The White Sox bullpen makeover rolls on.
After replacing Juan Minaya with Bruce Rondon over the weekend, the White Sox replaced Gregory Infante with Chris Volstad ahead of Thursday's game against the Minnesota Twins.
The 31-year-old Volstad has parts of eight major league seasons under his belt, including 19.1 innings with the White Sox last year. He made six appearances, two of them starts, and finished with a 4.66 ERA and four home runs allowed.
Volstad's most illustrious season was his rookie year with the then Florida Marlins, when he put up a 2.88 ERA in 14 starts and one relief outing. He's yet to keep his ERA under 4.50 in a single season since. After four seasons with the Fish, he pitched with the Cubs in 2012 and with the Colorado Rockies in 2013. He didn't pitch in the majors in 2014 or 2016, those two seasons without a big league appearance sandwiched around two innings with the Pittsburgh Pirates during the 2015 campaign.
Volstad was excellent for the White Sox this spring, making eight Cactus League appearances and allowing no runs over his 14 innings of work. He made one start with Triple-A Charlotte last Friday, tagged for five runs on six hits in 4.2 innings.
The White Sox are spending the early part of their season retooling their bullpen, which entered play Thursday with a 5.59 ERA, ranked 27th out of 30 big league teams. Minaya went down after walking four straight hitters in a loss to the Detroit Tigers. Infante allowed three hits and walked two in a loss to the Tampa Bay Rays earlier this week. Both guys made the Opening Day roster after faring well at the end of last season.
But the White Sox have opted to put veterans on display, perhaps with hopes of trading them later this season, much like they did last year with Anthony Swarzak, Tommy Kahnle, David Robertson, Dan Jennings and Tyler Clippard. Rondon has already looked great, striking out the first five hitters he faced. Through two outings, he's yet to do anything but get batters out.
MLB
Bringing up Volstad meant clearing a spot on the 40-man roster, and the White Sox did that by moving Carlos Rodon to the 60-day disabled list. But before White Sox fans get worried about a setback in the pitcher's recovery from shoulder surgery, know that the DL placement is retroactive to right before the season started, meaning Rodon is eligible to come off beginning May 28. That's right in line with what the White Sox have been suggesting could be when Rodon makes his return to the big league team, around the beginning of June.