Lance Lynn

Upcoming Club Option Decisions: AL Central

By Anthony Franco | June 6, 2023 at 11:10am CDT

Last week, MLBTR took an early look at offseason option decisions facing teams in the National League. We’re continuing our division by division series moving through the Junior Circuit. Next up, the AL Central, where only three of five teams have players with contracts that contain 2024 options.

Previous posts: NL East, NL Central, NL West, AL East

Chicago White Sox

Lance Lynn: $18MM club option ($1MM buyout)

Lynn signed a $38MM extension midway through the 2021 season. He was en route to a third-place Cy Young finish at the time but has seen his results go backwards over the past two years. He still managed a solid 3.99 ERA through 121 2/3 innings last season, but this year has been far tougher. The 36-year-old has been tagged for a personal-worst 6.55 ERA in his first 12 starts.

The righty is striking out a quarter of opponents against a manageable 8.6% walk rate. His results on batted balls have been disastrous, though. He’s surrendering a .335 batting average on balls in play and has already given up 15 home runs, tied for third-most in the majors. There’s probably some amount of misfortune there, but Lynn’s a fly-ball pitcher who is giving up a lot of hard contact while pitching in a homer-friendly home park. It’s been a rough couple months and nowhere near the level the Sox would need to consider an option with a net $17MM decision.

Liam Hendriks: $15MM club option ($15MM buyout)

Hendriks’ free agent deal contained a unique fourth year in which the option price and the buyout were valued the same. That was mostly an accounting measure designed to front-load the Sox’s luxury tax hit to afford more CBT breathing room in 2024. The only material difference at this point is that buying Hendriks out would allow the Sox to pay him in installments over a 10-year period as opposed to a $15MM salary to be disbursed in during the ’24 season.

There’s practically no question the White Sox are going to exercise this. Hendriks came back from a non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma diagnosis to return to pitching at the major league level within a matter of months. He’s one of the best relievers in the game when at his peak.

Tim Anderson: $14MM club option ($1MM buyout)

Anderson’s option call is almost as obvious as the Hendriks decision. The 29-year-old is typically one of the game’s best-hitting shortstops, an annual threat to bat over .300 with plus baserunning and typically solid defense. This hasn’t been a standard Anderson season. He’s off to a modest .273/.313/.320 start and is without a home run in 42 games. He missed a few weeks with a left knee sprain, and defensive metrics have soured on his glovework.

Rough couple months aside, a $13MM price point is still strong value for a player of Anderson’s caliber. He hit .318/.347/.473 between 2019-22 and earned a pair of All-Star nods. Next year’s free agent shortstop class is also incredibly thin, meaning there aren’t likely to be many alternatives available. Even if 2019-22 proves to be Anderson’s peak, a one-year, net $13MM decision is still an easy call for the team.

Mike Clevinger: $12MM mutual option ($4MM buyout)

The White Sox signed Clevinger to a $12MM free agent deal over the winter. They were hoping to buy low on a return to form for the righty as he further distanced himself from 2020 Tommy John surgery. It hasn’t really materialized, as Clevinger’s performance in Chicago isn’t far off last year’s work in San Diego.

Through 10 starts, the 32-year-old has a 4.13 ERA in 52 1/3 innings. He’s posted slightly below-average strikeout and grounder rates while walking 10% of opposing hitters. This year’s 9.1% swinging-strike rate is a career low. He’s posting competent fifth starter results, but it’s looking increasingly unlikely he’ll recapture the upper mid-rotation upside of his Cleveland days.

It’s an $8MM decision on the option after accounting for the buyout. That’s a reasonable price point for a back-of-the-rotation arm. The likes of Zach Davies, Johnny Cueto and Kyle Gibson all landed between $5MM and $10MM last offseason, while Jordan Lyles secured a two-year, $17MM pact. Clevinger looks likely to land in that area. Mutual options are almost never exercised by both sides, so odds are Clevinger is headed back to free agency. His next contract just might land around there regardless.

Joe Kelly: $9.5MM club option ($1MM buyout)

Kelly has had a confounding two seasons in Chicago. Signed to a two-year, $17MM deal coming out of the lockout, he’s posted rough run prevention marks despite excellent peripherals. Kelly carries a 5.43 ERA through 54 2/3 innings since the start of 2022. That’s belied by elite strikeout (32.1%) and ground-ball (62.7%) numbers. Huge walk totals at least partially explained his 2022 struggles, but Kelly has a 4.08 ERA this season despite only walking two of the 70 batters he’s faced.

The right-hander has been an enigmatic player throughout his career. Kelly has always had wipeout stuff and flashed the ability to be an impact high-leverage arm at times. Yet he’s often paired that high-octane arsenal with control that comes and goes. It’s unlikely Kelly sustains anything close to his current 2.9% walk rate over a full season. This is probably headed towards a buyout.

