Following up: Juan Minaya outrighted
It turns out Juan Minaya’s lack of options won’t be a problem after all. At least for the White Sox.
The White Sox were able to outright Minaya to Charlotte on Friday, opening a spot on the 40-man roster that might need to be used for Ervin Santana.
Minaya’s mid-March removal would’ve come as a surprise before spring training. He was the Sox’ second-best reliever over the last four months of 2018, posting a 2.70 ERA, a .645 OPS allowed and 53 strikeouts over those 43 innings. He also stranded 80 percent of inherited runners, so he wasn’t fattening up anybody else’s stats.
He pitched terribly in the spring, though — a 21.21 ERA and a 3.86 WHIP over 4⅔ innings — and James Fegan said there a velocity dip probably contributed to the poor results. The fact that he made it through waivers unclaimed suggests other evaluators saw the same thing.
Minaya’s bad news is a good break for Ryan Burr and Dylan Covey, both of whom are throwing the ball well. Burr leads all relievers with strikeouts, a positive sign for an arsenal resigned to accommodate major league seams. Covey finally has a non-zero ERA after giving up a pair of runs to the Cubs on Friday.
Covey has no such velocity concerns, but he’s only recorded two strikeouts over eight innings, and the Cubs tagged him for five hits over the span of four outs. He and Burr probably aren’t competing for the same job of “seventh-inning bat misser,” so Manny Banuelos might be his more direct competitor.
So much intrigue this season. I can barely keep up.
Well, I suppose it’s nice to see they’re being aggressive constructing the 25-man roster with guys in camp. If only they had better guys in camp.
Would someone with tweeting power please ask Merkin or (preferably) Fegan what the hell is going on with Burdi?
The Sox ghosting everyone with another previously heavily hyped prospect is annoying.