The White Sox announced that they have signed an outfielder Bobby Dalbec on a minor league deal with an invitation to major league spring training. MassLive’s Chris Cotillo reports that Dalbec will make $1.25MM at the top with $500K in bonuses available to him as well. The CAA Sports client will have opportunities to opt out of the deal in June or July if it is not on the list.
Dalbec, 30 in June, is joining a new organization for the first time in his career. He was drafted by the Red Sox in 2016 and played for that team at the major league level for parts of the last five seasons. The book about Dalbec says that he has great power but that he strikes too often to use it. He has taken 1,044 trips to the plate in his major league career thus far, scoring 47 of those runs but getting hit 36.8% of the time.
That is something that has gotten worse over time. He hit 25 home runs in 2021 while hitting at a 34.4% clip, a number the Red Sox hope will drop as he gains major league experience. But he had 146 plate appearances over the past two seasons and was struck out at a whopping 48.6% clip. He was waived by Boston in September and elected free agency at the end of the season.
The White Sox deserve him, as there isn’t much stopping him from returning to the big leagues. Dalbec has played mostly first base in his career but has also seen significant time at third base, while making brief appearances in center field and right field.
Chicago just finished its worst season of the modern era and is less stable in its mix of position players. Andrew Vaughn he’s still a starter but his production has dipped over the past two years. Even if he regresses, the White Sox are more likely to trade him because he can only be saved through the 2026 settlement.
Veterans love it Josh Rojas, Mike Tauchman again Austin Slater brought in to cover various parts of the roster but any of them could be cut or sold throughout the year, depending on how things go in 2025. Miguel Vargas, Bryan Ramos again Colson Montgomery will be given plenty of playing time in the future but none have been established in the majors yet.
Despite the strike, Dalbec continued to produce for the young. He made 956 Triple-A plate appearances over the past three years with 58 homers. While he had a 34.6% strikeout rate in that sample, he also had an 11.8% walk rate, a combined batting line of .260/.358/.523 and a 121 wRC+. If he can bring some of that up with the White Sox, he has less than three years of service time and could be cheaply kept past this year in arbitration if he has a roster spot at the end of the season. Now he’s out of options, though, which could make it difficult for him to hold down a roster spot if he gets one.
Source link