Detroit Tigers

Miguel Cabrera: $30MM club option ($8MM buyout)

This technically qualifies as an option decision on Cabrera. There’s no suspense about the result, of course. The future Hall of Famer will be bought out as the Tigers finally wrap up a $248MM extension that proved very ill-advised. Cabrera has already declared 2023 to be his likely final season. He’ll leave the sport as one of the greatest hitters ever, but it remains to be seen whether the Tigers will carry him on the roster all year. He’s hitting .202/.283/.245 in 26 games.

Minnesota Twins

Jorge Polanco: $10.5MM club/vesting option ($1MM buyout)

Polanco would vest next year’s option with 550 plate appearances if he passed a postseason physical. He’s very unlikely to meet the playing time threshold. Polanco has only 118 trips to the dish more than a third of the way through the season. He’s had a pair of injured list stints already, missing time due both to right knee and left hamstring concerns. He’d need to average more than 4.2 plate appearances per game the rest of the way.

That’ll probably be a moot point, as the Twins seem likely to welcome him back regardless. It’s a $9.5MM decision for a middle infielder who’s one of the team’s better hitters. The switch-hitting Polanco posted a .235/.346/.405 line last season and is at a .268/.305/.482 pace in 27 games this year. Dating back to 2018, Polanco is a .272/.337/.456 hitter in nearly 2500 plate appearances. The Twins would have another club option (this time valued at $12MM) for 2025 if they keep him around, only adding to the appeal.

Max Kepler: $10MM club option ($1MM buyout)

Kepler’s early-career extension looked like it’d be a coup when he connected on 36 home runs in 2019. The former top prospect seemed to be taking his long-awaited step forward. He hasn’t built on it, though, as he posted roughly league average numbers each season from 2020-22.

Even average production would be a welcome departure from Kepler’s showing thus far in ’23. The left-handed-hitting outfielder is off to a brutal .192/.264/.376 start in 140 plate appearances. The shift ban hasn’t resulted in any kind of improvement in his perennially low ball in play numbers. He’s sporting a career-worst .196 BABIP. His strikeouts are up to 20.7% and he’s walking at a career-worst 7.1% clip.

Kepler is an elite defensive right fielder and has shown better offensive form in prior seasons. A $9MM call isn’t out of the question, but he’ll obviously need to markedly improve upon his current pace. Minnesota has a number of controllable corner outfielders who’ve reached the MLB level (Alex Kirilloff, Trevor Larnach and Matt Wallner among them). Perhaps it’s time for a change of scenery for Kepler, who seems to have stalled out in the Twin Cities.

Which Players Could White Sox Make Available Closer To The Trade Deadline?

By Steve Adams | May 1, 2023 at 11:59pm CDT

I wrote about the calamitous White Sox start on Friday, and over the weekend the team went 1-2, snapping a nine-game losing streak with a stunning seven-run bottom half of the ninth inning, walking off the Rays in the process. Even if that win sparks some momentum for a listless South Side club, the Sox are already nine back in the AL Central. They’d need to play at an 82-51 pace (.617) to get to 90 wins. It’s not even clear that’d be enough for a division win, with the Twins playing at a 95-win pace.

Early May is pretty early to be doing any forward-looking breakdown of what a team might have to offer at this year’s trade deadline, but the current state of the White Sox is a bit more dire than usual. Their playoff odds at FanGraphs have plummeted from 30.5% prior to the season to just 4.2% now. PECOTA has their playoff odds at just 3.2%. They have MLB’s second-worst run differential (-65) and are already battling myriad injuries with some glaring depth issues.

One of the most frequently asked questions over the past week in the chats we host at MLBTR has been one of who could be available if the Sox sell this summer. With that in mind and with an obligatory “it’s still only May 1” caveat, here’s a quick rundown of the possibilities and how they’ve begun the season.

Rental Players

The most obvious candidates to change hands if the Sox do indeed end up selling, all of these players are set to be free agents at season’s end anyhow. There are a couple of qualifying offer candidates within the group, so the Sox would need to feel they’re getting more than the value of a compensatory draft pick back in those instances.

Lucas Giolito, RHP, 28, $10.4MM salary

Giolito won’t turn 29 until mid-July and stands as one of the potential top arms on next offseason’s free-agent market … if he can round back into form this season and put an ugly 2022 campaign behind him. From 2019-21, the former first-round pick was one of the American League’s top arms, making the All-Star team in ’19 and securing Cy Young votes in all three of those seasons — including sixth- and seventh-place finishes in 2019 and 2020, respectively. During that stretch, Giolito logged a collective 3.47 ERA with a huge 30.7% strikeout rate and solid 8% walk rate.

