 hits and three walks with 13 strikeouts. He opened the season in the Kansas City bullpen and has thus far pitched five innings, allowing a pair of runs in that time. Sauer has walked four of his 25 opponents and fanned just two thus far. It’s a small sample, of course, but he’ll need to reverse that early trend to hang onto his roster spot — especially if the Royals continue their hot start and find themselves contending into the summer.
Anthony Molina, RHP, Rockies (selected from Rays)
The 22-year-old Molina worked as a starter in the Rays’ system last year, taking the ball 28 times (27 starts) and pitching 122 innings with a 4.50 ERA. The undersized righty has garnered praise for a solid-average heater and above-average changeup, and he showed good command in 2023 after struggling with walks earlier in his minor league career. Molina continued to show good command in spring training (in addition to a massive 60.5% grounder rate), but the regular season has been brutal for him thus far. In three appearances, he’s been tattooed for a dozen runs on 13 hits and four walks with just two strikeouts. The Rockies can afford to be as patient as they want. They’re 4-13 on the season and were never expected to contend. Still, Molina will need to improve on his early performance in order to stick on the roster.
Nasim Nunez, INF, Nationals (selected from Marlins)
The Nationals have effectively played the season thus far with a 25-man roster. Nunez made the Opening Day squad but has been M.I.A. since. He’s appeared in just five of Washington’s 16 games and received only two plate appearances, going hitless in that meaningless sample. Nunez is an all-glove and speed prospect who hit just .224/.341/.286 in Double-A last season. He did go 52-for-59 in stolen base attempts, and scouting reports have long touted his defensive excellence at shortstop. He hit just .152/.200/.182 in 35 spring plate appearances.
It’s fair to wonder how long the Nats can essentially punt a roster spot by keeping Nunez on the bench, but like the Rockies, they’re not expecting to contend this season anyhow. One would imagine that from a pure developmental standpoint, they need to find a way to get Nunez into some games and start getting him some playing time, but for now, the team appears content to just hide the 23-year-old on the bench.
Ryan Fernandez, RHP, Cardinals (selected from Red Sox)
Fernandez, 25, has just four appearances out of the St. Louis bullpen so far and has been understandably deployed in low-leverage spots while he acclimates to the majors. He’s pitched fairly well in sparse duty, holding opponents to three runs (two earned) in 5 2/3 innings. Fernandez has averaged just under 96 mph on his heater, fanned seven opponents and issued three walks. His swinging-strike rate isn’t close to where it’s been in his minor league work, but his wipeout slider has been strong thus far. Fernandez has finished off eight plate appearances with that pitch, picking up four strikeouts and yielding only one hit. Nothing he’s done so far makes it seem like he’ll be cut loose anytime soon.
Justin Slaten, RHP, Red Sox (selected by Mets from Rangers; traded to Red Sox for LHP Ryan Ammons)
While most Rule 5 relievers are eased into low-pressure spots, that hasn’t been the case with the Sox and Slaten. He held a four-run lead to pick up a seven-out save in the team’s fourth game of the season, and the 6’4″ righty has since tallied three holds out of Alex Cora’s bullpen. In 10 1/3 innings, Slaten has allowed only one run on three hits and a walk with eight strikeouts. Add in 6 1/3 shutout innings in spring training, and he’s looked more like a seasoned veteran than a 26-year-old who entered the season with all of 8 1/3 innings above the Double-A level. Slaten has immediately made himself an important part of Boston’s roster, and while a prolonged slump could always change things, he looks like a keeper right now.
Stephen Kolek, RHP, Padres (selected from Mariners)
Kolek, who’ll turn 27 tomorrow, began his big league tenure with four runs in 1 2/3 innings over his first two appearances. He’s since bounced back with 8 2/3 innings of one-run ball, fanning 11 hitters against three walks along the way. He punched out nearly a quarter of his opponents in Triple-A last year and did so with a huge 57.5% ground-ball rate. He hasn’t picked up grounders at such a strong level just yet (43.5%), but San Diego probably isn’t second-guessing their decision to select him. He’s already picked up a pair of holds, and his recent run of success has dropped his ERA to 4.35. Command has been a problem for Kolek in the past, but he’s only walked 8.9% of his opponents against a 26.7% strikeout rate so far.
On the Major League Injured List
Shane Drohan, LHP, White Sox (selected from Red Sox): Drohan underwent shoulder surgery in late February and is on the 60-day IL. There’s no telling yet when he’ll be medically cleared to return. As noted in the intro, Drohan needs 90 days on the active roster to shed his Rule 5 designation; even if he spends the entire 2024 campaign on the injured list, his Rule 5 status will carry over into 2025 until he picks up those 90 active days.
