The Chicago White Sox never expected a great return when they traded veteran infielder Paul DeJong to the Kansas City Royals in June of 2024. DeJong, after all, signed for just $1.75 million, but the White Sox were able to capitalize on the Royals' desperation to extract a lottery ticket.
That lottery ticket was relief prospect Jarold Rosado, who at the time was in A-ball. Rosado signed out of the Dominican Republic with the Royals in 2019, but was not a priority international free agent at the time.
Early in his career, he battled injuries, but prior to the trade, he had posted a 1.85 ERA for Kansas City's Single-A affiliate. The White Sox promoted him to High-A Winston Salem, where he excelled, posting a 2.76 ERA and 12.67 K/9 in 16 innings.
This year, Rosado began his season repeating High-A, and while the final result was a 2.25 ERA, he saw his strikeouts drop to 10.13 K/9 while his BB/9 skyrocketed to 6.19. Still, Chicago moved him up to Double-A Birmingham after just 16 innings pitched.
There, his struggles were magnified. Rosado would make 14 appearances and toss another 16.1 innings, but his K/9 cratered to 7.71 and his BB/9 rose even higher, checking in at 8.82. Now walking more batters than he struck out, his ERA ballooned to 6.61.
Enigmatic reliever Jarold Rosado gets a shot in the Arizona Fall League to crack the White Sox 40-man roster
Thanks to top pitching prospect Noah Schultz being shut down for the rest of 2025, Rosado was given the opportunity to take Schultz's place on the Arizona Fall League roster. There, he'll get one more chance to impress and convince the White Sox to protect him from the Rule 5 draft by adding him to the 40-man roster.
Rosado missed six weeks this season with an illness, which, given the length of time he was out, makes you think that there must have been lingering effects that hindered his performance.
Fall ball, then, represents an opportunity for him to change opinions after his rocky 2025 with the benefit of additional time to recover.
He got off to an inauspicious start in his first AFL appearance, giving up five runs on two walks and two hits, including a grand slam, in just a third of an inning of work.
While you might be ready to close the book on Rosado, giving up the homer was uncharacteristic for him. Even at the height of his struggles, he's never posted a HR/9 rate above 0.55.
With a three-pitch repertoire that features an exceptional swing-and-miss breaking ball and an effective changeup that the 23-year-old can deploy against lefties, there was some thought that Rosado could factor into the 2026 bullpen equation despite having just an average fastball.
If that is to have any chance of coming to fruition, he'll have to get it together in Arizona and fast.