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Michael A. Taylor Announces Retirement

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White Sox outfielder Michael A. Taylor announced his retirement to members of the media today, ahead of the Sox facing the Nationals in Washington, a place he played for many years. “To be able to play my last games of my career here in this ballpark in front of these fans, it’s just the icing on the cake,” Taylor said, per Andrew Golden of The Washington Post. He is in the lineup for the Sox today, playing center field and batting ninth, in what will be his final game.

Taylor, now 34, was a sixth-round pick of the Nationals back in 2009. He was a shortstop at that time, considered to be raw but in possession of some elite tools. He was moved to the outfield and quickly showed the potential to be a strong defender. He also showed more pop with the bat as he climbed the ladder, hitting 23 homers in the minors in 2014.

Going into 2015, he was considered to be one of the top 100 prospects in the game. Baseball America gave him the #32 spot, MLB Pipeline had him at #42, Baseball Prospectus at #57 and ESPN at #71. FanGraphs was a bit more bearish, putting him at #133 on their top 200 list.

Taylor had already made a brief major league debut in 2014 but got more properly established in 2015. He got into 138 games for the Nats, popping 14 homers and stealing 16 bags, but his overall value was held back by subpar walk and strikeout rates of 6.8% and 30.9%. Over his career, he would have his ups and downs, but his contributions mostly took that shape. He could put the ball over the fence, track it down with his glove and swipe some bags, but the plate discipline was never good.

Despite his flaws, he was a useful player for the Nats during their best stretch in Washington. The club finished above .500 in each season from 2012 to 2019, making the playoffs in five of those eight seasons. Those clubs featured stars like Bryce Harper, Stephen Strasburg, Trea Turner, Juan Soto, Max Scherzer, Anthony Rendon and others, but Taylor often played a solid supporting role.

In 2019, Taylor spent a decent chunk of the year in the minors, only getting into 53 big league games with one home run. But he took on a more prominent role at just the right time. As the Nats made a miracle charge through the postseason, Taylor got into eight of the club’s playoff contests. He clinched Game Five of the NLDS over the Dodgers with a diving catch, as seen in this video from MLB.com. He also slashed .333/.391/.619 in his 23 plate appearances as the Nats eventually went on to win the World Series.

More to come.

White Sox Claim Derek Hill

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The White Sox announced that they have claimed outfielder Derek Hill off waivers from the Marlins. The latter club designated him for assignment a few days ago. He will take the active roster spot of fellow outfielder Mike Tauchman, who has hit the 10-day injured list with a right knee meniscus tear. The 40-man roster had a vacancy but is now full. The club also recalled right-hander Jonathan Cannon and placed righty Wikelman González on the 15-day IL due to a right elbow impingement.

It’s unclear when Tauchman hurt his knee, but he hasn’t played since Saturday. He tells Scott Merkin of MLB.com that he will have surgery on Tuesday and is expecting a similar timeline to Austin Slater, who also had meniscus surgery earlier this year. Slater had his surgery in mid-April and was reinstated off the IL just over a month later. If Tauchman follows a similar timeline, he should be able to have a normal offseason.

The Sox will have to decide if they are going to tender him an arbitration contract for 2026. His 2025 campaign was decent. He got into 93 games for the Sox and stepped to the plate 385 times. His 22.3% strikeout rate was right around league average but his 11.7% walk rate was quite strong. He slashed .263/.356/.400 for a 115 wRC+, indicating he was 15% better than league average at the plate. When combined with solid outfield defense, he was worth 1.4 wins above replacement, according to FanGraphs.

He would be due a raise on this year’s $1.95MM salary. The Sox might be willing to bump that but they also might prefer to keep some playing time open for younger players. They seem hellbent on picking up Luis Robert Jr.’s option, which will take up one outfield spot. Andrew Benintendi is still under contract next year. He’ll likely serve as the designated hitter a lot but appeared in 69 games in left field in 2025. They have a cluster of guys like Will Robertson, Dominic Fletcher, Corey Julks and Brooks Baldwin in the mix and might be able to let Tauchman go, at least at the start of the offseason, perhaps circling back to him later.

