White Sox sign Mike Pelfrey, place Jake Petricka on disabled list

Mike Pelfrey

The White Sox on Wednesday signed veteran right-hander Mike Pelfrey to a minor-league deal.

Pelfrey, 33, joined the Detroit Tigers before the 2016 season on a two-year deal worth $16 million. That didn't work out so well, as Pelfrey went 4-10 with a 5.07 ERA in 24 games (22 starts) in 119 innings.

The Tigers released Pelfrey last week.

This is a pitcher whose good years are in the deep past. Pelfrey's best season was 2010 with the New York Mets, when he went 15-9 with a 3.66 ERA in 34 games (33 starts).

Since 2013, Pelfrey has made 86 starts with the Minnesota Twins and Tigers, going 15-37 with a 4.97 ERA, along with a 1.593 WHIP.

Yes, he is terrible, and this is the kind of signing that a rebuilding team makes. Pelfrey is going to Charlotte, but we'll probably see him called up if Jose Quintana is traded, or if Carlos Rodon's arm injury persists, or if someone else in the current major-league rotation succumbs to injury.

Pelfrey is an insurance policy against having to rush a prospect to the big leagues unnecessarily. He is roster filler, and if he is making starts on the South Side of Chicago, most of those games will probably not end well for the Sox.

Petricka to DL; Kahnle recalled

The Sox have placed relief pitcher Jake Petricka on the 10-day disabled list with strained lat.

Petricka, 28, was limited to nine appearances in 2016 because of a torn labrum in his hip that required surgery. He appeared in Tuesday's season-opener, in which he tossed a scoreless inning with one strikeout and two walks.

Right-hander Tommy Kahnle takes Petricka's place on the roster. Kahnle had a 2.69 ERA in in 23 relief appearances with the Sox last year.

As we've always said about Kahnle, he'll never stick until he learns to command his high-90s fastball. It's great that he had 25 strikeouts in 27.1 innings last year. It's good that he allowed only 21 hits. Too bad he walked 20. That's the problem. It's surprising his ERA was so low when he put that many runners on base.

Hopefully, before year's end, the Sox will have players more interesting than Kahnle (and Pelfrey) who are ready to be called up from the minors.