Weekend moves offer clues on White Sox right field strategy

We've been wondering all offseason who will be the White Sox right fielder in 2024, and we've been hoping it will be someone other than Gavin Sheets or Oscar Colas.

Turns out, fans might not have to put up with either Sheets or Colas in right field after a series of moves Sox general manager Chris Getz made over the weekend.

Here are the moves:

• Signed Kevin Pillar, 35, to a minor-league contract. Pillar will be paid $3 million if he makes the team out of spring training.
• Traded relief pitcher Gregory Santos to the Seattle Mariners for right-hander Prelander Berroa, outfielder Zach DeLoach and the No. 69 overall pick in the 2024 draft.
• Traded pitching prospect Cristian Mena to the Arizona Diamondbacks for outfielder Dominic Fletcher.

What does this mean for the right field scenario? DeLoach and Fletcher are both major league-ready prospects. Both are left-handed batters. I expect them to compete in spring training for the right to be the right fielder when the Sox are facing a right-handed pitcher. Pillar likely has an inside track to make the team, and play right field when the Sox are facing a left-handed pitcher.

Fletcher, 26, played 28 games in the majors last season for the National League champion Diamondbacks. He posted a solid line of .301/.350/.441 with two homers and 14 RBIs. He's only 5-foot-6, so don't expect big power out of him, but he hit right-handed pitchers hard at both levels he played at last season:

• Triple-A: .325/.412/.555 over 310 plate appearances
• MLB: .369/.423/.523 over 72 plate appearances

I think we can agree that the Sox could use a lefty bat who punishes righties.

Then, there's DeLoach, 25, who has yet to play in the majors. He has more swing-and-miss in his game (173 Ks last season), but he also offers more power. At Triple-A Tacoma in 2023, DeLoach batted .286/.387/.481 with 23 home runs and 88 RBIs.

I can't promise either of these two guys are the answer, but we know Sheets is not, right? And we know Colas needs more Triple-A time, which means it's time to try someone else.

That brings us to Pillar, who is the insurance policy against both Fletcher and DeLoach failing. Pillar is a plus defender, who can be counted on to play an effective right field, and he can play center field competently when Luis Robert Jr. needs a day off.

However, Pillar isn't much of a hitter at this stage of his career. He batted a ghastly .228/.248/.416 with nine homers and 32 RBIs in 81 games with the Atlanta Braves last season.

Pillar did bat .250/.261/.472 with six of his nine homers against lefties, so there is hope for decent production if he's deployed correctly as a platoon player.

What did the Sox lose in these deals? Well, Santos was pretty good in 2023 before he got hurt. He was a pleasant surprise out of the bullpen, going 2-2 with a 3.39 ERA, with 66 strikeouts in 66.1 innings pitched over 60 relief appearances.

Thanks to attrition and trades, Santos was closing by the time August and September rolled around -- on the rare occasions where the 2023 Sox needed a closer. Santos totaled five saves before elbow inflammation ended his season. His innings total in 2023 represented a career high, casting some doubt on how durable he will be in 2024.

However, there's a case to be made that Berroa, 23, will simply take Santos' spot. The right-hander struck out 104 batters over 65.1 innings in Double-A last year, and he earned a two-game cup of coffee with the Mariners. If he looks decent in spring, expect him to be a member of the Sox bullpen.

As for Mena, 20, he split time between Double-A Birmingham and Triple-A Charlotte last season. He went 8-7 with 4.85 ERA in 27 starts, and he was ranked among the top 10 prospects in the Sox system.

For that reason, I saw a lot of fans melting down over his trade. My recommendation to those folks is to relax. 

Mena is right-handed and throws a 92-mph fastball. He might be a useful pitcher for the Diamondbacks, but there's nothing special about right-handed and 92. There are plenty of pitchers out there just like him, and if you can move that guy for a position of need, you have to consider that.

And outfield is without question a position of need for the Sox. The options have increased as a result of these moves. Now we wait to see whether the moves work out.

Former White Sox outfielder AJ Pollock headed to Seattle

AJ Pollock

Former White Sox outfielder AJ Pollock has agreed to a one-year contract with the Seattle Mariners worth $7 million, according to recent reports. 

You may recall that when the offseason began, Pollock's future was one of the big questions surrounding the Sox. Would the veteran accept his $13 million player option to remain in Chicago? Or would he opt out and take a $5 million buyout?

Pollock opted out and entered free agency. From a purely financial standpoint, he cost himself $1 million with that decision. He's got the $5 million from the Sox. Add the $7 million from Seattle, and that's a total of $12 million -- which is less than $13 million.

But from Pollock's perspective, perhaps the chance to choose his own team was worth giving up the $1 million. He never asked to come to Chicago -- the Los Angeles Dodgers traded him to the Sox for Craig Kimbrel last spring training, in a deal that really didn't pan out for either side. 

Had Pollock opted in with the Sox, there's a pretty decent chance he would have been traded to parts unknown this offseason. He could have ended up on a non-contender in 2023, or in a place where he would have had limited playing time.

