For the second time this winter, the White Sox have acquired potential bullpen depth from Ethan Katz's old employer.
After selecting Nick Avila from the San Francisco Giants in the Rule 5 draft earlier this month, the Sox traded for right-handed reliever Gregory Santos in exchange for Kade McClure this afternoon.
The Giants designated Santos for assignment on Monday to make room on the 40-man roster for Sean Manaea. The MLB Trade Rumors story notes that the Giants were expected to remove another player to make room for Carlos Correa, but they never needed the second corresponding move. "Move over, baby shoes" indeed.
Santos, who's entering his age-23 season, appeared in five games for San Francisco over the last two years. Both game logs started with a perfect outing, followed by imperfect ones, resulting in an 11.12 ERA with five walks to five strikeouts and three homers allowed over 5⅔ innings.
The brief cups of coffee generated Statcast data, which show a high-90s fastball and a high-80s slider. The strikeout rates have never been as impressive as his radar-gun readings, as he's hovered around a strikeout an inning in his minor-league relief work. I'm picturing a Thyago Vieira for the TikTok generation.
Santos does have one option remaining, which gives the White Sox some time and space to shape up his arsenal if it fails to click immediately. The White Sox didn't have an arm of Santos' caliber in the high minors from the right side.
That included McClure, the sixth-round pick in 2017 who actually fared well in Charlotte once the White Sox shifted him to short relief work. The season numbers didn't impress -- a 4.97 ERA and 17 homers over 87 innings -- but that's because early season starts sandbagged his numbers.
| Date | G | GS | IP | H | HR | R/ER | BB | K |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Through May 18 | 8 | 5 | 33 | 47 | 11 | 32/27 | 13 | 25 |
| After May 18 | 36 | 0 | 54 | 48 | 6 | 24/21 | 15 | 71 |
McClure's fastball played up in these abbreviated outings. Here he is averaging 95 mph with his fastball over 43 pitches and three innings of scoreless ball against Durham in early September, as opposed to 93 mph in early-season starts. Still, the White Sox weren't motivated to add McClure to the 40-man before the Rule 5 draft despite ample room, and now he's on the way to San Francisco. He turns 27 in February, so Santos is about 3½ years younger.
If the White Sox are keeping Liam Hendriks, and Bob Nightengale says they're not the ones saying his name ...
... then Santos will be on the outside looking in, because seven spots are spoken for, and eight relievers lack immediate options.
- Liam Hendriks
- Kendall Graveman
- Reynaldo López
- Aaron Bummer
- Joe Kelly
- Jake Diekman
- José Ruiz
- Nick Avila*
Avila's spot is contingent on him impressing the White Sox enough to keep him on the 26-man roster to meet Rule 5 pick demands. If he doesn't beat the odds, then Jimmy Lambert is probably first in line, followed by Matt Foster and Santos while the Sox wait for Garrett Crochet to make it all the way back from Tommy John surgery.
