The White Sox announced they’ve selected reliever Edgar Navarro onto the major league roster. Chicago also reinstated Mike Clevinger from the 15-day injured list.
Navarro, 25, gets his first major league call. The Venezuela native signed with Chicago as an amateur free agent late, beginning his professional career at age 20. (Most Latin American amateurs sign at 16). Predictably, Navarro didn’t generate much prospect attention given his late-blooming background. He combined for a 3.64 ERA in 54 1/3 innings between High-A and Double-A last season to put himself somewhat on the radar.
Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs named him an honorable mention on his write-up of the Sox’s farm system last winter, pointing to a traditional sinker/slider combination. Navarro has indeed racked up plenty of grounders between the top two minor league levels this year, including a 60% grounder rate in 34 1/3 Triple-A frames. That has contributed to a reasonable 4.19 ERA despite a below-average 21.2% strikeout percentage and particularly alarming 16% walk rate.
Clevinger is back after a six-week absence due to biceps inflammation. He’ll take the ball this evening against the Guardians in what’ll be his last start before Tuesday’s trade deadline. It’s not much time to drum up interest, though it stands to reason some other clubs will send evaluators to keep an eye on his form. There’s little reason for the White Sox to hold Clevinger past the deadline if they can find a trade partner.
The righty has a 3.88 ERA over 12 starts, though his 19.3% strikeout percentage and 9.3% walk rate are each a bit worse than average. Clevinger’s average fastball velocity was above 94 MPH before the injury, but his 9.2% swinging strike percentage was the lowest of his career. Clevinger is owed around $2.8MM in salary through season’s end. That’s a reasonable amount, but he’ll also be due a $4MM buyout on next year’s mutual option at the start of the offseason, which could be the biggest impediment to a trade.
Marcos Grunfeld of El Emergente first reported Navarro’s call-up last night.
The White Sox are going to have to call up thier Triple A club to fill the roster after this fire sale
Their AAA team is in dead last. What have they got to lose?
I just hope it keeps going. They probably won’t, but they should sell Cease, too. Market is hot for pitchers and he’d be a valuable commodity.
LaRussa is probably laughing at the moment.
TLR was unequivocably incompetent as the Sox manager.
“Incompetent as the Sox mgr”..Another incredibly silly, uninformed take; they always put ‘Incompetent’ managers who are top 10 in career wins in the HOF, right Reynaldo?
If you thought he did a good job during his recent tenure with the White Sox, you weren’t paying attention. He was an absolute train wreck. He wasn’t put in the HOF based on 2021 and 2022.
His best years were behind him. He just didn’t know his time was up
MLB Fan:
What an idiotic take. You clearly spent zero time watching the White Sox while TLR was the manager. He was abysmal. He phoned it in 90% of the time he was there, and was caught sleeping in the dugout multiple times on camera. He may have had a great career, but he was less than worthless for this team, and arguably a huge reason they didn’t have the success the talent level of their roster indicated they should have had.
Yeah and Pedro Grifol has been all aces so far…
It can be (and is) true that both are bad.
LaRussa went to the playoffs and finished 81-81 with this Group. Please stop blaming him.
He deserves his share of the blame. No one has claimed he was the only problem.
Aces? Maybe Cease only. Of course now days you can an Ace at 20-15. LaRussa wasn’t the manager for this young of a team back than. Many of the players were not happy with old school methods. The needed the mindset of the manager they have now
He’s probably drinking not laughing but he could be 10 times over the legal limit and he’s still smarter than you are.
Just saying
He probably came to the ballpark on a few under the belt
The White Sox are an absolute MESS! It all starts at the top with Lord Dingledorf and into the FO. Nothing will be corrected until that CANCER is gone
“Lord Dingledorf” is just carry them as a write off. We need Bill “the wreck” back as owner. Anyone seen lately?
Not sure what kind of market clevinger will have specially with his off the field baggage
What are they going replace with? Navarro? Or trade T Anerson for a starter?
Biceps injuries can be tricky and often flare up again. Even if Clevinger pitches well tonight, it will be hard to move him due to his recent injury and his large, $4M option buyout. Maybe Chicago agrees to pay the option buyout and settles on a player to be named later, with that player dependent on how many games Clevinger can start / stay healthy for once the trade is complete. I just don’t see them getting much prospect value for Clevinger unless he turns things around for the rest of the season (hence the PTBNL idea). The better he does, the better prospect CHI gets back in return.
I could see Clevinger go for the old PTBNL scenario based on performance and the the acquiring team picks up salary…if so worth a shot.
The current manager did his best not to play Burger the first two months of the season. Now he’s playing Burger at DH, 2b, and 1b so Moncada can play third. When a player has to worry about screwing up in the field, it will eventually affect his hitting. Put Moncada at second for the rest of the season and let Burger hit 40 HR’s playing third..
Moncada started playing for the Sox at second base. Didn’t do well, so they moved him to third.
Moncada at 3B and Robert in CF are the only two spots on the field where they get above average defense. You eliminate one of those if you start shuffling Moncada around. Burger’s going to be a mess defensively regardless of where he plays.
Benny is LF is above average too, but your point still stands. They are a defensive wreck. They can’t develop anyone in the field, and refuse to sign guys that play the positions they have holes for.
Trade Moncada and Grandual for a starting left hander