The White Sox have agreed to a minor league contract with outfielder Brandon Guyer, as Stadium’s Dave Ross first tweeted. He’ll presumably head to Major League Spring Training and compete for a roster spot; the deal pays $1.6MM in the majors, per Bob Nightengale of USA Today Sports (Twitter link).
Guyer, 33, has struggled over the past couple of seasons with the Indians, hitting at a .220/.312/.351 pace with nine homers in 413 trips to the plate. He hit .266/.356/.403 from 2014-16 with the Rays and Indians, however, and his right-handed bat has long bean a thorn in the side of left-handed pitchers. In 792 career plate appearances against lefties, Guyer has a .274/.376/.449 batting line. He’s more of an on-base threat than a power threat, in part because of the astonishing rate at which he’s hit by pitches.
The veteran Guyer could potentially give the ChiSox a platoon partner for lefty-swinging Daniel Palka in one of the outfield corners. Palka demonstrated plenty of pop last season but was overmatched by left-handed opponents, hitting them at a woeful .200/.277/.293 clip — albeit through just 83 plate appearances. The 27-year-old Palka did handle lefties well in his minor league career, though his lack of production and 34 strikeouts in those 83 Major League PAs (41 percent) certainly wasn’t encouraging.
Other outfield options who’ll be in camp with the White Sox include Nicky Delmonico, Ryan Cordell, Luis Alexander Basabe and uber-prospect Eloy Jimenez. All are already on the 40-man roster, though it’s a virtual lock that Jimenez will remain in the minors for the first few weeks of the season as the Sox look to secure an additional year of club control over him.
Another 100 loss year coming to Chicago
MLB polarization is more worst than other anytime. White Sox could add 50 mil and almost lock second east wild card.
Add A Jones, Swiss G, Moose, Gio Gon and Kimbrel. Then suddenly they have a compete for second wild card.
Lol and if the sox signed/trader for (or had signed) Grandal, kimbrel, Machado and Harper, Goldy they would have an all all-star starting 9
Trade not in a vacuum but signing is a matter of offer most. My names mentioned might all come cheap, short years, and all are big big time improvement over current White Sox man on roster.
Central Tigers and KC, can’t over state how very very bad they are. Twins or ChiSox go for gusto? Then second wild card possible because they have punching bags for many game.
Plus these good vets get short deals now in market so no big bad long contract to muddy up when youth movement is the core for compete.
Compete today with cheap good vets. Compete tomorrow with cheap good youth. And Chicago is big market so spend and win today and tomorrow without need for a Machado or Harper contract cancer.
It’s kind of sad that Guyer couldn’t get a ML deal. He’s a World Series veteran (who came through–big) and can still hit LHP well. There’s value in that., but apparently much less than I had thought.
He did get a ML deal……a Minor League one. After the way he’s performed (when healthy) lately, he’s getting nothing more than that.
If every guy who could provide value if you squinted ended up getting a major league deal, there’d be no such thing as a minor league deal. I saw the same things commented on the Jerry Blevins post.
Guyer has his abilities and he’s a decent option against lefties, but there’s a reason the Indians wouldn’t even exercise a $3 million option over him.
Dumpster Diving Rick!
K.
White Sox should trade him for Matt Garza. Throw in Chris Archer to make it happen ASAP
K.
Fernando Tatis Jr for James Shields. Just sayin’.
Tatis was just a throw in.
Josh Donaldson for Rich Harden. DJ LeMahieu for Ian Stewart.
Just sayin’.
George Bell for Sammy Sosa. Just sayin’
Lol, Sammy Sosa.
Good choice. Cubs should keep shooting steroids into the players they trade for. Worked for Sosa and Arrieta.
Puff out your chest all you want losing Sammy to the Cubs just crushed the spirit of Sox fans knowing you lost him to the north side. Even pre steroids he was a 30/30 player. The Sammy trade was Sox mgmt fault. The other thing that crushed Sox fans was the fact they had a fantastic record in 1994 before the strike hit and they lost out on a probable playoff appearance. Sucked yeah, but oh yeah even worse BECAUSE IT WAS THEIR FREAKIN’ OWNER who spearheaded the whole shutdown. Just pathetic.
I personally took the loss of slamming Sammy hard. Had to use my Frank Thomas jersey to wash away my tears.
I’ll give you the strike, but Sox fans aren’t losing sleep over Sammy Sosa. And no, he wasn’t a 30/30 player pre-steroids, unless you actually believe he didn’t start using them until ‘98. That’s a pretty naive assumption seeing as he went from 37 home runs in his first ~1400 plate appearances to 33 in the ‘93 season alone, and he never showed any power as a minor leaguer. He was a pile of trash before where we can logically assume the steroids started.
Dave Ross… You’re the man. Keep up the good work.
Thank you Chicago, don’t want to see him dup resigning in Cleveland. Now can you please sign Michael Martinez to a deal?
Hehehehe. Perfect!
Considering the Sox were using Trayce Thompson at times last year, I like the add. Solid bat vs lefties, veteran presence, not a bad stop gap call up if an outfielder gets hurt.
I guess it’s kind of ironic that the Indians have Trayce now then
How is he related to Machado? 😉
They once had a great discussion on what is the proper level of Johnny hustling while at 3b
His uncle’s accountant’s cousin’s mechanic’s brother is Manny’s mailman. Should seel the deal.
Giants could have used this guy to platoon with Shaw.
He got hit by this deal.
I get this joke
Was hoping for Adam Jones to the Sox. Oh well, c’mon Manny, sign the deal!
Guess this means no Harper
Bryce and Manny started in major league at age 19. The Sox have young talent in the outfield waiting for a chance.
It’s sure going to be nice when some combo of Eloy/Robert/Rutherford/Basabe/Gonzalez/Adolfo/Walker, etc are ready to cover all the outfield spots…….short-term pain when you endure the ’18 OF and somewhat serviceable placeholders (Jay) or scrap heap guys they look to plug in this year.
Why…? Need B game bodies?