White Sox avoid arbitration with five players

Alex Colome

The White Sox on Friday announced that they reached agreements with each of their remaining five arbitration-eligible players. Here's how the contracts break down for the 2020 season:

RHP Alex Colome: $10,532,500
RF Nomar Mazara: $5.56M
LHP Carlos Rodon: $4.45M
UTIL Leury Garcia: $3.25M
RHP Evan Marshall: $1.1M

It's always good to avoid going to court with arbitration-eligible players. Those hearings are never fun, because they require the club to highlight why a player isn't worth the money he's asking for. That creates animosity and bad feelings that can last throughout a season.

So, it's just best to come to an agreeable number and move forward. That's what the Sox have done with these five players.

Encarnacion deal becomes official

The Sox also officially announced the signing of veteran designated hitter Edwin Encarnacion to a one-year, $12 million contract.

One other note on Encarnacion: According to the latest addition of Baseball Digest, he hit the second-most home runs of any Major League player during the decade spanning 2010-19 with 335. Only Nelson Cruz (346 home runs), currently with the Minnesota Twins, hit more.

Encarnacion also ranked third over the past decade with 956 RBIs. Albert Pujols of the Los Angeles Angels led all hitters with 963 RBIs, while Cruz ranked second with 961.

Hopefully, the 37-year-old Encarnacion still has some homers and RBIs left in him.

Medeiros outrighted

To make room on the roster for Encarnacion, the Sox designated left-handed pitcher Kodi Medeiros for assignment. Medeiros was acquired from the Milwaukee Brewers in the middle of the 2018 season in exchange for reliever Joakim Soria.

Medeiros cleared waivers and has been outrighted to Charlotte.

The Sox's 40-man roster is at maximum capacity, and someone else will have to be dropped when the signing of relief pitcher Steve Cishek becomes official.

Final Four: Dodgers vs. Brewers; Astros vs. Red Sox

Baseball's final four is set. We've got the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Milwaukee Brewers in the National League Championship Series, and the Houston Astros and the Boston Red Sox in the American League Championship Series.

Who ya got?

I've got the Brewers in six in the NL. Milwaukee reminds me of the 2015 Kansas City Royals, and not just because they have Mike Moustakas and Lorenzo Cain in their starting lineup.

Much like that Kansas City team, it's hard to match the Brewers' bullpen depth. Milwaukee basically is playing a six-inning game with relievers such as Jeremy Jeffress, Josh Hader, Corey Knebel and even our old friend Joakim Soria pitching effectively out of the bullpen.

The Brewers have the one piece that nobody else has -- a dominant left-handed reliever who can get six outs if needed. That's Hader, and I expect him to be a difference-maker in this series, as he has been all season.

Hey, it's finally getting interesting in the AL! We've got the 108-win Red Sox and the 103-win Astros ready to do battle. There was almost no pennant race in the AL this season, with the five playoff positions basically secured by Sept. 1, and five teams in the league losing 95 or more games.

It just wasn't interesting, until now. We've got two super-teams going head-to-head here, and I'll take the defending champion Astros in 7.

I like Houston's pitching depth. As much as I like the Boston ace, Chris Sale, Houston ace Justin Verlander is just as good. And I'm not much of a fan of Boston's No. 2 pitcher, David Price, who always seems to struggle in the playoffs.

I question the Red Sox bullpen, too, especially after Craig Kimbrel had so much trouble closing out the Yankees in Game 4 of the ALDS.

It would be a huge disappointment in Boston if the Red Sox don't win the World Series after going 108-54, but I really think they are the underdogs in this series.

Houston, to me, looks poised to repeat.

Now that I've posted this, we'll probably end up with a  Red Sox-Dodgers World Series. If I know anything about baseball, it's that I know nothing about baseball.

White Sox trade Joakim Soria to Brewers for two pitching prospects

Joakim Soria

Since May 21, Joakim Soria has a 0.74 ERA and has converted 12 of his 13 save opportunities.

I've been surprised that there wasn't more trade chatter surrounding him, given that he's been better lately than some of the other relief pitchers who already have been dealt this month (Zach Britton, Jeurys Familia).

