The Chicago White Sox make one good roster move and one that is puzzling
The White Sox are calling up Nick Nastrini to pitch against the Kansas City Royals. They also are reported to have signed Tommy Pham.
Not much has gone right for the Chicago White Sox this season.
The team is off to its worst start in the 124 years of the franchise. The three best hitters on the team are currently on IL. The Cincinnati Reds just left town with a three-game series sweep over the Sox in which the Reds outscored the Sox 27-5.
What was worse was the White Sox were barely competitive during those three games. There are not a lot of players worth watching right now outside of starting pitcher Garrett Crochet and relievers Jordan Leasure and Michael Kopech.
Until now.
The Sox are calling up one of the top 10 prospects in Nick Nastrini to start against the Kansas City Royals.
White Sox No. 8 prospect Nick Nastrini to be called up on Monday for his big league debut.
— MLB Pipeline (@MLBPipeline) April 14, 2024
More on the righty Chicago added at the Trade Deadline: https://t.co/Sa3keVKrad pic.twitter.com/fxFJ2We9Pu
Nastrini should have broken spring training with the club after he posted a 3.77 ERA with 11 strikeouts in 14.1 innings pitched in the Cactus League. The Sox only needed a fifth starter once over the past 15 games. It made sense to get Nastrini some innings at Triple-A Charlotte.
He has started two games where has given seven runs, six of them earned, in seven innings of work. He does have 13 strikeouts to just three walks in those games.
Nick had 116 strikeouts last year at Double-A where he split time between the Dodgers affiliate, the Tulsa Drillers, and the White Sox affiliate, the Birmingham Barons, after he was acquired in the Lance Lynn trade.
According to the scouting report on MLB.com, Nastrini's fastball can reach as high as 98mph on the gun, but expect his fastball to be more in the 93-96mph range. He produces a high amount of spin on his slider. He can also mix a curveball and a changeup.
The three areas he must grow in are his command and control along with maintaining consistency in his mechanics. Hey, no one is perfect in baseball.
At the very least he provides a reason to tune in. Hopefully, Nastrini stays with the big-league club. The Sox do have Brad Keller and Mike Clevinger in the organization, but those veterans should only be called upon if there is an injury to the rotation. This is a lost season, so it makes sense to get a good, long look at what Nastrini can do.
The White Sox are reportedly signing a veteran outfielder which does not make much sense.
The Sox are reportedly going to sign veteran outfielder Tommy Pham.
Free agent Tommy Pham close to deal with White Sox. Story: https://t.co/I2kjqXJfZe
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) April 15, 2024
There is nothing wrong with adding a veteran on a one-year, minor league team. Pham is 36 and helped the Arizona Diamondbacks get to the World Series. He finished with a 1.9 fWAR and 16 home runs. So it is not like he is a terrible player.
This move does not make sense for two reasons...
The first is the timing. Had the White Sox decided to add him before spring training then it would have made more sense.
Sure, it takes two to make a deal, and how long Pham held out to sign with any team makes you wonder when it was going to sink into Tommy's head that he was not going to get a big-money, major-league contract.
The Sox kept adding veteran outfielders like they needed to stock up on them to survive a nuclear winter. Kevin Pillar was cut and then brought back. Robbie Grossman was signed with only a couple of days left in spring training.
The season is lost at this point. Yes, it is April, but this team is even worse than last year, and that season was over after a month as well. In a lost season you need to avoid adding veterans that are going to take away at-bats from players who may contribute down the road.
NBC Sports Chicago's Chuck Garfien tried to make sense of the move that it is a way to get the offense going.
"It is the worst offense I have seen in my life for a @whitesox team to start the season"@ChuckGarfien dishes on the White Sox tough start and the addition of Tommy Pham
— Foul Territory (@FoulTerritoryTV) April 15, 2024
▶️ https://t.co/Yq0E9HiOyq pic.twitter.com/kJrp5Wn41u
Chuck deserves credit for always trying to be positive. The guy has to sit through 162 of these things, so he should get some grace even though it drives the fanbase nuts. That being said, thinking Tommy Pham is currently going to help an offense that is the absolute worst in baseball is a stretch.
This is the time to see if prospects like Oscar Colas or Zach DeLoach can help. The front office should be using this time to see if players in their 20s can be key pieces to the team in the long run, not some player who had 29 other teams having no problem letting him sit on the free-agent market for as long as he would like.
The other reason this move does not make a lick of sense is Pham has had some off-the-field troubles in the past.
Pham famously slapped Joc Pederson in the face before a game in 2022 over a fantasy football dispute when Pham was with the Reds and Pederson was with the Giants. He was also stabbed while trying to defend himself outside of a strip club in 2020. Pham was the one attacked, he was not causing any trouble, and he did win a civil suit with the club over the security that night.
This offseason was all about upgrading the character in the clubhouse and the Sox are about to add a guy who got upset over fantasy football and then got physical with another person over it. The incident was so bad in the eyes of the Giants that they did not even bother to try to trade for him before last year's deadline. They let him go to a division rival over the issue.
In all seriousness, I inquired about whether Tommy Pham would be a complete non-starter for the Giants. Was told unequivocally that they will not consider anyone with a DV incident in their past, which includes Pham. They consider the Joc slap an assault.
— Andrew Baggarly (@extrabaggs) August 1, 2023
Pham might be a good clubhouse guy, but it all comes down to perception and the Sox keep ignoring that. Instead, it looks like the front office is panicking and trying to throw whatever is possible against the wall and hoping it sticks. This time they are ignoring Pham's age, their young talent, and his past in the hopes that maybe he can add a run or two to a horrible offense.
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