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White Sox Announce 60-Man Additions

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The White Sox announced the addition of 16 players to their 60-man player pool Tuesday. They’ll all head to the team’s alternate camp site in Schaumberg, Ill. Today’s additions include (* = non-roster invitee):

Right-Handed Pitchers

Left-Handed Pitchers

Catchers

Outfielders

As Opening Day draws nearer, the White Sox will option additional players to their alternate camp site. There are currently 43 players in big league Summer Camp with the South Siders, and they’ll need to trim that number to 30 by the time the opener rolls around.

Today’s list of additions contains several notable names, including 2020 first-round pick Garrett Crochet, whom the Sox selected 13th overall out of the University of Tennessee. Farm director Chris Getz isn’t ruling out the possibility of Crochet making his MLB debut sometime this year, Bruce Levine of 670 The Score tweets.

Getz also spoke about another recent White Sox first-round pick in Zack Burdi, whom they took 26th in 2016, saying (via Daryl Van Schouwen of the Chicago Sun-Times): ’We hope to build off how he finished major league camp. It’s the best we’ve seen him in a while. His last couple outings were very encouraging. It’s a special arm.”

Significant injuries have prevented the hard-throwing Burdi from realizing his potential or even reaching the bigs since the White Sox drafted him. He underwent Tommy John surgery in 2017, barely pitched the following year as a result, and then succumbed to a ligament tear in his patella last season. Burdi’s still a well-regarded relief prospect, though, and may have a chance to factor into Chicago’s bullpen this season.

Players Added To 40-Man Roster: American League

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We’re going to see a whole lot of players added to 40-man rosters in advance of tonight’s deadline to protect players from the Rule 5 draft. We will use this post to track those contract selections from American League teams that are not otherwise covered on the site.

AL West:

  • The Athletics made just one addition to the 40-man roster, righty Daulton Jefferies, which resulted in the DFA of righty Jharel Cotton (more on that move here).
  • The Rangers will add at least four players to their 40-man, per MLB.com’s TR Sullivan (via Twitter). Infielder Sherten Apostel, outfielder Leody Taveras, and hurlers Demarcus Evans and Tyler Phillips are all reportedly set to get a slot. Taveras is the most exciting name of this bunch; by the reckoning of some observers, he’s one of the club’s best prospects. Apostel came over in the Keone Kela trade. The two pitchers are upper-minors arms who could contribute in 2020.
  • There’s 40-man movement elsewhere in Texas as well. Chandler Rome of the Houston Chronicle tweets that the Astros have tacked on four players: Taylor Jones, Cristian Javier, Enoli Paredes, and Nivaldo Rodriguez. The last of those is the one that came from the farthest reaches of the prospect map (half a season of High-A ball); clearly, the ’Stros see him as an up-and-comer and were worried other teams would as well. Jones had a strong season at Triple-A and could fight for a bench spot. Javier and Paredes could be in the MLB bullpen mix after running up the farm ladder with high strikeout rates in 2019.
  • The Angels have selected second baseman/outfielder Jahmai Jones and lefty Hector Yan, according to the club. Both players (Jones – No. 6; Yan – No. 17) rank among the Angels’ top 20 prospects at MLB.com. The 22-year-old Jones is a 2015 second-rounder who spent the past two seasons at the Double-A level, where he hit .234/.308/.324 in 544 plate appearances in 2019. Yan, a 20-year-old native of the Dominican Republic, rose to Single-A ball this past season and notched a 3.39 ERA/3.17 FIP with a whopping 12.22 K/9 against 4.29 BB/9 over 109 innings.