The 2022 season was another story. Giolito’s fastball dropped from the 94.2 mph it averaged during that three-year peak down to 92.7 mph. His strikeout rate fell to an above-average but still-diminished 25.4%. His walk rate crept up a bit, to 8.7%. His opponents’ average exit velocity jumped from 87.8 mph to 88.8 mph, and his hard-hit rate rose from 34.5% to 39%. None of those are awful numbers, but everything went the wrong direction for Giolito in ’22. A huge .340 BABIP surely contributed to some of his struggles — being a fly-ball pitcher with the worst outfield defense in baseball isn’t fun — but it wasn’t a great season regardless.

Giolito’s picked some velocity back up early this season. His 23.1% strikeout rate isn’t near its peak, but his 4.1% walk rate is far and away a career-best mark. If the White Sox sell, Giolito will likely be one of the best and most in-demand starters on the market. He’s out to a decent start, and with his track record, age and upside, a qualifying offer seems likely, barring a disastrous collapse. The Sox would need to feel they got more value than they’d net in the form of a compensatory draft pick.

Reynaldo Lopez, RHP, 29, $3.625MM

Lopez has had a terrible start to the season, with an 8.76 ERA and five home runs allowed in just 12 1/3 innings (3.65 HR/9). He was very good in the ’pen in 2021-22, however, notching a 3.07 ERA with an above-average 24.8% strikeout rate and a 5.3% walk rate. In 2023, Lopez is sporting a career-best 33.3% strikeout rate, and he’s averaging a career-high 99.2 mph on his heater. His 14.6% swinging-strike rate is excellent. If Lopez who allowed just one home run in 55 2/3 innings last year, can get past this bizarre home run spike, he still has obvious late-inning potential and is the type of affordable power arm who’d appeal to other clubs.

Mike Clevinger, RHP, 32, $12MM

Clevinger technically has a 2024 option on his contract, but mutual options are almost exclusively accounting measures and are exercised by both parties with only the utmost rarity. He’s still just 32 years old, by Clevinger’s halcyon days feel like they were a lot longer ago than 2017-20. He missed the 2021 season following Tommy John surgery, came back with a diminished fastball and middling peripherals in ’22, and hasn’t looked much better in 2023, with a 4.60 ERA, below-average 19.3% strikeout rate and ugly 11.1% walk rate in 29 1/3 innings. Clevinger has gained some but not all of the life on his heater back, and his current 8.1% swinging-strike rate is both well below the league average (11.1%) and easily the lowest mark of his career. He’s pitching like a fifth starter right now, and not a particularly cheap one.

Elvis Andrus, 2B/SS, 35, $3MM

Andrus was great with the White Sox in place of an injured Tim Anderson down the stretch in 2022 (.271/.309/.464, nine homers, 11 steals) and has been the opposite so far in 2023, hitting .206/.274/.245 in 113 plate appearances with well below-average quality of contact, per Statcast. He can still play defense and has now shown a willingness to log some time at second base, so another club could look at him as a slick-fielding utility option. He’ll need to hit more than he has in the season’s first month, though.

Hanser Alberto, INF, 30, $2.3MM

Alberto has typically been a solid defender at three infield spots with good bat-to-ball skills, a bottom-of-the-barrel walk rate and minimal power. This season, however, he’s made some glaring misplays at third base and batted just .211/.211/.368 in 19 plate appearances before hitting the IL with a quad strain. It’s a tiny sample, but he needs to get healthy and play better to even make it to the trade deadline on the big league roster.

Yasmani Grandal, C, 34, $18.25MM

The switch-hitting Grandal has bounced back at the plate with a .241/.323/.446 batting line (114 wRC+) and three homers in 93 plate appearances. His 8.6% walk rate is well down from its career 14.5% level, and his once-vaunted defensive ratings have fallen below average at 34. Given his considerable salary, Grandal is only changing hands if the ChiSox eat a good portion of the bill.

Signed/Controlled for One Extra Year

Moving anyone from this group would signal a more aggressive seller’s standpoint from the front office, but the Sox would generally be able to retain their core players while also unlocking larger returns than they’d be land for their generally modest collection of rentals.

Tim Anderson, SS, 30 | $12.5MM in 2023, $14MM club option for 2024

Anderson batted above .300 in four straight seasons from 2019-22, turning in an overall .318/.347/.473 slash that was 23% better than league average, by measure of wRC+. The two-time All-Star is a regular threat for 15 to 20 home runs and 15 to 25 steals. Defensive metrics are mixed on his work at shortstop, but his only across-the-board below average season per DRS, UZR and OAA came in 2022, when he was hobbled by a groin strain. Anderson is a well above-average regular with All-Star potential and a highly affordable salary through the 2024 season.

