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White Sox Sign Oliver Dunn, Tim Elko To Minor League Deals

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The White Sox have signed infielders Oliver Dunn and Tim Elko to minor league contracts (SoxMachine’s James Fegan was among the beat writers to report the news.)  Dunn’s deal contains an invitation to Chicago’s big league Spring Training camp, though Elko will presumably miss camp due to his ongoing recovery from ACL surgery in October.

Elko was a 10th-round pick for the White Sox in the 2022 draft, and he’ll continue his career with the organization after being non-tendered in November.  That move cleared a space on Chicago’s 40-man roster, and it is fair to guess that the two sides probably had a handshake deal to bring Elko back in relatively short order.  Elko’s surgery came with an eight-month recovery timeline, so he won’t be a factor for a potential return to the 26-man roster until at least July.

The torn right ACL was a sour end to Elko’s first big league season, as he made his debut in May.  Elko hit only .134/.194/.328 in 72 plate appearances over 23 games, while also spending four weeks on the injured list due to a right knee sprain that now seems like a precursor to his ACL problems.  The White Sox are expected to do something to address their first base position, but if they more or less stand pat, it could give Elko some more opportunity to see what he can do against MLB competition when he’s healthy.

Dunn’s MLB resume consists of 55 games with the Brewers over the last two seasons, and only a .206/.261/.290 slash line to show for 145 PA.  A large portion of Dunn’s 2024 rookie season was spent on the injured list due to a back injury, but while Dunn was still in the mix for regular infield duty with Milwaukee going into this season, his lack of offense made him an afterthought.  The Brewers designated Dunn for assignment and outrighted him off their 40-man roster in September, and Dunn elected minor league free agency at season’s end.

The 28-year-old Dunn has mostly played at second and third base during his pro career, but he has a handful of appearances as a left fielder, shortstop, and a couple of cameos at first base.  The White Sox will see what Dunn can do in competing for a bench job this spring, and he could be retained as minor league depth even if he doesn’t break camp.

American League Non-Tenders: 11/21/25

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Every American League team has officially announced their non-tender decisions. It was a quiet evening in terms of subtractions, with only the Rangers parting with any marquee players. All players who were non-tendered are free agents without going on waivers. A few teams dropped pre-arbitration players from the back of the 40-man roster. It’s possible they preferred not to expose them to waivers and are hopeful of re-signing them to non-roster deals.

Here’s a full list of today’s activity in the AL, while the National League moves are available here. All projected salaries are courtesy of MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz.

