White Sox surprise with 3-game sweep of Rays

Is the Tommy Pham effect real?

The White Sox added the 36-year-old mercurial outfielder to their 26-man roster on Friday, and within 72 hours, they doubled their season win total.

The Sox are now 6-22 after a three-game weekend sweep of the Tampa Bay Rays.

Pham was solid, but not spectacular, going 5 for 14 with five singles and three runs scored in the three victories.

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

April 26

White Sox 9, Rays 4: The long-awaited offensive breakout came in the back half of this game as the Sox pounded out 12 hits. They scored seven of their nine runs from the sixth inning on to give their beleaguered pitching staff some much-needed breathing room.

Martin Maldonado, of all people, hit a 3-run homer in the seventh inning as part of a 2-for-4 performance. Eloy Jimenez added his third home run of the season, a 2-run shot in the seventh. Nicky Lopez, Pham, Danny Mendick and Paul DeJong also had two-hit games.

Chris Flexen (1-3) tossed five-plus shutout innings to pick up his first win of the season. Five Sox relievers were needed to cover the last four innings. They gave up four runs during that stretch, so it was a blessing that the offense poured it on.

April 27

White Sox 8, Rays 7 (10 innings): Left fielder Andrew Benintendi entered Saturday's action batting .169 with no home runs and four RBIs. By the time the evening was over, he had raised his average 22 points, and he had two home runs.

Benintendi's 2-run walk-off homer in the bottom of the 10th inning was part of a six-RBI night for the struggling veteran. After the Sox fell behind 3-0 early. Benintendi's 3-run homer in the fourth tied it up. He added a wind-blown RBI single in fifth before his game-winning blast off Tampa reliever Phil Maton in extra innings.

The Sox once again burned through six pitchers, but hey, a 10-hit attack and a big night from one of the team's highest-paid veterans covered up some other problems.

April 28

White Sox 4, Rays 2: Erick Fedde for Sox All-Star-representative? The right-hander turned in the best outing of any Sox starting pitcher this season, going 8.1 innings.

He allowed two earned runs on seven hits, striking out nine and walking none. Fedde improved to 2-0 in six starts this season. He's the first Sox pitcher with more than one win, and the fact that he doesn't have a loss while pitching on this team is notable. 

Over his past two starts, Fedde has fanned 20 batters and walked nobody. His season ERA is 2.60.

The Sox got two runs in the fifth on RBI singles from Robbie Grossman and Mendick. Benintendi added a two-run single in the bottom of the eighth to put the Sox ahead, 4-1. He now has a team-best 12 RBIs. What a difference two days makes, huh?

The insurance was needed as Fedde tired in the ninth. After retiring the first batter, he gave up a single and an RBI double. With the score 4-2, Jordan Leasure relieved and got the final two outs for his first career save.

The Sox collected their first three-game series sweep since June 2-4, 2023, against the Detroit Tigers. Next up, a three-game home series against the Minnesota Twins, who swept the Sox in four games in Minneapolis last week.

It's not Gavin Sheets' fault

Gavin Sheets went 3 for 5 with two doubles, a home run and five RBIs on Wednesday night.

The White Sox still lost, 7-6, in 10 innings to the Cleveland Guardians.

That's because the Sox only went 3 for 15 with runners in scoring position. All three of those hits were by Sheets, including a 3-run homer in the top of the third inning that put the Sox ahead 5-0.

But for the second straight night, the Sox blew a five-run lead. On Tuesday, they were able to overcome that and win anyway.

On Wednesday, the game went extra innings. The Sox took a 6-5 lead in the 10th on an RBI double by ... Sheets, of course. 

Sheets got to third with one out on a sacrifice bunt by Kevin Pillar, but Andrew Benintendi and Martin Maldonado both struck out.

For some reason, manager Pedro Grifol summoned washed-up veteran Bryan Shaw to try to protect the one-run lead. Naturally, Shaw allowed the ghost runner to score, plus one more, and lost the game. Typical.

The Sox are 2-10. Only 150 more games of this crap to go.

Kendall Graveman trade: Nobody wins

Former White Sox reliever Kendall Graveman will miss the 2024 season after undergoing right shoulder surgery, the Houston Astros announced Tuesday.

Graveman, you may recall, was traded to the Astros last July 28 in exchange for catcher Korey Lee. The right-hander made 23 appearances with Houston after the trade, going 2-2 with a 2.42 ERA in 22.1 innings.

Because of the shoulder injury, Graveman did not make the 2023 playoff roster for the Astros, as they advanced to the American League Championship Series before losing to the eventual World Series champion Texas Rangers.

Houston owes Graveman $8 million in 2024 for the last year of his contract. That obviously becomes dead money for the club.

You could say the Sox are fortunate they don't have to pay that money, and that they traded Graveman at the right time.

However, Lee has proven to be no prize. He received a 24-game audition behind the plate at the end of the 2023 season and did nothing with it. The 25-year-old batted .077/.143/.149, with just five hits in 70 plate appearances. 

That caused Sox GM Chris Getz to sign 37-year-old veteran catcher Martin Maldonado as a free agent and trade for 32-year-old veteran catcher Max Stassi. Those moves essentially wallpaper over Lee. Even though those two veterans are mediocre at best and on the downside of their respective careers, Lee will need a big spring training to earn a roster spot.

Don't bank on that. This trade looks to be one that did not help either side. Nobody wins.

White Sox make offseason changes at catcher

Martin Maldonado

When the offseason began, it looked as though the White Sox were poised to play younger players at catcher in 2024.