AL Central:

AL East:

  • Infielder Santiago Espinal and righty Thomas Hatch were the Blue Jays’ pair of roster additions on Wednesday. Toronto jettisoned Tim Mayza and Justin Shafer from the 40-man roster in a pair of corresponding moves, as explored at greater length here.
  • The Orioles announced that they’ve selected the contracts of left-hander Keegan Akin, right-hander Dean Kremer, infielder/outfielder Ryan Mountcastle and outfielder Ryan McKenna. Mountcastle, a former first-rounder, has long been considered among the organization’s most promising minor leaguers. Akin posted a down year in Triple-A in 2019 but has generally been successful and is viewed as a near-MLB ready arm.
  • The Red Sox have added infielders C.J. Chatham and Bobby Dalbec, outfielder Marcus Wilson, and lefties Kyle Hart and Yoan Aybar to their 40-man, the team announced.The most hyped farmhand there is Dalbec, whom MLB.com ranks as the Red Sox’s second-best prospect. The 24-year-old reached the Triple-A level for the first time in 2019 after obliterating Double-A pitching, and he posted a .257/.301/.478 line with seven home runs and 29 strikeouts against just five walks over 123 trips to the plate.

Three White Sox Pitchers Out For Season

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Three White Sox hurlers are out for the season, per reports from Scott Merkin of MLB.com and James Fegan of The Athletic. Right-handers Ryan Burr and Jimmy Lambert have undergone Tommy John procedures, while fellow righty Zack Burdi has a ligament tear in his patella.

Burr’s the lone member of the trio who has pitched in the majors to this point. The 25-year-old debuted with the White Sox last season and has since registered a 5.52 ERA/5.60 FIP with 7.98 K/9, 4.3 BB/9 and a 43.7 percent groundball rate in 29 1/3 innings. Chicago placed him on the injured list May 28 with a right elbow capsule strain.

Lambert, 24, has posted a 4.55 ERA/4.68 FIP with 10.62 K/9 and 4.1 BB/9 in 11 starts and 59 1/3 frames at the Double-A level this season. MLB.com ranks Lambert, a fifth-round pick of the White Sox in 2016, as the team’s 18th-best prospect.

Burdi follows his brother, Pirates reliever Nick Burdi, in missing the rest of the season. Nick Burdi underwent thoracic outlet syndrome surgery earlier this week. Zack Burdi’s injury may not be that severe, but it still pushes back a potential major league promotion. The 24-year-old, whom the White Sox drafted 26th overall in 2016, has experienced his first Double-A action this season and logged a 6.41 ERA/6.11 FIP with 10.98 K/9 and 5.95 BB/9 in 19 2/3 innings. Burdi checks in at No. 15 on MLB.com’s list of White Sox prospects.

Zack Burdi To Have Tommy John Surgery

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July 24: Burdi will indeed undergo Tommy John surgery, Hayes tweets. The operation will be performed this week and figures to sideline the hard-throwing righty for the majority of the 2018 campaign.

July 14: White Sox pitching prospect Zack Burdi is believed to have suffered a UCL tear that will require Tommy John surgery, Dan Hayes of CSN Chicago first reported on Twitter. While he’ll first receive a second opinion, indications are that he’ll join his brother — Twins prospect Nick Burdi — in the lengthy TJ recovery process.

The younger Burdi landed with the White Sox organization after following his brother in posting a stellar run with the University of Louisville. Chicago grabbed Burdi with the 26th overall pick in last year’s draft — quite a steep position for a relief pitcher.

At the time, prospect watchers believed that Burdi could move quickly toward the majors. His triple-digit heater, quality slider, and serviceable change give him the arsenal of a closer; surely, the South Siders used that lofty pick in expectation that he’d become an elite pen arm.

Burdi sprinted through the Sox’ system last year, reaching Triple-A in his first professional season. The expectation heading into 2017 was that he’d finish off his preparation and potentially get his first taste of the big leagues at some point later in the current season.

Even before the injury, though, there was perhaps some cause to pump the brakes on Burdi’s rise. He has allowed fifteen earned runs on thirty hits and seventeen walks through his 33 1/3 innings at Charlotte this year, though he has also racked up 51 strikeouts.

Still, the plan obviously was for Burdi to begin making an MLB impact sooner than later. While the rebuilding White Sox can deal with some delay, a major injury to a significant prospect obviously constitutes disappointing news. If he does indeed require a new UCL, the 22-year-old will likely miss the entire 2018 season — though perhaps an Arizona Fall League assignment next year could be possible.

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