After posting a career-worst .681 OPS in his age-34 season with the Sox in 2022, it's not unreasonable to think Pollock wasn't part of Sox GM Rick Hahn's plans for this season.

He probably knew that, so he opted out to keep control of his fate, even if it cost him some money. You can make a case that it worked out for everybody: Pollock chose his landing spot and signed a contract with an AL West contender in Seattle. The Sox saved $8 million when Pollock walked away, and that money was used to sign Andrew Benintendi, an outfielder that appears to be a better fit on the South Side at this time.

We'll see how it plays out as 2023 moves along.

White Sox fans: Let's talk about our feelings with 25 games to go

Maybe you're feeling optimistic after the White Sox rallied from a 4-0 deficit to defeat the Seattle Mariners, 9-6, on Wednesday. If so, that's cool.

Or maybe you're feeling pessimistic because, after all, the Sox are only one game over .500 (69-68) on Sept. 7, and they haven't looked like a playoff team all season. If so, that's also fine.

You can be whatever kind of fan you want to be. But me personally, my tendency is to look at the math and let that inform my view.

With 25 games to go, the White Sox are tied for second place with the Minnesota Twins, two games behind the Cleveland Guardians in the AL Central.

Can that deficit be overcome? Of course. Is it a good bet? Ehh, not sure about that.

The Guardians are 70-65 with 27 games left on their schedule. For the sake of argument, let's say they go 14-13 the rest of the way and finish 84-78. Seems like a plausible scenario, right?

Keep in mind that Cleveland leads the season series with the Sox, 9 games to 6, which means the tiebreaker goes to the Guardians. If Cleveland wins 84 games, then the Sox must win 85, or no playoffs.

The Sox are 69-68, so that means they would have to go 16-9 in their remaining 25 games to reach 85 wins. Mathematically possible? You bet, but it will require the Sox to sustain a stretch of winning baseball over a period of weeks -- something they've had trouble doing all year. They've had good weeks here and there, but they've been alternating winning and losing months and haven't had much consistency.

And that's assuming Cleveland doesn't do better than 14-13. They could do better; they could do worse. I'm just taking a reasonable guess.

Playoff odds have been on my mind today because the Sox have invoiced their fans for postseason tickets. Money is due by Sept. 20, and I find that date interesting -- it's the first day of a three-game series against the Guardians. That series will be the final matchup between Chicago and Cleveland this season, and it could decide the division.

So, Sox brass wants to know whether fans are in or out before we know the results of that critical series. Typical, because the Sox know if they lose that series, nobody will pay the playoff invoice, and then they won't be able to keep our money (without interest) over the offseason. 

For those who are not educated in this process, any money that goes toward playoff games that don't happen gets credited toward season tickets for the following season. If you demand a refund, you lose your seat location for next year.

Yeah, it's a dirty trick, so that makes this decision about whether to pay the invoice an important one.

Right now, my thought is that I'm not going to pay unless the Sox are either tied or ahead in the division by Sept. 20. That will require a hot streak over the next two weeks. So, this team needs to put up or shut up now. The schedule is favorable -- four at Oakland, two vs. Colorado, a makeup game at Cleveland and three at Detroit -- leading into Sept. 20.

The Sox probably need to win seven or eight of those 10. The margin for error is slim. Those are my feelings right now.

Lance Lynn, Elvis Andrus help White Sox win opener in Seattle

The White Sox offense still has trouble generating runs consistently, but it does seem as though veteran right-hander Lance Lynn has regained his form.

Entering Monday's series opener at Seattle, Lynn had allowed only five earned runs over 24.2 innings over his past four starts -- two wins and two no-decisions. Over that same span, he struck out 29 batters while walking only two.

Against the Mariners, Lynn (5-5) came up with his best outing of the season. He went seven innings, allowing an unearned run on three hits in a 3-2 Sox victory.

Lynn struck out 11 and walked only one, while generating 25 swings-and-misses on 89 pitches -- 63 of them for strikes. There were some pretty nasty shadows on the field with the game starting at 3:40 p.m. Pacific time, and that made conditions rough for batters.

Nevertheless, we have to say Lynn's stuff was sharp given that he retired the last 17 men he faced, and very little contact was made against him.

The Sox scored their three runs early off Seattle starter Marco Gonzales (10-13). In the second inning, AJ Pollock hit his 11th home run of the season. Elvis Andrus also hit his 11th homer (and third since joining the Sox) -- a two-run shot in the top of the third.

Andrus added a double and went 2 for 4. For whatever reason, he swings the bat really well in Seattle. At T-Mobile Park this season, dating back to his time with Oakland, he's 10 for 24 with five of his 11 home runs.

The Sox bullpen closed it out, although in dramatic fashion. Kendall Graveman worked around a two-out single to post a scoreless eighth. Liam Hendriks gave up a run on a walk and two singles in the ninth. The Mariners had the tying run at third and the winning run at second when Hendriks fanned Adam Frazier on three pitches to record his 30th save of the season.