The only Soria talk I've heard, frankly, has come from the Chicago press, which has been pleading with the Sox to help the Cubs out. The North Side closer, Brandon Morrow, is on the disabled list for the second time this season, and naturally, that leads the local writers to believe there was a "natural trade fit" between the two Chicago teams.

Meh. Not so much. The Cubs don't have a deep farm system, but the Brewers do.

And for that reason, the Sox on Thursday traded Soria to Milwaukee for left-handed pitcher Kodi Medeiros and right-hander Wilber Pérez.

More prospect pitching depth, to me, is what the Sox need most of all, so I can't object to this deal.

Medeiros, 22, was the Brewers' first-round pick (12th overall) in the 2014 draft. He's appeared in 20 games this season (15 starts) and has gone 7-5 with a 3.14 ERA.

Perez, 20, is 5-1 with a 2.01 ERA in eight starts with the Dominican Summer League Brewers. The native of the Dominican Republic was signed by the Brewers as an international free agent in 2017.

It will be a few years before we know whether Perez will amount to anything, but Medeiros being left-handed and 22, he could help the Sox as soon as late 2019. Not sure that he projects as a starter, although he's still pitching as a starter, but there's always a need for left-handed bullpen guys.

We'll see. I think Soria will help the Brewers. He's been throwing the ball well for two months, and that's not a small sample size. He's having a good season. The Sox were hoping he would be good enough to be a midseason trade piece, and indeed he was.

In that regard, this was a plan that came together.

White Sox (somehow) six games ahead of Royals at All-Star break

Leury Garcia

The first half of the season has been a disaster for the White Sox. They are 33-62, on pace for 106 losses, which would tie the club record set in 1970.

That's no small statement, because the Sox have been around since 1901, and they've only had three 100-loss seasons over those 117 years. We're looking at historic ineptness this summer.

Despite all that, the Sox somehow are not in last place at the All-Star break. In fact, they are six games ahead of the Kansas City Royals (27-68) in the AL Central, after winning two out of three games against the Royals over the weekend at Guaranteed Rate Field.

Here's a look back at the weekend that was:

Friday, July 13
White Sox 9, Royals 6: This game had all the elements of a matchup between two teams that are a combined 70 games below .500. There was no shortage of poor pitching and sloppy defense.

The good part for the Sox: home runs by Jose Abreu, Leury Garcia and Omar Narvaez as part of a 14-hit attack. And James Shields (4-10) pitched into the seventh inning without allowing an earned run, although another error by Yoan Moncada in the second cost Shields two runs.

The Sox took a 7-2 lead into the seventh before Shields ran out of gas, and five relief pitchers were needed to cover the final seven outs. The Royals crawled within 7-6 with two outs in the eighth, and they had two men on base when Jorge Bonifacio flied to the warning track in center field for the third out.

Fortunately, Narvaez delivered a two-run homer in the bottom of the eighth to provide some breathing room, which Joakim Soria ultimately did not need. The Sox reliever earned his 14th save by retiring the side in order, with two strikeouts, in the ninth.

Saturday, July 14
Royals 5, White Sox 0: The Sox went 0 for 8 with runners in scoring position and left nine men on base against Kansas City starter Danny Duffy (5-8) and two relievers. Duffy walked three and allowed four hits over seven shutout innings, and all of the Sox hits were singles.

Give Reynaldo Lopez (4-7) some credit. At least he went 7.2 innings, but he was victimized by two home runs -- one by Bonifacio in the first and the other by the final hitter he faced, Salvador Perez in the eighth.

It was a bad, boring game and one you can just flush away. Lopez forgot to throw a shutout, and the Sox bats were silent.

Sunday, June 15
White Sox 10, Royals 1: Sox bats were anything but silent in the final game of the series. Moncada had a big afternoon, 3 for 4 with three runs scored, and he finished a triple short of the cycle. Daniel Palka opened the scoring in the first inning with a two-run homer and also finished 3 for 4 with three runs scored. Garcia also had a three-hit game.

The support was plenty for Lucas Giolito (6-8), who allowed only two hits over 6.1 innings of shutout ball. He struck out eight and walked three.

For Giolito, the key inning was the first. He walked two and gave up a single to Perez, but Bonifacio was thrown out at the plate by 20 feet on that single, handing Giolito the second out of an inning in which he was struggling to find the plate. The Sox right-hander then struck out Lucas Duda to end the inning without giving up a run, despite throwing 30-plus pitches.

