Lucius Fox

White Sox Release Lucius Fox, Yoelqui Cespedes

By Mark Polishuk | March 30, 2024 at 11:31am CDT

The White Sox parted ways with two notable names, as shortstop Lucius Fox and outfielder Yoelqui Cespedes have each been released within the last few days. Fox’s release was reported on his official MLB.com profile page, while James Fegan of the Sox Machine blog was first to note Cespedes’ release.

Fox inked a minor league deal with Chicago in February but didn’t receive any action during Spring Training, and so the 26-year-old will again hit the open market. Fox was a highly-regarded international prospect who signed for a whopping $6MM bonus from the Giants in 2015, though San Francisco dealt Fox (and Matt Duffy) to the Rays just over a year later in order to acquire Matt Moore at the trade deadline. The shortstop has since bounced around to four other organizations, counting his brief stint with the White Sox.

The Nationals claimed Fox off waivers from the Orioles in the 2021-22 offseason, and Fox’s only career Major League games to date came in the form of 10 games (and two hits in 28 plate appearances) with Washington in 2022. This cup of coffee in the Show at least made Fox the ninth big leaguer in history to hail from the Bahamas. Fox played in the Nats’ farm system in 2023 but didn’t hit much, continuing the theme of his pro career. Over 2476 career PA in the minors, Fox has a .243/.335/.333 slash line and 156 steals out of 202 chances.

Cespedes has something of a similar story, as he signed a $2.05MM deal with the White Sox out of Cuba in January 2021 (the opening of the 2020-21 international signing window was delayed by the pandemic). There was some extra hype attached given how older brother Yoenis was already a former All-Star, but the younger Cespedes hit .230/.319/.350 over 503 combined PA at the Double-A and Triple-A levels in 2023. Though the 26-year-old Cespedes hit pretty well in his previous two pro seasons, it appears that newly-hired Sox farm director Paul Janish is ready to move on following Cespedes’ down year.

Each MLB Team’s Players On WBC Rosters

By Darragh McDonald | February 9, 2023 at 7:30pm CDT

The World Baseball Classic is returning this year, the first time since 2017. The quadrennial event was supposed to take place in 2021 but was scuttled by the pandemic, now returning after a six-year absence. Rosters for the tournament were announced today and those can be found at this link. Here is a breakdown of which players from each MLB team are set to take participate. Quick caveat that this list is fluid and might be changed as more information becomes available.

Without further ado…

Angels

Astros

Athletics

Blue Jays

Braves

Brewers

Cardinals

Cubs

Diamondbacks

Dodgers

Giants

Guardians

Marlins

Mariners

Mets

Nationals

Orioles

Padres

Phillies

Pirates

Rangers

Rays

Red Sox

Reds

Rockies

Royals

Tigers

Twins

White Sox

Yankees

Nationals Designate Gerardo Carrillo, Outright Lucius Fox

By Darragh McDonald | December 20, 2022 at 3:25pm CDT

The Nationals have made their signing of right-hander Erasmo Ramirez official, announcing the move today. In a corresponding move, fellow righty Gerardo Carrillo was designated for assignment. Additionally, infielder Lucius Fox cleared waivers and was outrighted to Triple-A.

Carrillo, 24, began his professional career with the Dodgers but went to the Nats as part of the blockbuster deal that sent Max Scherzer and Trea Turner to the Dodgers at the trade deadline in 2021. Prior to the deal, he had been placed at the back end of Baseball America’s list of top 30 Dodger prospects for three straight years beginning in 2019. He had showed enough promise that the Dodgers added him to their 40-man roster after the 2020 season.

The major knock on Carrillo has been his lack of control and that has continued to be true after moving to his new organization. He has yet to reach Triple-A but has double-digit walk rates at High-A and Double-A. In 2022, he made a few appearances in April but went on the injured list and didn’t return until July. That limited him to just 21 appearances on the season as a whole, including a rehab assignment, with Carrillo posting a 6.94 ERA in that time. He struck out a solid 24.3% of batters faced but walked 11.3% of them. The Nats will now have a week to trade him or pass him through waivers.

As for Fox, 25, he was once a well-regarded glove-first prospect with the Giants but his power hasn’t developed as hoped. He was traded to the Rays and Royals, subsequently going to the Orioles and Nationals on waiver claims. He made his MLB debut in 2022 but hit just .080/.115/.080 in 28 trips to the plate. In 216 minor league plate appearances for the year, he hit .241/.321/.352 for a wRC+ of 81. He was designated for assignment last week but will now stick with the organization without occupying a roster spot.