For today, they are also adding Hill into the mix. He hasn’t been a great hitter in his big league career but has some speed and some defensive acumen. In 617 big league plate appearances, he has a .228/.276/.348 line, which translates to a 73 wRC+. He has 23 steals in 28 tries. In 1,369 2/3 innings on the grass, he has -2 Defensive Runs Saved but +9 Outs Above Average.

Hill can step in and help the Sox play out the string on this season. He has crossed three years of big league service time this year, meaning he’s about to be eligible for arbitration for the first time. The Sox could tender him a contract if they think he can be a useful part of next year’s club, but it’s possible he’s just a stopgap to cover for the Tauchman injury. In that case, he would be non-tendered this winter.

Photo courtesy of Jonathan Hui, Imagn Images

White Sox Select Corey Julks

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The White Sox announced today that outfielder Andrew Benintendi has been placed on the 10-day injured list, retroactive to September 21st, due to left Achilles tendinitis. Fellow outfielder Corey Julks has been selected to take his place on the active roster. The Sox had a couple of 40-man vacancies, so no further corresponding moves were necessary.

Benintendi’s injury brings another pedestrian season to a close for the former All-Star. The 31-year-old was excellent from June 1 onward in 2024 and looked to be on track for a full-fledged rebound earlier this season, but an uneven summer and multiple trips to the injured list will leave him with a .240/.307/.431 batting line that’s more or less league-average (102 wRC+).

We’re now three years into Benintendi’s five-year, $75MM free agent deal — remarkably, still the largest contract in franchise history for the White Sox — and he’s turned in a .245/.309/.391 batting line in 1613 plate appearances. Coupled with declining speed/baserunning value and defensive ratings that have tanked since signing with the South Siders, that output from the batter’s box has left Benintendi as a roughly replacement-level player since 2023 (-0.3 fWAR, 0.6 bWAR).

Earlier in the summer, the Sox were reportedly willing to pay down some of Benintendi’s contract if it meant facilitating a trade. No deal came together (obviously), and now that he’s further removed from that big finish to his ’24 season, it’s harder to take an optimistic stance on his 2026-27 outlook. He’s owed $31MM in the final two seasons of his contract, and the Sox would need to eat the vast majority of that or take on a different underwater contract to make a trade even remotely plausible in the offseason.

Julks, 29, was originally acquired from the Astros in May 2024 after he’d been designated for assignment in Houston. He’s seen minimal MLB time with the Sox since that swap and turned in a collective .221/.279/.320 batting line (71 wRC+) between the two seasons.

Chicago has already passed Julks through waivers unclaimed twice during the 2025 calendar year. He went 3-for-8 with a pair of doubles during his brief MLB look earlier this season but is a career .236/.290/.340 hitter in 520 major league plate appearances between the ’Stros and Pale Hose. That said, he’s had a solid showing in Triple-A Charlotte this year, hitting .300/.374/.477 with 15 homers and 18 stolen bases in 487 turns at the plate.

Given the late nature of Julks’ return to the 40-man roster and the multiple outrights already in 2025, there’s a decent chance it’ll be a short stay on the roster for Julks once again. If the Sox remove him from the roster following the season, he can become a minor league free agent, though his strong work in Charlotte this year might be enough to keep him around as a depth option.

White Sox Place Martin Perez On IL Due To Shoulder Strain

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The White Sox have placed veteran lefty Martin Perez on the 15-day injured list due to a shoulder strain, the team announced. The injury ends Perez’s season. Left-handed reliever Cam Booser is up from Triple-A Charlotte to take his spot on the roster.