Carson Coleman, RHP, Rangers (selected from Yankees): Coleman is also on the 60-day injured list. Unlike Drohan, it was well known at the time of his selection that he’d be IL-bound to begin the year. Coleman had Tommy John surgery last year and is expected to be out until midsummer at the least.
Returned to Original Organization
Deyvison De Los Santos, INF, Guardians (returned to D-backs): De Los Santos has big raw power but a well below-average hit tool. The Guardians selected him on the heels of a 20-homer campaign in Double-A with the D-backs, but he hit just .227/.227/.318 in 44 spring appearances before being designated for assignment, clearing waivers and getting returned to the Snakes. He’s had a big performance in a return-trip to Double-A.
White Sox, Tommy Pham Agree To Minor League Contract
April 15: MLB.com’s Juan Toribio reports (on X) that the Sox and Pham have indeed reached an agreement. The veteran outfielder will be guaranteed a $3MM base salary for time spent in the majors and can earn an additional $1.5MM in performance bonuses. Pham would be able to request his release if he’s not called to the majors by April 25, tweets Rosenthal. There’s a $500K assignment bonus if Pham gets traded, per Rosenthal.
April 14: The White Sox and Tommy Pham are close to an agreement on a minor league deal, The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal reports. The non-guaranteed nature of the contract is something of a technicality due to the fact that Pham is out of minor league options. Since Pham will need some time to properly ramp up to the regular season, starting him in the minors gives the White Sox more flexibility to call him up whenever he is ready.
The Padres, Pirates, and Diamondbacks were all linked to Pham at various points during the offseason, and 10 teams reportedly checked in on the veteran outfielder early in November. The White Sox were also known to be interested in Pham’s services, as USA Today’s Bob Nightengale first noted just under a month ago. However, Opening Day came and went without Pham finding a new contract, and Rosenthal notes that Chicago might have been motivated to finally close a deal after losing Eloy Jimenez, Yoan Moncada, and Luis Robert Jr. to the injured list.
Assuming that a deal is finalized and Pham reaches the active roster as planned, the White Sox will be the eighth different team the outfielder has played for over what will be an 11th Major League season. While his production has been inconsistent over the last four of those seasons, Pham hit well just last year, batting .256/.328/.446 over 481 combined plate appearances with the Mets and Diamondbacks. He also ran hot-and-cold during Arizona’s playoff run, but Pham had huge performances for the D’Backs in the NLDS and in the World Series.
Pham turned 36 last month, and some off-the-field issues have perhaps contributed to his semi-journeyman status despite generally solid numbers over the years. That said, Pham was one of many veteran free agents who remained on the market for a long time, and ended up signing for much less than expected. This cold market impacted not just some of the bigger names available (Blake Snell, Cody Bellinger, Jordan Montgomery, etc.), but perhaps hit hardest for more mid-tier players like Pham.
As Brandon Belt described things in a recent interview, interested teams seemed to universally view him as a backup plan this winter, and it is fair to wonder if the same applied to Pham. If other teams found other outfielders, or (perhaps more importantly) outfielders willing to play for lesser salaries, it left fewer and fewer opportunities for Pham to land a suitor. Rosenthal notes that Pham was “waiting for an offer he felt was commensurate with his value,” so price seems to have been a factor.
It could be that Pham’s time in Chicago ends up being pretty short, since if he hits well, he’ll undoubtedly get a lot of attention from contenders at the trade deadline. The White Sox already look like sellers after a dreadful 2-13 start to the season, and moving a short-term veteran bat like Pham could be just one of many trades GM Chris Getz could make before the deadline is over.
Until then, Pham could just slide into a regular role as the right-handed hitting complement to Andrew Benintendi in left field, or with Gavin Sheets at DH. Chicago signed Robbie Grossman to a minors deal in late March and Grossman has already become essentially an everyday player in either corner outfield slot, so Pham could also eat into that playing time.
White Sox To Select Jonathan Cannon
The White Sox will promote right-hander Jonathan Cannon from Triple-A Charlotte to start Tuesday’s game, tweets Daryl Van Schouwen of the Chicago Sun-Times. He’s not on the 40-man roster, so they’ll need to formally select his contract and make a corresponding transaction to open a 40-man spot. It’ll be the big league debut for the 2022 third-rounder.
Listed at 6’6″ and 225 pounds, Cannon has been a fast riser through the South Siders’ system. The former Georgia Bulldog split the 2023 season between High-A and Double-A, and he was also on the roster for the 2023 Futures Game during last year’s All-Star festivities. He’s opened the 2024 campaign with 9 2/3 decent frames at the Triple-A level (three earned runs on ten hits and five walks with 11 punchouts). Baseball America ranks Cannon eighth among White Sox farmhands, while FanGraphs tabs him tenth in the system and MLB.com lists him 11th.
