Right-hander Ron Marinaccio, who was designated for assignment by the Yankees last week, has been claimed off waivers by the White Sox. Both clubs announced the move, with the Sox adding that Marinaccio has been assigned to Double-A Birmingham. The Double-A regular season is done but the Barons are playing in the Southern League championship this week, whereas the Triple-A Charlotte Knights are done for the year. The Sox had a 40-man roster vacancy after righty Chad Kuhl was designated for assignment recently and won’t need to make a corresponding move in that regard.
Marinaccio got nudged out of the Yankees’ plans but it’s unsurprising that he got picked up by the club with the top waiver priority. Now 29, he made his major league debut in 2022 and it was strong first impression. He logged 44 innings for the Yanks that season, only allowing 2.05 earned runs per nine. His 13.3% walk rate was definitely worrisome but he managed to work around that by striking out 30.9% of batters faced.
His results backed up a little bit from there. He had a 3.99 ERA in 47 1/3 innings last year. He still walked too many guys, a rate of 13.2%, with his strikeout rate slipping slightly to 27.3%. Here in 2024, the Yanks have frequently shuttled him back and forth between the majors and Triple-A. His 23 1/3 big league innings resulted in a 3.86 ERA with a reduced 10.1% walk rate but also a diminished 25.3% strikeout rate. At the Triple-A level, he has 39 2/3 innings with a 2.04 ERA, 25.8% strikeout rate and 8.8% walk rate.
Those are pretty decent numbers overall but he was getting squeezed from the roster in the Bronx. He had already been optioned five times this season, the maximum amount in an individual campaign. He’s also in his final option season and will be out of options next year.
It was therefore going to be challenging for him to continue hanging onto his roster spot on a competitive Yankee club going forward, so he got pushed out last week when Cody Poteet was ending his rehab assignment and needed to get added back to the 40-man.
But for the White Sox, he’s a sensible flier to take. As the worst club of the modern era, the Sox have plenty of room for guys who have shown promise elsewhere. Marinaccio has just over two years of service time and still won’t have qualified for arbitration this winter. He can be controlled for four seasons beyond the current campaign. If things click in Chicago next year, he can be a long-term part of their bullpen or perhaps become a valuable trade chip.
Poor b*stard
Why poor b*stard?..With a little luck, performance and preserverance Marinaccio can be on a contender by the second half of next season. Either way(good or bad performance)we all know he won’t be on the Chisox for very long.
I’d be kind of thrilled if I were him. He has a great chance of being kept on the 40 and starting next season in the WS bullpen. He’ll be out of options so failure next year means riding the waiver train.
I am a White Sox fan, with a less than 50 million dollar team payroll and the intent to keep attendance down so they don’t have to pay stadium rent, the earliest this team will be competing is 2030
quade: You’re being too optimistic. Although, six years from now, we will hopefully have a new owner if only by attrition.
Wow, that soon!
It’s definitely possible.
Barry if absolutely everything breaks right and they manage to also find like a whole offense to go with those guys maybe they sniff 500.
You do realize that you need to score runs right? This isn’t golf and lowest score wins….
As for your 2026 wild card statement, LMAO. You were literally the same guy who boldly proclaimed in March 2024 that Miami Heat will beat the Boston Celtics in the first round without Jimmy Butler.
Is it Golf or Bowling, which one requires the higher score I forget
Is he literally the same guy or figuratively the same guy
Funny.
Could have been “fixed” on a real team but this is a death sentence.
“Could have been fixed”..So the NY Yankees aren’t a “real” team?..
If Matt Blake can’t get it out of you, it ain’t in you to start with.
That said, he’s a serviceable pitcher already. There was no room for him on the Yankees.
Yeah I think it’s more like he got squeezed further and further down and then eventually out of the pecking order for roster spot and coaching capacity.
He could have been better than those ex-Mets re-treads Bickford and Tonkin and Santana this year if Cashman and the Yankees just let him have a bad outing, keep him, let him learn from it rather then send him up and down, and now, out.
He’s now got a chance to stick on a big league roster. With the Yankees, he’s AAAA reliever.
bleacher creature: A big league roster? He’s with the White Sox.
Nothing like losing 120+ and still not being able to draft higher than 10th. Daymn. That’s brutal.
“That’s brutal”…Totally brutal.
Yeah the Orioles tanked at the right time
Good pick up for WS, being someone was going to might as well be the worst team in the league with first crack at getting him.
Marinaccio should play his best at least til end of July, so he becomes a desired asset for a winning team
Nice! Glad the White Sox nabbed him. He just needs to be a decent reliever and that’s enough to be a trade deadline chip next year.
He’s from Tom’s River NJ, so you gotta know this move is devastating to him
Our jersey Italian guy roster depth has taken a grievous hit this day lol
Fugetaboutit.
He’s gonna hate that deep dish pizza out there……..(lol)
I think it’s a good move by them could be a good pen guy next year.
Hopefully he’s got good numbers by the trade deadline to flip him. Getz needs to get as many prospects as possible, this team will be in tryouts mode for a while…
He’ll be their closer next year and Cashman will look like an idiot once again
Cashman will regret letting the Jersey native go.
Cash already has a long list of stars they let go
You know what happens when a team has a lot of talent? They have to let some go. They have loads of guys with potential. You can’t always pick the ones that end up best.
Great problem to have. The White Sox almost never draft or develop a good hitter. Almost never.
A real pro’s pro. Never moaned about…anything. When he succeeded, it was the team/offense. And when he struggled, he owned it. And worked to fix it. The Sox may not have gotten a lights out closer (for which they have very little use at the moment). But they got themselves a great teammate.
Good luck Ronnie. You deserved better from the Yankees. The Yankees YoYo this year up and down all year long. I would rather have your than Holmes any day.
If it wasn’t for Holmes, the Yankees wouldn’t be where they are right now. He’s got the yips, but we shouldn’t forget that he carried the BP more than half the season.
Don’t understand why the Yankees waived RonMar. I thought he was great with them.