The White Sox’ top prospect is 2021 first-rounder Colson Montgomery, who has become one of the game’s top-ranked shortstop prospects. He opened the season on the shelf with an oblique strain but could be ready for a big league look in 2024 after reaching Double-A as a 20-year-old in 2022.

Lance Lynn, RHP, 36 | $18.5MM in 2023, $18MM club option for 2024

Lynn, 36 next week, hasn’t been himself so far in 2023. His 10.1% walk rate is his highest since 2018 by a wide margin, and he’s allowed a jarring 2.20 homers per nine frames. The 94.4 mph he averaged on his heater in 2019-21 is down to 92.6 mph in 2023, and while he’s still missing bats in the zone and off the plate, Lynn has allowed too much hard contact when opponents do connect. Hitters posted just a .192/.238/.335 slash against Lynn’s four-seamer as recently as 2022, but they’re hitting .283/.365/.587 when putting the pitch in play this year. The 2019-22 version of Lynn is well worth that 2024 option price, but he needs to solve his home run woes.

Liam Hendriks, RHP, 34 | $14MM in 2023, $15MM club option for 2024

Hendriks hasn’t pitched this season but recently announced that he’s cancer-free after battling non-Hodgkins lymphoma for the past several months. Hendriks is one of the game’s best relievers, and the priority is simply getting back on the field. If he looks like himself, he’d garner interest.

Joe Kelly, RHP, 35 | $9MM in 2023, $9.5MM club option for 2024

Kelly has been on the IL three times since signing a two-year, $17MM deal with the White Sox prior to the 2022 season. He also has a 6.26 ERA and a 12.6% walk rate with the South Siders. He’s still missing bats, racking up grounders and has had improved command in his tiny 4 2/3 inning sample this season. The Sox might have to eat some money to move him even if he’s pitching decently.

Kendall Graveman, RHP, 32 | $8MM in 2023, $8MM in 2024

Graveman is still throwing hard and missing bats at a solid clip, but his sinker isn’t getting grounders anywhere near its prior levels. He’s sitting on a 38.7% ground-ball rate in ’23 after living at 54% in 2021-22 and 52.1% in his career prior to the current season. On a surely related note, he’s giving up homers at a career-worst rate (2.38 HR/9). Graveman’s first season in Chicago was solid, but he’s at risk of becoming another high-priced bullpen misstep.

Jake Diekman, LHP, 36 | $3.5MM in 2023, $4MM club option for 2024

The White Sox acquired Diekman from the Red Sox at last year’s trade deadline even though he’d walked 17.5% of his opponents in Boston, and the command has only gotten worse. Diekman has walked a whopping 13 of his 58 opponents (22.4%) in 2023 while posting a 7.94 ERA. Command has always been a weak point, but this current rate just isn’t tenable. If he can’t right the ship, it’s hard to imagine him lasting on the roster until the trade deadline.

Longer Term Players

Moving anyone from this bunch is tougher to envision, as it would effectively signal a larger-scale rebuilding effort. While the Sox could still move one or even multiple players from this group without necessarily embarking on a full-scale rebuild, these moves would represent a clear step back from contending not only in 2023 but likely in 2024 at the very least — quite possibly longer.

Dylan Cease, RHP, 27 | $5.3MM in 2023, arb-eligible in 2024-25

Trading Cease would amount to waving a white flag not only on this season but on the entire rebuild that the Sox went through from 2016-20. Cease finished runner-up to Justin Verlander in American League Cy Young voting last year and was so dominant — 2.20 ERA, 30.4% strikeout rate, 6.4 bWAR in 184 innings — that he might’ve won in another year where he wasn’t chasing a historic comeback effort from a future Hall of Famer.

Cease’s velocity, strikeout rate and swinging-strike rate are all down a bit this season, but not in glaring, concerning fashion. He’s sporting a 4.15 ERA, though practically all the damage against him came at the hands of the Rays last week when the hottest team in baseball tagged him for seven runs. Cease won’t turn 28 until December. He’s a power-armed, bat-missing monster with two years of arbitration remaining after the current season. Pitchers like this almost never get traded, and it’s extra-tough to see the White Sox biting the bullet and making a move, since doing so just feels like a giant concession. If they do reach that point, Cease could generate one of the biggest hauls in recent trade deadline memory.

Michael Kopech, RHP, 27 | $2.05MM in 2023, arb-eligible in 2024-25

It’s been a poor start for Kopech (7.01 ERA in 25 2/3 innings) thanks to wobbly command that has manifested in a career-high 11.1% walk rate and, more problematically, a career-worst 2.81 HR/9 mark. Still, he’s a 27-year-old who once ranked as the sport’s top pitching prospect and as recently as 2021-22 logged a combined 3.53 ERA, 26.7% strikeout rate and 10.4% walk rate in 188 2/3 innings.