Perez, 34, exited his last start early and clearly knew something was amiss. He delivered a pitch to Orioles second baseman Jackson Holliday and quickly called for time before motioning for assistance from the training staff (video link). He looked directly at his shoulder, shook his head in frustration while handing the ball to manager Will Venable, and immediately departed with trainer James Kruk.

It’s been a frustrating year for the well-traveled Perez. He signed a one-year, $5MM deal with Chicago over the winter and has pitched quite well when healthy — but that’s an unusually notable caveat with Perez in 2025. The typically durable southpaw suffered a flexor strain during his fourth start of the season and was out for nearly four months. He returned in mid-August only to incur this shoulder injury in just his seventh start back on the bump.

Perez’s 2025 season will draw to a close with a solid 3.54 ERA — but in a relatively small sample of just 56 innings. It’s the fewest innings Perez has pitched in a season since 2014, when he underwent Tommy John surgery. He’s pitched in at least 26 games every full season since 2019 and also made a full slate of 12 starts in the shortened 2020 campaign. He’s been bumped to the bullpen amid a rough patch a couple of times — both with the ’21 Red Sox and the ’23 Rangers — but outside of a three-week absence due to a 2024 groin strain and a quick placement on the Covid list in 2021, this year’s pair of IL placements are Perez’s first since 2018.

The White Sox haven’t specified how long Perez will be sidelined, but ending the season with a shoulder strain after missing four months due to a flexor strain isn’t how any pitcher wants to head back into free agency. There’s a $10MM mutual option on Perez’s contract, but even if he were healthy, it’s been more than a decade since both sides of a mutual option were exercised in MLB. The Sox will pay Perez a $1.5MM buyout and he’ll become a free agent in November. The type of contract he signs will hinge heavily on the severity of his shoulder strain, which to this point remains an unknown.

Poll: Luis Robert Jr.’s Option

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While they won’t be breaking the major league record for losses this year like they did in 2024, it’s been another tough year for the White Sox. They’ve lost 95 games and could lose 100 games for the third year in a row. Emerging young players like Kyle Teel and Colson Montgomery have made this season a little easier for fans on the south side of Chicago to stomach, but there’s still little reason to expect the team to contend in 2026.

One of the most important offseason decisions for the White Sox has been whether to exercise a $20MM option on center fielder Luis Robert Jr. or pay him a $2MM buyout, though it seems they’ve generally already made up their mind. As soon as the Sox opted not to trade him at the deadline, it seemed likely Robert would be back in 2026 as opposed to bought out for no return. General manager Chris Getz has suggested as much on multiple occasions, and just this morning he told reporters that he expects Robert to be a part of the club next season (link via Vinnie Duber of the Chicago Sun-Times). The question, then, is less about what they will do and whether or not they’re right to do it.

With Robert all but confirmed to be done for the 2025 campaign due to a hamstring strain, his numbers appear locked in. After slashing .224/.278/.379 (84 wRC+) with 14 homers in 100 games last year, Robert produced a nearly identical .223/.297/.364 line (82 wRC+) and slugged 14 homers in 110 games in 2025. Between that apparent lack of progress and Robert’s continued injury woes, it might seem difficult to understand why the White Sox would stick with him rather than simply viewing him as a sunk cost.

Despite his eerily similar (and disappointing) numbers, however, digging a little deeper into Robert’s 2025 numbers actually reveals reason for optimism. He stole ten more bases this year than last, going 33-for-41 as opposed to 2024’s 23-for-29. Robert’s defense is also showing signs of a rebound, as he jumped from a Fielding Run Value of 0 in 2024 to a +7 figure this year, good for top 10 among center fielders in baseball this year.

More encouraging than either of those changes are the differences in his approach at the plate. While Robert’s overall slash line doesn’t look terribly different, he cut his strikeout rate from 33.2% in ’24 to a more manageable 26% in ’25. His 9.8% walk rate isn’t just an improvement over last year’s 6.6% mark — it’s a new career-high. Robert also did his best work this summer, rebounding from a slow start to hit .274/.335/.458 with nine homers, a 19.7% strikeout rate and a 7.6% walk rate over his final 198 plate appearances. That was 17% better than average, per wRC+.