Hendriks becomes the sixth Sox closer to record 30 or more saves in back-to-back seasons. The others are Bobby Thigpen, Roberto Hernandez, Keith Foulke, Bobby Jenks and David Robertson.

The Sox are 68-67.

Zack Collins delivers for White Sox ... and is it time to send Garrett Crochet to the minors?

The White Sox salvaged only one win from a three-game weekend series against the Seattle Mariners. 

Saturday's game was suspended with no score in the bottom of the third inning, and when the two teams picked it back up Sunday, the Mariners won, 3-2. 

The regularly scheduled game Sunday was reduced to seven innings, and the Sox won 7-5.

It's been a rocky road for the Sox of late, as they have lost seven of their past nine games. But, they are still 2.5 games ahead of the Cleveland Indians in the AL Central. Their record is 45-32.

Five points from Sunday's action:

1. Zack Collins delivers offensively. Collins was touted as a good-hitting catcher when the Sox drafted him No. 10 overall in 2016, but sadly, we've seen little of that during his time in the organization. He entered Sunday's action with a .212/.316/.343 slash line -- and only nine extra-base hits in 115 plate appearances. But Collins delivered in Sunday's second game, going 2 for 4 with two doubles and four RBIs. His bases-loaded double with two outs in the fourth inning took a 4-1 Sox lead up to 7-1. Good thing, because they needed that cushion.

2. Garrett Crochet is in crisis. The rookie left-hander is struggling for the first time in his professional career. In his past three outings, Crochet has faced 11 batters. He's retired only two of them, and he's given up six runs. His ERA has jumped from 0.81 to 3.13. Worse, in Game 2, he walked the bases loaded. Two of those free passes came to left-handed batters, whom Crochet should be dominating. I don't know if Crochet is injured, or simply suffering a crisis of confidence, but I wouldn't be opposed if the Sox decided to send him to Charlotte to work out his command issues. Jace Fry can fill in as the second lefty in the bullpen for the time being.

3. Enough with the injuries already. Jose Abreu exited the first game after getting drilled in the kneecap by a 96 mph fastball from Seattle reliever JT Chargois. Abreu was in obvious pain and had to be helped off the field. Thankfully, initial X-rays were negative for any fractures, but it's once again hold-your-breath time for Sox fans. The injured list is already full for the Sox -- Eloy Jimenez, Luis Robert, Nick Madrigal, Adam Eaton, Adam Engel, Billy Hamilton. At some point, all these games lost to injury are going to affect a team's record, and I think that's a big reason the Sox have been reeling as of late.

4. Can someone take the pressure off Liam Hendriks? The closer was used in both ends of the doubleheader. He took the loss in Game 1, surrendering a home run to Taylor Trammell in the top of the ninth. It would have been nice if he could have taken Game 2 off, and the Sox were in position to give him a break. They led 7-1 after five innings of the seven-inning game. But Jimmy Lambert, on recall as the 27th man, surrendered four runs over 1.1 innings. Hendriks was summoned to get the final two outs which he did, to record his league-best 20th save in 23 opportunities. Hendriks has now appeared in 35 of the first 77 games. Aaron Bummer is second on the club in appearances with 32. 

5. Hey! Yermin Mercedes! The erstwhile designated hitter had a two-run double and an RBI infield single in the second game. Just getting something, anything out of Mercedes these days is helpful, especially if Abreu is destined for the injured list.

White Sox center fielder Luis Robert 2nd in AL Rookie of the Year voting

Luis Robert

As expected, White Sox center fielder Luis Robert finished second in the 2020 American League Rookie of the Year voting.

Seattle outfielder Kyle Lewis won the award -- he was first on all 30 ballots. Robert received 27 second-place votes, and his name appeared on 29 of the 30 ballots.

Here is the side-by-side comparison of the two players:

Lewis: .262/.364/.437, 11 HRs, 3 2Bs, 28 RBIs, 5 SBs 

Robert: .233/.302/.436, 11 HRs, 12 2Bs, 31 RBIs, 9 SBs 

Lewis had the advantage in batting average and on-base percentage, and that clearly put him over the top in this race. If Robert had a case, it was his superior defense.

Robert was the AL Gold Glove award winner in center field and finished the season with a 3.4 defensive WAR, according to Fangraphs. By way of comparison, Lewis had a minus-0.9 defensive WAR, according to Fangraphs.

What hurt Robert most was his September slump, during which he went 11 for 81 with 32 strikeouts. The White Sox slid from first place down to third the last 10 days of the regular season, so that didn't help Robert's cause.

Worth noting -- and I didn't realize this until today -- but Lewis went 11 for 75 with 33 strikeouts in the September for the also-ran Mariners, so maybe Robert's late-season slide shouldn't have mattered so much. 

However, Lewis was batting .328 with a .945 OPS going into September, and that torrid first 35 games or so ultimately carried him to the award.

