The White Sox have decided not to tender a contract to outfielder Avisail Garcia, GM Rick Hahn told reporters including MLB.com’s Scott Merkin (via Twitter). He was projected by MLBTR & Matt Swartz to earn $8.0MM in arbitration.
Meanwhile, the Chicago club has reached agreement to avoid arbitration with Leury Garcia, Hahn added. He’ll earn $1.55MM, per Mark Gonzales of the Chicago Tribune (via Twitter), which lands well shy of the $1.9MM that was projected.
More to come …
The Angels announced Tuesday that they’ve placed outfielder Justin Upton on the 10-day disabled list due to a laceration on his index finger. Jack Magruder of MLB.com writes that Upton required stitches after he sustained a severe cut at his home on a wine glass that had broken. Upton expressed frustration and regret over incurring an off-field injury in this manner, though it sounds as if he’ll only require a short-term absence from the team. The Angels aren’t contending for the postseason anyhow, but Upton would surely like to be on the field competing and pursuing a third consecutive 30-homer season. The slugger is in the first season of a five-year, $106MM extension with the Angels and has batted .267/.352/.474 with 26 big flies on the year.
Some more injury news from around the league…
The White Sox announced Friday that they’ve activated both Avisail Garcia and Leury Garcia from the disabled list. In order to clear roster space, infielder Jose Rondon has been optioned to Triple-A Charlotte, while outfielder Trayce Thompson has been designated for assignment.
Chicago has been without Avisail Garcia since April 23 thanks to a hamstring strain that proved severe enough to sideline him for almost two months. The slightly younger of the two Garcias activated today (he turned 27 last week shortly before embarking on a minor league rehab assignment), Avisail was off to a slow start prior to his injury, hitting .233/.250/.315 with no walks and 17 strikeouts in 76 plate appearances.
Of course, he’s also fresh off a breakout 2017 season in which he raked at a .330/.380/.506 clip, hitting 18 homers, 27 doubles and five triples along the way. A .380 BABIP undoubtedly contributed to that breakout to an extent, but Garcia’s career-best hard-contact rates and a .359 xwOBA lent some legitimacy to the breakout, even if he’s likely to regress a bit from last year’s pace.
As for Leury Garcia, he’ll return nearly a month due to a sprained left knee. The South Side Swiss army knife has seen action at every position aside from catcher since debuting in 2013 (including two innings of relief pitching), though he’s settled in primarily as an outfielder over the past couple of seasons. He was hitting .262/.308/.369 with a pair of homers and nine steals at the time of his injury. The return of both Garcias should will cut into playing time for each of Daniel Palka, Charlie Tilson and Adam Engel. Matt Davidson, too, could see fewer at-bats for the time being now that there’s a more crowded mix at DH.
Thompson, meanwhile, is being designated for assignment for the fourth time since Spring Training. After being designated by the Dodgers, he made his way from the Yankees to the A’s to the White Sox — the club that originally selected him in the second round of the 2009 draft. Unfortunately for Thompson, his return to the ChiSox didn’t prove to be productive. In 130 trips to the plate back with his original team, Thompson limped to a .116/.153/.215 batting line. He did provide some heroics in his return tour, launching a walk-off homer against the Twins back in early May, but his overall lack of production proved too great to hang onto his roster spot.
The Sox will have a week to trade Thompson or run him throughout outright waivers. He’s yet to clear waivers at any point in his career, though this current lackluster showing could allow the Sox to pass him through unclaimed and outright him back to Charlotte.
The White Sox have announced a trio of roster moves following the official suspension of Welington Castillo. To account for the opening behind the plate, the club has selected the contract of backstop Alfredo Gonzalez.
Additionally, the Chicago organization announced that infielder Leury Garcia is going onto the 10-day DL with a knee sprain. Taking his spot on the active roster is outfielder Charlie Tilson.
The 25-year-old Gonzalez will get his first shot at the majors after nine seasons of minor-league action. Presumably, he’s viewed as a trusted option behind the dish, as he has not really distinguished himself with the bat. Gonzalez posted a .607 OPS last year at Double-A and is off to a .169/.279/.191 slash with 33 strikeouts in his 105 plate appearances this season for Triple-A Charlotte.
Meanwhile, this’ll represent a notable return to the majors for Tilson, who suffered a significant injury during his debut game in 2016. A series of health problems ended up keeping him out for all of the ensuing season. Tilson has been back in action thus far in 2018, though he has managed only a .248/.288/.298 slash in his 173 Triple-A plate appearances on the year.