  • The Angels announced they’ve non-tendered outfielder Gustavo Campero and catcher Sebastian Rivero. Campero is a depth outfielder who has hit .202/.272/.346 over the past two seasons. Rivero operated as the club’s third catcher for most of the season but spent the final few weeks on the active roster. Neither player had been eligible for arbitration. All their arb-eligible players were easy calls to retain.
  • The Astros technically made one non-tender, dropping infielder Ramón Urías after he was designated for assignment earlier in the week. He’d been projected at $4.4MM.
  • The Athletics officially non-tendered outfielder JJ Bleday, the club announced. He’d been designated for assignment on Tuesday, so this was inevitable unless they found a trade partner. Bleday had been projected at $2.2MM.
  • The only non-tenders for the Red Sox were first baseman Nathaniel Lowe and reliever Josh Winckowski, each of whom had been designated for assignment on Tuesday. Lowe was projected at $13.5MM, while Winckowski was at $800K.
  • The Guardians non-tendered outfielder Will Brennan and relievers Sam Hentges and Nic Enright. The latter had been designated for assignment on Tuesday. Hentges hasn’t pitched since undergoing shoulder surgery in September 2024. He underwent a right knee procedure a few months ago and will be delayed this offseason. Brennan only appeared in six MLB games this year and underwent Tommy John surgery while in the minors in June. He’d been projected at $900K.
  • The Mariners non-tendered reliever Gregory Santos, reports Francys Romero. He’d only been projected at $800K, narrowly above the MLB minimum, so the move was about dropping him from the 40-man roster. Seattle acquired the 26-year-old righty from the White Sox over the 2023-24 offseason. He has only made 16 MLB appearances with a 5.02 earned run average over the past two years because of lat and knee injuries. Seattle also non-tendered relievers Trent Thornton and Tayler Saucedo (the latter of whom was designated for assignment on Tuesday). Thornton had been projected at $2.5MM and is coming off a 4.68 ERA through 33 appearances. He suffered a season-ending Achilles tear in August.
  • The Orioles non-tendered swingman Albert Suárez, the team announced. Everyone else in their arbitration class was offered a contract, surprisingly including first baseman Ryan Mountcastle (as first reported by ESPN’s Jeff Passan). Suárez, 36, was a solid depth starter in 2024. He was limited to five MLB appearances this past season by a flexor strain but is not expected to require surgery.
  • The Rangers non-tendered each of Adolis García, Jonah Heim, Josh Sborz and Jacob Webb. MLBTR covered those moves in greater detail.
  • The Rays only non-tendered outfielders Christopher Morel and Jake Fraley, each of whom had been designated for assignment earlier in the week. Marc Topkin of The Tampa Bay Times reported last night that the Rays were open to bringing back Fraley at a lower price than his $3.6MM arbitration projection.
  • The Royals non-tendered outfielder MJ Melendez and reliever Taylor Clarke, per a club announcement. Melendez, who’d been projected at $2.65MM, was an obvious decision. The former top prospect never developed as hoped and is a career .215/.297/.388 hitter over parts of four seasons. Clarke isn’t as big a name but comes as the more surprising cut. He’d been projected at just $1.9MM and is coming off a 3.25 ERA with a 21.4% strikeout rate over 55 1/3 innings out of the bullpen.
  • The Tigers are non-tendering utility player Andy Ibáñez, according to Romero. He’d been projected at $1.8MM. The righty-hitting Ibáñez had been a solid short-side platoon bat for Detroit between 2023-24. His production against southpaws dropped this year (.258/.311/.403), limiting his value. The Tigers optioned the 32-year-old to Triple-A in early June and kept him in the minors until shortly before the trade deadline. Detroit also dropped the six pitchers they’d designated for assignment earlier in the week: Tanner Rainey, Dugan Darnell, Tyler Mattison, Jason Foley, Jack Little and Sean Guenther.
  • The only Twins non-tender was outfielder DaShawn Keirsey Jr., who’d been designated for assignment this morning to make room for the Alex Jackson trade. Everyone in the arbitration class was brought back.
  • The White Sox non-tendered outfielder Mike Tauchman, as first reported by Bruce Levine of 670 The Score. The lefty hitter turned in a solid .263/.356/.400 line in 93 games this past season. Tauchman has gotten on base at plus rates in three straight years but was also non-tendered by the Cubs a year ago. The 34-year-old (35 next month) had been projected for a $3.4MM salary. The Sox also announced they’ve dropped lefty reliever Cam Booser and first baseman Tim Elko. Neither had been eligible for arbitration. The former posted a 5.52 ERA in 39 appearances after being acquired from the Red Sox last winter, while the latter hit .134 in his first 23 MLB games despite a 26-homer season in Triple-A.
  • The Yankees announced five non-tenders. Relievers Mark Leiter Jr., Scott Effross, Jake Cousins and Ian Hamilton were all cut loose, as was pre-arbitration righty Michael Arias. Leiter, who’d been projected at $3MM, never clicked in the Bronx after being acquired at the 2024 deadline. He posted a 4.89 ERA in 70 innings as a Yankee. Hamilton, Effross and Cousins were all projected just above the MLB minimum but are cut to clear roster space. Hamilton was on and off the active roster and posted a 4.28 ERA in 40 big league frames this year. Effross was limited to 11 appearances and has been plagued by various injuries for the past three and a half years, while Cousins is working back from Tommy John surgery. Arias has never pitched in the big leagues and could be brought back on a minor league deal.