Former White Sox outfielder Avisail Garcia signs with Milwaukee Brewers

Avisail Garcia

Former White Sox right fielder Avisail Garcia has agreed to a two-year, $20 million contract with the Milwaukee Brewers, according to a report by MLB Network's Jon Heyman.

Garcia, 28, still needs to pass a physical before the signing becomes official. The outfielder spent 2019 with the Tampa Bay Rays, batting .282/.332/.464 with 20 home runs, 25 doubles, 10 stolen bases and 72 RBIs in 125 games and 530 plate appearances.

Previously, Garcia played for the Sox from 2013-18. During those six seasons, he batted .271/.322/.424 with 74 home runs and 289 RBIs over 585 games and 2,358 plate appearances.

Garcia is the second former Sox player to join Milwaukee this offseason. Earlier this fall, the Brewers acquired catcher Omar Narvaez in a trade with the Seattle Mariners.

Former White Sox catcher Omar Narvaez traded to Milwaukee

Omar Narvaez

The Milwaukee Brewers moved to fill a hole at catcher Thursday, acquiring former White Sox backstop Omar Narvaez from the Seattle Mariners in exchange for pitching prospect Adam Hill.

Yasmani Grandal was Milwaukee's primary catcher last season, and obviously, he is now with the Sox. Enter Narvaez, 27, who is coming off a stunning offensive year with the Mariners in 2019.

In 132 games and 428 at-bats with Seattle, Narvaez batted .278/.353/.460 with 22 home runs and 55 RBIs. I never anticipated that kind of power coming from Narvaez's left-handed bat -- over parts of three seasons in Chicago he totaled 12 home runs in 634 at-bats.

Maybe this power surge from Narvaez can be attributed to the juiced ball, but he did hit 20 of his 22 home runs and had an .836 OPS against right-handed pitching last year, so the Brewers are hoping he'll be the left-handed half of a productive platoon with Manny Pina.

I don't envy the Milwaukee pitchers, however, because Narvaez is a huge defensive downgrade from Grandal by any measure. Narvaez's -20 defensive runs saved ranked second-worst among MLB catchers in 2019, and he threw out only 18 percent of would-be basestealers.

Over the past five years, the Sox have had their share of catchers who give away strikes, but perhaps none were worse framers than Narvaez. He's among the worst I've seen in that area.

But, Narvaez was the fourth-best catcher in baseball in terms of weighted runs created plus (119), and he wasn't too far behind Grandal (121) in that area.

The Brewers need to hope Narvaez keeps knocking balls over the fence to make up for his lackluster defense.

On the bright side, Eloy Jimenez has been hitting

Eloy Jimenez

The White Sox are continuing their September death march, but this extended stretch of losing hasn't been void of good individual performances.

Take rookie outfielder Eloy Jimenez as an example.

Jimenez, 22, was named the American League Player of the Week for Sept. 9-15. During that time, he went 10 for 23 with three home runs, a double, 11 RBIs, three walks, six runs scored, three multi-hit games and a 1.370 OPS.

The biggest highlight was his first career grand slam Sept. 10 against the Kansas City Royals.

Now, it is true that Jimenez had his big week against the Royals and the Seattle Mariners, two teams that reside below the Sox in the American League standings. Was Jimenez bumslaying? Yeah, probably.

However, his good performance has carried over into this week against the first-place Minnesota Twins, a team that needs to win each and every time it takes the field to wrap up the AL Central title.

As of this writing, Jimenez is 5 for 12 with a homer, a double and two RBIs in the series. The Sox lost the first two games, but that wasn't Jimenez's fault.

For the year, the rookie has 28 home runs in 114 games. He's got a week and a half to reach the 30-homer plateau, which would be a good accomplishment, especially considering Jimenez had two stints on the injured list.

White Sox pitcher Ivan Nova's hot streak is over

Ivan Nova

The White Sox had a bullpen meltdown Sunday, which is a lucky thing for Ivan Nova. Many of us overlooked his bad outing against the Seattle Mariners, a game in which the Sox blew a 10-5 lead and lost, 11-10.

Nova lasted only 3.1 innings, allowing five earned runs on 10 hits. The rough outing was the continuation of what is now a four-game cold streak for the veteran right-hander. This was an inevitable regression, after Nova was one of the hottest pitchers in the league from late July until the last week of August.

From July 22 to Aug. 24, Nova made seven starts. He went 5-1 with a 0.94 ERA. He allowed seven runs, only five earned, on 36 hits over 48 innings pitched. He struck out 25 against only seven walks. He also saved the Sox bullpen by tossing two complete games in that stretch.

Alas, since Aug. 30, Nova is 1-2 with a 9.35 ERA in four starts. He's allowed a whopping 19 runs (18 earned) on 35 hits over 17.1 innings. He's struck out nine and walked five, and only once during that stretch has he made it through the fifth inning.

When Nova was rolling, we heard whispers that the Sox should consider bringing him back next season -- he's a free agent at season's end. Here at The Baseball Kid, we cautioned against that, and we remain against the idea of a new contract for Nova.

