White Sox Recall Jonathan Cannon
TODAY: The Sox officially called up Cannon and optioned Davitt to Triple-A.
APRIL 11: Right-hander Jonathan Cannon is expected to be recalled by the White Sox, per Scott Merkin of MLB.com. Grant Taylor will serve as an opener on Sunday. Cannon last pitched on Tuesday, so he’d be on regular rest for bulk relief work. Right-hander Duncan Davitt is expected to be sent down to make room for Cannon.
Chicago has an opening in the rotation after the struggling Shane Smith was demoted on Wednesday. The move initiated a series of pitching staff shuffles that will continue with the addition of Cannon. Left-hander Tyler Schweitzer was promoted when Smith was sent down. He made his big-league debut that evening, allowing a run over 1 1/3 innings. Schweitzer was optioned back to the minors the following day. Chris Murphy was also placed on the injured list. Davitt and Brandon Eisert were recalled on Thursday.
Cannon has been a consistent member of the White Sox rotation the past two seasons. He’s made 45 appearances since debuting in April 2024, with 38 of those outings coming as a starter. The results have been underwhelming. Cannon has a 5.09 ERA across 228 big-league innings, supported by a 4.85 xERA and a 4.64 SIERA.
The 25-year-old Cannon got off to a solid start in 2025. He pitched Chicago’s second game of the year, tossing five scoreless frames against the Angels. Cannon delivered a 3.76 ERA over his first 10 starts. He stumbled from there, ceding 10 earned runs over his next two appearances, including five home runs. Cannon hit the injured list with a back strain after that difficult two-start stretch. He was up and down with the big-league club for the rest of the campaign. With the White Sox adding lefty Anthony Kay in the offseason, Cannon was squeezed out of a rotation spot. He’s been tagged for eight earned runs over 8 2/3 innings through two Triple-A appearances.
Davitt debuted on Friday against the Royals. The 26-year-old walked Kyle Isbel to lead off the eighth inning, then coaxed a double play grounder from Maikel Garcia. He got Bobby Witt Jr. to fly out to end the frame. Chicago acquired Davitt from the Rays in the Adrian Houser trade last season, along with first baseman Curtis Mead and right-hander Ben Peoples. While his first taste of the majors came as a reliever, he’d been exclusively a starter the past two minor league seasons. Davitt has an ERA of nearly 8.00 through two outings at Triple-A this year.
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White Sox Recall Duncan Davitt For MLB Debut
The White Sox announced that right-hander Duncan Davitt has been recalled from Triple-A Charlotte. He’ll be making his big league debut as soon as he gets into a game. They also recalled left-hander Brandon Eisert. Left-hander Tyler Schweitzer has been optioned in one corresponding move. Chris Murphy was also placed on the 15-day injured list, retroactive to April 8th, with left elbow impingement syndrome. James Fox of FutureSox was the first to report on the Davitt and Schweitzer transactions.
Davitt, 26, has been with the White Sox for less than a year. Originally drafted by the Rays, he was acquired in July as part of the deadline deal which sent Adrian Houser to Tampa. He doesn’t have overpowering stuff but projects as a possible back-end starter or swingman due to a diverse profile that he generally controls well. The data at FanGraphs credits him with six pitches. His four-seamer and sinker average in the low 90s. He also throws a cutter, curveball, slider and changeup.
Throughout his minor league career, he has thrown 381 innings over 67 starts and 20 relief appearances. He has allowed 4.39 earned runs per nine with a 25.2% strikeout rate and 7.6% walk rate. In December, FanGraphs ranked him the #21 prospect in the system. The report says he actually has a seven-pitch mix, mentioning a sweeper as another arrow in his quiver. He was added to the 40-man roster in November in order to keep him out of the Rule 5 draft. He was optioned to Charlotte early in camp but will now be recalled to the majors for the first time.
Davitt’s usage remains to be seen. The Sox start a four-game series in Kansas City tonight, which will be the final leg of a stretch of ten straight days with a game. Shane Smith started on Tuesday and didn’t allow a run but threw 99 pitches without getting through the fourth inning. The Sox optioned him to the minors after that, opening a hole in the rotation. Schweitzer was recalled for Smith but pitched in relief last night, one of five pitchers the Sox used after starter Sean Burke went five innings.
For the series against the Royals, Anthony Kay, Davis Martin and Erick Fedde are scheduled to be the starters for the first three. The Sox have been using Grant Taylor as an opener from time to time but those three should be bulk guys at least. Smith’s turn in the rotation will come up on Sunday. Perhaps Davitt could be a bulk guy for that game but he also may be needed before then, depending on how things go.
Photo courtesy of Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images
White Sox Select Duncan Davitt, Tanner McDougal
The White Sox announced that they have selected right-handed pitchers Duncan Davitt and Tanner McDougal to their 40-man roster. That protects both of them from being selected in the Rule 5 draft. The Sox also noted that left-hander Fraser Ellard has been placed on the voluntarily retired list.
Davitt, 26, was an 18th-round pick of the Rays in 2022. He came over to the White Sox at this year’s deadline, as part of the deal sending Adrian Houser to the Rays. Davitt has thrown 373 minor league innings with a 4.32 earned run average, 25.1% strikeout rate and 7.4% walk rate.
That includes 152 innings here in 2025, split between the two different clubs as well as between the Double-A and Triple-A levels. Put together, he had a 4.38 ERA, which doesn’t jump off the page. However, his 23.8% strikeout rate, 7.1% walk rate and 42.8% ground ball rate were all solid figures. He got an honorable mention from FanGraphs back in February on their list of top prospects in the Rays’ system. He can give the rebuilding White Sox some immediate rotation depth and should in line to make his big league debut at any point.
McDougal, 23 in April, is homegrown. The White Sox selected him in the fifth round of the 2021 draft. Baseball America ranked him in the teens of the Chicago system for the next few years but he fell off the map with a 6.04 ERA in 2024.
He bounced back this year. He made 28 starts between High-A and Double-A with a 3.26 ERA. His 10.2% walk rate was a bit high but he struck out 28.3% of batters faced and got grounders on 45.3% of balls in play. With those kinds of numbers, the Sox understandably didn’t want him to get away. He hasn’t yet reached Triple-A but he should be there in 2026 at some point.
Ellard, 28, was an eighth-round pick of the Sox in 2021. He climbed the ladder and was added to the 40-man roster in July of 2024. He tossed 24 innings for the Sox down the stretch last year, posting a 3.75 ERA.
2025 was a challenge for him. A strained right hamstring put him on the injured list a few weeks into the season. He was reinstated from the IL a couple of weeks later but then suffered a lat strain just a few days after that. That lat strain cost him about two months, from early May to early July. After he was reinstated from the IL, he was shuttled to Triple-A and back for the second half. He finished the season having tossed 17 innings. He walked 19 of the 74 batters he faced, a 25.7% clip. He also hit a batter and uncorked three wild pitches.
It seems Ellard has decided to hang up his spikes after that frustrating campaign. He retires with a 3.95 ERA in 41 innings. We at MLB Trade Rumors wish him all the best in his post-playing endeavors.
Photo courtesy of Joseph Cress, Imagn Images