White Sox option Daniel Palka to Charlotte, claim AJ Reed off waivers

AJ Reed

Catching up on some roster comings and goings before the White Sox return from the All-Star break:

After Sunday's 3-1 victory over the Cubs, the Sox optioned outfielder Daniel Palka to Triple-A Charlotte. Palka, 27, made 10 plate appearances in his latest stint on the South Side and went 0 for 10.

His line for the season is ugly. He's 1 for 45 in 52 plate appearances with 18 strikeouts. His slash line now stands at .022/.154/.022.

It's hard to believe Palka was the feel-good story of the 2018 season, when he led the Sox with 27 home runs. This season, he's not going to get 27 hits at the big-league level, let alone 27 home runs, even if he gets recalled when rosters expand in September.

And at this point, it's fair to ask whether that will happen. We may have seen the last of Palka in a Sox uniform.

At the time of Palka's demotion, the Sox said they would make a corresponding roster move before Friday night's game against the Oakland Athletics. With injured veteran catcher Welington Castillo on a rehab assignment, I was assuming he would be the one added to the 25-man roster.

Turns out, the Sox claimed left-handed hitting first baseman AJ Reed off waivers from the Houston Astros. He is expected to be on the roster Friday night.

Reed, 26, once was ranked among the top 15 prospects in the game, but he's never been able to hit major league pitching. Over parts of three seasons with the Astros, he's hitting .153/.253/.244 with three home runs, three doubles, eight RBIs and 50 strikeouts in 150 career plate appearances.

He had a decent season at the Triple-A level last year, where he made the All-Star game and hit .255/.374/.540 with 28 home runs and 108 RBIs in 123 games.

However, Reed has fallen on hard times this season -- he's hitting only .224 with 12 home runs and 35 RBIs in 56 games at Triple-A Round Rock. Numbers such as those can cause you to fall off a 40-man roster. Now the Sox are taking a flyer on Reed, and this may be his last kick at the can to stick in the major leagues.

This probably means the DH at-bats against right-handed pitching will belong to Reed, not Zack Collins. This guess here is Collins goes back to Triple-A Charlotte, maybe as soon as this weekend, whenever Castillo is activated.

Collins has had limited at-bats since the Sox called him up, but he's done little with those opportunities. He walked in his first plate appearance and hit a 3-run homer in his second, but he is now hitless in his 25 plate appearances since -- although he has drawn five walks.

Still, the .045/.222/.182 slash line is hard to excuse, and it seems reasonable to say Collins could use some more time in Charlotte. He'll likely be headed there soon.