The White Sox announced a series of roster moves this morning. The club reinstated infielder Josh Rojas from the injured list, selected the contract of right-hander Caleb Freeman, and recalled southpaw Tyler Gilbert to the big league roster. In corresponding moves, infielder Bobby Dalbec was designated for assignment while southpaw Fraser Ellard was placed on the 15-day injured list with a left lat strain and righty Penn Murfee was optioned to Triple-A.
Rojas, 31 next month, signed with the White Sox this past winter after being non-tendered by the Mariners. Drafted in the 26th round by the Astros back in 2017, Rojas was shipped to Arizona in the Zack Greinke trade and made his MLB debut with the Diamondbacks not long after. After struggling to hit at the big league level in his first two MLB seasons, Rojas took a step forward and became a quality regular with a roughly league average bat and a strong glove all around the infield starting in his age-27 campaign back in 2021. The last four seasons have seen Rojas slash .252/.327/.373 with a 97 wRC+ between the Diamondbacks and Mariners while accumulating 7.2 fWAR.
A difficult second half in Seattle last year led to his non-tender, however, and the White Sox scooped him up over the offseason to serve as a veteran option in their young and unproven infield. Rojas began the season on the shelf due to a late spring toe fracture, however, and is only just now getting activated for his debut with Chicago. Since Rojas went down, Lenyn Sosa and Miguel Vargas have mostly handled second and third base. Now that Rojas is in the mix, he figures to start everyday against at least right-handed pitchers, though it wouldn’t be a shock to see him get at least some play against lefties as well despite his lackluster platoon splits thanks to solid defense.
Making room for Rojas’s return in the positional mix is Dalbec, who had taken up a bench role with the White Sox in recent weeks. He made it into just seven games with Chicago before being designated for assignment today, slashing .222/.333/.278 in that time with a 28.6% strikeout rate. A former top-100 prospect for the Red Sox, Dalbec hit .243/.308/.511 with 33 homers in 156 games between the 2020 and ’21 seasons but since then has looked miscast at the big league level, hitting just .199/.272/.328 in 520 plate appearances since the start of the 2022 season while striking out at a whopping 37.5% clip. The White Sox will now have one week to trade Dalbec or attempt to pass him through waivers. Should he clear waivers, Dalbec will have the opportunity to elect free agency as a player with a previous career outright.
Dalbec’s 40-man roster spot will go to Freeman, whose first game with the Sox will be his major league debut. The 27-year-old was a 15th-rounder in the 2019 draft and has mostly posted pedestrian numbers throughout his MiLB career, but he’s gotten off to quite a hot start at Triple-A this year. In 13 1/3 innings of work across ten outings, Freeman has posted a 1.35 ERA while striking out 33.3% of his opponents. Those exciting numbers are still in a very small sample size, of course, but it was still enough for the White Sox to give the righty a look in a bullpen that could surely stand to benefit from a breakout performer within its ranks.
Ellard departs the roster in a move that makes room for Freeman on the active roster. The southpaw’s 6.75 ERA in seven outings this year is lackluster, though his 40% strikeout rate in that limited taste of big league action this year was exciting enough that the loss of Ellard from the bullpen mix is still a significant hit to the unit’s overall upside. Meanwhile, Gilbert rejoins the roster as a swing option despite below average results (5.59 ERA, 4.40 FIP) in 9 2/3 innings of work this year at the expense of Murfee, who has been torched for a 7.82 ERA in 15 outings this year and will head to Triple-A for a reset.
