More changes are afoot as the White Sox direct their attention from the draft to the second half, and the trade deadline that's less than two weeks away.
Earlier in the day, the White Sox made the Nick Senzel signing official, making room on the 40-man roster by designating Danny Mendick for assignment, and optioning Lenyn Sosa to Charlotte as well.
Early this evening, the White Sox added to the turnover by DFA'ing Martín Maldonado.
The White Sox have designated Martín Maldonado for assignment, sources tell me and @Chandler_Rome.
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) July 17, 2024
The White Sox haven't announced a corresponding move, but they added Chuckie Robinson to the 40-man roster last month and indications are he's the likely choice (UPDATE: a source confirms Robinson is being recalled). Robinson has 25 games of MLB experience with the Reds in 2022, but he's cooled off considerably after a hot start to the 2024 season. He's hitting just .214/.264/.321 with the Knights since May, after hitting .305/.349/.492 in April. Edgar Quero would have been a logistical possibility since Maldonado's departure opens up a 40-man spot, but that should be reserved for Yoán Moncada, who will need a vacancy to come off the 60-day injured list.
Maldonado's DFA is as surprising as it gets for somebody who was the third-worst active player in MLB, and by either calculation of WAR (-1.5), if only because he entered the All-Star break with a revival. He was 6-for-16 with a surprising three homers and a double in 18 July plate appearances.
Still, that only raised his final line to .119/.174/.230 over 147 plate appearances. That was, however, good enough to avoid a historically poor performance, as his .403 OPS is only the third-lowest for any White Sox with at least 140 plate appearances in a season:
- Leury García, 2014: .166/.192/.207 over 155 PA
- Billy Sullivan, 1909: .161/.226/.174 over 302 PA
- Martín Maldonado, 2024: .119/.174/.230 over 147 PA
Then again, that only serves to remind that the White Sox owed García $5.5 million for this season, and he hasn't played for the White Sox since spring training of last year.
It's just weird that, after months of stressing Maldonado's value in the face of every measurable screaming for him to retire, the White Sox decided to cut him loose at the moment his plate appearances became watchable. Perhaps this is merely a mechanism to prompt a trade, whether as a professional courtesy to somebody they don't have plans for, or because a number of possible contenders have woeful catching situations that could use Maldonado even as an emergency stopgap.
The White Sox's catching situation could become equally dreadful if Robinson comes up to support Korey Lee, who is batting .175/.213/.294 over his last 150 plate appearances, but production becomes besides the point as long as Quero continues looking like a No. 1 option in Rick Hahn's favorite time frame, the not-too-distant future. The White Sox have a lot of positions where they're flailing aimlessly, but catcher isn't one of them.
