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Andrew Benintendi To Miss Four To Six Weeks Due To Hand Fracture

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The White Sox announced that outfielder Andrew Benintendi has a non-displaced fracture in his right hand and will miss four to six weeks. He departed today’s spring training game after being hit by a pitch.

It’s an unfortunate blow for Benintendi and the White Sox. With the spring just getting going, he’ll now be shut down and miss the remainder of camp. Once healthy, he’ll have to head out on a rehab assignment and effectively start his spring training over again.

The Sox weren’t going to compete this year. They set a modern-day record with 121 losses in 2024. They aren’t likely to be significantly better in 2025. They did sign a few veterans to fill some roster spots but also traded Garrett Crochet to the Red Sox in exchange for prospects.

However, Benintendi had a chance to play himself into being a trade candidate, something that MLBTR looked at just yesterday. With three years and $15.83MM left on his deal and the Sox deep in a rebuild, they would surely love to move him. Any improved performance would have helped them do that while allowing Benintendi to play for a contender, a win-win for both sides.

Since signing with the Sox ahead of the 2023 season, Benintendi has hit just .246/.309/.374 for a wRC+ of 90 with poor defensive metrics to boot. But his 2024 season finished on a strong note. He had a stint on the injured in June due to left achilles tendinitis. He had hit just .195/.230/.284 before that IL stint but then slashed .251/.326/.470 the rest of the way. That latter line translated to a 124 wRC+, indicating he was 24% above league average at the plate.

That led to some hope that he could return to form in 2025, since he had hit .279/.351/.431 for a 109 wRC+ before joining the White Sox. If Benintendi has a bounceback in him, it will have to stay on ice until he gets over this injury.

The Sox will now have some early-season playing time to reallocate. Luis Robert Jr., another trade candidate that the Sox are hoping to see build value, will be the everyday guy in center. Mike Tauchman and Austin Slater could perhaps form a platoon in one corner. Michael A. Taylor is on the roster, likely viewed as a fourth outfielder/defensive replacement/pinch runner type.

Oscar Colás and Dominic Fletcher are on the 40-man roster. Each still has an option remaining and seemed ticketed for time in Triple-A but perhaps this opens some big league time for one of them. Joey Gallo is also in camp as a non-roster invitee, so this could lead to his contract being selected. Other NRIs with some big league experience include Corey Julks and Calvin Mitchell. If the Sox decide they want to bring in some more depth, players like Alex Verdugo, David Peralta and Robbie Grossman remain unsigned.

The Other Outfielder The White Sox Would Love To Trade

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The White Sox are one of the few clubs in baseball firmly in rebuild mode. They went 81-81 in 2022, followed by a 61-101 showing the year after. Last year, they reached a historic low, setting a modern-day record with 121 losses.

In that time, they have been willing to trade any established big league player for prospects. At the 2023 deadline, Lucas Giolito, Reynaldo López, Jake Burger, Lance Lynn, Joe Kelly, Keynan Middleton and Kendall Graveman were sent out. Prior to the 2024 season, Dylan Cease, Aaron Bummer, Gregory Santos and others were flipped. At the most recent deadline, Michael Kopech, Erick Fedde, Tommy Pham, Eloy Jiménez, Paul DeJong and Tanner Banks packed their bags. This offseason, Garrett Crochet was the headliner.

There’s not much left to move at this point. Luis Robert Jr. is the big name still on the roster. Since he had an injury-marred 2024, the Sox have held him for now, hoping that a healthy and productive showing in 2025 will increase his trade value leading up to the deadline.

Whether a trade comes together or not, the Sox aren’t committed to Robert. He’s entering the final guaranteed season of his contract. There are $20MM club options for 2026 and 2027. Those give him more upside if he bounces back but the Sox will presumably decline the first of those if he has another wasted season.

The only player with a guaranteed contract beyond this year is Andrew Benintendi. His five-year, $75MM pact runs through 2027. The Sox would presumably love to trade him as well, as the first two years of that pact haven’t gone well. Last summer, it was reported that the Sox were shopping him. They also reportedly explored some scenarios where Benintendi and Crochet would be packaged together, though they wisely didn’t go down that path, which would have resulted in a lesser prospect package coming back for Crochet.