After that, Giolito settled in and dominated the middle innings, while the Sox bludgeoned a ragtag collection of Kansas City relievers.

It was a bad first half, but at least it ended with a lopsided win. That gives everyone something positive to take with them for the four days off over the All-Star break.

White Sox pitchers keep on walking people

Joakim Soria

The White Sox walked the leadoff hitter with a one-run lead in the bottom of the eighth inning Thursday night and got away with it.

Undeterred, they walked the leadoff hitter with a one-run lead in the bottom of the ninth inning, too, and that time the Houston Astros made them pay, rallying for a 4-3 victory.

It capped a night full of walks by Sox pitchers. Carlos Rodon walked six over six innings, and somehow he managed to allow only two runs. Reliever Juan Minaya issued the aforementioned leadoff walk in the eighth, and closer Joakim Soria (0-3) walked two in the ninth and ended up taking the loss.

Walking opposing hitters has become a big part of the Sox's identity, and it's gotten beyond the point of frustration.

Sox pitchers lead the American League with 371 walks as a staff this season, and it's not close. Baltimore ranks a distant second with 308 walks.

This isn't a new problem either: The Sox led the American League with 632 walks issued during the 2017 season -- once again easily outdistancing the Orioles, who issued 579 walks.

Even in 2016, with Chris Sale and Jose Quintana anchoring the top of the rotation, the Sox's walk rate was too high. They were third in the league with 521 walks.

Handing out free baserunners to the opposition is not a recipe for success, especially because the Sox will never be confused with having a good defensive team. Between the walks and errors, self-inflicted wounds have contributed to most of the Sox's 57 losses this season (entering Friday's play).

I'm told that Don Cooper is one of the best pitching coaches in the game. I'm not sure I believe that bit of propaganda at this point, but if Cooper is so great, I call upon him to get the Sox pitching staff back in the strike zone with more frequency.

At the very least, the Sox need to make the opposition earn it more often.

A nice, clean 14-hitter: White Sox beat Indians

White Sox right-hander Dylan Covey allowed 2.6 home runs per every nine innings in 2017. That was the highest rate among any pitcher who threw at least 70 innings -- although to be fair, Covey threw 70 innings right on the dot during his 0-7 season.

However, things have changed this year. Covey has made six starts with the Sox in 2018, totaling 35.1 innings, and he has yet to allow a home run.

Hmmm. Go figure.

Covey improved to 3-1 on Wednesday as the Sox beat the Cleveland Indians, 3-2.

The former Rule 5 draft pick gave up two runs on 10 hits over seven-plus innings, but they were all singles, and Covey survived because he did not walk a batter. Give the guy this: He's throwing strikes, and he's avoiding the big mistakes that cost him a lot of runs last season.

Sox relievers Jace Fry and Joakim Soria combined to give up four more hits over two innings, so Cleveland ended up outhitting the Sox, 14-4, but the South Siders had the edge in the column that counts.

The Sox only had four hits off Cleveland starter Trevor Bauer, who struck out 12 in 7.2 innings, but those four hits counted.

Tim Anderson walked to lead off the fifth inning, stole second and scored on triple by Charlie Tilson. Trayce Thompson's perfectly executed suicide squeeze brought Tilson home for a 2-0 Sox lead.

The Sox added a run in the sixth. After Jose Abreu doubled, Kevan Smith's two-out single made it 3-0, with Abreu sliding safely into home under a tag after a good throw to the plate by Cleveland right fielder Melky Cabrera.

The Indians got two in the eighth and threatened for more, placing runners on second and third with one out. However, Fry put out the fire with consecutive strikeouts of Cabrera and Jason Kipnis to preserve a 3-2 lead.

Soria allowed two singles in the ninth, but induced a double play off the bat of Michael Brantley to earn his 10th save.

With the win, the Sox (24-42) are now 15-15 in their past 30 games. That doesn't erase the miserable 9-27 start, but games have been more watchable as of late.

White Sox knock Red Sox out of first place

Chris Sale

The Boston Red Sox entered this weekend with a 22-9 record at home, and they led the AL East by a half-game over the New York Yankees.