The Blue Jays tendered contracts to all unsigned players on the 40-man roster.

Tim Elko Undergoes Surgery To Fix Torn ACL

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The White Sox announced that first baseman Tim Elko underwent surgery Tuesday to address a torn right ACL.  Elko’s projected recovery time is eight months, so he’ll miss at least half of the 2026 season.  (MLB.com’s Scott Merkin was one of the Sox beat writers who passed on the news.)

It’s a rough setback for Elko, who made his Major League debut in the form of 23 games for the White Sox this season.  Elko also spent just under four weeks on Chicago’s 10-day injured list with a right knee sprain, so it seems likely that his ACL tear came in the aftermath of that knee issue, or perhaps Elko was trying to play through a tear.

This is the second right ACL tear for Elko, as he suffered the same injury in 2021 while playing college ball for Ole Miss.  Rather than get immediate surgery, Elko took roughly a month off and then returned to play 21 more games for the team.  Elko had played some third base and outfield as well as first base in college, but in the aftermath of his ACL tear, he has stuck just to first base and DH in pro ball.

Chicago selected Elko in the tenth round of the 2022 draft, and he worked his way up the minor league ladder with increasingly strong numbers (including a .291/.359/.525 slash line and 35 homers over 633 Triple-A plate appearances).  This was enough for the White Sox to select Elko’s contract to the big league roster this year, but he was shuttled back and forth to Triple-A after making little impact in the Show.  Elko hit only .134/.194/.328 with four homers in his first 72 MLB plate appearances.

The door was open for Elko (who turns 27 in December) to put himself in Chicago’s first base picture after Andrew Vaughn was traded to the Brewers in June, but Elko’s lack of production and subsequent knee issues scuttled his chances.  Elko now faces a long road back with the second ACL rehab of his career, and the hope is that he can heal up in time to get another decent-sized look on the White Sox roster before the 2026 season is over.

White Sox Select Dominic Fletcher

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The White Sox have selected the contract of outfielder Dominic Fletcher from Triple-A Charlotte and reinstated righty Dan Altavilla from the 15-day injured list, per a club announcement. Right-hander Jonathan Cannon and first baseman Tim Elko were optioned to Charlotte in a pair of corresponding transactions.

Fletcher, 28, was acquired from the D-backs in the 2023-24 offseason trade that sent pitching prospect Cristian Mena to Arizona. It hasn’t worked out particularly well for either team. Fletcher hit only .206/.252/.256 in 241 plate appearances with Chicago last year — a far cry from his strong .301/.350/.441 showing in 102 plate appearances during the 2023 season. The Sox designated him for assignment in spring training and passed him through waivers.

Fletcher has spent the entire 2025 season thus far in Triple-A, where he’s batted .260/.317/.453 with 17 home runs, 19 doubles, four triples and seven steals (in 11 attempts). He’s walked at just a 6.5% clip but also has a lower-than-average 19.5% strikeout rate.

Altavilla missed more than a month due to a lat strain but will return for the final few weeks of the season. He signed a big league deal with the ChiSox midseason after briefly opting out of a minor league deal with the club. In 26 2/3 innings, the 32-year-old righty (33 on Sunday) has posted a tidy 2.36 earned run average but with far less encouraging rate stats. He’s fanned only 15.5% of his opponents against a bloated 12.7% walk rate (leading to a 5.84 FIP and 5.08 SIERA).

White Sox Option Andrew Vaughn, Tim Elko

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The White Sox announced today that outfielders Andrew Benintendi and Mike Tauchman have been reinstated from the injured list. In corresponding moves, first basemen Andrew Vaughn and Tim Elko have been optioned to Triple-A Charlotte.

