The White Sox announced Friday that they’ve signed infielders Brandon Drury and Tristan Gray to minor league contracts. Both will be in major league camp as non-roster invitees to spring training.
Drury, a Wasserman client, is a veteran of ten major league seasons who’s suited up for seven teams along the way. The 32-year-old has had multiple productive stretches, most recently hitting .263/.313/.493 with 58 home runs over 1179 plate appearances in the three-year period from 2021-23. Drury was outstanding in a short look with the 2021 Mets and in a lengthier look with the Reds and Padres in 2022. He parlayed that into a two-year, $17MM deal with the Angels and looked like a shrewd pickup in year one of that deal after he batted .262/.306/.497 with 26 homers (his second straight season topping 25 round-trippers).
The 2024 campaign, however, was a nightmare. Drury hit only .169/.242/.228 in 360 plate appearances. He saw a major spike in pop-ups and grounders, with his 57.1% ground-ball rate spiking by 15 percentage points over his 2023 levels. No one in baseball (min. 300 plate appearances) put a higher percentage of batted balls on the ground than Drury. For a player whose sprint speed ranked in the 18th percentile of big leaguers, per Statcast, that’s an obviously alarming and suboptimal trend.
Defensively, Drury can move all around the diamond. He’s played all four infield positions and both outfield corners, with the bulk of his time coming between second base and third base. On the whole, defensive metrics like Outs Above Average and Defensive Runs Saved feel Drury’s body of work at second base, third base and first base have been solid, if unspectacular. He did log below-average grades in 2024, though he was hampered by a hamstring strain and a lengthy bout with an upper respiratory illness that knocked him out of action for nearly two weeks and could’ve had some impact on his play on either end of that infection.
Gray, a BJB Group client, has logged brief MLB appearances with the 2023 Rays and the 2024 Marlins. He’s gone just 5-for-33 with a homer in that tiny sample, though there’s little to be gleaned from what amounts to about a week’s worth of MLB at-bats. The 28-year-old has shown plenty of thump in Triple-A. He popped 33 homers with the Rays’ Durham affiliate in 2022 and slugged another 30 big flies the following year. In parts of four Triple-A seasons, Gray is a .238/.306/.472 hitter.
Like Drury, he brings some infield versatility to the table. He’s played all four infield positions. Unlike Drury, however, his most frequent spot has been shortstop, giving him far more defensive utility. He’s played nearly 2500 innings at short, more than 1400 at third base, more than 1300 at second base and just over 900 at first base. There are some strikeout concerns, but Gray is a left-handed hitter who can move to any spot on the infield and has shown 30-homer pop in the minors.
For a Sox club with little to no infield certainty both players are a sensible fit on a non-guaranteed deal. Andrew Vaughn is locked in at first base, but that’s about the only spot that’s set in stone (and even he could switch to DH if need be; he’s not a strong defender). Free agent signee Josh Rojas will likely handle third base, but he’s plenty familiar with playing second if the Sox prefer to give someone else a look at third. Lenyn Sosa, Brooks Baldwin, Jacob Amaya and top prospect Colson Montgomery are the only middle infielders on the 40-man roster. Montgomery will open the season in the minors, leaving the other three as de facto front-runners at shortstop and second base. Drury or Gray could feasibly work their way into that group with nice showings during spring training.
LOL, Oh yeah, that guy
On 2024, Drury and Gray hit 0.169 and 0.107, respectively.
They’ll fit perfectly on this roster.
You’re right on, swanhenge. How many more infielders who can’t hit will the White Sox sign? How many are already on their 40-man roster? What’s the point? Why do we need these guys if the whole point of the rebuild is to provide prospects playing time to see if they can be part of the long-term solution to current Sox woes?
Drury fell hard. Hopefully he puts up numbers like his 2023 self to get noticed by other teams in Spring Training.
It’s crazy he just won a silver slugger
He was injured. It affects the play dramatically.
Not gonna lie I thought he was dead/completely done with baseball. Whichever came first.
Miguel Vargus has more MLB games played at 2B than any other position, but It’s probably fair to say he’s no longer considered a middle infielder.
I am amazed that Drury had to settle for a minor league contract but Moncada got a ML one.
And wouldn’t be surprised if Drury has a better season than Moncada.
Interesting signing in Drury. He had pop as recently as 2023.
He’ll have a chance here. If he can’t make it on the South Side, he needs to hang it up.
The third prospect in Crochet deal (Meidroth) has a shot at winning the 2B job in ST, but yes there is plenty of room to rotate a bunch of infielders other than Vaughn sinking or swimming at 1B to up his stock.
While I know he’s a shortstop not a 2nd baseman, we met Colson Montgomery on a back field at Spring Training in 2023 and he could not have been nicer.
He signed a ball for my son and spent some time shaking hands and taking pictures with people.
Looked like he was done for the day and walking to the clubhouse but he took time to say hi and chat for a bit on top of signing. So I’m rooting for him.
Drury is a good low-risk signing. Gray is AAA filler, I’ve seen him play at AAA Durham for the Rays and he’s a 28th man type for a big league roster. Then again, it is the White Sox…
They’re all low-risk signings and can be expendable at the trade deadline if they make the team and play well. White Sox should be handing out NRIs like candy to children. They should begin moving any player who sticks by July and then give the next group play time for a few weeks until the deadline.
Especially since Reinsdorf will be a hardliner in the 2027 CBA lockout, and he’s probably going to use that to sell a “clean” expansion-like team to the Nashville or Orlando ownership groups as a condition for his Yes vote for any deal.
Drury solid trade deadline chip, Casas has some pop still on the right side of 30. Sox could try to deal Andrew Vaughn.
@ac casas is technically on the left side of 30, and he wears different color socks.