The White Sox's remaking of their left-handed pitching depth continues apace, as they claimed Ryan Rolison off waivers from the Atlanta Braves on Friday.
It might not look all that different when spring training breaks, as Brandon Eisert and Tyler Gilbert led the team in appearances from the left side, and both figure to have the innermost tracks to spots in the White Sox bullpen. However, behind them is wide open after the retirement of Fraser Ellard, the abandonment of Cam Booser and Uber enthusiast Tyler Alexander recently signing a major league deal with the Rangers. Bryan Hudson remains on the 40-man after his four appearances with the White Sox last year, while Chris Murphy came over from Boston in a trade for Ronny Hernandez last month.
Now here comes Rolison, who has joined his third organization of the winter.
A former first-round pick of the Rockies back in 2018, Rolison didn't make his major league debut until last season, as his path was delayed by a series of obstacles. It started with the pandemic, which interrupted a smooth start to his professional career, but that doesn't make him unique. It took a turn for the worse starting in 2021, when he underwent an appendectomy and then broke his hand while shagging fly balls in 2021, followed by shoulder surgeries in 2022 and 2023, the latter involving the labrum.
That history makes it something of a triumph that he made it to the big leagues at all, but that's the most positive thing that can be said about his 2025 season. He wore a 7.02 ERA thanks to 11 homers over 42⅓ innings, and he only struck out 25 batters against 20 walks. Colorado DFA'd him on Nov. 18, and while the Braves acquired him for cash a day later, he ended up back on the waiver wire when Atlanta recently needed to make room on the 40-man roster for free-agent signing Robert Suarez.
What's unusual is that while Rolison has only appeared in one big league season, he already has accrued more than 2½ years of MLB service time, as the Rockies placed him on the 60-day IL in both of the seasons lost to shoulder problems. Should he last 2½ months on a big league roster, he'd be arb-eligible after the season, although any raise wouldn't figure to be significant.
There are more immediate questions, like whether his fastball-curveball combination from a high arm slot works any better outside Coors Field, since the four-seamer averages 93 mph. There's also the question of whether he'll even spend much time on the White Sox 40-man roster, because he seems like the kind of guy who will bounce around the league until somebody finally sneaks him through waivers. Should the White Sox hold onto him, he does have one option remaining, unlike Gilbert, Hudson and the two Rule 5 selections the White Sox just made.
The White Sox trade rumors that won't die
In his latest notebook, Ken Rosenthal seconds the report from MassLive.com's Sean McAdam that the Boston Red Sox have made "repeated" attempts to reacquire Kyle Teel, though he says "the White Sox, with no interest in trading Teel, have shut down every inquiry."
It's reminiscent of Kenny Williams trading Gary Majewski to the Dodgers in a three-player package that brought back Antonio Osuna in March 2001, then trading for Majewski and two other players (including the wrong guy) for James Baldwin later July. The difference is that Teel is now starting-caliber catcher with some ingredients for stardom, while Majewski was still a reliever in A-ball.
I don't blame the Red Sox for asking, but I also wouldn't blame the White Sox for being inherently suspicious of such advances. It's almost as if Craig Breslow is saying, "Remember that win-win trade we made? Well, what if we could undo the part where you won?"
In even more firmly established, go-nowhere trade rumors, Rosenthal says Luis Robert Jr. interests the Mets, but not in a way that generates movement.
Chicago White Sox center fielder Luis Robert Jr. is one player the Mets have discussed, according to people briefed on their conversations. But with Robert set to earn $20 million in his free-agent year, the Mets might want to give up only minimal talent.
But there is a more novel development on this front later in his notebook, as Rosenthal says the White Sox would be open to covering some chunk of Robert's salary:
While Robert has drawn interest from the Mets and Philadelphia Phillies, he might be more likely to end up with a low-payroll team that ends up striking out on free agents – the Pittsburgh Pirates, for example.
To make such a deal happen, the White Sox almost certainly would need to include cash to make Robert more affordable. They are open to doing that as a way of enhancing the return, according to a club official.
As we discussed this in the Winter Meetings preview podcast, the White Sox typically don't send significant money to make players go away, but Robert's $20 million salary has only been exceeded one time in White Sox history, so it's not like Jerry Reinsdorf pays this kind of money to keep players in his employ, either. He might be able to rationalize covering a noteworthy portion of Robert's salary by treating it as an enhanced buyout. After all, they could have paid Robert $2 million to be done with him, so perhaps they'd consider $10 million to turn him into a prospect of interest, especially if it beats the idea of betting another $20 million on him to staying healthy.