Boston is now 23-11 at home, and a half-game behind the Yankees, after it inexplicably lost two out of three to the White Sox over the weekend. The Red Sox were throwing their three most accomplished pitchers -- Chris Sale, David Price and Rick Porcello -- against the White Sox, which makes the Chicago victory all the more shocking.

Here's a look back at the weekend that was:

Friday, June 8
White Sox 1, Red Sox 0: At the start of the season, Dylan Covey (2-1) wasn't on the Sox's 40-man roster. Now, he's won a pitchers' duel against Sale.

Sale did what you would expect: He went eight innings, allowing one run on six hits with 10 strikeouts and only one walk.

Covey did what you wouldn't expect: He tossed six shutout innings, allowing only three hits and one walk while striking out seven. Really, Covey has the same sinker-slider arsenal he had last season when he went 0-7. The difference this year? His fastball is sitting at 93 to 95 mph, instead of 91 to 93. Remarkable that he's had a bit of a velocity jump in his age-26 season.

The Sox's lone run came in the seventh, when Trayce Thompson singled over a drawn-in infield to score Kevan Smith, who hit a bloop ground-rule double earlier in the inning.

Three Sox relievers combined for three scoreless, hitless innings, with Joakim Soria earning his seventh save of the season.

Saturday, June 9
Red Sox 4, White Sox 2: Three Sox errors cost Carlos Rodon two runs in his first start of the season, and that turned out to be the difference in the game.

Rodon's stuff looked better as his outing moved along. He got himself into a first-and-third, no-outs jam in the bottom of the fourth inning, but he struck out Blake Swihart, Jackie Bradley and Andrew Benintendi in succession to escape trouble.

He finished with seven strikeouts and two walks, while allowing four runs (two earned) on six hits over five innings. Alas, two of the six hits were homers -- one by Bradley and the other by J.D. Martinez, and that combined with the errors led to the Sox's demise.

The South Siders scored two runs in the first inning off Price, but the Boston left-hander put up five zeroes after that, and the Red Sox bullpen tossed three innings of scoreless relief.

Sunday, June 10
White Sox 5, Red Sox 2: Tim Anderson had no hits in this game, but his play was one of the biggest factors in the outcome.

The Sox's shortstop worked a two-out, bases-loaded walk in the top of the third inning to put his team ahead for good at 2-1. He saved a run with his glove by ranging deep in the hole to take away a hit from Xander Bogaerts in the fifth. He worked a leadoff walk in the sixth inning, and later scored from second base on a groundout by Thompson, after Porcello tripped while cover first base on the play.

Three big plays by Anderson, two that created runs for the Sox, and one that took away a run from Boston.

Reynaldo Lopez (2-4) picked up the win for the Sox. He pitched 6.1 innings, allowing two runs (one earned) on six hits. He struck out six and walked three.

Jace Fry recorded four outs out of the Sox bullpen, including one with the bases loaded in the seventh and the Sox clinging to the a 3-2 lead.

Daniel Palka's two-out, two-run double in the top of the ninth provided some breathing room, and Soria pitched the bottom half of the inning for his eighth save.

Rare strong start by James Shields goes to waste

James Shields

Here's a sentence we rarely type on this blog: James Shields deserved better.

The veteran White Sox right-hander retired 15 St. Louis Cardinals batters in a row at one point Tuesday night. After giving up a leadoff homer to Tommy Pham, Shields did not allow another St. Louis base runner until the sixth inning.

He completed six innings, allowing only one run on two hits. He struck out four, and surprisingly, he did not walk anyone.

Too bad the Sox lost, 3-2, when the Cardinals scored two runs in the bottom of the ninth off another erstwhile veteran pitcher who has seen better days, Sox "closer" Joakim Soria.

The Sox took a 2-1 lead in the fourth inning on a two-out, two run double from Yoan Moncada. That stuck all the way until the ninth inning.

Soria gave up a home run to Matt Carpenter, a double to Marcell Ozuna and a game-deciding single to Yadier Molina.

The Cardinals weren't exactly hot coming into this series -- they had lost three in a row. But don't worry, St. Louis. The Sox are the cure for what ails every team not named the Kansas City Royals.

The South Siders are now 3-17 against teams not named the Royals, and 8-19 overall.

It's going to be a bad, long, boring season. What else can you say right now?