Looking at recent developments, Vaughn being optioned to the minors isn’t a shock. His bat has hovered around league average for most of his career but he’s been far worse here in 2025. He’s currently sporting a .189/.218/.314 line on the year. He has five home runs but the batting average is obviously rough. A tiny 3.6% walk rate means his on-base percentage is also quite low. His 44 wRC+ indicates he’s been 56% below league average at the plate this year.

Zooming out for a wider view, it’s been a pretty surprising trajectory. Vaughn was a slugger in college, hitting 50 home runs in 160 games for California, leading to a .374/.495/.688 batting line. The Sox took Vaughn third overall in the 2019 draft and signed him with a $7.2212MM bonus. The hope was that he was a potential middle-of-the-order bat who could be a key staple of the lineup for years to come.

It hasn’t played out as hoped. Vaughn cracked the Opening Day roster in 2021 but, as mentioned, his results have been fairly middling so far. He has shown a bit of pop but nothing special, finishing each previous season of his career between 15 and 21 long balls. The batting averages haven’t been great and he hasn’t drawn many walks. From 2021 to 2024, he took 2,258 plate appearances for the Sox with 72 home runs. His 20.3% strikeout rate was good but his 6.5% walk rate was subpar. His combined .253/.310/.415 batting line led to a 102 wRC+, indicating he was 2% better than league average in that time.

That’s not disastrous production but the Sox were surely hoping for more, especially because he doesn’t provide value in any other way. He’s not a burner on the basepaths, with just three career stolen bases. His defense isn’t great anywhere on the field. Earlier in his career, the Sox got him some outfield time while they had José Abreu at first. The results were disastrous, with Vaughn getting terrible grades from advanced defensive metrics. He has since settled in as the regular at first but both Outs Above Average and Defensive Runs Saved consider him to be subpar there as well.

Coming into 2025, it wasn’t even a guarantee the Sox would tender him a contract. In the end, they did, and avoided arbitration by agreeing to a $5.85MM salary for this year. For a club that lost 121 games last year, the hope was presumably that Vaughn would finally have a big breakout at the plate and turn himself into a viable summer trade candidate, but that has not happened.

For now, Vaughn will head down to Charlotte to see if there’s some way to get himself back on track, but it seems his rope with the White Sox is running out. As mentioned, he was a non-tender candidate at the end of last year. He can be retained for next year via arbitration but it’s hard to see that happening with this year’s swoon. If he’s down in the minors for a few weeks, they would gain an extra year of club control, but that’s not likely to matter if he’s a non-tender candidate anyway. If he shows any promise at all in the coming months, the Sox will surely try to flip him prior to the July 31st deadline.

Elko getting optioned isn’t a shock in a vacuum. He was only promoted two weeks ago and has a .161/.188/.452 line in his first 32 big league plate appearances. But he had been taking some of the first base playing time recently and would have been a candidate to replace Vaughn there. With both Vaughn and Elko getting optioned, the Sox are subtracting their two primary first basemen.

General manager Chris Getz says that Miguel Vargas and Lenyn Sosa will be mixing in at that position, per James Fegan of Sox Machine. Sosa is a utility player with a subpar bat. Vargas is a former top prospect who may be having a breakout at the plate. He struggled in his initial big league call-ups with the Dodgers and this year’s batting line was .139/.236/.203 as of April 21st. Since then, however, he has a .315/.379/.565 line and 166 wRC+. That’s still a small sample of 103 plate appearances but his previous prospect status perhaps gives it some credibility.

He has been the club’s regular third baseman with passable defense there. DRS considers him to be a roughly league average defender at that spot, though OAA has him at -5 in his career and -3 this year. Perhaps the Sox feel it’s better if he moves to the less-demanding first base position. Josh Rojas is playing third base for now but he’s not hitting well this year and will likely be traded if he turns his season around. Perhaps Vargas will move back to third if Vaughn earns his way back to the majors.