Cannon, 23, pitched 121 innings last season, working to a 4.46 ERA with a 20.5% strikeout rate, 7.5% walk rate and an impressive 53% ground-ball rate. Baseball America tabs him as a potential fourth/fifth starter, barring improvement to his command, which could further boost his ceiling. Their report on Cannon praises a deep arsenal (four-seamer, two-seamer, cutter, slider, curveball, changeup) that generates grounders and weak contact. Cannon sits 93-97 mph with his fastball, and scouting reports from BA, FanGraphs and MLB.com all call him a high-floor, high-probability fourth starter who can eat plenty of innings for the White Sox in the years to come.
It’s not clear yet how long Cannon or tonight’s starter, Nick Nastrini (another rookie who’s making his MLB debut) will stick in the rotation. Sox Machine’s James Fegan tweets that manager Pedro Grifol alluded to a potential bullpen move for struggling veteran Chris Flexen, but Grifol also didn’t commit to Nastrini or Cannon remaining in the mix beyond their debut efforts this week. Certainly, given the dismal results from the rotation thus far — Sox starters rank 26th in the big leagues with 72 1/3 innings pitched, 28th with a 5.60 ERA and dead last with a 5.20 FIP — an impressive debut for either pitcher could earn him another opportunity in the next trip through the rotation.
Beyond Garrett Crochet — who’s likely to be on an innings limit this season — there’s virtually no certainty in the Chicago rotation. Flexen, Erick Fedde and Michael Soroka opened the year in starting roles, but Flexen and Soroka are on cheap one-year deals and will be free agents at season’s end. Fedde’s two-year, $15MM contract after his KBO breakout gives him a longer leash, but he’s also not a long-term piece of the puzzle at Guaranteed Rate Field. The Sox will hope that between Cannon, Nastrini and other prospects like Jairo Iriarte, Jake Eder and Noah Schultz, the Sox have at least a few long-term rotation pieces who can help to quickly usher them out of the team’s latest rebuilding phase.
White Sox Promote Nick Nastrini
3:40pm: The Sox have now made Nastrini’s promotion official and also activated outfielder Eloy Jimenez from the injured list. To open active roster spots for those two, they optioned right-hander Justin Anderson and infielder/outfielder Zach Remillard. To open a 40-man spot for Nastrini, they transferred catcher Max Stassi to the 60-day injured list. The backstop opened the season on the 10-day IL due to hip inflammation but was hit on the hand by a backswing while rehabbing recently, per Scott Merkin of MLB.com. His exact timeline isn’t clear but he’s now ineligible to be activated until late May.
9:27am: The White Sox will call up right-hander Nick Nastrini to start today’s game in what will be his MLB debut, manager Pedro Grifol announced (link via Kyle Williams of the Chicago Sun-Times). He’s not on the 40-man roster, so the Sox will need to open a spot for his contract to be formally selected.
Nastrini, 24, is widely regarded as one of the White Sox’ top pitching prospects. Acquired from the Dodgers in the trade sending Lance Lynn to Los Angeles last summer, the 2021 fourth-round pick has routinely posted massive strikeout numbers throughout his minor league tenure but has also battled sub-par command for much of his professional career.
Scouting reports at Baseball America, MLB.com, FanGraphs, The Athletic and ESPN all rank Nastrini eighth or better among ChiSox farmhands, with BA listing him third in the system. The Athletic’s Keith Law ranked Nastrini 76th on his 2024 top 100 list, touting him as a possible No. 4 starter and with the ceiling to become quite a bit more than that, given the strength of his secondary pitches.
There’s little doubting the quality of Nastrini’s stuff; he runs his fastball up as high as 98 mph and complements it with a slider, curveball and changeup that all project as potentially average to plus offerings. Nastrini features high-end spin rates on his heater and breaking pitches, and his changeup helped him limit lefties to a .226 average with a 29.7% strikeout rate between Double-A and Triple-A last season. (Righties hit .216 and punched out at a 26.1% clip.) Law touts the changeup, in particular, as a potential plus-plus pitch (70-grade on the 20-80 scale).
If Nastrini had better control of his electric arsenal, he’d undoubtedly grade as one of the game’s elite prospects. At 6’3″, 215-pound righty has the size and deep repertoire to profile as a starter, but he’s walked 11.1% of his career opponents. His penchant for missing the zone leads to plenty of deep counts as well; in 2023 he averaged about 4 2/3 innings per start. There’s still some refinement to be made, though he’s improved his command since college ball at UCLA and has also seen further gains in that field since being traded from L.A. to Chicago (9.5% walk rate in the Sox’ system).
