The White Sox are about to sign right-hander Jake Woodford to a minor league contract, according to a report from FanSided’s Robert Murray. An invitation to big league Spring Training will be extended to the Excel Sports Management client.
This will be Woodford’s first professional jump to a new organization at the age of 27. He was a member of the Cardinals organization after being selected in the 2015 draft, and he was non-tendered in November of the previous year. He had a few respectable seasons while primarily serving as a swing player in the major leagues. He pitched 116 innings with a 3.26 earned run average in 2021 and 2022. Even though he only struck out 15.4% of balls in play during that period, his walk rate remained considerably below the league average at 7.5%. He also recorded grounders on 45.8% of balls in play.
Regretfully, things collapsed in 2023; he recorded a 6.23 ERA in 47 2/3 innings, with a further decline in strikeouts to 13.1% and a slight increase in walks to 9.9%. In that brief amount of time, he gave up 11 home runs despite his propensity for ground balls. This winter, Woodford became eligible for arbitration for the first time. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projects Woodford will get $1.1MM, which is slightly more than the $740K minimum wage for the following season. However, the Cards made the decision to move on and did not tender him in November.
The Sox’s pitching staff is full of unanswered questions. Although Dylan Cease appears to be the best player, many in the business believe he will be traded. Even though Garrett Crochet has only thrown 73 major league innings in the last four years, general manager Chris Getz recently stated that the team intends to extend him out. After a solid KBO season, Erick Fedde should have a role, although his performance in the majors was inconsistent before that. Both Touki Toussaint and Michael Kopech struggle with severe control issues. After an extended period of injury absence in 2023, Michael Soroka did not entirely recover. Chris Flexen has just finished an extremely difficult campaign.