In total, this pitcher is 10-12 with a 4.86 ERA over 31 starts. That's below league average in his age-32 season. Why would we believe Nova would be any better than this at age 33 and beyond?

The Sox will tell you that Nova is a "great mentor" for Reynaldo Lopez and other young pitchers, but the fact of the matter is the team needs better production from Nova's spot in the rotation.

We're starting to hear talk from the Sox about being "ready to win" in 2020. If that's the case, it's time to move on from mediocre-at-best rotation pieces such as Nova.

When you have five relievers, you have no relievers

In a different sport, commentators sometimes say, "When you have two quarterbacks, you really have no quarterbacks." The thinking is, if either of your quarterbacks were actually good, he would be playing, and the lesser guy would be sitting on the bench. There wouldn't be a need to toggle back and forth between players.

Likewise, if the White Sox had a reliever available they could trust Sunday, maybe they wouldn't have needed to use five of them in the eighth inning of a ghastly 11-10 loss to the Seattle Mariners.

You see, the Sox's reliable relievers -- Alex Colome, Aaron Bummer and, to a lesser extent, Evan Marshall -- were not available Sunday.

That left the rest of the bullpen to protect a 10-5 lead in the eighth inning. It should have been doable. Hector Santiago had done much of the heavy lifting. He replaced a struggling Ivan Nova in the fourth inning, and he tossed up zeroes in the fifth, sixth and seventh innings.

But Santiago tired in the eighth, allowing a two singles and a walk to start the inning. But the veteran lefty left the mound with the Sox still in decent shape, leading 10-6.

Unfortunately, Kelvin Herrera gave up a three-run homer to Kyle Lewis. 10-9. Then Jace Fry came in and walked the only batter he faced. (Surprise, surprise.) Then Jimmy Cordero faced one batter and struck him out.

Maybe Cordero should have been left in ... nah, why do that when we can go with some more stupid lefty-righty matchups?

Josh Osich entered and finished the eighth inning, but not before walking another batter and surrendering a game-tying single to Mallex Smith. The lefty-on-lefty stuff didn't work there, did it? 10-10 after eight.

The Sox had a pathetic offensive inning in the top of the ninth. Tim Anderson, Yoan Moncada and Jose Abreu all swung for the fences. All of them struck out on pitches out of the zone against Austin Adams (2-2). Great discipline, guys.

Jose Ruiz (1-3) became the sixth reliever used in less than two innings in the ninth. Long story short, Anderson and Ryan Cordell made defensive mistakes behind him, an intentional walk was issued to load the bases, and then Ruiz walked in the winning run.

Good job, good effort.

The Sox dropped two out of three in the weekend series to the mighty Mariners (62-88). That means the South Siders have now lost three consecutive series, all to losing teams -- the Angels, Royals and Mariners.

And we're told we should be excited about 2020. Well, you know, you have to have more than four people who can get opposing batters out on your pitching staff in order to contend.

The Sox are now 65-84 on the season. There's a ton of work to be done over the winter to get anywhere near contention, and team brass has no track record as far as signing the right free agents.

They will have to sign the right free agents, because there are no internal solutions here. Colome and Bummer have had good seasons, but two pitchers does not make a bullpen.

First homestand going poorly for White Sox

The view from my seat on Opening Day at Guaranteed Rate Field.

Steve Stone normally is a good TV analyst, but I was scratching my head Sunday when he was talking about Monday's pitching matchup between the White Sox's Carlos Rodon and the Rays' Blake Snell.

Stone said something to the effect of Rodon and Snell being the type of left-handers who "could win a Cy Young in any year."

Uhhh, no, not quite.

Snell went 21-5 with a 1.89 ERA in 2018 and actually did win the Cy Young Award. Rodon's career record is 27-30 with a 3.95 ERA -- respectable given the horrible Sox teams he has played on -- but let's not kid ourselves here: Snell is a cut above Rodon, and he showed it Monday in a 5-1 Tampa Bay victory.

Snell went six innings, allowing one run on six hits. He struck out 11 and walked nobody. Jose Rondon's solo home run was all the Sox could muster offensively.

Meanwhile, Rodon gave up two runs in the first inning and two more in the second inning. By the end of the fifth inning, he was gone, having allowed 13 base runners (eight hits, five walks) through 4.2 innings. He did strike out nine. If not for that, Tampa could have scored more runs -- the Rays stranded 14 for the game.

The loss drops the Sox to 3-6 on the season and 1-3 on the opening homestand. They won the home opener Friday (with me in attendance) as Yoan Moncada's four RBIs lifted them to a 10-8 victory over the Seattle Mariners. The Sox overcame a poor start by Reynaldo Lopez.

However, they could not overcome a poor start by Lucas Giolito on Saturday, as the Mariners rolled to a 9-2 win. Nor could the Sox overcome a poor start by Ivan Nova on Sunday, as Seattle took the series with a 12-5 victory.

