White Sox Release 5 Players
The White Sox have released five players – infielders Matt Skole and Ramon Torres, right-hander Zach Putnam, and lefties Caleb Frare and Matt Tomshaw – according to Daryl Van Schouwen of the Chicago Sun-Times. Frare, Skole and Tomshaw spent time in major league camp during the first version of spring training, but the White Sox reassigned them to the minors in March.
The most big league experience in the group belongs to the 32-year-old Putnam, who was rather adept at keeping runs off the board with the White Sox from 2014-17. During that 139 1/3-inning span, he posted a 2.71 ERA/3.34 FIP with 9.62 K/9, 3.62 BB/9 and a 47.6 percent groundball rate. Putnam hasn’t pitched in the majors since then, though, as he underwent Tommy John surgery in 2018 and then, as a member of the Red Sox organization last year, battled a hamstring injury. He returned to the White Sox on a minor league contract in March.
Skole was once a solid prospect with the Nationals, and while he did slash .248/.384/.497 with 21 home runs in 391 plate appearances with the White Sox’s Triple-A team last season, he hasn’t seen much action in the majors. The 30-year-old owns a meager .567 OPS at the game’s highest level in 93 PA. Likewise, Torres, Frare and Tomshaw have shown well at times in the minors, but they haven’t made noteworthy impacts in MLB in their small sample sizes of work (Tomshaw hasn’t reached the majors thus far).
White Sox Re-Sign Ryan Burr, Caleb Frare
The White Sox have re-signed right-hander Ryan Burr and lefty Caleb Frare to minor league contracts and invited them to Major League Spring Training, tweets Daryl Van Schouwen of the Chicago Sun-Times. Both were non-tendered yesterday but quickly rejoined the organization on new minor league pacts that don’t require the Sox to allocate a spot on the 40-man roster.
Burr, 25, pitched 19 2/3 innings for the ChiSox in 2019 and posted a 4.58 ERA with a 20-to-8 K/BB ratio and a 47.4 percent ground-ball rate in that time. He throws fairly hard, averaging 95 mph on his heater, but he wasn’t able to generate many swinging strikes in his limited time in the big leagues (8.4 percent). The Arizona State product was a star closer in college and has a strong minor league track record (2.02 ERA, 10.8 K/9 in 173 1/3 innings), so the Sox are surely glad to get him back in the organization as a depth piece.
Frare, meanwhile, has logged 9 2/3 innings with the Sox over the past two seasons with 12 punchouts against eight walks. The 26-year-old was acquired from the Yankees prior to the 2018 deadline in a swap that sent international funds to New York, but his 2019 campaign in Triple-A was the worst of his career. Frare whiffed an impressive 34 hitters in just 22 1/3 innings, but he also issued 19 walks, hit three batters and allowed five homers en route to a 7.33 ERA. He’s dominated up through Double-A in the minors and routinely posts big strikeout totals, however, so perhaps he can eventually unlock something more at the game’s top levels.