White Sox 2025: NRI and Out-of-Options Players I’m Watching This Spring

I yearn for the day when we, White Sox fans, are looking at which of these gentlemen must be jettisoned from the roster. But alas, the White Sox are not in that position. Rather, they are coming off a horrific season and likely picking up scraps from other teams. So let’s dig into what might be out there:

Christian Arroyo

It’s been more than a decade since the Giants drafted Arroyo and we all thought he’d be pushing Brandon Crawford out of his position in the coming years.

Unfortunately for Christian, that never materialized. He’s not a spectacular SS by any means, with a 0 DRS over his 195 big league innings, but certainly not bad. However, from 2015-2017 Brandon Crawford’s combined DRS was 55 while also hitting 47 HR. Not to say Arroyo would have been an impact player elsewhere, but he definitely never got to the “push Brandon out” level he was expected to. This lead him to a few different orgs where he played an above average 2B and a serviceable SS. He doesn’t have much pop, but he has had an OPS+ above 100 multiple times in his career. Two of those times came in 2021 and 2022 with the Boston Red Sox, when Will Venable was the bench coach.

With Colson Montgomery being sent to Charlotte for the start of the season and Chase Meidroth likely to join him, the White Sox have not addressed SS. Perhaps they’ll just stick with Jacob Amaya, but perhaps they try to get a better bat at the position without a big sacrifice in fielding value. Arroyo is having a very nice spring with the Phillies, but it’s not clear where he fits on that roster. He could be available soon.

New York Mets Outfield

The Mets have 4 guys that, barring injury, I assume will be on the roster: Juan Soto, Brandon Nimmo, Jesse Winker, and Starling Marte. Now, let’s list out the out of options guys trying to be added to this outfield: Jose Siri, Tyrone Taylor, Alexander Canario, and Jose Azocar. At most, we’re talking 2 spots available and CF is a must. The Mets just traded for Siri and he is a CF, so he certainly has the inside track. Azocar has not shown much and his spring training hasn’t pushed him ahead of these guys. However, I don’t see a fit with the White Sox. This leaves one of Tyrone Taylor and Alexander Canario out. With no options left, they can’t be reassigned to the minors. The White Sox are somehow missing right handed outfield options. Which seems crazy, but is absolutely the case, especially if they trade Luis Robert. Either of Taylor or Canario would be interesting and could possibly hit the ball out of the park, imagine that. My guess is Taylor makes the roster, so it’d be Canario. It feels like eons ago that he was in the Kris Bryant trade, but in just 4 years, we’ve seen his prospect rank drop to the point he may be available as we roll into the season.

He’s definitely a question mark, but the Sox should be grabbing guys like this falling off the rosters of the best teams in the league. Would you rather see Canario or Michael A Taylor getting plate appearances this year?

Joey Lucchesi

Lucchesi has spent most of his major league career as a starter, starting in 77 of the 81 games he played. First with the Padres and then with the Mets. He missed the entire 2022 season and since has been treated as pitching depth by the Mets. Keeping him mostly in the minors, though his brief stint in 2023 was successful. His MLB stint in 2024, not so much.

Now with the Giants on a minor league deal that includes an invite to Spring Training, Lucchesi is being used as a reliever. While the outcomes have been good in ST, there is a good chance he doesn’t make the roster. For the same reason it might be difficult for him to find work, he is intriguing to me. He’s a bit of an odd fit as a reliever. He does not throw hard, his cutter and sinker are about 89-90MPH. His recent vintage has not induced a lot of strike outs. But for these reasons, he may be available. What I do like about his recent results is he throws a ton of groundballs. This may make you wanna puke thinking about Aaron Bummer coming in with the bases loaded and seeing 4 ground balls in a row poke through the infield, but grounders are generally good. But also, I am very intrigued by the Churve:

Assuming this is ranked as a curveball by baseball savant, it was effective in 2023 post-TJ, but not so much last year. However, both are very small sample sizes. I think Lucchesi is a lot more interesting than your run of the mill reliever and if he gets released, I’d like to see him throw some innings for the White Sox.

As noted at the beginning of this blog, this is picking off players not deemed good enough to make other rosters. I don’t assume any of these players are going to be game changers. But I do think that when the White Sox are choosing these players, they should be looking at guys that might have upside in the future OR could be trade candidates in July. Not just more filler.

-Chorizy-E