The Sox have been outscored 34-18 so far on the homestand. This is not good run prevention. Seattle was 9-2 entering Monday's play, so the Mariners have been hot. The Rays also are hot. They are 8-3 after beating the Sox on Monday.

The South Siders have two more games against Tampa, before going on the road to New York to face the Yankees.

This is shaping up to be an ugly week. When I walked out of Guaranteed Rate Field on Friday, the Sox were a respectable 3-3. Unfortunately, with the way they are playing, and with the quality of the opposition, they are in jeopardy of losing touch with .500 this week. The losing record likely will be permanent for the rest of the 2019 season.

Some of the latest MLB transactions ...

Robinson Cano

Catching up on a few things ... the Seattle Mariners are selling everyone, I guess. Here are three transactions that have happened in the past few days:

• The Mariners traded former All-Star second baseman Robinson Cano and All-Star closer Edwin Diaz to the New York Mets in exchange for outfielder Jay Bruce, relief pitcher Anthony Swarzak and prospects Gerson Bautista, Jarred Kelenic and Justin Dunn.
• The Mariners traded All-Star infielder Jean Segura and relievers Juan Nicasio and James Pazos to the Philadelphia Phillies for first baseman Carlos Santana and shortstop J.P. Crawford.
• The Washington Nationals have signed left-handed pitcher Patrick Corbin to a six-year, $140 million contract.

The last move is too bad, because Corbin was one of the players who was on my wish list as a White Sox fan. Of course, if the Sox signed him, he'd probably blow out his elbow next season anyway.

White Sox trade catcher Omar Narvaez to Seattle for pitcher Alex Colome

Omar Narvaez

The White Sox on Friday made a trade that I didn't see coming.

Catcher Omar Narvaez has been dealt to the Seattle Mariners in exchange for relief pitcher Alex Colome.

I can't say I mind this trade. The Sox's defense behind the plate has been terrible the past few years, and Narvaez's questionable framing and blocking skills were a big part of the problem.

However, Narvaez made significant strides with the bat in 2018, finishing with a .275/.366/.429 slash line with nine home runs and 30 RBIs in 97 games. He was one of the few Sox hitters who took his walks, and his power took a significant leap forward. Narvaez's slugging percentage was 89 points higher last season than it was in 2017.

When Kevan Smith was lost on waivers to the Los Angeles Angels, I assumed the Sox would go into 2019 with Welington Castillo and Narvaez as their catching combination, with Seby Zavala as a fallback option.

Evidently not. Is Zavala a candidate to make the team out of spring? Not sure. Or is there another move to come?

I'm good with the addition of Colome, a 29-year-old veteran reliever with 243 career appearances and 96 saves on his resume. In 2017, he had a league-high 47 saves for the Tampa Bay Rays.

This past year, Colome struggled in Tampa Bay. He went 2-5 with a 4.15 ERA and 11 saves over 23 appearances. He was dealt midseason to Seattle, where he regained his form.

In 47 games with the Mariners, Colome went 5-0 with a 2.53 ERA, one save and a 1.036 WHIP. If that's the pitcher the Sox are getting, he will look good in a bullpen that is young and short on experience in high-leverage situations.

Is new Yankees left-hander James Paxton really an "ace" or a "star"?

James Paxton

There is a difference between being an ace and having ace stuff.

Case in point, left-hander James Paxton, the starting pitcher the New York Yankees acquired Monday from the Seattle Mariners in exchange for three prospects.

Let me preface this by saying I would take Paxton on my team. He was 11-6 with a 3.76 ERA in 28 starts for the Mariners in 2018. His fastball sits at 95-98 mph, and he's got a four-pitch mix that also features a cutter, a curve and a changeup.

That is ace stuff, no question about it, and he's got two years left of team control.

But I found myself disagreeing with a couple headlines I saw this morning: "The Yankees Now Have a Second Ace" on Fangraphs, and "Yankees acquire star pitcher James Paxton in trade with Mariners" on Yahoo Sports.

Paxton, for all of his good stuff, is entering his age 30 season, yet he's never made as many as 30 starts in a year, and his 160.1 innings pitched in 2018 represent a career high. Before this past season, he had never pitched more than 136 innings in a year.

Can you really be an "ace" or a "star" when you've been plagued by injuries throughout your career? The days of starting pitchers throwing 200-plus innings might be gone, but for me, 180 innings is the new 200. Paxton has never approached that, so despite his fantastic stuff, he's going to have to show me that he's reliable for a full season, plus playoffs, before I believe that he's the missing piece for the Yankees.

New York will slot him No. 2 in its rotation, behind Luis Severino and ahead of Masahiro Tanaka. The Yankees also have CC Sabathia, but he's just a fifth starter at this point in his career. I expect New York to make another move to add a starter, likely in free agency, as a hedge against the possibility that Paxton gets hurt again.

As for the Mariners, it looks as though they are changing directions and going young. They acquired the Yankees' No. 1 pitching prospect, Justus Sheffield, in this deal. Sheffield is a 22-year-old lefty with a fastball that tops out about 97 mph. Right-handed pitcher Erik Swanson, 25, and outfielder Don Thompson-Williams, 23, also are headed to Seattle.

