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Pitchers Recently Electing Free Agency

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Since the conclusion of the regular season, a number of players have elected free agency. That right accrues to certain players who are outrighted off of a 40-man roster during or after the season — namely, those that have at least three years of MLB service and/or have previously been outrighted. Such players that accepted outright assignments during the season have the right to elect free agency instead at season’s end, provided they aren’t added back to the 40-man in the meantime.

We already rounded up the position players. Now, here are the pitchers that have recently taken to the open market, along with their now-former teams (via the International League and PCL transactions pages):

White Sox Place Eloy Jimenez On IL, Select Ryan Goins

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The White Sox announced today that they have placed outfielder Eloy Jimenez on the 10-day injured list. The club identified his injury as a “right ulnar nerve contusion.”

To fill the open active roster spot, the South Siders have selected the contract of infielder Ryan Goins. A 40-man slot had already been created when righty Juan Minaya was designated for assignment; the club announced that he has been outrighted to Triple-A.

It’s not known yet how long Jimenez will be sidelined, but it doesn’t sound as if the young slugger is at risk of a particularly lengthy absence. As for Goins, he’s back in the majors for the first time since 2018 after slashing a sturdy .322/.406/.531 in 316 plate appearances at Triple-A.

White Sox Designate Juan Minaya For Assignment

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The White Sox have designated righty Juan Minaya for assignment, tweets Daryl Van Schouwen of the Chicago Sun-Times.

Minaya, a former Astro farmhand, was reasonably effective for the club this season, posting a 3.90 ERA with a decent 27/12 K/BB in 27 2/3 mostly low-leverage innings. ERA estimators were far less impressed, though – his 29.4% grounder rate was among the league’s lowest, leaving a projected HR/9 well north of the 1.30 total he allowed this season. The 28-year-old’s velocity also dipped nearly two full miles per hour from his career-best 95.4 MPH mark in ’18, and his slider effectiveness had diminished substantially.

Minaya’s DFA makes room for the return of righty Dylan Covey, himself somewhat of a chink in the already-frail armor of the White Sox rotation. The team’s bullpen’s also struggled, making the Minaya move a bit of a head-scratcher. Only a dominant Aaron Bummer has separated himself; Alex Colome and Evan Marshall have gotten outs with iffy peripherals, with the former sporting a comically low .124 BABIP.

White Sox Select Juan Minaya, Move Jon Jay To 60-Day IL

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The White Sox have selected right-handed reliever Juan Minaya from Triple-A Charlotte and transferred outfielder Jon Jay to the 60-day injured list, James Fegan of The Athletic tweets.

Minaya has returned to Chicago’s 40-man roster less than two months after the team outrighted him to the minors. The 28-year-old has struggled to a 5.51 ERA/5.99 FIP in 16 1/3 innings in Charlotte since then, but that didn’t stop the White Sox from bringing him back to their unspectacular bullpen. White Sox relievers rank toward the bottom of the majors in strikeouts, whereas Minaya specializes in fanning opposing hitters. Minaya has struck out 12.67 hitters per nine in the minors this year, and he put up 10.28 K/9 (against 4.83 BB/9) with the White Sox from 2016-18. He also pitched to a passable 3.93 ERA/4.04 FIP during that 100 2/3-inning span.

Jay, meanwhile, still hasn’t suited up for the Sox since they signed the contact-hitting veteran to a a one-year, $4MM guarantee over the winter. The 34-year-old went on the 10-day IL on March 26 with a hip issue, and his move to the 60-day version means he won’t come back until at least late May. There’s no timetable for his return, though, per MLB.com’s Scott Merkin, who reports Jay is headed to extended spring training to rehab.

White Sox Outright Juan Minaya

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Right-hander Juan Minaya has cleared waivers and been assigned outright to Triple-A Charlotte by the White Sox, thus opening a spot on the team’s 40-man roster. The Athletic’s James Fegan tweets that Minaya’s velocity has dipped “noticeably” in recent outings, and the righty has struggled through a series of poor relief appearances this spring (11 runs in 4 2/3 innings). Beyond Minaya, the Sox also reassigned non-roster invitee Randall Delgado to minor league camp, ending the former D-backs right-hander’s bid to make the Opening Day roster.

Minaya, 28, has been a consistent presence in the White Sox’ bullpen over the past two seasons, pitching to a combined 3.89 earned run average while averaging 10.9 strikeouts and 4.9 walks per nine innings pitched. He briefly served as the team’s closer in 2017, tallying nine saves in that role, and has generally been a solid reliever for the Sox — albeit an erratic one in terms of control. Minaya averaged 95 mph on his heater last season and has posted an 11.5 percent swinging-strike rate across the past two years, though it seems some of that velocity has disappeared in camp.

Minaya’s subtraction from the 40-man roster doesn’t necessarily indicate that the White Sox are on the verge of any sort of signing. Veteran righty Ervin Santana, in camp with the White Sox on a minor league contract, is widely expected to claim a spot in the rotation and now has a clear path to be added to the roster. If that indeed plays out, he’ll reportedly earn a $4.3MM salary in 2019.

