The White Sox introduced that they’ve signed right-hander Jonathan Heasley to a minor league take care of an invitation to main league spring coaching. The righty is represented by Icon Sports activities Administration.
Heasley, 28 this month, has some restricted huge league expertise stretched over a number of seasons. He has appeared in every of the previous 4 main league campaigns, throwing a mixed 139 innings, permitting 5.89 earned runs per 9. His 14.4% strikeout fee is nicely south of league common, although his 8.9% stroll fee is close to par.
Most of that got here with the Royals from 2021 to 2023. Final winter, he was acquired by the Orioles and began the 2024 season with that membership. The O’s principally stored him on optionally available task, solely giving him 4 huge league appearances on the yr. He was designated for task after which launched in July.
That’s not a really spectacular physique of labor, but it surely’s a reasonably small pattern and the White Sox are seemingly centered extra on his minor league numbers. In 2021, he tossed 105 1/3 innings over 22 Double-A appearances, 21 of these being begins. He had a 3.33 ERA, 27.7% strikeout fee and seven.9% stroll fee. Over the previous three years, he has thrown 164 2/3 innings on the Triple-A degree, together with his ERA at 5.47 in that point. His 22.4% strikeout fee and eight.8% stroll fee in that stretch have been nonetheless respectable, however he allowed 30 dwelling runs, pushing extra runs throughout the plate.
Heasley has labored each as a starter and a reliever in his profession, so he ought to be capable of present the Sox with depth in each areas. Their bullpen had a collective ERA of 4.73 final yr, which was twenty eighth within the league. The rotation was a bit higher, with a 4.62 ERA that ranked twenty fifth, although they traded Erick Fedde ultimately yr’s deadline and Garrett Crochet final month.
The Sox do have plenty of intriguing younger arms, as one would anticipate from a rebuilding group, however including in different arms is a wise offseason objective. They’ve signed guys like Martín Pérez and Bryse Wilson, in addition to having acquired Cam Booser and Wikelman Gonzalez by way of commerce and Penn Murfee by way of waivers. Heasley now comes aboard as non-roster depth. If he ultimately will get a roster spot, he’s out of choices however has barely a yr of service time.
