The White Sox today activated outfielder Trayce Thompson from the 60-day injured list, adding him back to their roster. They had plenty of openings after trading away several players prior to this week’s trade deadline. Their 40-man count is now up to 38.
Thompson, 32, returned to his original organization this week, coming to the Sox as part of the deal that sent Lance Lynn and Joe Kelly to the Dodgers. The outfielder was drafted by the White Sox in 2009 but went into journeyman status as a big leaguer, bouncing to the Dodgers, Yankees, Athletics, back to the White Sox, Cleveland, the Diamondbacks, Cubs and Padres. Most of those stops saw him struggle, either due to injuries or underperformance or both.
Last year, he returned to the Dodgers for a second time and finally was able to stay healthy and productive for a decent stretch. He got into 74 games of Dodger baseball and hit 13 home runs, slashing .268/.364/.537 for a wRC+ 153. He was also graded well for his defense, playing all three outfield slots, leading to a tally of 2.8 wins above replacement from FanGraphs.
That showing was strong enough that the Dodgers tendered him an arbitration contract for 2023, settling on a salary of $1.45MM. Unfortunately, things haven’t been going as well this year, as he hit .155/.310/.366 for a 91 wRC+ through early June before landing on the IL due to a left oblique strain, an injury that he has just now returned from.
The White Sox are out of contention this year and just sold off a number of pieces at the deadline, so they can give Thompson some time to get back on track. He’s in today’s lineup, batting sixth and playing center field as Luis Robert Jr. takes the day off. They also have Andrew Benintendi, Eloy Jiménez and Óscar Colás in the outfield mix, though Jiménez mostly serves as the designated hitter and each guy will likely get some days off as the non-competitive season winds down. Thompson is out of options but the Sox can retain him via arbitration for two more seasons beyond this one if they so choose.
I assume the next story we get here will be Trayce Thompson’s DFA…
TheProjectedMan: You’ve got to be kidding. He’s reinsdorf’s perfect player. .155/.310/.366 slash line, played for nine teams (including 3x with the Sox), and he’s making under $3m. He’ll be the cornerstone of their rebuild for years to come
Probably not until they find out if Billy Hamilton is ready to go.
First, he is going to record a public service announcement promoting recycling
Traycycling?
Trayce went through a horrendous slump this season with the Dodgers, something like a 0-49. However he also had some great games and great defensive plays, especially in the beginning of the year before he got hurt. One game early this year he hit 3 HRs and had 8 RBIs. Guy works hard and I hope the best for him.
The white sox will never change. For the 80th year the sox got nothing in trades
Meanwhile, Blake Rutherford has a 1.003 OPS at AAA Rochester for the Nats and just got a call up..
Washington knows how to develop talent. The White Sox? Not so much…
Not amazing. Expected.
The White Sox have a religious objection to players who can actually hit the ball over the fence.
Go get’em trayce
Trayce needs more time and experience
I am sure that the Sox will conserve Robert a bit down the stretch, so I expect Thompson to get some playing opportunities this month. Not sure if he sticks with the club by September, but if he is able to play semi-well down the stretch, it would not be a surprise to keep him around as a 4th/5th outfielder in 2024 (every team needs someone like this).
Honestly, as a filler in the Giolito trade, this could pay some dividends if all goes well, and at worst, a DFA. That is a positive in my eyes.
Yeah, I wish we got Giolito instead of Lynn….
Sorry, meant Lynn/Kelly. Lots of trades in a short time to the LA area 🙂
pincrusher: Lynn surprisingly won his first start with the LAD in style, giving up 3 HRs. Gio, unfortunately is 0-2 with the LAA. One
was to the virtually unbeatable Braves, The other to Toronto, which wasn’t his fault.
Didn’t Giolito get rocked last night?!
Ouch.
He did but the braves lineup is nasty. Really not any easy outs in the batting order.
Ok that is funny.
The Sox didn’t want to just go away this season without a trace
It’s a gamble on what kind of production you’ll get out him season to season, but not like it matters, the remaining part of the White Sox season will be tryouts from rookies.
across: No, tryouts for the dfa’s who fill their farm system.
Sadly that’s probably what we’ll get. I’d rather see some high A or double A rookies struggle being called up to the major league team. At least they have an excuse for sucking…
Amazing how poorly Benintendi has produced this season.
Thompson will probably get regular reps as Colas has shown he’s not ready to hit MLB pitching
Colas lacking pop?