Kopech spent nearly all of the 2021 season in the bullpen as he worked back from Tommy John surgery and fanned a gaudy 36.1% of his opponents in that role. He’s a high-upside arm and has already seen his average fastball creep up from 95.1 mph in 2022 to 96.2 mph in 2023. Teams would love to get their hands on Kopech right now, and if he can cut back on the walks and homers, his value will only increase. This trade wouldn’t necessarily be the white flag that the Cease trade would be, but it’s hard to see Kopech going unless the Sox are pessimistic about their chances in the next couple of seasons as well.

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There are other names to consider, though each comes with plenty of red flags. Yoan Moncada is signed through 2024 and controllable through a 2025 club option, but he’s been neither healthy enough nor consistently productive enough to make the remaining $43.1MM in guarantees on his deal feel palatable for a trade partner. Luis Robert Jr., Eloy Jimenez, Andrew Vaughn and Aaron Bummer are all signed or controlled through at least 2026 (2027 in Robert’s case), which lessens any urgency to move those players. As it stands, the Sox would be selling low on anyone from that group of talented players. No one from that group feels likely to be a serious trade candidate this summer.

Of the three buckets listed above — “rental,” “one extra year” and “longer-term” — the rental pieces are the likeliest to go. Selling anything beyond that point, particularly a face of the franchise like Anderson or a controllable Cy Young-caliber talent like Cease, would likely signal a step back and longer-term rebuilding effort just two years after the Sox sought to emerge from their prior rebuild. Owner Jerry Reinsdorf is as loyal as they come, but one can imagine that the current meltdown could test even his patience; GM Rick Hahn candidly acknowledged last week in public comments that his job is likely on the line.

The White Sox still have a couple months to try to turn things around, but if things don’t improve in a hurry, then many of the names listed above will the most frequently discussed players on the 2023 summer rumor mill as contending teams look to beef up their rosters in advance of a postseason push.

Each MLB Team’s Players On WBC Rosters

By Darragh McDonald | February 9, 2023 at 7:30pm CDT

The World Baseball Classic is returning this year, the first time since 2017. The quadrennial event was supposed to take place in 2021 but was scuttled by the pandemic, now returning after a six-year absence. Rosters for the tournament were announced today and those can be found at this link. Here is a breakdown of which players from each MLB team are set to take participate. Quick caveat that this list is fluid and might be changed as more information becomes available.

Without further ado…

Angels

Astros

Athletics

Blue Jays

Braves

Brewers

Cardinals

Cubs

Diamondbacks

Dodgers

Giants

Guardians

Marlins

Mariners

Mets

Nationals

Orioles

Padres

Phillies

Pirates

Rangers

Rays

Red Sox

Reds

Rockies

Royals

Tigers

Twins

White Sox

Yankees

White Sox Make Series Of Roster Moves

By James Hicks | August 27, 2022 at 1:22pm CDT

The White Sox announced a series of roster moves today, including placing right-hander Lance Lynn on the bereavement list and third baseman Yoan Moncada on the 10-day injured list with a left hamstring strain. To take their places on the active roster, the club reinstated utilityman Leury Garcia from the 10-day IL and recalled right-hander Davis Martin from Triple-A Charlotte.

This is the second hamstring-related IL stint of the season for Moncada, who missed 10 days due to a strain in his right hamstring back in June. That absence followed a longer IL stint at the start of the season due to an oblique strain, which delayed Moncada’s 2022 debut until May. All of these injuries have contributed to a miserable season for the third baseman, who has only a .197/.269/.313 slash line over 324 plate appearances.

The White Sox in general have been hampered by injury absences all year long, and Moncada joins other regulars in Tim Anderson and Yasmani Grandal as current members of the IL. Garcia’s return will help make up some of that depth in the infield, though Garcia is himself struggling through a mediocre year at the plate. Garcia, Josh Harrison, and rookie Romy Gonzalez now figure to split duties between third and second base.

Starting Pitching Rumors: Cardinals, Castillo, Mariners, AL Central

By Steve Adams | July 29, 2022 at 9:13am CDT

The Cardinals are “intent on upgrading the rotation, not just spackling it,” Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports in a comprehensive look at the team’s potential deadline trajectories. While past deadline trades have often brought stopgaps options to St. Louis (e.g. Jon Lester and J.A. Happ just last year), the Cardinals could aim a bit higher this time around. Athletics right-hander Frankie Montas and Marlins righty Pablo Lopez are among the starters in whom the Cards have expressed interest, per the report. Goold also lists Angels right-hander Noah Syndergaard as a name of interest, and there are surely others the Cardinals are considering as they look to offset injuries to Jack Flaherty, Steven Matz, Alex Reyes and Dakota Hudson (who has struggled even when healthy this season).

