Keeping Micker Adolfo

There is not much time to decide to do with Micker Adolfo and coming into the off-season, I thought it was simply going to be trying to pass him through waivers and if he didn’t make it, he didn’t make it. However, Micker has performed well in Spring Training. Not quite enough to ensure himself a spot on the roster (especially after the Pollock trade), but well enough to make him a consideration.

Trading him seems to be the best option for the White Sox at this point and that would likely look like Micker being moved to a team short on outfield depth but high on reliever depth. And maybe they have someone who is also out of options that they’d like to move. Teams like San Diego, Boston, Cleveland, etc.

But let’s, for a moment, imagine we want to keep Micker. How would that work within the confines of the 28 man roster?

As you can see above, Adolfo slots in on the 28 man roster as it sits. However, with Tim Anderson out the first two games, Danny Mendick will likely push him out since they will want at least one backup infielder.

So what can you do?

• Go unbalanced and have 15 position players and 13 pitchers. I believe this is allowed by the new 28 man rule, but it is a suboptimal use of your roster, especially when you don’t expect many innings from the back end of your rotation.
• Put someone on the IL. This likely would have been Vaughn if he had not already come back. But I don’t see an option here, unless there is something we don’t know.
• Send someone to the minors. Vaughn, Sheets, Engel all have minor league options. But are any of those players you’d want to leave off the roster, only to keep Micker a little while longer?
• Play two games without a backup infielder. This is the most fun, since it could lead to some interesting configurations.

All of this is probably for nothing, however, since the rosters will be cut again on May 1. At the end of the day, the most likely scenario is Adolfo is on another team later this week whether it be through a trade or he’s picked up off waivers. This is the kind of thing that happens when you have a really good roster, so it’s nothing to be sad about. We’ll wish him well (unless he goes to a division rival).

-Chorizy-E