As shown by Statcast, Robert’s bat speed dropped in 2024, but he’s rebounded to elite levels in 2025, ranking in the 92nd percentile of big leaguers. That could suggest there’s still some untapped power upside, but even if his days of crushing baseballs on a 30 to 40 homer pace are behind him, the combination of improved discipline, baserunning, and defense leave him in a solid position to be a three-to-four win player in the future if he can just stay healthy — though that is a colossal “if.”

It’s arguable that it’s worth an $18MM roll of the dice, particularly considering the fact that Cody Bellinger signed with the Cubs on a one-year, $17.5MM contract during the 2022-23 offseason after back-to-back down seasons with the Dodgers. Like Robert, Bellinger was coming off injury-marred seasons where he didn’t look like himself at the plate but had shown some signs of improvement in his final year in Los Angeles. Bellinger, of course, rewarded the north siders for their gamble with an All-Star campaign in 2023 and has posted a 123 wRC+ with 10.9 fWAR over the past three seasons.

On the other hand, locking Robert in for another year comes with glaringly obvious risk. With the White Sox unlikely to contend in 2026, on-field production will only benefit the team if it can then be converted into trade capital. The White Sox have had a lot of difficulty getting what they perceive to be fair value for Robert over the years, and even if he has a big first half in 2026, teams might be scared away by his uncertain history.

Furthermore, Robert’s 110 games played in 2025 are actually the second-most of his entire career. He’s never played even 150 games in a season. One first-half injury could leave Robert with little trade value next year, and force the White Sox into another situation a lot like the one they find themselves in this year as they stare down another $20MM option for the 2027 campaign.

What do MLBTR readers think the White Sox should be doing about Robert? Should they pick up his option and bet on better days in the future, or would they be better off sending him on his way and using that $18MM in savings elsewhere? Have your say in the poll below:

White Sox Release Dan Altavilla

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TODAY: The Sox announced that Altavilla has cleared waivers and been released.

SEPTEMBER 10: The White Sox announced today that right-hander Sean Burke has been recalled from Triple-A Charlotte. In a corresponding move, fellow righty Dan Altavilla has been designated for assignment.

It’s a bit of a rude belated birthday present for Altavilla, who just turned 33 on Monday. He signed a minor league deal with the Sox in the offseason. He opted out of that deal, re-signed and then opted out again, but was eventually put on the major league roster at the end of May.

His numbers on the season look good until you check under the hood. He has thrown 29 innings with a 2.48 earned run average. However, his 17.5% strikeout rate and 12.5% walk rate are both subpar figures. His 51.3% ground ball rate is pretty good but he has largely benefitted from a .197 batting average on balls in play and 89.5% strand rate. His 5.45 FIP and 4.78 SIERA suggest that good luck has kept his ERA down about two to three runs relative to where it should be.

For the Sox, they have little reason to wait for regression to kick in. As mentioned, Altavilla is now 33 years old. He can technically be retained for 2026 via arbitration but the Sox weren’t planning on doing that. For a rebuilding club playing out the string on another losing season, it makes more sense to give innings to younger guys who are hopefully developing into future contributors. Since Altavilla is out of options, he’s been bumped off the 40-man entirely.

With the trade deadline having passed, he’ll have to be placed on waivers. He won’t have too much appeal, given his underlying numbers. He also won’t be postseason eligible for any claiming club, since it’s now beyond the September 1st deadline. Though it is possible some team which has recently suffered a number of injuries needs a healthy and available arm for the short term.

If Altavilla clears waivers, he will have the right to reject an outright assignment and elect free agency. There won’t be a lot of opportunities at this stage of the calendar, so perhaps he would decide to report to Triple-A Charlotte, or he could just go into offseason mode a few weeks early.

