The White Sox announced that they have signed right-hander Bryse Wilson to a one-year deal worth $1.05MM. Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reported those terms prior to the official announcement and added that Wilson will compete for a rotation spot and can also access bonuses worth $250K in the deal. The Sox had a full 40-man roster but opened a spot by trading catcher Chuckie Robinson to the Angels.
It’s a bit of an early birthday present for Wilson, who turns 27 on Friday. Despite being relatively young, he has pitched in parts of seven major league seasons to this point, debuting with Atlanta as a 20-year-old back in 2018. While many early debutants are on All-Star trajectories and Wilson was considered a top 100 prospect going into the 2019 season, he has spent most of his career thus far as a fairly unremarkable swingman.
Atlanta kept Wilson mostly in a depth role, not letting him get more than 34 innings in any season from 2018 to 2021. He was then flipped to the Pirates as part of the 2021 deadline deal that sent Richard Rodríguez the other way. He spent the next year and a half jockeying for position in the Pittsburgh rotation without fully cementing himself there. He exhausted his final option year in 2022 and was going to be tougher to keep on the roster going forward. He was designated for assignment going into 2023 and was flipped to the Brewers for cash.
Milwaukee used Wilson as a multi-inning reliever in 2023 and then as a swingman in 2024. He could have been retained for 2025 via arbitration, with MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projecting him for a modest salary of $1.5MM, but the Brewers outrighted him off the roster in early November.
Generally speaking, the results have been passable but middling for Wilson. His control has been good but he hasn’t been able to rack up huge numbers of strikeouts or ground balls. Overall, he has a 4.61 ERA in 413 2/3 innings to this point in his career. His 7.4% walk rate is better than average but his 17.1% strikeout rate and 38.8% ground ball rate are both subpar.
He did have a strong 2.58 ERA in 2023 when working solely in relief, but that seems to have been mostly luck. His strikeout, walk and grounder rates were all close to his career norms but he had a tiny .232 batting average on balls in play and high strand rate of 81.2%. His 4.13 FIP and 4.31 SIERA suggested it wasn’t sustainable. In 2024, he regressed back to his typical lane with a 4.04 ERA as the BABIP and strand rate normalized a bit.
Though the numbers have been fairly uninspiring, it’s a sensible fit for all sides. Despite once being a top pitching prospect, Wilson has never been given a full rotation chance. His workload topped out at 115 2/3 innings in 2022, when the Pirates sent him to the minors and to the bullpen multiple times. Going to a club with a wide open rotation like the White Sox is surely an appealing opportunity for him.
For the Sox, this investment is essentially nothing in baseball terms. Wilson’s salary will be barely above next year’s $760K league minimum. They also have almost nothing established in their rotation at this point. They had four pitchers make 21 or more starts for them in 2024 and three of them are gone. Erick Fedde was traded to the Cardinals at the deadline last year. Garrett Crochet was traded to the Red Sox last week. Chris Flexen became a free agent at season’s end. That leaves Jonathan Cannon, who just debuted in 2024, as the only guy who pitched a decent number of innings this year and is still on the roster.
The Sox also have guys like Drew Thorpe, Davis Martin, Sean Burke, Jared Shuster, Nick Nastrini, Jairo Iriarte, Jake Eder, Wikelman Gonzalez and Ky Bush on the roster but no one in that group has even a full year of major league service time or 115 innings pitched in the big leagues.
Though Wilson isn’t much older than the guys in that group, and is actually younger than Martin, he has spent far more time facing big league hitters. He can serve as an experienced veteran, relatively speaking, while he tries to take advantage of a fairly open lane for a rotation job. If several of those young pitchers step forward and earn big league auditions, Wilson can move to a bullpen that’s also fairly lacking in proven options.
Wilson’s service time is between four and five years, so the Sox could actually retain him via arbitration for 2026 if things go well next year. Though if things go especially well, he’s likely to end up being traded at next year’s deadline.
