With Aaron Bummer in Atlanta and Garrett Crochet's role uncertain after a season-shortening injury, the White Sox could stash a left-handed reliever on the 26-man roster more easily than any other type of players selected in the Rule 5 draft.
So that's the path they chose today, selecting left-handed pitcher Shane Drohan from the Boston Red Sox on the final day of the winter meetings.
Drohan, who turns 25 next month, had a Jonathan Cannon-like season, in the sense that he represented the Red Sox in the Futures Game based on his early work, but his second half made it look like a weird selection in hindsight. The difference is that Cannon dealt with the jump from Winston-Salem to Birmingham, whereas Drohan struggled with the transition from Double-A to Triple-A.
He was excellent over 11 starts for Portland, going 6-1 with a 2.17 ERA and 57 strikeouts against 61 baserunners over 58 innings between the end of 2022 and the start of 2023.
Triple-A Worcester was a different story, as he wore a 6.47 ERA and a 1.87 WHIP over 89 innings. He struck out 93, but partially because that was the only way hitters returned to the dugout.
The good news is that Drohan has alternate avenues to explore. The Red Sox have deployed him almost exclusively as a starter since selecting him out of Florida State in the fifth and final round of the 2020 draft, so nobody knows how he may benefit from facing a lineup one time through.
The reason that he's remained in the rotation is that he doesn't have the typical lefty reliever arsenal. In fact, left-handed hitters handled him better than righties because his changeup is his best pitch, and his fastball sits in the low-90s.
Perhaps his fastball gets a boost in shorter stints, or the White Sox have a tweak in mind for his slider, curve or sweeper. Chris Getz gave reporters a fairly open-ended forecast, saying both the rotation and bullpen are a possibility:
But if he stays stretched out and the Sox aren't able to add much beyond Erick Fedde to the rotation, Drohan's starting skills may be useful in long relief. There's plenty of room at this particular inn, and he stands a better chance at sticking than last year's selection, Nick Avila.
Drohan wasn't the only pitcher going from one Sox to another, as the White Sox took righty Jose Ramirez from the Red Sox in the minor-league phase of the Rule 5 draft. If you wanted to be charitable about his 2023 season, you could simply say he posted a 3.80 ERA over 90 innings at Low-A Salem as a 22-year-old.
If you wanted to provide a fuller pitcher, you'd note that the 3.80 ERA hides another 25 unearned runs in 21 games, while his elevated but ordinary walk rate (49 over 90 innings) doesn't include 14 HBPs and 20 wild pitches. The HBP total, while alarming, somehow represented a massive improvement from the previous year, when he drilled 18 batters over 48⅓ innings between rookie ball and Salem. He and Yohan Ramirez have something in common besides a last name.
No White Sox prospects were selected by other teams in either phase of the Rule 5 draft. There were fewer selections than normal because most of the supply would've come from the severely shortened 2020 draft, but the White Sox also just didn't have many compelling candidates left unprotected.
