Pregame notes: Six White Sox roster moves

Maybe it's confirmation bias, maybe it's the lingering memory of when the 2023 White Sox made 11 roster moves one day at the start of May, but large clumps of roster moves are rarely a sign that things are running smoothly.

This one is...sort of a mixed bag.

First with the good, in that Josh Rojas is back to provide the sort of infield stability he was signed to provide, and with the intention that he can man every position on the dirt if called upon. Andrew Vaughn's struggles are well-documented and Lenyn Sosa is hitting .224/.224/.293 over his last 15 games with his regular supply of defensive foibles, and Rojas deepens the slate of possible alignments.

"A lot of my game relies on being athletic," Rojas said. "If I was just a power-hitting third baseman, it might be a different story. But I gotta be able to run the bases full speed. I gotta be able to make plays in the hole. I gotta be able to beat out infield singles. I gotta be able to do all the little things, and my game relies heavily on being able to do those things. My toe was not in a place to be able to do that until about a week ago."

As it turns out, Rojas had two broken toes from Brenton Doyle sliding into his right foot in spring training, one in his big toe and an avulsion fracture in his second toe. Not only did he need a full six weeks for the bones to heal to have any mobility, but he's anticipating dealing with soreness for a while yet still. Rojas said he was wearing a lighter, softer pair of cleats for more mobility when the injury occurred. He'll be wearing cleats with a harder shell going forward.

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Tyler Gilbert did well as an opener and his strikeout rate (14 in 9 2/3 innings) are more encouraging than his 5.59 ERA would indicate, with the additional note that he felt he was holding back to protect his right knee early in the season. But getting called up because Fraser Ellard has a lat strain is just straightforward bad. Ideally the optional lefty relievers swap places with each other in Chicago and Charlotte, not Chicago and the injured list.

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Penn Murfee has one more very good full major league relief season (2.99 ERA in 69 1/3 innings in 2022) in his history than most members of the Sox bullpen, but clearly was not performing through the opening month (7.82 ERA). Swapping him out for right-hander Caleb Freeman to make his major league debut in his seventh year of professional baseball at least paints the picture of meritocracy working like it should, and offers a triumphant culmination of a long minor league journey.

"I was the first one to go pick him up this morning," said Davis Martin, Freeman's college teammate at Texas Tech and high school rival in Abilene, Texas. "He’s been in Double-A and Triple-A for two to three years now. So there are a lot of guys who feel like they are going to get stagnant and never be able to break through. Just to see him continue to have the faith, continue to work hard, continue to put in the work and be rewarded like this, it’s awesome and everyone Free knows is going to be happy for him."

Freeman was an invite to major league spring training back in 2022, but multiple injuries and two separate stints on the minor league development list have occurred since then. The 27-year-old was unscored upon in 10 1/3 innings at Triple-A Charlotte, striking out 12 and walking one. He's been getting big results from a hard slider/cutter that's been sitting 87-90 with significant two-plane movement.

Martin specified that he picked Freeman up from his hotel Sunday morning, not the airport.

"No chance," Martin joked. "I’m not that good of a guy. Just enough to get him from the hotel."

Bobby Dalbec was designated for assignment, making room on the active roster for Rojas and on the 40-man for Freeman. His underlying numbers in Triple-A were encouraging, and there's seemingly more potential in his elite raw power than what Joshua Palacios' tools offer, but it's hard to know what to make of someone whose usage was akin to a 26th man.

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Yordan Alvarez is out for the second-straight game with a sore wrist, not that the Astros missed him much on Saturday. Lance McCullers is making his first major league start since 2022. Heavily reliant on breaking balls and chase pitches, McCullers used to carve up more talented and less disciplined White Sox lineups. It'll be informative to see how he fares against a more patient and but underpowered offensive group.

"You try to go off some of the history that some of our guys have seen, and we had a scout that's seen a couple of the starts when he's on a minor-league rehab," said hitting coach Marcus Thames. "So just try to go off of that. Usually guys like him won't change too much. Velo is down a little bit, but he's a guy that's going to use his offspeed stuff, so we’ve just got to make sure we get him in the zone."

First pitch: White Sox vs. Astros

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