As for Delgado, the 29-year-old was a useful bullpen piece himself for the Diamondbacks from 2015-17 when he notched a 3.79 ERA with 8.6 K/9 and 3.6 BB/9 over the life of 209 2/3 innings. (He also mixed in six starts along the way.) A significant oblique strain wiped out more than half of his 2018 season, however, and he managed just 11 1/3 innings with more walks (six) than strikeouts (five) before being designated for assignment.

White Sox Place Nate Jones On 10-Day DL

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The White Sox have announced that righty Nate Jones is going on the 10-day DL with a pronator muscle strain. Fellow righty Juan Minaya has been recalled to take his place on the active roster.

While a timeline isn’t yet known, this injury does not bode well for Jones’s potential trade status this summer. Elbow problems limited the 32-year-old to 11 appearances last year and have perhaps contributed to his struggles thus far in 2018.

It had seemed that Jones may be a target for contenders, particularly given that he has been generating swinging strikes at about at 14% clip again in the early going. He had recorded 27 strikeouts but also 14 walks in his 24 2/3 innings this year. Though he is throwing about as hard as ever, averaging just under 98 mph with his fastball, Jones was also throwing first-pitch strikes at a lower rate than ever before (54.5%).

That mixed bag did not prevent Jones from earning mention along with some other controllable, high-K relief arms in our recent ranking of the top fifty trade deadline chips. With relatively few appealing rental arms likely to be available, it stands to reason that some contenders will go looking at bullpen pieces that can be kept for future seasons.

In Jones’s case, a few weeks of success could still turn him into an intriguing asset. He has been dominant in the past, is throwing hard and getting whiffs now, and comes with a great contract situation. His deal includes cheap club options for the next three years to come — the league minimum next year and just $8MM total for the ensuing two campaigns, with an alternative, one-time buyout price of only $1.25MM. (Escalators could boost those values, but only if Jones is healthy and pitching well enough to finish games.)

A potentially analogous situation arose last year with Sean Doolittle. Though he never showed the walk issues that Jones has, Doolittle did have a similar combination of an impressive track record and concerning injury history. While he had missed time in 2017, Doolittle was healthy at the trade deadline and ended up being dealt. In his case, he returned in mid-June, so Jones will have less time to reestablish himself — if he’s able to make it back before the end of July at all. The odds of that coming to pass still aren’t clear. Long-term health will remain the priority, in any event, particularly since the White Sox still have a lengthy term over which to achieve value on the contract.

White Sox Claim Juan Minaya

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The White Sox have claimed righty Juan Minaya off waivers from the Astros, Chicago announced. He had been designated for assignment last Tuesday.

[Related: Updated White Sox Depth Chart]

The 25-year-old Minaya hasn’t yet reached the majors, and won’t do so immediately for the White Sox — who optioned him to Triple-A. He has scuffled a bit at that level this year, with a 3.91 ERA over 25 1/3 innings, but turned in a strong season at the highest level of the minors in 2015. In 54 2/3 frames last season, Minaya worked to a 2.80 ERA with 9.7 K/9 and 3.5 BB/9.

Astros Designate Juan Minaya For Assignment

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The Astros announced on Tuesday that they have designated right-hander Juan Minaya for assignment in order to clear a spot on the roster for infielder Danny Worth, whose contract has been selected from Triple-A Fresno. Worth will step into Luke Gregerson’s 25-man roster spot for the time being, as Gregerson has been placed on the family medical emergency list.

[Related: Updated Houston Astros depth chart]

Minaya, 25, has pitched to a 3.91 ERA with a 19-to-10 K/BB ratio through 25 1/3 innings out of the Triple-A bullpen this season. He has yet to make it to the Major League level in his career, though he did enjoy an excellent season at Triple-A in 2015, when he logged a 2.80 ERA with 9.7 K/9 against 3.5 BB/9 in 54 2/3 innings of work. He didn’t crack Baseball America’s list of Top 30 Astros prospects this offseason and hasn’t done so in the past, but Jonathan Mayo and Jim Callis of MLB.com currently have him ranked 23rd among Astros farmhands. Callis and Mayo praise his 95-96 mph fastball that can touch 98 giving the pitch a 70-grade on the 20-80 scouting scale and also crediting him with a 55-grade slider. However, their report indicates that he still needs work when it comes to throwing strikes more consistently, and walks have indeed been a problem for him throughout his minor league tenure.

Worth, 30, appeared in parts of five big league seasons with the Tigers from 2010-14 and is a career .230/.293/.295 hitter at the Major League level. He’s capable of playing second base, third base and shortstop, and he’s in the midst of an outstanding season at Triple-A, where he’s batting .330/.449/.550 with eight homers through 235 trips to the plate. He can provide the ’Stros with depth all around the infield.

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