Chicago White Sox: Big moves announced on Friday
The Chicago White Sox made some big moves on Friday afternoon.
The Chicago White Sox made some noise on Thursday when they hired Tony La Russa to be their manager. The reception to the hiring hasn’t been all that positive but there is plenty of reason to believe that they are still a World Series contender going into 2021. Obviously, you need the players to take advantage of these situations and the White Sox are really starting to have those players. They need to make a few more moves and they got the ball rolling on Friday.
They announced some pretty noteworthy news on Friday as they are bringing some of their players back and moving on from others. The first notable move to discuss is the fact that Yolmer Sanchez was picked up off waivers by the Baltimore Orioles. They probably should have never brought him back but now might finally be able to move on.
They did pick up the option for Leury Garcia at 3.5 million dollars for 2021. He is a nice bench player to have that can play every position. He was injured for most of the 2020 season but the hope is that he can make a positive impact at some point next year.
Jimmy Lambert was reinstated from the 60-day injured list. He wasn’t the only player to be reinstated either as they activated Michael Kopech from the restricted list. He opted out of the 2020 season for various reasons but the hope is that he comes back better than ever in 2021. Kopech has awesome stuff and could be a star in the MLB one day.
They also declined a few club options with these transactions too. Edwin Encarnacion and Gio Gonzalez were both declined. There was no buyout for Encarnacion but Gonzalez required $500,000. Both of them had tough years in 2020 so this isn’t a move that White Sox fans should be too surprised to see.
light. Hot. Tony La Russa coached Minnie Minoso with the White Sox
They seem to be putting their best foot forward as they try to become a team that makes the playoffs in back to back years. Making the playoffs isn’t even the main goal anymore as they want to be in the World Series and eventually win it. Friday’s move cut their 40 man roster down to 36. Hopefully, they are able to have a big offseason coming up here as we get ready to turn the page to 2021.