The Sox don’t really need to the cost savings. Per Cot’s Baseball Contracts, they had a payroll near $200MM as of a couple of years ago. That was down to $123MM last year. RosterResource projects them to be at just $81MM in 2025. As mentioned, Benintendi is the only deal on the books after this year. He will make $16.5MM in both 2025 and 2026, followed by $14.5MM in 2027. That’s a total of $47.5MM over three years, or $15.83MM in terms of average annual value.

That’s not superstar money. Players like Joc Pederson, Anthony Santander, Michael Conforto, Tyler O’Neill, Gleyber Torres, Ha-Seong Kim and Jurickson Profar got AAVs in the $14-19MM range this winter. Those are mostly solid-but-flawed regulars, rather than stars.

Unfortunately, Benintendi hasn’t been near “solid-but-flawed” lately. Through the end of 2022, Benintendi had hit .279/.351/.431 for a 109 wRC+. In his first two years with the Sox, his line has been down at .246/.309/.374, which translates to a 90 wRC+. His defense has also taken a turn for the worse. Prior to coming to Chicago, Outs Above Average was already not a fan, giving Benintendi a grade of -16 for his career, but Defensive Runs Saved had him at +25. Over the past two years, he’s been worth -18 OAA and also -16 DRS.

Perhaps health played a bit of a role there. Benintendi spent some time on the injured list last year due to left achilles tendinitis. His 26.7 mile per hour sprint speed was the lowest of his career, so maybe that impacted his ability to run the ball down.

Regardless, it’s been a rough couple of years. Needless to say, Benintendi will need a big bounceback to have any trade value at all. Though it may look bleak now, there is actually a reason to have some hope, as Benintendi finished the 2024 season on a strong note.

His aforementioned IL stint for the achilles injury was from June 2 to June 12. At the time he landed on the IL, he had a brutal line of .195/.230/.284. After being reinstated, he hit .251/.326/.470 the rest of the way for a 124 wRC+. He hit 16 home runs in 322 plate appearances while also drawing walks at a 9.9% clip and striking out just 18.9% of the time. His .264 batting average on balls in play was actually below the .290 league average, so it wasn’t a product of batted ball luck.

It’s possible this was a fluke in another way. 16% of Benintendi’s fly balls left the yard in that stretch. That’s well above his 8.3% career rate and the 11.6% league average last year, despite his exit velocity and hard hit rate being near his previous levels. However, it’s also possible it came from a change in approach. In that hot finish in 2024, Benintendi pulled the ball at a 49.1% clip and also hit fly balls at a 43.9% rate. For his career, those numbers are just 36.6% and 38% respectively.

Whether that late-season surge was just a small-sample blip or a meaningful course correction remains to be seen. Like Robert, Benintendi’s trade value is at a low ebb and a big correction will be required for the Sox to be able to get anything in return. But if Benintendi can perform well to start 2025, it could then be legitimately framed as a year-long bounceback.

Given the aforementioned financial situation, the club should be willing to eat most or all of Benintendi’s deal. They aren’t a revenue-sharing club, so unlike the A’s or Marlins, they could bottom the payroll out without worrying about the possibility of an MLBPA grievance. Still, there are reasons for them to prioritize prospect returns as opposed to cost savings.

They aren’t likely to return to contention by 2027. Even if they do get good by then, Benintendi’s salary shouldn’t stand in the way of them making moves. Owners surely don’t love throwing money at a hopeless team, but the payroll will still be incredibly low in 2026 and 2027 even if the Sox are still paying Benintendi. If he is playing well this year, then perhaps a contending club with a tight payroll and/or competitive balance tax number would be enticed by the possibility of getting Benintendi at a low financial cost, giving up more prospect capital instead.

Robert will have much of the focus in 2025 and rightfully so. He has huge upside, having put together a borderline MVP performance in 2023. He will be one of the top deadline trade candidates if he gets anywhere near that. Benintendi won’t have as much of the spotlight but he will have his own chance to play his way into some attention. Though he’s been around for a while, he’s only 30 years old. His deal is underwater right now but isn’t atrocious by MLB standards. He’s had a rough couple of years but was legitimately good for the final three-plus months last year. Though he’s something of a forgotten man at this point, it’s possible he could play himself onto a contender over the next few months.