*rimshot*
True that fellas. Let’s burn one.
Yeah but Benny is always smiling. He’s a happy happy lad for some reason. Or maybe he has a condition that results in a perpetual smile.
You’d be smiling too if you were guaranteed $75 million whether you produce or not
Whereas Jeff McNeil has perpetual jerkface.
There ought to be a metric just for the Sox like WSWRC+ that just shows how well a player is doing compared to the rest of his Southsider teammates. The numbers would be less depressing.
Sadly, Thompson’s 91 would qualify him as a starter on the Sox, just behind AB’s 96. At least he defends fairly well.
I see what you did there. I’m telling Jason and Chuck
Detroit traded/sold him to the Dodgers, and it was his performance with Toledo that put him on the Dodgers radar. That seems to be omitted when they talk about his history. Its just nice to know somebody benefited from their hitting coaches in ’22.
Just in time for the Playoff Run. Phew
On be half of all warriors fans we welcome trayce to Chicago! Specifically so we don’t have to bare watching Klay at Dodgers games anymore!
Good luck Trayce.
nice to see Chicago’s top prospect is back from injury
Lol Thompson is almost out hitting himself while on the IL.
Useless roster spot Usage. And to trade for that speaks volumes on a lack of knowledge or evaluation ability from Williams and Hahn …
It was simply a salary dump on behalf of the Dodgers to keep them under one of the luxury tax thresholds. It had nothing to do with White Sox talent evaluation.
Renteria sucked ass. That is why nobody has hired him since. The problem was not that Renteria was sent packing, but rather that Reinsdorf usurped control of the hiring process when Renteria was replaced.
Trayce Thompson, human bomerag.
White Sox say they want to contend in 2024, yes they want to contend for that last wild card spot with about 5 other loser teams 80 Wins might get them in. Front office will be thrilled
White sox won’t win 80 games for 10 years if than
DFA him…unless Klay is offering season tickets.
Somehow I don’t think we’ll see Klay in Chicago cheering his brother on like we did last year in LA.
Just saw a story about how Burger was part of a walk off win for the Marlins tonight and it was the most fun he had in a long time.. Speaks volumes about how awful the Sox locker room is and I did not see the likely reasons for that being moved via trade. Grifol has to go as well, a bench coach from a loser org (sorry KC) who is just a puppet for mgmt is clearly not what the Sox needed (shades of Ventura). The problem is after Renteria was stabbed in the back by mgmt, I doubt the Sox are going to get anyone who has a chance to be a good manager to come to the South side to get stabbed in the back by their know nothing owner. If Grifol is back here next year, I would say to expect more of the same poor fundamentals, poor play, poor energy, and poor execution.
nrd11138: Finally, someone agrees with me. If Reinsdorf hadn’t replaced Renteria with TLR, the Sox would be a yearly contender. Renteria had the Sox in the PO three years into a five year rebuild. Now they’re starting all over again with a manager who’s in way over his head. But Reinsdorf doesn’t care. He’d rather line his pockets with the money he’s saving by not re-signing Giolito and Lopez and by not investing in his team through FA and trades for good major leaguers. TA will be gone after this season because there’s no way that cheapskate of an owner will pay the $14m option. The only competition the Sox will have in the foreseeable future are the A’s. But Reinsdorf doesn’t care. If Manfred would do his job, he would make Reinsdorf and Fisher sell their teams because of their indifference to the game and to the fans.
Yeah, but I don’t know if Reinsdorf doesn’t care, I just think now that his age addled brain thinks is 5-10 years previous that where things stand currently, It would explain the Sox consistent MO over time to get former all stars, guys 5-10 years past their prime, and giving up good players, Tatis and Dunning to name two recent guys, to do it ( Roward and Gio Gonzalez for Jim Thome back in 06 and I think Eduardo Escobar for Liriano back in was it ’12 as well).., I think Reinsdorf actually thought that LaRussa ‘just’ retired instead of that happening 10 years prior. Reinsdorf’s power play though I think pretty much guarantees no decent potential manager would want to be here for an owner to pull a ‘Jerry Jones’ on him. Would Renteria being here still have meant the Sox window to win would still be on going? I dunno… Dunning for Lynn hurts, but I think the locker room would definitely be in better shape. As for TA he and his sideshow can go, he should have been moved by August 1st, but seeing that he still is here I think shows the issues that teams worry about and they all stayed away.
I wonder why the sox never had a ” Burger Night?
0-4 3Ks in the first game back