Most of the White Sox players and prospects who chose to play winter ball in the offseason played in either the Dominican or Venezuelan winter leagues (see those links for season reviews of each). A few are playing in Australia, who are still in their regular season and we’ll review that league later.
What remains are Puerto Rico and Mexico, where three White Sox minor leaguer pitchers saw action. Let’s see how they did…
Right-hander Terance Marin took the road less traveled in 2014. After getting hammered in his first two outings (10 hits and 9 runs in 2 innings), he was released, and got picked up by Evansville of the independent Frontier League. Having made some tweaks on the indy circuit, Marin was re-signed by the Sox in June and pitched well in his return to Winston-Salem (and even saw a couple games in AA late in the season). Originally scheduled to go to Australia for winter ball, when those plans fell through the Modesto JC product got on with Caneros de los Mochis of the Mexican Pacific League. The results were solid: 3.38 ERA, 1.15 WHIP, 26:8 K:BB in 48 innings (mostly starting). Marin is hoping to get another, longer look in AA in 2015.
RHP Miguel Chalas was acquired by the White Sox in the De Aza trade in August (some scouting info at the link). Pitching for Santurce in the Puerto Rican League, the Dominican righty has put up decent if unspectacular numbers in 14 relief appearances: 18 IP, 17 H, 7 ER, 8 BB, 16 K. Having spent most of 2014 and part of the previous season in A+, Chalas is likely ticketed for AA Birmingham in 2015.
Nelvin Fuentes was signed by the White Sox as a free agent prior to the 2014 season. This lefty was brought in to be lefty specialist relief depth, and he did fairly well with AA Birmingham (including 12.6 K/9) but struggled with AAA Charlotte (where his K rate dropped by more than half) in his age 25 season. He’s again a free agent trying to make a case to be re-signed, but his performance with Indios de Mayaguez in Puerto Rico doesn’t seem to help: 7 IP, 6 H, 6 ER, 6 BB, 6 K.
RHP Anthony Santiago, brother of former White Sox pitcher Hector, pitched in the Puerto Rican league but was released by the team. Another righty, Adam Lopez, was on a roster in the PWL but as a reserve and did not pitch.
Want to know right away when we publish a new article? Type your email address in the box and click the “create subscription” button. Our list is completely spam free, and you can opt out at any time.