Salary Details For Several Minor League Deals

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Every offseason, the primary focus for baseball fans is on trades and free agent activity. Naturally, major league free agent signings garner the majority of the attention and generate the most buzz. Minor league signees come with less fanfare, typically with good reason. They tend to be older veterans who are looking to extend their playing careers or perhaps younger names looking to rebound from an injury or a disappointing showing the prior season (sometimes the prior few seasons).

As spring training progresses, we’re seeing an uptick in minor league signings. Free agents who’ve lingered on the market and felt their leverage in negotiations dry up begin to concede and accept non-guaranteed pacts to get to camp in hopes of winning a roster spot.

Salary details for minor league signees isn’t as prominently reported on as it is for players signing guaranteed big league deals. The Associated Press just published a list of free agent signings throughout the winter, including within salary details for a handful of (mostly) recent minor league signings. Many of the salaries reported by the AP were already known and reflected here at MLBTR, but the report does include more than two dozen previously unreported base salaries for players on minor league deals. Here’s a quick rundown (player salary links point back to prior MLBTR posts detailing that minor league signing):

Blue Jays: Jacob Barnes, RHP, $1.4MM | Ryan Yarbrough, LHP, $2MM

Braves: Curt Casali, C, $1.25MM | Buck Farmer, RHP, $1MM

Brewers: Manuel Margot, OF, $1.3MM | Mark Canha, 1B/OF, $1.4MM

Cubs: Brooks Kriske, RHP, $900K | Travis Jankowski, OF, $1.25MM | Chris Flexen, RHP, $1.5MM

Diamondbacks: Garrett Hampson, INF/OF, $1.5MM | Scott McGough, RHP, $1.25MM

Dodgers: Luis Garcia, RHP, $1.5MM

Giants: Lou Trivino, RHP, $1.5MM

Mariners: Shintaro Fujinami, RHP, $1.3MM | Trevor Gott, RHP, $1.35MM

Padres: Yuli Gurriel, 1B, $1.35MM ($100K higher than initially reported)

Rangers: Nick Ahmed, SS, $1.25MM | Jesse Chavez, RHP, $1.25MM | David Buchanan, RHP, $1.375MM | Kevin Pillar, OF, $1MM

Red Sox: Matt Moore, LHP, $2MM

Royals: Luke Maile, C, $2MM | Ross Stripling, RHP, $1.75MM

White Sox: Brandon Drury, INF/OF, $2MM | Mike Clevinger, RHP, $1.5MM

A few things bear emphasizing. First, this is clearly not a comprehensive list of minor league signings throughout the league — nor is it even a comprehensive list of the listed teams’ non-roster invitees to camp. Secondly, many of these sums are of little consequence to the team. They’re not even guaranteed, after all, and even if a player makes the Opening Day roster and earns the full slate of his minor league salary, most of these salaries aren’t going to carry significant payroll ramifications.

That’s not true across the board, though. For instance, the Rangers are fully intent on remaining under the $241MM luxury tax threshold. At present, RosterResource projects them at $235.7MM of luxury obligations. Opting to select the contract of Buchanan or Chavez rather than allocating those innings to pre-arbitration players who’s being paid at league-minimum levels (or a few thousand dollars north of it) would inch the Rangers’ CBT number forward. They’re not going to hit the tax line even in if they wind up adding multiple NRIs to the actual roster, but selecting their contracts will further narrow the resources president of baseball ops Chris Young will have at his disposal for midseason dealings.

The Red Sox, meanwhile, are effectively seated right at the tax threshold. RosterResource has them with $241.4MM of luxury considerations. Team president Sam Kennedy said after signing Alex Bregman that he expects his team will be a CBT payor in 2025. As things stand, the Sox could duck back under that threshold, but selecting the contract of Moore, Adam Ottavino (also $2MM) or another prominent NRI would further signal ownership’s willingness to return to luxury tax status for the first time since 2022.

There’s probably no getting back under the tax line for the Blue Jays, who currently have a $273.3MM CBT number. However, the front office would presumably like to avoid reaching $281MM in tax obligations, as that’s the point at which Toronto’s top pick in the 2026 draft would be dropped by ten spots. In-season trades will have more of an effect on their tax number than decisions on NRIs like Barnes, Yarbrough, Eric Lauer and others, but it bears mentioning that the Blue Jays are around $8MM shy of what many clubs consider to be the most detrimental impact of straying to deep into CBT waters.