With Paxton gone, I assume the Mariners are listening to offers on Dee Gordon, Robinson Cano, Kyle Seager and Jean Segura, as well. I expect an active offseason in Seattle.

Last time through the rotation good for White Sox

Carlos Rodon

The White Sox (36-64) have surprised us coming out of the All-Star break by winning three of the first five games on a two-city, seven game West Coast road trip.

How have they been more competitive? Much better starting pitching. Each of the five men in the rotation has pitched a game since the break, and four out of the five have had strong outings. Three -- Dylan Covey, Lucas Giolito and Carlos Rodon -- earned victories.

Rodon (3-3) was outstanding in Tuesday's 4-2 win over the Los Angeles Angels. The left-hander took a no-hitter into the sixth inning and allowed only one hit through seven. When he walked off the mound with two men on and two men out in the bottom of the eighth, the Sox were leading 4-0.

Unfortunately, the Sox bullpen allowed both of Rodon's inherited runners to score, which marred his line. But the win is the most important thing, and Rodon got one.

Here's a look at the pitching lines by Sox starters over the past five games:

James Shields: 7 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 5 Ks, 1 BB
Covey: 8.1 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 5 Ks, 2 BBs
Reynaldo Lopez: 5 IP, 5 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 1 K, 4BBs
Giolito: 6 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 5 Ks, 4 BBs
Rodon: 7.2 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 8 Ks, 3 BBs
Totals: 34 IP, 21 H, 12 R, 11 ER, 24 Ks, 14 BBs.

Only 21 hits for the opposition over 34 innings is an encouraging number. You'd like to see fewer than 14 walks, but most of the bases on balls have not hurt.

Sox starters have posted a 2.91 ERA over these five games. The only hiccup was Lopez's start, as he had a bad first inning and allowed five runs Sunday against Seattle. Subtract his start, and the other four guys have posted a 1.86 ERA.

I believe the starting pitcher sets a tone in a game, and things have gone better for the Sox this week because those guys have done a better job in a small sample size than they have throughout the season as a whole.

White Sox win one more than expected vs. Mariners

Back in olden times when the White Sox were fielding competitive teams, we used to say it was a good result when they took two out of three games in a series.

However, in these dark rebuilding times, I often find myself expecting the Sox to get swept in a series -- especially on the road against a possible playoff team.

So, I can't complain about the Sox (34-64) managing a victory over the Seattle Mariners (60-40) this weekend.

For this group, hey, one out of three ain't bad.

Friday, July 20
Mariners 3, White Sox 1: This game started out OK. The Sox got on the board in the first inning on doubles by Leury Garcia and Daniel Palka, but the bats went cold after that against Seattle starter Wade LeBlanc (6-1).

The Mariners' soft-tossing left-hander struck out 10 over 7.1 innings and allowed only four hits. Sox hitters apparently did not know he was throwing a steady diet of changeups, or they simply could not recognize them out of his hand.

We can't blame James Shields (4-11), who went seven innings and allowed two runs. We'll take that from the erstwhile veteran anytime.

Worth noting: Both Palka and Nicky Delmonico were in the starting lineup, while Matt Davidson sat on the bench against a left-handed starter. Makes you wonder whether Davidson's days on the roster are numbered. You wouldn't think two left-handed hitters would get starting nods ahead of him against a left-handed pitcher.

Saturday, July 21
White Sox 5, Mariners 0: Didn't see this one coming. Sox right-hander Dylan Covey had an 11.40 ERA over his previous five starts leading into the All-Star break. Apparently the time away did him some good, as Covey (4-5) pitched the best game of his career. He tossed 8.1 innings of shutout ball, allowing only two hits and two walks with five strikeouts.

Covey's velocity was back up to 95 or 96, with good sinking action. He also featured an effective curveball, which we had not seen in his previous starts. He was in command from start to finish, and that's not something we say often about Sox starting pitchers.

The Sox scored four runs in the fourth inning to take the lead for good, highlighted by Avisail Garcia's 3-run homer. It was Garcia's first game back from the disabled list, and he connected for his 10th home run of the season, this one coming off Seattle right-hander Felix Hernandez (8-8), who pitched five innings and took the loss.

Sunday, July 22
Mariners 8, White Sox 2: No heartbreak in this loss. It was over early as Sox right-hander Reynaldo Lopez (4-8) got shelled for five runs in the first inning on three hits and two walks. Ryon Healy hit the first of his two three-run homers to cap the rally for the Mariners.

That early lead was more than enough for Seattle lefty Marco Gonzales (11-5), who took a no-hitter into the sixth inning before Adam Engel singled and Tim Anderson homered to account for the only two Sox runs.

Healy added his other 3-run homer off Hector Santiago in the eighth inning to break a 5-2 game wide open.