The state of the White Sox’ roster amid their current rebuild gives Nastrini ample opportunity to show he can stick. The Sox are out to their worst start in franchise history, sitting at 2-13 on the season. The woeful state of their rotation has played a significant role in those struggles. Even with Garrett Crochet pitching like a borderline No. 1 starter through his first four turns, White Sox starters rank 26th in the big leagues with 72 1/3 innings pitched, 28th with a 5.60 ERA and dead last with a 5.20 FIP. Despite totaling MLB’s fifth-fewest innings, the rotation is tied for the MLB lead with 14 home runs allowed.
Nastrini will join Crochet, Erick Fedde, Michael Soroka and Chris Flexen in the rotation for the time being. Recently re-signed Mike Clevinger will join that group in a few weeks as well, once he’s sufficiently built up, and other prospects like Jake Eder, Jairo Iriarte and Jared Shuster (currently working as a long reliever in the big league ‘pen) could eventually garner looks over the course of the season.
Even if Nastrini is in the big leagues to stay, he won’t accrue enough service time to reach a full year in 2024. Were it not for an illness that rendered Nastrini unavailable the first time Chicago needed a fifth starter, that may not have been the case, but he wasn’t healthy enough in the season’s first week to step onto the staff at the time. He’s still made just two starts in the minors this season, in part due to that illness. Further optional assignments could always alter his timeline anyhow, but for now, Nastrini will be controllable all the way through 2030.
AL Central Notes: White Sox, Correa, Tigers
The White Sox recently received some good news on the injury front, as GM Chris Getz told reporters (including 670 The Score’s Bruce Levine) that the prognoses on injured hitters Luis Robert Jr. and Yoan Moncada aren’t quite as worrying as the club initially believed.
Per Getz, Robert may be able to return from the Grade 2 hip flexor strain that sent him to the injured list last week after just six weeks of rehab, while the club hopes Moncada can return from his adductor strain in late July. The news is surely relieving for White Sox fans, as Robert was reportedly at risk of missing multiple months due to his injury while Moncada was given an initial timeline for return of three to six months. Getz’s comments indicate that both players are on track to return at the earliest end of their projected timetables.
The injuries are yet another blow to a White Sox club that has started the season with a 2-12 record and appears destined for a second consecutive 100-loss season in 2024. While Chicago was never expected to be a serious postseason contender this season, Robert and Moncada were each shaping up to be rare bright spots for the club this year prior to their injuries. Robert is the face of the Sox franchise following the departures of Lucas Giolito and Dylan Cease in recent months and appeared poised to build upon a 2023 campaign that saw him slash .264/.315/.542 in 145 games, while Moncada was off to his best start in years after struggling with injuries in recent seasons. Through 11 games this year, the 28 year old was hitting a solid .282/.364/.410 with strong strikeout (22.7%) and walk (11.3%) figures.
Of course, it’s entirely possible both players will be able to pick up from where they left off upon rejoining the club later in the season. In the meantime, the White Sox are relying on Dominic Fletcher and Kevin Pillar in center field while Lenyn Sosa gets the lion’s share of playing time at the hot corner. Sosa moving off the bench to take up third base and Fletcher shifting from right field to center has also opened the door for the likes of Zach Remillard and Robbie Grossman to impact the club’s roster.
More from around the AL Central:
- Twins shortstop Carlos Correa hit the 10-day injured list yesterday with what was initially described as an oblique strain, but Do-Hyoung Park of MLB.com noted last night that Minnesota later reclassified as a mild right intercostal strain following the results of an MRI. While a timeline for Correa’s return to action is not yet known, Park suggests that once could be announced at some point this week. The reclassification of Correa’s injury provides some optimism that he could return to action fairly quickly, as MLB.com notes that mild intercostal strains typically have a recovery time of two to three weeks. Even if the absence is a relatively short one, it’s an unfortunate turn of events for a Twins club that has already lost Royce Lewis to injury on the left side of its infield. Correa had gotten off to a hot start this season, slashing a strong .306/.432/.444 through 11 games this season prior to hitting the injured list.
- The Tigers provided an ominous update on the status of right-hander Sawyer Gipson-Long yesterday, with Evan Woodbery of MLive relaying comments from club manager A.J. Hinch. According to Hinch, the Tigers are getting “multiple opinions” on the righty’s arm after he reported tightness in his forearm last week. To that end, Gipson-Long has returned to Detroit to meet with the team’s doctors and will remain with the club while awaiting next steps. Gipson-Long was already on the injured list due to a groin strain, but an issue with his right arm is far more concerning for the long term. A lengthy absence would be unfortunate for the Tigers, as Gipson-Long impressed with a 2.70 ERA and 3.16 FIP in four starts down he stretch last season during his first big league cup of coffee.