Nationals Claim A.J. Alexy, Designate Lucius Fox

By Darragh McDonald | December 13, 2022 at 1:05pm CDT

The Nationals have claimed right-hander A.J. Alexy from the Rangers, per announcements from both teams. Alexy had been designated for assignment by the Rangers last week. The Nats designated shortstop Lucius Fox for assignment in a corresponding move.

Alexy, 25 in April, was a Dodgers draftee who came to the Rangers via the Yu Darvish trade in 2017. He subsequently moved his way up the minor league ranks, but missed much of 2019 due to injury and didn’t pitch at all in 2020 due to the pandemic wiping out the minors that year. Regardless, the Rangers liked him enough to add him to their 40-man roster prior to the Rule 5 draft in late 2020.

He got back on track with a nice season in 2021, splitting his time between Double-A and Triple-A. Over 65 innings on the farm in 10 starts and six relief appearances, he had a 1.66 ERA, 29.8% strikeout rate and 10.6% walk rate. That was enough to get him a promotion to the big leagues late in the year. In 2022, Alexy made four MLB appearances but was lit up for ERA of 11.57 in that small sample. He tossed 96 innings in Triple-A but posted a 5.91 ERA with a 23.6% strikeout rate and 12.8% walk rate.

The Rangers relied on many youngsters for their pitching staff in 2022 but are going in a different direction for 2023, acquiring Jake Odorizzi before signing both Jacob deGrom and Andrew Heaney. Those moves pushed Alexy down the depth chart and off the roster, with his DFA coming when they announced the Heaney signing.

For the Nats, they are deep in rebuild mode and can take fliers on young players like Alexy. He still has one option year remaining and has shown some quality results in the past. They can keep him in the minors in 2023 and see if he takes a step forward in his age-25 season.

Fox, 25, was a high profile international signing of the Giants out of the Bahamas back in July of 2015, earning a $6MM bonus. Prospect evaluators considered him a gifted infielder with a distinct lack of power. That latter point has certainly proven to be true as Fox has never hit more than five home runs in any season since then. The Giants traded him to the Rays in the Evan Longoria deal but Tampa later flipped him to the Royals for Brett Phillips. He then went to the Orioles and Nationals on waiver claims. He made his MLB debut in 2022 but hit just .080/.115/.080 in 28 trips to the plate. In 216 minor league plate appearances, he hit .241/.321/.352 for a wRC+ of 81. The Nats will now have a week to trade him or pass him through waivers. He’s now out of options, meaning any team that acquires him would have to keep him on their active roster or else designate him for assignment again.

Anthony Franco of MLB Trade Rumors tweeted news of the Alexy claim prior to the official announcement.

Nationals Claim Lucius Fox

By Steve Adams | November 30, 2021 at 1:38pm CDT

The Nationals have claimed infielder Lucius Fox off waivers from the Orioles, per announcements from both clubs. Baltimore had claimed Fox off waivers from the Royals earlier this month.

Fox, 24, was a big-time international signing by the Giants out of the Bahamas back in the 2015-16 international signing period. Signed to a $6MM bonus, he was viewed as a gifted up-the-middle defender with a promising hit tool but a lack of power. San Francisco clearly wasn’t the only club enamored of his skill set, as Fox has been included in a couple of fairly notable trades — going from San Francisco to Tampa Bay in the Evan Longoria swap and from the Rays to the Royals in exchange for Brett Phillips.

Fox will vie for a spot in a fairly wide-open Nationals infield mix next spring, where Alcides Escobar, Luis Garcia and Carter Kieboom look like the incumbent options at shortstop, second base and third base, respectively. That said, Fox also has a minor league option remaining, so if he lasts on the 40-man roster through the remainder of the offseason, he can be sent to Triple-A without first needing to pass through waivers.

Orioles Claim Lucius Fox From Royals

By Steve Adams | November 19, 2021 at 2:15pm CDT

The Orioles announced Friday that they’ve claimed infielder Lucius Fox off waivers from the Royals. The waiver claim gives Baltimore 33 filled spots on the 40-man roster.

Fox, 24, was a big-time international signing by the Giants out of the Bahamas back in the 2015-16 international signing period. Signed to a $6MM bonus, Fox was viewed as a gifted up-the-middle defender with a promising hit tool but a lack of power. San Francisco clearly wasn’t the only club enamored of his skill set, as he’s been included in a couple of notable trades — going from San Francisco to Tampa Bay in the Evan Longoria swap and from the Rays to the Royals in exchange for Brett Phillips.

