On Friday, the Chicago White Sox made their first group of roster cuts by reassigning 7 players to minor league camp. That leaves 60 players in major league camp and the group consists of 32 pitchers, 11 infielders, 11 outfielders and 6 catchers.
The most prominent name of note on this initial list is right handed pitcher Jonathan Stiever. Stiever was selected in the 5th round of the 2017 draft out of Indiana and ranked #6 on our preseason top 30 prospect list. After bursting onto the prospect scene in 2019, the hard-throwing righty is expected to begin the 2020 season in Double-A with the Birmingham Barons. Stiever posted a 2.15 ERA in more than 70 innings with the Winston-Salem dash last year.
Arm injuries for pitchers are never a good thing but this absence seems temporary and the organization has been very cautious of late. The optics don’t appear to be great considering the group of hurlers that Stiever is lumped in with but all we can do is wait at this point. Ryan Burr, Dane Dunning and Jimmy Lambert are all on the road back from separate Tommy John rehabilitations and it was announced recently that 24-year-old southpaw Hunter Schryver would be going under the knife to repair his Ulnar Collateral Ligament as well.
As players currently occupying space on the 40-man roster, Lambert and Dunning were assigned to Double-A Birmingham. They’ll both continue their work in minor league camp and should join the affiliate late in the 2020 campaign. Matt Foster was added to the 40-man this offseason and always had a daunting path towards breaking camp with the big league club. The 25-year-old posted a 3.76 ERA in Charlotte last year and he was reassigned to the Knights in advance of the start to minor league camp. Foster will be a member of a loaded Charlotte bullpen and could make his major league debut later this year.
30-year-old infielder Matt Skole was reassigned to minor league camp as well. Skole played in 27 games with the White Sox last year and hit .208/.275/.236. The veteran lefty did post a 123 wRC+ with 21 homers for the Knights in the International League in 2019 however. There’s a logjam in camp at the corner positions and the organization likely didn’t have many more plate appearances for Skole with minor league games starting up soon. He should return to Triple-A Charlotte for the start of the 2020 season.
More roster moves will come frequently and we’ll keep you updated with that information here at FutureSox.
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What day do the minor league games start, and what time do they start? Is there a way to get a schedule of those games?