White Sox Make A Flurry Of Surprising Roster Moves

Well, it is about that time. The White Sox have officially announced their first set of Spring Training roster moves, and some of the names on here are a bit surprising, all things considered.

According to the White Sox Twitter page, these are the moves they made:

They optioned four players to Class AAA Charlotte: OF Oscar Colás, RHP Davis Martin, LHP Sammy Peralta and INF José Rodríguez;

Two more to Class AA Birmingham: RHP Josimar Cousin and LHP Jake Eder;

And six players to minor-league camp: LHP Ky Bush, LHP Fraser Ellard, C Adam Hackenberg, RHP Edgar Navarro, C Edgar Quero and RHP Lane Ramsey.

With these moves, the White Sox now have 58 players remaining in major league camp. It is broken down with: 30 pitchers, five catchers, 12 infielders and 11 outfielders.

The most surprising out of these moves is Oscar Colas. It was expected that he would likely start the season in the minors, but for him to be in the first round of cuts is kind of crazy. Chris Getz must really not be a fan of him, as he was the only outfielder to be taken out of major league camp.

So far in Spring Training, Colas is hitting .188 with just one extra base hit and one RBI. These aren't great stats, but one would think that a top-100 prospect from last year would get an extended look. Chris Getz clearly does not think so, as he has Dominic Fletcher, Zach DeLoach, Kevin Pillar, and Brett Phillips, among others ranked ahead of him. At this point, you wonder if it is worth trading Colas, as teams could be interested in revitalizing a former top-100 prospect. I don't know how much value he would have, but it is worth exploring at this point to let him get a chance at significant playing time.

The other surprising move is Jose Rodriguez. He was only able to get five at-bats in Spring Training so far, going one for five. I thought he would stick around and fight for the UTL infielder spot, as he has great speed, so he could be a solid bench player, but it looks like he will start the season at Charlotte. It seems that the UTL infielder battle is down to Braden Shewmake and Danny Mendick.

Davis Martin still needs time to recover from his Tommy John surgery so it was likely he wasn't making the team out of camp, but I would expect to see him in Chicago at some point.

Cousin, Eder, Bush, and Quero are all interesting arms to monitor, as they could be in the big leagues contributing sooner rather than later. At this point however, they are just not ready for the major leagues. There is a good chance we could see some of them in Chicago in 2024 though.

Now, the fight for the rest of the roster spots just got so much more interesting. On the hitting side, keep a look out on the right field, catching, and utility infield competition, as well as one of the last bench spots.

On the pitching side, the last rotation spot and about half the bullpen is up for grabs, so this will be an interesting last few weeks of Spring Training.