The White Sox announced that they have signed infielder Bobby Dalbec to a minor league deal with an invite to major league spring training. Chris Cotillo of MassLive reports that Dalbec will make $1.25MM if in the majors with $500K of incentives available to him as well. The CAA Sports client will also have opportunities to opt-out of the deal in June or July if not on the roster.
Dalbec, 30 in June, joins a new organization for the first time in his career. He was drafted by the Red Sox in 2016 and played for that club at the big league level for parts of the past five seasons. The book on Dalbec is that he has power potential but strikes out far too often to make use of it. He has taken 1,044 trips to the plate in his major league career thus far, hitting home runs in 47 of those but also getting punched out 36.8% of the time.
That’s something that’s actually gotten worse over time. He hit 25 home runs in 2021 while striking out at a 34.4% clip, with the Red Sox surely hoping for that number to come down as he got more big league experience. But he’s had 146 plate appearances over the past two seasons and been set down on strikes at a massive 48.6% clip in those. He was outrighted off Boston’s roster in September and elected free agency at season’s end.
The White Sox are a good fit for him, as there’s not much blocking his path back to the big leagues. Dalbec has mostly played first base in his career but has also seen significant time at third, while making brief appearances in the middle infield and in right field.
Chicago just wrapped up the worst season of the modern era and has very little settled in its position player mix. Andrew Vaughn is still the first baseman but his production has declined in each of the past two years. Even if he bounces back, the White Sox are highly likely to trade him since he can only be retained via arbitration through 2026.
Veterans like Josh Rojas, Mike Tauchman and Austin Slater have been brought in to shore up various parts of the roster but any of them could be cut loose or traded throughout the year, depending on how things go in 2025. Youngsters like Miguel Vargas, Bryan Ramos and Colson Montgomery will be allotted lots of future playing time but none of them are established in the majors just yet.
Despite the strikeouts, Dalbec has continued to produce in the minors. He’s had 956 Triple-A plate appearances over the past three years with 58 homers. Though he had a 34.6% strikeout rate in that…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Chicago White Sox – MLB Trade Rumors…