Photo courtesy of Patrick Gorski, Imagn Images

MLBTR Podcast: Talking Mariners With Jerry Dipoto

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The latest episode of the MLB Trade Rumors Podcast is now live on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your podcasts! Make sure you subscribe as well! You can also use the player at this link to listen, if you don’t use Spotify or Apple for podcasts.

This week, host Darragh McDonald is joined by Mariners president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto to discuss…

  • Seattle’s lack of spending on free agent position players (2:30)
  • The unique challenges of getting players to want to come to Seattle (4:40)
  • The club’s interest in re-signing Josh Naylor (8:15)
  • Do optics matter when making a move such as bringing back Eugenio Suárez or Jorge Polanco? (9:20)
  • The club’s ability to add talent at the deadline (13:25)
  • Does the expanded playoff field make it harder to trade prospects for major league talent? (16:30)

Plus, Tim Dierkes of MLB Trade Rumors joins the show to discuss…

And we answer your questions, including…

Check out our past episodes!

The podcast intro and outro song “So Long” is provided courtesy of the band Showoff.  Check out their Facebook page here!

Photo courtesy of Mark J. Rebilas, Imagn Images

Luis Robert Jr. “Running Out Of Time” To Return In 2025

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The White Sox haven’t officially declared center fielder Luis Robert Jr. out for the remainder of the season, but it seems that a return to the field is in doubt. Manager Will Venable told reporters (including James Fegan of Sox Machine) that Robert is “probably running out of time” to return to the field before the end of the season, as the early days of his recovery process haven’t gone well enough to create much optimism about a quick return to action.

Robert, 28, suffered a grade 2 hamstring strain in late August and has been sidelined ever since. The mercurial center fielder is just two years removed from an All-Star appearance amid a dominant five-win season, but his career has been marred with injuries and inconsistency. After playing in just 166 total games between the 2021 and ’22 campaigns, Robert has slumped badly in each of the last two seasons while battling more injuries.

In 210 games since the start of 2024, he’s hit just .223/.288/.372 with a wRC+ of 83. While he’s stolen an impressive 56 bases in that time, including 33 this year, he’s struck out at a 29.6% clip without offering quite enough power or patience at the plate to justify those high strikeout rates. While he once earned a Gold Glove award for his excellent defense in center field, that aspect of his game has regressed considerably in recent years as well. He was worth just +1 OAA last year, and while that figure has rebounded to +7 in 2025 he’s been worth +0 DRS this year after posting a +1 the year prior.

Between Robert’s injuries, lower power production, lesser defense, and high strikeout rates, his value on the market has plummeted over the past two years. While the White Sox have resisted trading him even amid their rebuild as they’ve refused to part with him for less than what they view as his fair market value, other teams have begun to view Robert as a player on an underwater contract due to his flaws and inconsistency. When Robert remained in Chicago following this year’s trade deadline, many assumed that would mean he’d depart the White Sox without the club recouping anything at all for him, seeing as this is the final guaranteed year of his contract.

That may not prove to be the case, however, as the White Sox maintain that they intend to pick up his $20MM club option for the 2026 season. That’s not an entirely unreasonable decision given Robert’s past successes and his .293/.349/.459 slash line since the start of July, but that sample makes up just 37 games and his latest injury only serves as a reminder of how unreliable his presence in the lineup has been for Chicago in recent years. Chicago will presumably be open to moving Robert once again this offseason, assuming they do pick up his option but, unless they have a change of heart about their strategy when shopping him or the franchise finds a way to compete next year, it seems likely that they’ll enter the 2026 season banking on a big first half from Robert in order to maximize his trade value at next year’s trade deadline.

White Sox Outright Bryse Wilson

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The White Sox have outrighted right-hander Bryse Wilson to Triple-A Charlotte, according to a report from James Fegan of Sox Machine earlier today. Wilson was designated for assignment earlier this week and evidently cleared waivers in the following days.