The deadline for MLB teams to exchange salary arbitration figures with their arbitration-eligible players is today at 1pm ET. As such, there will be a veritable flood of arb agreements piling up in the next few hours — especially in light of a more universal approach to the “file and trial” method for teams. (That is to say, those teams will no longer negotiate one-year deals after arb figures are exchanged and will instead head to a hearing with those players, barring an agreemenr on a multi-year deal.)
Note that you can keep an eye on all of today’s deals using MLBTR’s 2018 Arbitration Tracker, which can be filtered to show only the results of the team you follow and is also sortable by service time and dollar value of the agreement. All projections that are referenced come from MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz’s annual compilation of projected arbitration salarie
American League West
American League Central
American League East
Former Cardinals pitching coach Dave Duncan isn't sure whether he wants to return to baseball, but he's listening, reports Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports. "I’ve had several clubs call me and talk to me not so much about coaching, but joining them in some other capacity," says Duncan. "I really don’t think I would coach again — not right now, anyway. But if someone is interested, I’d listen to whatever they’re thinking about." Duncan left the game in January 2012 as his wife Jeanine was suffering from cancer. Duncan still has an excellent reputation as a pitching coach, but he does not want to return to coaching, calling it "a grind." Here are more notes from the Central divisions.
AUGUST 11: The White Sox have announced, via Twitter, Garcia is the player to be named later in the Rios trade. Garcia will report to Triple-A Charlotte and will most likely be a September call-up, before if needed, reports Dan Hayes of CSNChicago.com (Twitter links).
AUGUST 9: It looked like a long shot just hours ago, but the White Sox and Rangers have announced a trade that will send Alex Rios to Texas in exchange for a player to be named later. The White Sox are reportedly including $1MM to help offset some of the remaining money on Rios' contract. 
Dan Hayes of CSN Chicago feels that it's likely Leury Garcia will be the player to be named later at a time when he's not required to clear waivers to be moved (Twitter link). MLB.com's T.R. Sullivan agrees that Garcia will head to the White Sox, adding that the trade came together just minutes before the deadline to move Rios before his waiver period expired.
The 32-year-old Rios is hitting .277/.328/.421 with 12 homers and 26 stolen bases this season. Originally set to earn $12.5MM next year with a $13.5MM option for 2015, Rios has a clause in his contract that escalates both of those figures by $500K if traded, which is likely the reason that the Sox included the $1MM in cash.
The Rangers claimed Rios off waivers earlier this week after expressing interest in him prior to the trade deadline. This is the second time that he has changed teams in August, as the White Sox originally acquired him from the Blue Jays back in 2009 in a down season when the Jays simply dumped his contract onto the White Sox. In parts of five seasons with the White Sox, Rios hit .269/.310/.430, offering solid defense in right field. He's also capable of playing center field in a pinch, though he hasn't done so regularly since 2011.
The 22-year-old Garcia is hitting just .192/.236/.231 in 57 plate appearances this season. The switch-hitter entered the season ranked as the Rangers' No. 20 prospect, according to Baseball America. In their scouting report, BA noted that Garcia is a near 80 runner on the 20-80 scouting scale and also possessed the best infield arm in Texas' system. His ultimate role may be a super utility player capable of handling second base, shortstop and center field, according to BA.
Dan Hayes of CSN Chicago first reported that Rios had been traded and that the White Sox would receive a PTBNL (Twitter links). Jon Heyman of CBS Sports first reported that that the White Sox were including $1MM (on Twitter).
With Nelson Cruz's suspension leaving the Rangers thin in the outfield, Texas acquired Alex Rios from the White Sox today for a PTBNL (widely reported to be infielder Leury Garcia) and $1MM. Now, several hours after news of the trade broke, here are reactions to the deal from around the web.
Astros GM Jeff Luhnow remains confident the organization has taken the right steps to field a competitive team in the near future even with payroll that may fall short of $25MM, writes Brian McTaggart of MLB.com. "I think people are focusing on what the Major League payroll is, and I think the reality is we're making a huge investment in our people," Luhnow said. "We're not going to do something to improve a few games in 2013 that comes at the expense of our ability to compete over the long haul."
Let's take a look around the AL West to catch up on the latest news and headlines.