St. Louis has upwards of $155MM already on the books for the current season, though that number will dip to around $90MM for the 2023 campaign (not including several notable arbitration raises). The Cardinals are still nearly $10MM shy of their record Opening Day payroll ($164MM), and they’ve gone a bit further than that with some midseason acquisitions in recent years, so there should still be payroll space to accommodate players making substantial salaries. They also have one of the game’s deepest farm systems, allowing them to bid competitively for the market’s top arms.

Some more notes on the trade market for starters…

The Mariners are looking for rotation help, and Ken Rosenthal reports in his latest appearance with FOX Sports that Reds ace Luis Castillo “seems to be their main focus and target” at this juncture (Twitter link, with video). Seattle’s top four starters — Logan Gilbert, Robbie Ray, Marco Gonzales and Chris Flexen — have made at least 19 starts, and they’ve received good results from top prospect George Kirby since plugging him into the rotation (3.50 ERA through 13 starts). However, Kirby is at 96 innings between the minors and big leagues combined, which is already a notable jump from last year’s total of 67 2/3 innings. Gilbert’s 123 innings effectively match last year’s total of 124 1/3 frames. Beyond that, the Mariners probably can’t expect to avoid any notable injuries on the starting staff all season — few teams can — so there’s good sense in adding another arm to support the group. In Castillo’s case, he’d of course slot right in alongside Gilbert and Ray into a playoff rotation and give the M’s an excellent trio upon which to lean both this season and next.
For all the teams seeking pitching help, however, it’s the trio of AL Central front-runners that are the most aggressive at the moment, Mark Feinsand of MLB.com tweets. The Twins, Guardians and White Sox are all looking to bolster their pitching staffs (rotation and/or bullpen help alike). The American League Central is the one division in the sport where there are three legitimate contenders for the division crown at the moment, and both Cleveland and Chicago (who currently trail Minnesota) are within 3.5 games of a Wild Card berth as well. There’s been prior speculation (here included) about the White Sox potentially going another direction, but they’ve been playing some of their best ball of the season this month and have thusly not had any discussions about the possibility of trading away veteran arms like Lance Lynn and Lucas Giolito, MLB.com’s Jon Morosi tweets.
As for the Twins, 1500 SKOR North’s Darren Wolfson suggested in yesterday’s podcast that Reds right-hander Tyler Mahle could be the likeliest name to land in Minnesota by Tuesday’s deadline, though the Twins are casting a wide net as they seek both rotation and bullpen help. Minnesota has also spoken to the Marlins about righty Pablo Lopez, Wolfson added.

White Sox Place Yasmani Grandal On Injured List, Activate Lance Lynn

By Anthony Franco | June 13, 2022 at 3:24pm CDT

The White Sox announced they’ve placed catcher Yasmani Grandal on the 10-day injured list, retroactive to June 12, due to lower back spasms. Coming off the IL to take his active roster spot is starter Lance Lynn, who is in line to make his season debut. In order to clear a spot on the 40-man roster for Lynn — who had been on the 60-day IL — the club has placed reliever Ryan Burr on release waivers.

Grandal missed yesterday’s game against the Rangers because of a left hamstring issue, but the back spasms diagnosis comes as a surprise. Chicago selected Seby Zavala to the MLB roster yesterday as insurance, and he figures to back up Reese McGuire for as long as Grandal is out. The two-time All-Star will be eligible to return by the middle of next week, but the team has yet to provide any sort of timetable for his recovery.

Even prior to the injury, the 2022 campaign has been a nightmare for Grandal. Typically one of the game’s best offensive catchers, the 33-year-old has had a very rough first couple months of the season. Over 201 plate appearances, he’s hitting .185/.294/.237 with just a pair of home runs. Grandal is still drawing walks at an excellent 13.4% clip, but he’s collected only five extra-base hits all year as his batted ball quality has plummeted. It’s a rather shocking downturn for a player who hit .240/.420/.520 in 93 games last season, and the IL stint will perhaps afford Grandal an opportunity for a mental reset as he searches for his previous form.

McGuire, acquired from the Blue Jays just before Opening Day, hasn’t made much of an offensive impact either. He’s hitting .235/.280/.286 in 110 trips to the plate in a Chicago uniform, a step back from the .253/.310/.343 mark he posted in Toronto last year. A left-handed hitter, he’ll pair with the righty-swinging Zavala to form the catching tandem for manager Tony La Russa for now.