This is basically the Yankees trading for Babe Ruth. Alright sports fans, we can all go home- the next WS is fait accompli and the White Sox are those champions.
brilliant
Almost anyone who can pitch AA or above could start for the Southsiders.
I will admit maybe the new GM will build a team that the owner can sell.
Jake1972: Probably to 1-800-Got-Junk.
White Sox getting better in leaps and bounds. I can’t see them losing more than 118 games now.
Baseball: Don’t be so pessimistic. Losing 135 games is all we have to look forward to.
Laugh at this move today, but someone investing in giving this kid a starting job and a season to see what he really can do is worthwhile.
Look back at his playoff start against the Dodgers. Wilson has lights out stuff when it’s working, and is a great project for Bannister to work on.
He’s not necessarily old, your correct that he was a reliever. Wsox historically have a good track record developing pitchers.
Aiden: The Sox are experts at taking someone with even marginal ability and tearing them down to independent league failures.
C’mon man. Lights out? His numbers tell a different story. I’m laughing today.
Have you watched him pitch? I’ve followed the kid since he was in Atlanta’s minors. I’ve seen him in person and on video.
I’m not saying he’s going to be an ace, but when he’s going, he has great stuff. Consistency has been an issue, but he’s also never been handed an opportunity for a full time starter job.
Yes, I’ve seen him pitch. I’m as unimpressed with him, as you are enamored with him, and I think this is the kind of move that keeps the White Sox right where they are. He’s been given 100 innings twice, by teams that needed pitching. His walk rate is not great, his K/9 is pedestrian, and he allows too many hits. Maybe your videos from Rome & Gwinnett still get you going, but he’s exactly what he looks like. A live body, who will end up in Charlotte..
Rick: He’s obviously a proponent of Lance Lynn’s new book, How To Build An Athletes Body. He’s already three-quarters of the way to making his belt invisible.
He couldn’t get any more than that?
Yeah he turned down 2/15 for this.
Cleaning the balance sheet. After today it’s one day closer. Prepare yourself you know it’s a must.
After today everything is one day closer – except stuff that already happened.
I know some WS will rag on this, but this is the type of signing the WS need, I’d guess that there is a 50/50 chance that he will hold some trade value at the deadline.
It’s 90/10 that he won’t.
At least Getz is active.
Yeah, I did see reports that he’s power walking on the treadmill….
Which shouldn’t be a bad thing
Listed 6-2, 272. Pretty substantial BMI for a pitcher. Just observing, not judging…
Wilson prefers the term ‘husky’.
It may sound crude but in all seriousness are drugs like Ozempic banned substances? could losing 30+ pounds increase effectiveness? Better arm angle? More stamina?
I was curious so I tried to look and found that all the GLP-1’s are not banned but they are on the monitored list (whatever that means).
This is a low key good signing.
Far too quiet on any Luis Robert Jr rumors.
Why would they trade him now? He’s coming off a crappy, injury plagued year. They need him to hit the first 2-3 months and build some value back, or they’ll be selling super low.
No worries. Teams can overplay their concerns all they want, but his value rises as a CF when they see the contract asks of older/below avg defenders like Santander and Teoscar. Pay in $ or prospects.
Santander and Teoscar are way better hitters. Robert can’t stay healthy and is very inconsistent year to year with the bat. I think White Sox fans are going to be really disappointed with the return. He’s making pretty good money, not a lot of surplus value on 3/55.
“The deal is pending a physical.”
He’s 6’2″ and 272 lbs. Not exactly an ideal specimen.
I think that the physical is all done, except for swinging by the local zoo to borrow the scale.
I like to think I follow baseball fairly closely, but I have never heard of this person in my entire life.
I have to say that I’m really impressed with the White Sox this offseason. 80 Wins is looking likely, and a wild card birth can’t be that far away
Debatable at best
‐Although he’s pitched well with Wells catching him, Trevino is Cole’s personal catcher.