Wilson, 27, signed on with Chicago on a major league deal this past winter when he hit free agency after being outrighted off of the Brewers’ 40-man roster. A former top-100 prospect who had bounced between Atlanta, Pittsburgh, and Milwaukee and had significant success as a pure reliever with the Brewers back in 2023, it was understandable for the Sox to jump at the chance to bring him in on a one-year, $1.05MM deal this winter. The White Sox did not return Wilson to the full-time relief role he had previously found success in, however, and instead used him as a swing man.

It was not a decision that went over especially well. Wilson immediately struggled after giving up his first run of the year during a three-inning outing on April 4, and went on to post a 7.33 ERA across his next 43 innings before being designated for assignment and outrighted off the club’s roster back in June. While he was briefly brought back to the majors after Aaron Civale was claimed off waivers by the Cubs, his two scoreless innings of work evidently weren’t enough to wash away his deep struggles from earlier in the season and he was designated for assignment once again shortly thereafter.

While Wilson certainly had the opportunity to elect free agency rather than stick around the organization, it’s worth noting that he would’ve forfeited the remainder of his 2025 salary by doing so due to having less than five years of MLB service time. Wilson could be retained via arbitration if added back to the 40-man roster before the end of the season, but the most likely outcome is that he’ll simply head back into free agency this winter. After posting an ugly 6.65 ERA with the White Sox this year, it seems likely that Wilson will be limited to minor league deals.

Perhaps Wilson’s next season could be a more fruitful one if his next club opts to keep him in a pure relief role. Of the 35 earned runs Wilson has allowed with Chicago this year, 27 of them were in outings where he pitched more than two innings. That works out to a 7.36 ERA allowed in outings lasting longer than two frames, even worse than his season-long numbers. As previously mentioned, Wilson’s best season being with the Brewers in 2023, for whom he never threw more than 53 pitches in an outing. By contrast, Wilson threw more pitches than that in eight of his 20 appearances with the White Sox this year.

Whatever lies ahead for Wilson, he’ll be a non-roster depth pitcher for the White Sox in the short-term. Chicago currently has Tyler Alexander and Tyler Gilbert pitching in long relief roles, with arms like Jonathan Cannon and Sean Burke on the 40-man roster as potential options to come up and help out if needed. That leaves Wilson fairly buried on the depth chart, though it’s possible the club will keep Cannon and Burke in the minors through the end of the season for development purposes.

White Sox Select Dominic Fletcher

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The White Sox have selected the contract of outfielder Dominic Fletcher from Triple-A Charlotte and reinstated righty Dan Altavilla from the 15-day injured list, per a club announcement. Right-hander Jonathan Cannon and first baseman Tim Elko were optioned to Charlotte in a pair of corresponding transactions.

Fletcher, 28, was acquired from the D-backs in the 2023-24 offseason trade that sent pitching prospect Cristian Mena to Arizona. It hasn’t worked out particularly well for either team. Fletcher hit only .206/.252/.256 in 241 plate appearances with Chicago last year — a far cry from his strong .301/.350/.441 showing in 102 plate appearances during the 2023 season. The Sox designated him for assignment in spring training and passed him through waivers.

Fletcher has spent the entire 2025 season thus far in Triple-A, where he’s batted .260/.317/.453 with 17 home runs, 19 doubles, four triples and seven steals (in 11 attempts). He’s walked at just a 6.5% clip but also has a lower-than-average 19.5% strikeout rate.

Altavilla missed more than a month due to a lat strain but will return for the final few weeks of the season. He signed a big league deal with the ChiSox midseason after briefly opting out of a minor league deal with the club. In 26 2/3 innings, the 32-year-old righty (33 on Sunday) has posted a tidy 2.36 earned run average but with far less encouraging rate stats. He’s fanned only 15.5% of his opponents against a bloated 12.7% walk rate (leading to a 5.84 FIP and 5.08 SIERA).

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