Lynn is listed as the probate starter for tonight’s game against the Tigers. La Russa suggested yesterday he’d likely be activated on Tuesday, but he’ll take the ball for the first time a day earlier than anticipated. The 35-year-old righty has been out all season after undergoing right knee surgery in April, but he’s now ready to get back on the hill. That should be a notable boost for a Chicago team that owns a disappointing 27-31 record, as Lynn has been one of the game’s most effective arms over the past couple years. He tossed 157 innings of 2.69 ERA ball last season, earning a two-year contract extension in the process.

Burr, meanwhile, could be seeing his time in the organization come to a close. A Diamondbacks draftee, he was acquired by the ChiSox as a minor leaguer in 2017 and reached the bigs a season later. He’s suited up at the MLB level in each of the past four years, making 66 appearances. The righty has a 4.08 ERA across 75 innings, including an excellent 2.45 mark through 36 2/3 frames a season ago. However, he’s posted a mediocre 20.6% strikeout rate and an elevated 12.2% walk percentage during his MLB tenure.

It seems the primary impetus for Burr’s release, however, is a health issue. The 28-year-old has been on the minor league injured list for the past couple weeks with an undisclosed injury. Players on the MiLB IL still count against a team’s 40-man roster, but injured players cannot be placed on outright waivers. To take Burr off the 40-man roster, Chicago either had to release him or recall him and place him on the MLB 60-day IL. The latter course of action would’ve required paying him a major league salary, however, and the Sox have decided they’d rather expose him to waivers.

While Burr hasn’t missed many bats at the MLB level, he’s induced grounders on more than half the balls in play against him and averaged around 95 MPH on his fastball. That could intrigue another team enough to grab him and stash him on their 40-man roster or major league injured list. If Burr clears waivers, he’d be a free agent.

Lance Lynn Likely To Be Activated Tuesday

By Darragh McDonald | June 12, 2022 at 9:03am CDT

White Sox manager Tony La Russa tells reporters, including Scott Merkin of MLB.com, that starter Lance Lynn will likely be reinstated from the injured list in order to start Tuesday’s game against the Tigers.

Acquired from the Rangers prior to the 2021 season, Lynn had just one year remaining on his contract at the time he joined the Pale Hose. He was excellent in his first few months with the White Sox, throwing 90 2/3 innings over 16 starts with a 1.99 ERA. That showing was enough for them to put down $38MM in order to keep him around for two more seasons, with a club option for 2024 as well.

Coming into this year, Lynn was set to be a key member of a rotation that looked to be a strength for the South Siders, though that hasn’t gone according to plan. Lynn left his final Spring Training start with discomfort in his right knee, the same knee that sent him to the injured list for a time in 2021. He ultimately required surgery and has been working his way back to health ever since.

The Sox have seen their rotation depth tested in a few different ways this year, on top of not yet having any contributions from Lynn thus far. Lucas Giolito has been on the IL twice, Vince Velasquez is currently out due to a groin injury, and Dallas Keuchel struggled enough to get released. Still, the starting corps has still held its own, thanks to strong performances from Giolito, Dylan Cease, Michael Kopech and Johnny Cueto. Chicago starters have a 3.99 ERA on the year as a unit, 14th-best in the majors, not terrible considering the hiccups they’ve faced.

The club has been weathering their injuries enough to tread water in the American League postseason race, currently sitting on a 27-30 record, just 2 1/2 games out of a playoff spot. If Lynn can return and show anything resembling his 2019-2021 form, he will give a huge boost to the club. Over those three seasons, he threw 449 1/3 innings with a 3.26 ERA, 27.5% strikeout rate and 6.9% walk rate. The 12.3 fWAR he accumulated in that time was fifth among qualified pitchers across baseball, trailing only Jacob deGrom, Gerrit Cole, Zack Wheeler and Max Scherzer. Once Lynn takes the ball, the rotation should be at full strength, with the 35-year-old slotting next to Giolito, Cease, Kopech and Cueto. Davis Martin, who recently fared well in three spot starts (one behind an opener), will likely be bumped down to the sixth spot on the depth chart, pitching in Triple-A or long relief in the meantime.

AL Central Notes: Lynn, Candelario, Tigers, Twins, Ryan, Dobnak

By Mark Polishuk | June 5, 2022 at 5:52pm CDT

Lance Lynn is scheduled to make his third rehab start on Wednesday, White Sox manager Tony La Russa told reporters (including Daryl Van Schouwen of the Chicago Sun-Times). Beyond that, La Russa left open the possibility that Lynn could be activated from the 60-day injured list, assuming that the veteran right-hander is feeling good coming out of that next Triple-A outing.

Knee surgery sidelined Lynn in early April, so the hurler has yet to make his 2022 debut. Getting Lynn back in action would be a huge help to a Chicago team that has been bitten hard by the injury bug, but the White Sox are still treading water despite a shorthanded roster. The White Sox improved to 25-27 after today’s 6-5 win over the Rays.