White Sox home opener a brutal one

Pregame ceremonies for Opening Day 2018 at Guaranteed Rate Field

It's hard to say what the worst thing about the White Sox home opener was: the weather or the outcome of the game.

It was 41 degrees for first pitch, and temperatures were in the upper-30s for most of the game, accompanied by snowfall. Actually, the Sox played well while it was snowing -- they led the game, 7-3, after seven innings.

But a combination of terrible relief pitching and horrible defense allowed the Detroit Tigers to rally for a 9-7 victory in 10 innings. Detroit scored one run in the eighth off Nate Jones, three in the ninth off Joakim Soria to tie the game and two off the combination of Greg Infante and Aaron Bummer in the 10th inning to secure the win.

Most galling, with the Sox still ahead 7-4, Soria had two outs and two strikes on some guy named Niko Goodrum, but the veteran reliever could not put the game away. Goodrum smacked a two-run homer to make the score 7-6.

Soria also had two strikes on the next hitter, Nicholas Castellanos, but Castellanos managed a single to keep the game alive. That brought up Victor Martinez, whose RBI "double" tied the game at 7.

We put double in quotes, because this is where the Sox's lack of competent play in left field and weird roster construction finally cost them.

Martinez hit what I thought should have been a routine single to left field. But Leury Garcia tried to be a hero and make a catch on a ball he had no chance to reach. He took a bad route, and the ball skipped past him and rattled around in the left field corner, allowing the slow-footed Castellanos to score the tying run all the way from first base.

This cannot happen at the MLB level. Garcia needs to pull up, concede the single, keep Castellanos at second base and give Soria one more chance to retire the next hitter with a 7-6 lead. Soria did retire James McCann to end the inning, but the damage had been done.

We can't put all the blame on Garcia because he's an infielder being asked to play the outfield. In fact, the Sox have only two true outfielders on their roster -- Avisail Garcia and Adam Engel. They are trying to plug left field with two converted infielders -- Leury Garcia and Nick Delmonico -- and it's just not a very good idea.

I understand the desire to carry eight relievers. We are six games into the season, and the Sox have yet to have a starting pitcher go deeper than six innings. That's going to be the norm, not the exception, with this group, so all those arms in the bullpen are going to be needed and used.

That gives the Sox just a three-man bench, which is tough, but I think one of those three bench players needs to be an outfielder. As it stands now, the bench consists of catcher Omar Narvaez, infielder Tyler Saladino and whoever doesn't start in left field between Delmonico and Leury Garcia.

For me, Saladino and Leury Garcia are redundant on the roster. Both are utility infielders, and Leury Garcia is being miscast as "defensive replacement" in the outfield. Leury Garcia has a better bat than Saladino -- he had two hits and two RBIs in Thursday's game, but Saladino can play every position on the infield competently, while Garcia is a question mark with the glove no matter where you put him.

Let's not forget that while Yolmer Sanchez is the starting third baseman at this point, he is another player who can provide competent-to-good defense at any position on the infield.

Right now, the Sox have too many utility infielders on the roster and not enough outfielders. The two biggest warts on a limited Sox roster -- a shallow bullpen and a lack of competency in left field -- led to a brutal loss before a big crowd in the home opener.

Kansas City's bullpen -- it's not what it used to be

Brandon Maurer

Remember the time when it was a six-inning game against the Kansas City Royals? It wasn't that long ago that they had Kelvin Herrera, Wade Davis and Greg Holland at the back end of their bullpen.

If you were trailing in the late innings against the Royals, you were done. Plain and simple. Kansas City used that dominant bullpen to win back-to-back American League pennants in 2014 and 2015, and it won it all in 2015.

Those days now are gone. Only Herrera remains from that juggernaut bullpen, and he's pitching the ninth inning these days -- not the sixth or the seventh as he did during the Royals' heyday.

And right now, it looks as though Kansas City is going to struggle to get through the seventh and eighth innings and get save opportunities for Herrera.

The White Sox on Saturday victimized Kansas City's setup-man-for-now, Brandon Maurer, scoring three runs in the top of the eighth inning to rally for a 4-3 victory.

Sunday's game was snowed out, so the Sox left Kansas City with a 2-0 record.