Both 25-year-old Korey Lee and 27-year-old Carlos Perez had spots on the 40-man roster. Both have some major league experience, and the conventional thinking was at least one of them would be with the team when the season starts in March.

Now, perhaps not.

The Sox are adding 37-year-old catcher Martin Maldonado on a one-year deal, according to reports. The contract is worth $4 million, and reportedly contains a vesting option for the 2025 season.

Earlier in December, the Sox acquired 32-year-old veteran catcher Max Stassi from the Atlanta Braves in exchange for cash and a player to be named later.

Maldonado comes to the Sox from Houston. He was the starting catcher for the Astros from 2019 to 2023, and he was part of two American League pennant winners (2019, 2022) and one World Series champion.

He has a reputation as a terrific defensive catcher, although his framing statistics fell off a cliff in 2023. He's still a good blocker and thrower, but he's a notoriously weak hitter.

Here are his offensive numbers from the past three seasons:

• 2021: .172/.272/.300, 12 home runs, 36 RBIs
• 2022: .186/.248/.352, 15 home runs, 45 RBIs
• 2023: .191/.258/.348, 15 home runs, 36 RBIs

In short, expect Maldonado to bat ninth, hit the occasional home run and otherwise be terrible with a bat in his hands. The Sox will be counting on him to provide veteran leadership and game-planning to help what figures to be a young pitching staff.

Stassi did not play during the 2023 season because of a hip injury and a family health emergency -- his son was born three months premature in April. 

When he was last seen on a major league field in 2022, Stassi struggled with the Los Angeles Angels. He batted .180/.267/.303 with nine home runs and 30 RBIs in 102 games.

But, in 2020 and 2021, Stassi was serviceable for the Angels. If you combine his numbers over those two seasons, they pencil out to a .250/.333/.452 batting line with 20 homers over 118 games. His defensive metrics all were strong, so that's a useful profile if he can regain that form.

Perez was recently designated for assignment, so we can eliminate him from the 2024 catching mix. Maldonado will certainly be on the team, if healthy, so that leaves Lee and Stassi competing for a roster spot.

Lee got 24 games in with the Sox last year, after coming over from the Astros in the Kendall Graveman trade, but he didn't do much with the opportunity. His defense was OK, but it certainly wasn't enough to overcome a .077/.143/.138 slash line in 70 plate appearances.

Also notable on the organizational depth chart is 24-year-old Adam Hackenburg, who has a good defensive reputation and ascended to Triple-A Charlotte by the end of 2023.

Hackenburg also had his best season at the plate. He batted .271/.366/.388 with eight home runs and 30 RBIs in 101 games split between Charlotte and Double-A Birmingham.

The intrigue here comes with whether Maldonado and/or Stassi can improve the Sox's game preparation. The 2023 season began with manager Pedro Grifol and field coordinator Mike Tosar boasting about how the team would be "elite" in that area.

After 101 losses, the season ended with Grifol lamenting how the Sox were actually subpar in that area. Interestingly, he didn't make those remarks until after the previous catching duo (Yasmani Grandal and Seby Zavala) had been shown the exit. 

If Grandal and Zavala were poor in that area, Grifol should have stepped in and addressed it during the season. Perhaps he tried and failed. From the outside, how are we to know? 

But, it is 100% fair to not trust Grifol to deliver on his promise of "elite preparation" after what we saw last year. So, perhaps it falls to Maldonado to clean up the mess. That won't be easy for a player in his first (and maybe his only) year with the organization, but that's the task at hand.

Catching options available to the White Sox

Yasmani Grandal

With Omar Narvaez and Kevan Smith both having moved on, Welington Castillo is the only catcher on the White Sox's 40-man roster who you would expect to be in the majors when the 2019 season opens.

Seby Zavala most likely will start the season at Triple-A Charlotte, so that means there's a move to be made behind the plate. Will it be someone who will start, relegating Castillo to a backup role? Or is Castillo the starter, with the Sox looking to add a second-stringer to the roster?

I've heard a lot of Sox fans say they want to see the the team sign a "one-year stopgap" at catcher. OK, but isn't that what Castillo is? He is a veteran with one guaranteed year remaining on his contract (there's a team option for 2020) at a value of $7.25 million. For me, that's the stopgap. Where is the long-term solution?

We'll see what the Sox do. There's a lengthy list of free agent catchers available.

At the top of that list is Yasmani Grandal, who might have hurt his market with a struggling performance for the Los Angeles Dodgers in the World Series. But Grandal has a track record of being able to both hit and play his position, and he's clearly a superior player to Castillo and all of the other catchers on the free agent market.

If the Sox are looking for someone who can hit, but is just OK behind the plate, Wilson Ramos is available. Want a glove-first guy? How about Martin Maldonado? He can't hit, but he's a good receiver.

Jonathan Lucroy and Matt Wieters aren't as good as they used to be, but they are available if the Sox want to make it two one-year stopgaps behind the plate.

Caleb Joseph and James McCann were non-tendered by their previous clubs. If the Sox sign either of those guys, it would be cheapening out, so I hope they don't go that route.

A few other guys might be available in a trade: J.T. Realmuto, Francisco Cervelli and Russell Martin.

Realmuto is the top-of-the-line option. He has two years remaining on his contract, and would come at a heavy price in any deal with the Miami Marlins. Cervelli and Martin both have one year remaining on their contracts -- again stopgap options -- and I would say Cervelli still can contribute. He's a lot like Ramos. He can hit, and his catching is neither great nor terrible.

Martin, to me, is about done at age 36. He hit .194 last season, and I'd be inclined to stay away.

Which of these catchers will be joining the Sox in 2019? Or will it be someone I have not mentioned here?