The Sox fell to 7-17 this season against lefty starters, with both losses in this series coming against left-handers. Davidson was in the lineup Sunday, and he went 1 for 4 with a single. His average currently sits at .221.

White Sox option Charlie Tilson to Triple-A Charlotte

The White Sox on Wednesday optioned outfielder Charlie Tilson to Triple-A Charlotte.

Tilson was hitting .264/.331/.292 with 11 RBIs in 41 games with the Sox since being called up May 24. The batting average and on-base percentage are respectable, but Tilson only has two extra-base hits, resulting in that ghastly low slugging percentage.

The Sox will add an outfielder to the 25-man roster before Friday's game against the Seattle Mariners, and it's likely that one of Avisail Garcia or Nicky Delmonico will be returning from the disabled list.

Garcia has been out of action since July 8 with a strained right hamstring. The injury was not believed to be serious, and reports indicate he has been taking batting practice during the All-Star break. That said, Garcia will need to prove he can run the bases before being activated. Both of his hamstring injuries this season were suffered while running down the first-base line trying to beat out a ground ball.

Garcia was hitting .282/.297/.542 with nine home runs and 17 RBIs in 35 games at the time of his injury.

Delmonico has not played in the majors since May 18, when he broke a bone in his hand when he was struck by a pitch. He has been on a rehab assignment at Triple-A Charlotte, during which he has hit .400/.500/.600 with four doubles and two RBIs in five games.

As a corner outfielder, Delmonico needs to hit for more power if he's going to stick. At the time of his injury, his slash line was .224/.333/.302 with only one home run and seven RBIs in 37 games.

White Sox drop another one-run game to the Mariners

Felix Hernandez

The White Sox don't seem capable of winning a series right now -- they've lost their past six series in a row -- but at least this latest three-game set against the Seattle Mariners was more competitive than some of the others.

After winning the first game, the Sox suffered two one-run losses, including a 4-3 defeat Wednesday afternoon.

The Sox got off to a good start. Yoan Moncada hit Felix Hernandez's first pitch of the game for a solo home run. Yolmer Sanchez hit Hernandez's second pitch of the game for a double, and he scored later in the inning on a broken-bat single by Tim Anderson.

But James Shields (1-3) couldn't hold the early 2-0 lead. Seattle tied it at 2 with two runs in the third. The Sox retook the lead, 3-2, in the bottom of the inning on a bases-loaded groundout by Daniel Palka, who went 0 for 4 in his major league debut.

The Mariners tied it in the fifth on an RBI single by Nelson Cruz and took the lead for good in the sixth when Mike Zunino homered off Shields. Hernandez (3-2) kept the Sox off the board in the middle innings, and the Seattle bullpen tossed three innings of shutout relief.

The Sox dropped to 3-5 in one-run games. They've already lost two 1-0 games this season, including one Tuesday against the Mariners. This is a Sox team that is hitting .198 with runners in scoring position. With two outs and runners in scoring position, they are hitting a meager .161.

For all the justifiable consternation about the pitching staff, the Sox would have a few more wins if they were hitting, say, .230 with runners in scoring position. The overall team batting average is .236, so that shouldn't be too much to ask.

I keep thinking a market correction is coming on this, and while the Sox will never be a winning team this season, they should be able to pull out a few more victories with even a modest increase in production with men on base.

'Team marketing experiment' looks like a failure for White Sox

A lot of people are wondering why Tuesday's game between the White Sox and Seattle Mariners started at 4:10 p.m. at Guaranteed Rate Field.

Honestly, I have no idea of the details, but I read in a story from The Associated Press that the Sox were conducting a "team marketing experiment."

The story also notes that about 2,000 fans were in the seats for the first pitch, on a sunny day with the temperature hovering about 60 degrees. The announced attendance was 10,761.

So, that's about par for the course for an April day game involving a bad, rebuilding Sox team and an opponent that does not have a national following.

There were a bunch of weird shadows on the field during the game. Hitters couldn't see the ball, pitchers dominated and the Mariners squeezed out a 1-0 victory, dropping the Sox to 5-15 -- their worst start since 1950.

But I'm more interested in what the nature of this marketing experiment was. Did the Sox think people who work in the city would want to come to the ballpark at 4 p.m. once they left the office? Do they think the usual matinee start time, 1:10 p.m., deters people from attending because the game ends between 4 and 5 p.m., sending fans home in the thick of Chicago's rush hour?

Obviously, this unorthodox start time failed to move the needle at the gate, and I hope the Sox don't do it again. I suppose they had nothing to lose for trying, but the bottom line is this team is 2-9 at home entering Wednesday's play.

This is not an exciting time to be a Sox fan, no matter what anyone tells you. Rebuilding is tough. There is a lot of bad, boring baseball being played by mediocre and bad players who, God willing, will not be on the Sox roster in two years.

I think the Sox will have more people in the seats if a top prospect, such as Michael Kopech or Eloy Jimenez, gets called up later in the season. Until then, however, the team isn't going to draw. The Sox are paying the price for years of subpar play, and they will continue to do so until major league results improve.