White Sox View Miguel Vargas As Primary Third Baseman

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White Sox manager Will Venable tells James Fegan of Sox Machine that Miguel Vargas is viewed as the club’s primary option at third base. He is playing a bit of first base in camp as well but will mostly line up at the hot corner.

Vargas, 25, became a key piece of the roster last summer. Prior to last year’s deadline. the Sox lined up a three-team trade with the Dodgers and Cardinals. Chicago gave up Erick Fedde, Michael Kopech, Tommy Pham and cash in that deal. In return, they received three minor leaguers, with Vargas being more of a high-profile addition than Alexander Albertus or Jeral Perez.

A few years ago, Vargas was a top 100 prospect. Baseball America gave him the #29 spot going into 2023. That’s largely on account of his huge numbers against minor league pitching, though he hasn’t yet translated that to the majors. He has hit .175/.273/.312 in 591 big league plate appearances thus far.

But over the past three years, he has hit .297/.412/.512 in 996 Triple-A appearances. That was in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League but his 15.6% walk rate and 16.7% strikeout rate in that time were both great and wRC+ still considered him to be 31% better than league average.

Defensively, Vargas primarily played third base on his way up the minor league ladder, though the Dodgers moved him around the diamond. That was partially to improve his chances of cracking their crowded roster but also because his defense at the hot corner hasn’t been especially highly rated. He spent time at second base, first base and left field.

After acquiring him last year, the Sox gave him 36 starts at third and one in left. They overhauled their staff since then, bringing in Venable to be the new manager in 2025. It seems the new skipper doesn’t change the plan and they will give Vargas some run at the hot corner and see how it goes. Obviously, making offensive strides at the major league level is going to be important for Vargas but finding a viable defensive home is also going to be key. Now is a good time for the Sox to experiment, since they clearly have no hope of contending in the near term after their historically bad season in 2024. Vargas is still under control for five years, so there’s some time to come up with a clear answer.

The Sox signed infielder Josh Rojas to a one-year, $3.5MM deal last month. He has played more third base than any other position in his career, over 2,000 innings, but has over 1,000 innings at second as well. He’s also dabbled in the outfield corners, at shortstop and first base.

Perhaps Rojas will end up securing the second base job, if Vargas is at third. He will have some competition from Lenyn Sosa, though Sosa has hit just .229/.257/.347 in his big league career thus far and may get pushed into a bench/utility job. Rookie Colson Montgomery could perhaps take the Opening Day shortstop job. Infielders Jacob Amaya, Brooks Baldwin and Bryan Ramos are also on the 40-man roster with Brandon Drury and Nick Maton providing some non-roster depth.

Elsewhere on the roster, right-hander Prelander Berroa has been diagnosed with a grade 1 elbow strain, per Scott Merkin of MLB.com. Merkin says “it looks as if” Berroa can avoid Tommy John surgery “in the short term,” with next steps to be determined.

Berroa, 25 in April, came to the Sox as part of the Gregory Santos trade about a year ago. He has a 3.05 earned run average in 20 2/3 innings thus far in his career between the M’s and White Sox. Control has been an issue, with a 17.6% walk rate in the big leagues thus far. However, he’s also shown huge strikeout stuff, punching out 31.9% of major league hitters faced.

Obviously, a Tommy John surgery would be unwelcome, leading to an absence of over a year. The Sox will explore other options for the time being to see if there’s a way to get him back on the mound that doesn’t involve a surgeon’s scalpel.

White Sox Planning To Use Mike Clevinger As Reliever

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Mike Clevinger has started 142 of his 156 career Major League games, and only one of his 14 relief appearances has come during Clevinger’s last six seasons.  However, now that the right-hander has returned to the White Sox on a minor league deal, the team intends to look at Clevinger as relief pitching during Spring Training and into the regular season.

“Everything looks really crisp, and just hopefully we can continue to give him opportunities to see what it looks like out of the bullpen and hopefully it all lines up,” Sox manager Will Venable told MLB.com’s Scott Merkin and other reporters.  “I think the focus right now is getting into the routine of shortening down, and seeing what the recovery looks like in between appearances.  We’ll go from there as we continue to build out our roster.”

