White Sox Select Bennett Sousa, Jason Bilous

The White Sox announced this afternoon they’ve selected pitchers Bennett Sousa and Jason Bilous to their 40-man roster. The moves keep both players from being selected in the Rule 5 draft.

Sousa, 26, was a tenth-round pick in 2018 out of the University of Virginia. The reliever has never appeared on an organizational top 30 ranking at FanGraphs or Baseball America, but he’s posted strong minor league numbers. The southpaw split the 2021 campaign between Double-A Birmingham and Triple-A Charlotte, working to a 3.61 ERA over 47 1/3 cumulative frames. Sousa fanned a strong 35.5% of opponents along the way against a 10% walk rate.

Bilous, 24, was a 13th-round pick in the same class coming out of Coastal Carolina. The right-hander has spent his entire minor league career as a starter, although his elevated walk rates might result in a bullpen future. BA ranked Bilous 21st among White Sox farmhands midseason, crediting him with a low-90s fastball and plus slider. He spent 2021 at High-A Winston-Salem and in Birmingham, combining for a 5.76 ERA over 79 2/3 innings with a 30.2% strikeout rate and a 9.1% walk percentage.