To this point in his career, Fox has gotten on base at a respectable clip but has indeed demonstrated a lack of power. In five minor league seasons, he’s posted a .244/.339/.332 batting line — never topping five home runs or 20 doubles in a given season. Scouting reports on Fox, including this one from FanGraphs’ Eric Longenhagen, note that he has plus speed and strong defensive tools but is still inconsistent with the glove. Fox’s prospect star has dimmer in recent year, and he now comes to the Orioles as the next in a growing line of former-top-prospect waiver claims (e.g. Jorge Mateo, Jahmai Jones).

Fox still has an option remaining, so if he can’t win a piece of what should be a wide-open shortstop competition in Spring Training, he can still be sent to Triple-A Norfolk without needing to first pass through waivers.

Rays Acquire Brett Phillips From Royals

By Steve Adams | August 27, 2020 at 2:04pm CDT

The Rays have acquired outfielder Brett Phillips from the Royals in exchange for minor league infielder Lucius Fox, the teams announced. Both players are on the 40-man roster, so corresponding 40-man moves aren’t necessary.

It’s a swap of two once-heralded young talents whose respective stocks have dipped in recent years. Phillips, 26, went from the Astros to the Brewers alongside Josh Hader in the famed Mike Fiers/Carlos Gomez deal. At the time, he was a top 50 prospect who was regarded as a potential five-tool superstar, but in the years since, his contact issues have continued to limit his value. Phillips went from Milwaukee to K.C. in the original Mike Moustakas trade, and he’s since settled in as an absolutely rocket-armed, plus defensive outfielder with power but major swing-and-miss issues at the plate.

It’s fun to think about what an outfield of Kevin Kiermaier, Manuel Margot and Phillips could do from a defensive standpoint, but it’s hard to overlook the fact that in 358 MLB plate appearances, Phillips is a .205/.282/.344 hitter with an enormous 35.2% strikeout rate. His penchant for “did-he-just-do-that,” highlight-reel assists from any of the three outfield spots make him one of the game’s more entertaining defenders, but the Rays have some work to do if they are to coax anything out of Phillips from an offensive standpoint. Phillips is controllable through 2024, but he’s already out of minor league options, so the Rays have to keep him on the big league roster.

The 23-year-old Fox, meanwhile, is a switch-hitting Bahamian shortstop who signed a hefty $6MM bonus with the Giants back in 2015. That deal came near the peak of aggressive spending on international amateurs that preceded the hard-capped bonus pools which are now in place under the 2016-21 CBA. He was seen at the time as an athletic, high-contact middle infielder or center fielder with speed and the potential to grow into a bit more power than he had, but Fox hasn’t developed at the plate as hoped.

He lasted just one season with the Giants before being traded to the Rays as part of their return for Matt Moore, and there was some controversy when it was discovered post-trade that Fox had been playing through a foot injury which was not disclosed to the Rays. Fox eventually settled in as a mid-range prospect in a deep Rays system, but his stock has continued to dip as he’s posted pedestrian minor league numbers. He spent most of the 2019 season in Double-A, where he hit .230/.340/.342 with three homers and 37 steals. The speed is surely a highly appealing trait to a Royals club that tends to stockpile stolen-base threats, but Fox’s overall offensive game has yet to come together.

Rays’ Centerfield Situation

By TC Zencka | February 29, 2020 at 8:26pm CDT

Kevin Kiermaier and Manuel Margot are hard-coded atop the centerfield depth chart for the Tampa Bay Rays, but both players come with question marks.

Despite Kiermaier’s statesman status as the longest-tenured Ray, the club has taken an aggressive approach to finding players capable of roaming the grass in center. He remains a defensive stud, but his health is perpetually in question and his offense has slipped over the past two seasons. His two-year slash line checks in at just .223/.280/.386 across 847 plate appearances. Despite roughly 21% less offensive production than average (79 wRC+), Kiermaier’s A-1 defensive abilities and plus baserunning skills maintain his viability as a starter. Margot fits the same profile, but five years younger and he bats from the right side.

The Rays know what they like, apparently, because they are continuing to experiment with power-shy Lucius Fox in centerfield, per Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. Fox has been an infielder for most of his career, primarily at shortstop, though he’s gotten looks at second and third as well. Fox is a tremendous speedster, making him a fit for center from a raw tools standpoint, but he has yet to log any professional time in the outfield. It hasn’t clicked yet for Fox offensively with a .244/.337/.325 line across four seasons in the minor leagues.