The decision is a little surprising given Clevinger’s history as a starter, and the lack of experience within Chicago’s rotation.  Martin Perez was signed to a one-year, $5MM to be the veteran anchor of the staff, and Bryse Wilson (who has pitched in each of the last seven MLB seasons) was brought in as at least a swingman, and possibly a full-time rotation member.  Beyond that duo, Jonathan Cannon and Sean Burke only made their big league debuts last season, and Davis Martin has 113 1/3 innings over parts of the 2022 and 2024 seasons.

Still, it isn’t surprising that the rebuilding White Sox want to see what these younger arms (plus others competing for rotation jobs) have to offer, rather than give innings to the 34-year-old Clevinger.  The new bullpen role also reflects the reality of Clevinger’s abbreviated and injury-riddled 2024 season, as he was limited to 16 innings due to elbow inflammation and then a disc surgery on his neck in early August.  Clevinger also didn’t sign until early April, so he spent his first month ramping up in the minors before making his 2024 debut in May.

On the injury front, Clevinger told Merkin that he is feeling far better in the aftermath of the neck procedure, and also provided some insight into just how many additional issues he was facing due to his disc problem.

“That first night after surgery I slept better than I had in probably six months.  I was throwing two weeks after that, and now I feel as healthy as I have since 2019,” Clevinger said.  “I instantly was already moving my head around better.  My [scapula] mobility got a lot better.  I was sleeping better.  I was throwing bullpens again.  By the time I got back to lifting and throwing bullpens, all the numbness in my hand, the forearm muscles shutting down, all that stuff had already stopped.”

In regards to his bullpen job, Clevinger views the transition as “an interesting new challenge” after years of establishing his starting pitching routine.  “It’s going to be finding the flow of things, when I’m getting ready, the throwing before the game, and just really ironing out those details is going to be the biggest challenge,” the right-hander said.  “I don’t think it will be a problem.  Mitigate each day to try to get back out there and go back-to-back days, three games in a row, and find that flow.”

If there seemed to be plenty of opportunity within the White Sox rotation, the bullpen is the same story.  Sox GM Chris Getz said earlier this week that Clevinger could even receive consideration as the team’s closer, underscoring how fluid things are with Chicago’s roster.

Countless starting pitchers have revitalized their careers with moves to the bullpen, so there’s certainly a chance Clevinger could join this long list.  Since the White Sox aren’t aiming to contend, every veteran player is a potential deadline trade chip, and a successful reliever version of Clevinger could certainly garner some interest by midseason.

Eddie Fisher Passes Away

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Former All-Star Eddie Fisher passed away on Monday at 88. His obituary was provided by an Oklahoma funeral home.

Born in Shreveport, Louisiana, Fisher moved to Oklahoma as a child. He attended OU before signing with the Giants in 1958. A knuckleballer, Fisher reached the majors within a year of signing his pro contract. He pitched sparingly over three seasons with San Francisco. The Giants included the 6’2″ righty in a trade package to the White Sox for veteran pitchers Billy Pierce and Don Larsen during the 1961-62 offseason.

Fisher spent parts of five seasons in Chicago. Working primarily as a long reliever, he rattled off four straight years with at least 120 innings and a sub-4.00 earned run average. Fisher had his best season in 1965, when he turned in a 2.40 ERA while leading the American League in appearances (82) and WHIP (0.974). He made his lone All-Star appearance, where he tossed two scoreless innings. Fisher finished fourth in AL MVP balloting behind Zoilo Versalles and future Hall of Famers Tony Oliva and Brooks Robinson.

It was more of the same in ’66. Fisher carried a 2.29 ERA over 35 1/3 innings for the White Sox, who swapped him to the Orioles for middle infielder Jerry Adair that June. Fisher tossed 71 2/3 frames with a 2.64 mark down the stretch for Baltimore. The O’s went on to win the World Series, getting Fisher the only ring of his career. He didn’t make an appearance in the Fall Classic. Baltimore’s sweep of the Dodgers included complete game shutouts from Jim Palmer, Wally Bunker and Dave McNally, so they had little need to use their bullpen.

Fisher continued to soak up innings out of the ’pen for multiple teams into the 1970s. He pitched one more season with Baltimore and spent four years with the California Angels, for whom he turned in a 3.22 ERA. He had a brief second stint with the White Sox and wrapped his career with the Cardinals in ’73.