With the Sox trailing 3-1, Yoan Moncada started Saturday's rally with a 433-foot home run off Maurer. Two outs, a single and a walk later, Welington Castillo took a 3-0 fastball from Maurer off the right-center field wall for a two-run double to give the Sox a 4-3 lead they would not relinquish.

Give manager Rick Renteria credit for green-lighting Castillo on a 3-0 pitch. It wasn't an obvious call because Castillo was 0 for 8 on the season to that point, while the on-deck hitter in that situation, Tim Anderson, already has two home runs this year.

Bullpen management was the other storyline in this game. Nate Jones worked a scoreless eighth, while Joakim Soria held off Kansas City in the ninth to earn his first save in a Sox uniform.

Is that the way Renteria is going to handle late-inning, high-leverage situations moving forward? Possibly, but not necessarily.

Jones likely is the Sox's best reliever when healthy, and he was summoned to face the heart of the Kansas City order in the bottom of the eighth. He struck out Mike Moustakas and Lucas Duda, before a single and flyout concluded the inning.

That left Soria to face the bottom of the order in the ninth, and he worked around a broken-bat single by Alex Gordon and a walk to Jon Jay to get the save.

But what if the bottom of the order had been due up in the bottom of the eighth? Would Renteria still have used Jones, and then gone to Soria to face the top of the Kansas City order in the ninth? We don't know, but I will say I like the idea of using Jones to pitch in the most high-leverage situation.

In this particular game, that situation was the eighth inning, with powerful left-handed hitters Moustakas and Duda coming up for the Royals. Renteria went with Jones, and the move worked out for the Sox in this case.

White Sox acquire relievers Joakim Soria, Luis Avilan in three-team deal

Joakim Soria

It has been somewhat surprising that the White Sox have not addressed their depleted bullpen through free agency, but perhaps their plan all along was to acquire a couple of veteran relievers through a trade.

The Sox on Thursday added veteran right-hander Joakim Soria from the Kansas City Royals and left-hander Luis Avilan from the Los Angeles Dodgers as part of a three-team deal.

It seems as if the Royals might be looking to clear some salary in order to make a bigger offer to free agent first baseman Eric Hosmer. In addition to sending Soria to Chicago, they sent left-handed reliever Scott Alexander to the Dodgers.

Los Angeles also receives minor-league infielder Jake Peter, who is the only player the Sox parted with in this deal. Peter had a nice year in 2017, hitting a combined .279 between Triple-A Charlotte and Double-A Birmingham, but he's blocked by Yoan Moncada, Tim Anderson and Yolmer Sanchez in Chicago, and didn't appear to be part of the Sox's long-term plan.

Kansas City receives infielder Erick Mejia and right-handed pitcher Trevor Oaks from the Dodgers as part of the deal.

The only way this trade doesn't work out for the Sox is if Peter somehow becomes more than the utility infielder most people believe he is.

Although neither Soria nor Avilan figure to be part of the Sox's long-term plan, either, the two veterans provide a short-term solution in the late innings -- at least for the first half of 2018 -- and if they pitch well, they could be candidates to be traded midseason to contending teams in exchange for prospects who are more highly regarded than Peter.

Soria, 33, has 204 career saves, so I think we have a good idea of who has the ninth inning for the Sox when the season opens. Soria is not the pitcher he was in the past -- his ERA was an ordinary 3.70 for Kansas City last season -- but he has experience as a closer, and he kept the ball in the ballpark in 2017. He allowed only one home run in 56 innings, and at Guaranteed Rate Field, you want relief pitchers who keep the ball out of the air.

Avilan, 28, was 2-3 with a 2.93 ERA in 46 innings and 61 games with the Dodgers last year. The left-hander's main value comes in getting left-handed hitters out. In 2017, left-handed hitters slashed .195/.290/.280 against Avilan, while right-handers slashed .292/.376/.449. This is a pitcher that can be effective if manager Rick Renteria puts him in favorable matchup situations.

With this trade, here's how the Sox bullpen might look if the season started today:

Right-handers:
Soria
Nate Jones
Juan Minaya
Danny Farquhar
Greg Infante

Left-handers:
Avilan
Aaron Bummer

Assuming a 12-man pitching staff, those likely are your seven relievers. Other bullpen candidates include right-handers Thyago Vieira, Jose Ruiz and Dylan Covey, plus left-hander Jace Fry.