White Sox Place Luis Robert On Injured List; Lynn, Jimenez Nearing Rehab Assignments

By Anthony Franco | May 24, 2022 at 4:01pm CDT

The White Sox have placed center fielder Luis Robert on the COVID-19 injured list. Corner infielder Jake Burger was recalled from Triple-A Charlotte to take his place on the active roster.

Speaking with reporters (including James Fegan of the Athletic), general manager Rick Hahn indicated that Robert has been experiencing symptoms of the virus. Whether he’s tested positive isn’t clear, but Hahn indicated he didn’t expect the 2020 Gold Glove winner to return to the team until next week. In the meantime, it seems likely Adam Engel will handle the center field duties, as he is tonight against the Guardians.

Robert is off to another great start to the season. One of the game’s top defensive outfielders, the Cuba native also consistently posts quality production at the plate. This season, the 24-year-old is hitting .285/.319/.438. That’s far better than the .237/.308/.380 league average offensive output, and Robert has also chipped in six stolen bases. While he’s not likely to be out for an extended period of time, the Sox will be down one of their best players for the next few games.

Hahn provided more fortuitous news on a pair of key players rehabbing from injury. Both starter Lance Lynn and left fielder Eloy Jiménez are likely to head out on minor league rehab assignments within a week. That’s not particularly surprising in Lynn’s case, as the big right-hander had progressed to throwing to live hitters. It’s a more positive development for Jiménez, who is exactly a month removed from a hamstring tendon tear that initially came with a six-to-eight week recovery timetable.

Pitchers are allotted up to 30 days on rehab assignments; those stints can last as many as 20 days for position players. Lynn is still at least a few weeks from his return, as he’s on the 60-day injured list and not eligible to make his season debut until June 6 at the earliest. Jiménez, meanwhile, seems to be trending towards the earlier end of his initial timetable. The power-hitting outfielder had scuffled through the season’s first couple weeks, hitting .222/.256/.333 with a lone homer in 11 games.

Injury Notes: Bryant, Renfroe, Lynn

By Steve Adams | May 24, 2022 at 1:44pm CDT

Rockies left fielder Kris Bryant was scratched from yesterday’s game about 90 minutes before first pitch due to continued discomfort in his back, writes Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post. He’ll be further evaluated today, but it’s an ominous scratch given that Bryant only just returned from a month-long absence due to a lower back injury.

Signed to a seven-year, $182MM contract in free agency this past offseason, Bryant was viewed by the Rockies as a potential lineup centerpiece who’d bolster a revamped outfield that also featured trade acquisition Randal Grichuk. Bryant, however, has gotten out to a tepid .270/.342/.333 start to the season and yet to put a ball in the seats. The Rox barely changed the rest of their roster but did sign four in-house players to multi-year extensions (Ryan McMahon, Antonio Senzatela, C.J. Cron and Elias Diaz). Ownership and the restructured/thinned-out front office group clearly had confidence that last year’s group could deliver better results, and while that’s been true to an extent, the Rox are currently at fifth place in the NL West with a 19-22 record.

Some more injury scenarios to keep an eye on…

Brewers outfielder Hunter Renfroe exited yesterday’s game due to hamstring discomfort after scoring from first base on a double and is headed for an MRI to determine the extent of any damage he may have suffered, tweets MLB.com’s Adam McCalvy. Acquired in the offseason trade that saw the Brewers dump Jackie Bradley Jr.’s contract on the Red Sox — Milwaukee also sent a pair of prospects to Boston in the deal — Renfroe is out to a solid .266/.303/.503 start this season. His nine homers place him in a three-way tie for the team lead alongside Rowdy Tellez and Willy Adames. However, like Renfroe, Adames is currently sidelined; the Brewers placed him on the 10-day injured list last week, owing to a high ankle sprain. If Renfroe is to join Adames on the injured list, that’ll mean 29% of the Brewers’ home runs are sitting out at a time when the team has generally been struggling to score runs. Milwaukee ranks seventh in the Majors with 195 runs (4.6 per game), but they’re averaging just 3.5 runs per contest over their past 10 games.
Right-hander Lance Lynn has yet to make his 2022 debut with the White Sox after undergoing spring knee surgery, but he’ll throw to live hitters for the second time in his rehab process today, as noted by MLB.com’s Betelhem Ashame. Lynn, who also faced hitters this past Friday, inked a two-year, $38MM extension with the Sox last summer just prior to the trade deadline. The 35-year-old Lynn had a career year with the South Siders in 2021, pitching to a 2.69 ERA in 157 innings over the life of 28 starts, and he’s posted a terrific 3.26 ERA in 449 1/3 frames dating back to 2020.

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