He concluded a 15-year big league run with a 3.41 earned run average in more than 1500 innings. Fisher won 85 games and recorded 812 strikeouts. He finished 344 contests and was credited with 82 saves (most of them retroactively because the stat wasn’t officially tracked by MLB until 1969). MLBTR sends condolences to Fisher’s family, friends and loved ones.

Justin Ishbia Abandons Pursuit Of Twins, Will Increase Minority Stake In White Sox

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Billionaire brothers Justin and Mat Ishbia are no longer interested in purchasing the Twins from the Pohlad family, reports Jon Greenberg of The Athletic. Justin Ishbia instead intends to purchase a greater minority share of the White Sox, Greenberg writes. Kurt Badenhousen and Eben Novy-Williams at Sportico reported last month that the Ishbias had purchased a small share of the White Sox back in 2021.

In the short term, the biggest significance is that it’s a major setback in the Twins sale process. The Pohlad family announced in October that they were looking to sell the Minnesota franchise, which they’ve owned for four decades. The Athletic’s Dan Hayes reported in early January that the Pohlads had received robust interest and were hoping to have the sale finalized by Opening Day. There were reportedly multiple interested parties, but the Ishbias seemed the early frontrunners.

Mat and Justin Ishbia co-own the Phoenix franchises in the NBA and WNBA. While Mat Ishbia is the majority owner of the basketball teams, Justin Ishbia would have been the control person had they purchased the Twins. It’s unclear how far down the road the Pohlads got in negotiations, but they’ll now need to turn their attention elsewhere.

Over the longer haul, this is also a potentially seismic development for the White Sox. Greenberg writes that some people familiar with the situation believe this will be a stepping stone to Justin Ishbia eventually assuming majority control of the franchise from Jerry Reinsdorf. White Sox VP of communications Scott Reifert pushed back against that notion. “White Sox limited partners have received an offer from a third party to purchase their shares in the team, providing liquidity for the limited partners on their long-term investment in the club,” he told Greenberg. “This offer to limited partners has no impact on the leadership or operations of the Chicago White Sox and does not provide a path to control.”

Reinsdorf, who turns 89 next week, has owned the White Sox since 1981. He has owned the NBA’s Bulls since the mid-80s. For more than a decade, Reinsdorf has maintained that his family should sell the White Sox after his passing. He reportedly had conversations with a Dave Stewart-led group about a sale last October. It’s not clear whether those talks made progress, though Stewart joined the A’s in a special assistant role last month.

That process also involved some speculation about relocation. The Sox’s lease at Rate Field runs through 2029. Reinsdorf lobbied for a reported $1 billion in public funding for a new stadium in Chicago’s South Loop last year. As of last October, the White Sox were continuing to pursue the South Loop project.

White Sox, Mike Clevinger Agree To Minor League Contract

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The White Sox are in agreement with Mike Clevinger on a minor league deal, reports Robert Murray of FanSided. The ACES client receives a non-roster invite to Spring Training.

Clevinger returns to Chicago for what’ll be a third straight season. He signed a $12MM deal with the Sox over the 2022-23 offseason. That was a generally successful pickup, as he turned in a 3.77 earned run average through 24 starts. That came with a below-average strikeout rate for a second consecutive season, leading to a quieter market last winter. Clevinger remained unsigned beyond Opening Day. He eventually returned to Chicago on a $4MM deal.

As a result of the late signing, the veteran righty agreed to start the season in the minors. That afforded him a few weeks to build his arm into game shape. The White Sox recalled him in early May. He took four turns through the rotation, allowing 13 runs (12 earned) across 16 frames. Elbow inflammation shelved him for a couple months. Clevinger was building back from that when the Sox announced in late July that he’d undergo season-ending surgery to address a disc issue in his neck.

The injury-plagued season limited Clevinger to minor league offers as he enters his age-34 campaign. He’s clearly comfortable with the White Sox, where there’s plenty of opportunity in the rotation. Chicago has added Martín Pérez and Bryse Wilson on one-year deals this offseason. No other starter on their 40-man roster has even reached one year of major league service. Clevinger joins Justin Dunn and Jonathan Heasley as non-roster invitees who have MLB experience.