Before acquiring Margot, the Rays also picked up Randy Arozarena in the Matthew Liberatore trade. Arozarena now seems likely to start the year in Triple-A, but he’s another option for center. He also happens to be coming off a monster year in Triple-A, where he hit .358/.435/.593 in 64 games after earning a promotion from Double-A. He excelled in a small-sample 19 games with the Cardinals at the end of the year, making their playoff roster as a speed option off the bench. Purely from a numbers standpoint, Arozarena could have the highest-ceiling of all their current options.

The Rays clearly prefer a gold glove roving-type in centerfield, but Austin Meadows could also fill in there in a pinch. It is telling, however, that he has only logged 13 innings in center since being acquired from the Pirates.

Rays Designate Matt Duffy For Assignment

By Steve Adams | November 20, 2019 at 7:18pm CDT

The Rays have designated third baseman Matt Duffy for assignment and selected the contracts of infielders Vidal Brujan, Jake Cronenworth, Kevin Padlo and Lucius Fox as well as catcher Ronaldo Hernandez. Tampa Bay also traded right-hander Jose De Leon to the Reds in exchange for cash or a player to be named later earlier tonight.

Acquired in the 2016 trade that sent Matt Moore to the Giants, Duffy was expected to be a focal point of the Tampa Bay infield for several years. He’d batted .295/.334/.428 over the life of 149 games during the 2015 season, was considered a premium defender and came to the Rays with another four-plus seasons of team control.

But a series of lower-half injuries — Achilles, foot and hamstring — all limited Duffy considerably over the next three seasons, with the Achilles injury proving to require surgery. Duffy only played 199 games and totaled 809 plate appearances across parts of four seasons in the Rays organization. He’d been projected to receive a $2.9MM salary in arbitration (per MLB contributor Matt Swartz), and the Rays weren’t comfortable with that number, it seems.

Brujan is the most highly regarded prospect of those protected today, ranking as a consensus top 100 prospect and posting a combined .277/.346/.389 batting line between Class-A Advanced and Double-A as a 21-year-old. Each of Hernandez (No. 7), Cronenworth (No. 17) and Fox (No. 19) ranked inside the Rays’ top 30 at MLB.com. Fox, notably, came to the Rays in the same 2016 trade as Duffy. The 23-year-old Padlo was acquired along with Corey Dickerson in the trade that sent German Marquez to the Rockies, and he posted a robust .265/.389/.538 line between Double-A and Triple-A in 2019.

International Notes: Bahamas, Japan, Korea

By Kyle Downing | December 25, 2018 at 1:49pm CDT

With not much likely to happen in the way of U.S. baseball transactions today, we’ll turn an eye to some locations overseas…

The quality of talent in Bahamian baseball is on the rise, writes MLB.com’s Jesse Sanchez. To date, only six players from the Bahamas have played in the major leagues, including Antoan Richardson, the player who famously crossed the plate for the walk-off run Derek Jeter drove in during his final MLB at-bat. However, as many as fifteen players across MiLB’s 30 farm systems come from the Bahamas. Notably, Kristian Robinson currently ranks as the Diamondbacks’ 12th-best prospect, while Trent Deveaux and D’Shawn Knowles are among the Angels’ top 30 minor-leaguers. Lucius Fox, another Bahamian native (and a former $6MM international signing by the Giants), batted .326 in the Arizona Fall League and projects to open the 2019 season with the Rays’ Double-A Affiliate. Perhaps the most intriguing name on the list of Bahamian prospects is Jazz Chisholm, who’s ranked as the Diamondbacks’ third-best farmhand by MLB Pipeline.
Kazuto Yamazaki of Baseball Prospectus suggests that a “wave” of Nippon Professional Baseball talent could make its way to MLB next year, and lists their names in a tweet. Left-handed-hitting outfielder Shogo Akiyama is reportedly set for international free agency, while Takahiro Norimoto, Yoshitomo Tsutsugo, and Ryosuke Kikuchi are all probable candidates to be made available through NPB’s posting system. Japan, of course, as produced plenty of high-end MLB talent in recent seasons, including Masahiro Tanaka and Shohei Ohtani. Yusei Kikuchi, who was just posted earlier this month, is the NPB’s most interesting player to make the jump to MLB this winter.
Per Evan Drellich of NBC Sports Boston, a longtime Astros scout has taken a job with a Korean Baseball Organization team. Aaron Tassano, who’s also done legwork for the Cubs and Rays, is now the scouting coordinator for the KBO’s Samsung Lions, for whom he’ll now be trying to pluck talent from MLB farm systems. Drellich’s piece compiles some interesting quotes from Tassano that help form a picture of how KBO teams might make their pitches to certain MLB players and their agents.

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