The active roster expanded for the abbreviated 60-game season, and while it will draw down from 30 to 28 on Thursday, it'll carry the two extra spots the rest of the season. That's probably good news on the whole, but it's not without complications. The active roster keeps its bloated state without a proportional increase on the 40-man roster, and as injuries pile up on the former, it's starting to create some tension on the latter.
The White Sox already had to make one unusual choice on Monday when they placed Carlos Rodón on the injured list on Tuesday. They tapped the heretofore nondescript non-roster invitee Brady Lail to replace him on the pitching staff, and in order to make room on the 40-man, they designated Luis Basabe for assignment.
It wasn't all that long ago that Basabe was a top-10 talent in a deep system. There was a lot to like on paper -- a switch-hitting center fielder with enough bat speed to take a Hunter Greene fastball deep in the Futures Game.
While he was able to turn around 103 mph on the national stage, Basabe hasn't been able to reverse his fortunes since. An OK introduction to Birmingham during the second half of 2018 was followed by one setback after another (broken hamate, leg injuries, consequently worse showing in Birmingham). The halting of the 2020 season afforded him a minimal opportunity to right the ship, and even then, his time in summer camp ended with a bruised foot.
Three of Basabe's four seasons with the White Sox were compromised -- two by injures, and one by everything swirling around us, which also happened to include an injury. Because the White Sox put him on the 40-man roster to avoid A-ball poachers in 2017, they used up his last minor-league option this season. The lack of reps and the timing are all conspiring against his White Sox career.
The White Sox seemingly have less valuable players they could have cut first. Seby Zavala is the team's fifth catcher, although the Royals were without all three of their 40-man catchers early in summer camp after two of them contracted COVID-19, so perhaps it's better to have depth in that department. Jose Ruíz keeps getting lapped by every other right-handed pitcher regardless of 40-man status, so he doesn't have such emergency consideration on his side. Blake Rutherford and Micker Adolfo are lesser outfielders than Basabe, but they stand a better chance of being worth a look in March 2022 than Basabe does by March 2021.
Any of those other players could be the next on the chopping block next, and given the pace of injuries and the scrambling that results, they might have to be. Basabe probably isn't going to figure out how to make himself rosterable for a contending team over the next seven months, so he was going to lose his grip on the roster spot at some point. The Sox decided there was no time like the present, and if the Sox retain him after his exposure to the waiver wire, it'll better explain the team's priorities.
Basically, it'd be a bummer if the White Sox parted with an athletic outfielder with promise for a spare arm in a nonstandard season, but Basabe is far more valuable to the White Sox off the 40-man roster than on it, and that only becomes more true the deeper the White Sox have to dig. We'll see what moves they're compelled to take when they issue updates on Nick Madrigal and Edwin Encarnación, but DH and second base are two areas where the White Sox actually have sufficient depth, at least in a cursed season.