White Sox Claim Owen White

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The White Sox have claimed right-hander Owen White off waivers from the Yankees, according to announcements from both clubs. The latter club had designated him for assignment last week. The Sox moved left-hander Ky Bush to the 60-day injured list as the corresponding move. It was reported last week that Bush would require Tommy John surgery, so he’ll spend the entire 2025 season on the IL.

White, 25, is a logical pickup for the White Sox. He has had rough results for the past two years but was a top 100 prospect before that. The Sox aren’t expecting to be good anytime soon, with their 2024 season being historically bad. Of the 30 clubs in the league, they are the one best positioned to take a flier and hope for a bounceback. White also has one option year remaining, so he can be kept in Triple-A throughout 2025 as the club gets a close-up look at him.

Drafted by the Rangers with the 55th overall pick in 2018, White’s debut was delayed for a while. Tommy John surgery prevented him from pitching in 2019 and then the minor leagues were wiped out by the pandemic in 2020. But despite that lengthy layoff, he went on to put up some eye-popping numbers once on the hill. Over the 2021 and 2022 seasons, he logged 115 2/3 innings on the farm with a 3.42 earned run average. He had a strong 7.5% walk rate and a massive 34.1% strikeout rate.

Going into 2023, he was a consensus top 100 prospect, with Baseball America giving him the #59 spot. The Rangers added him to their 40-man roster to keep him out of the Rule 5 draft. But as alluded to earlier, his results have tapered off significantly since then.

He has made his major league debut, which surely wasn’t what he dreamed of. In seven big league frames to this point, he has allowed 13 earned runs, giving him an ugly 16.71 ERA at the moment. His minor league numbers haven’t been great either. He threw 151 1/3 innings for Triple-A Round Rock over 2023 and 2024 with a 5.41 ERA. The Express play in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League but he also didn’t impress with his 17.4% strikeout rate nor his 11.7% walk rate.

The Rangers did get experimental with White midway through 2024, giving him a shot at a relief role. In his final 13 Triple-A appearances on the year, he logged 18 frames from the bullpen. His 5.50 ERA still wasn’t impressive but he did strike out 25.6% of batters faced in that time.

That wasn’t enough for him to hang onto his roster spot. He was designated for assignment in December and traded to the Reds for cash. He was designated for assignment again in late January and put on waivers, with the Sox passing at that time. Given their record last year, they have top waiver priority, but he was claimed by the Yankees. But since then, the 60-day IL has opened up, which gave Chicago a bit more flexibility to make an addition such as this.

The Sox can bring White into camp and see how things go. Perhaps he can get back on track as a starter or find new life with a move to a relief role. As mentioned, they don’t need to give him a spot on the active roster this year. He still has less than a year of service time, so they could cheaply control him for years to come if things click while he’s on the roster.

White Sox Sign Joey Gallo To Minor League Deal

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The White Sox announced the signing of Joey Gallo to a minor league contract. The Boras Corporation client will be in camp as a non-roster invitee.

Gallo is looking to rebound from the worst season of his career. The two-time All-Star inked a $5MM free agent deal with the Nationals last January. He appeared in 76 games and hit .161/.277/.336 with 10 homers across 260 plate appearances. Gallo struck out in 39.2% of his plate appearances, the second-highest rate among hitters with 200+ trips to the dish. While the whiffs are nothing new, that came with a personal-low 12.3% walk rate and slugging percentage.

It was the third straight season in which Gallo has had a tough time offensively. His bat has dropped sharply since the Yankees acquired him from the Rangers in a big deadline trade in 2021. Gallo had hit .211/.336/.497 over parts of seven seasons in Texas. Since leaving Arlington, he owns a .165/.289/.384 slash in more than 1200 trips to the plate between four teams.

Gallo won consecutive Gold Gloves in the outfield in 2020-21. His sprint speed and defensive grades have dropped since then, though he’s still capable of playing right field. Washington used him mostly at first base last season. He logged nearly 500 innings there while starting just seven games in the outfield.

Chicago is likely to give Andrew Vaughn another chance to take a step forward at first base. Right field is wide open. Mike Tauchman and Austin Slater are probably lined up for a platoon there. Gallo, Dominic Fletcher and former highly-regarded prospect Oscar Colás could compete for reps in camp.

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