Photo courtesy of Jay Biggerstaff, Imagn Images

White Sox Outright Nick Maton

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May 12: Maton cleared waivers and was outrighted back to Charlotte, relays James Fegan of Sox Machine. He’ll again have the right to test free agency but seems likelier to accept another outright and remain in the organization.

May 10: The White Sox announced that infielder Nick Maton has been designated for assignment.  First base prospect Tim Elko’s contract was selected in the corresponding move, as was reported yesterday.

This is the second time in two weeks that the Sox have designated Maton, and his first trip through DFA limbo saw him clear waivers and then accept an outright assignment to Triple-A Charlotte.  Maton had the option of becoming a free agent because he has been outrighted in the past, but chose to remain in the organization and wait for another crack at a spot on Chicago’s big league roster.  That chance came when Maton’s contract was selected again as a corresponding move to Andrew Benintendi’s placement on the injured list, though Maton’s latest stint with the White Sox lasted just a couple of days.

Maton has hit .167/.286/.315 over 63 plate appearances, and he has played in 25 of Chicago’s 39 games this season primarily as a first baseman and designated hitter.  Since Maton is out of minor league options, the White Sox have to designate him and expose him to the waiver wire whenever they wish to send him to Triple-A, thus giving Maton repeated chances to elect free agency.

As a veteran utilityman on a rebuilding team, Maton isn’t likely to receive the benefit of the doubt when it comes to playing time, as the White Sox are obviously prioritizing young talent.  That said, catching on with another team that has more established players also might not give Maton much time on the diamond.  Maton’s lack of minor league options leaves him with little flexibility, so if he isn’t claimed on waivers this time around, he’ll face another decision about whether or not to stick with the White Sox or test the open market.

White Sox To Select Tim Elko

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The White Sox are selecting first baseman Tim Elko onto the big league roster, reports Vinnie Duber of The Chicago Sun-Times. He’ll be in line for his MLB debut tomorrow against the Marlins. Chicago’s 40-man roster is at capacity, so they’ll need to make corresponding active roster and 40-man moves.

Elko has never gotten much prospect fanfare, but his minor league production has certainly warranted a promotion. The right-handed hitter is out to a monster .348/.431/.670 slash over 31 games with Triple-A Charlotte. He has already hit 10 homers and six doubles in 130 plate appearances. He’s tied with Otto Kemp for the Triple-A home run lead. Among hitters with 100+ trips to the plate, only Carson McCusker has a higher OPS.

The 6’3″, 250-pound Elko has been a productive power bat dating back to his college days at Ole Miss. He nevertheless signed for a minuscule $35K bonus as a 10th-round draft pick in 2022. Scouts viewed him as an organizational depth type because of his defensive limitations and lofty swing-and-miss rates. Those are still present, though Elko has made slight improvements to his plate discipline this season. He’s drawing walks at what would be a personal-best 11.5% clip. That comes alongside an alarming 28.5% strikeout rate.

It’s a difficult profile to pull off, one that major league pitchers tend to exploit. Still, the Sox have scored the fourth-fewest runs in MLB. They’ve received a combined .215/.273/.356 slash from their first basemen and designated hitters. There’s little reason not to give Elko an opportunity to try to continue to defy expectations.

Andrew Vaughn has worked as the primary first baseman. The former third overall pick has posted middling numbers for the majority of his career. He entered play tonight with a dismal .186/.223/.293 line. A homer in his first at-bat will boost that a little bit, but it’s increasingly difficult to see Vaughn emerging as a legitimate trade chip for GM Chris Getz and company.

He’s playing on a $5.85MM arbitration salary and looks much more like a DFA or non-tender candidate than someone who could net the Sox a prospect of any regard. They haven’t had a set DH, so Vaughn and Elko could coexist in the same lineup, but it’s fair to wonder how much more runway Vaughn will have as an everyday player.

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