The White Sox haven’t finished adding some depth pieces to their team.
Just a few days after announcing the signing of Elvis Andrus to a one-year, $3M deal, the club announced that they have signed reliever Bryan Shaw to a minor-league deal that includes an invitation to major league Spring Training.
Shaw, 35, has spent the majority of his career pitching with Cleveland. His best years in the majors came from 2013-2017 with the Guardians, when he posted a 3.11 ERA across 378 games with the club, which included nine saves in 358.2 innings. He then spent a few seasons in Colorado in Seattle, and since then, has returned to Cleveland to throw another 135.2 innings across two seasons. 2021 was far more successful than 2022, as he posted a 3.49 ERA in 2021 and a 5.40 ERA in 2022.
Shaw features primarily his cutter, which he throws 76% of the time. From there, he is about equal between his curveball (8.4%), sinker (6.5%), and slider (6.1%), while also featuring a changeup once and a while (2.9%). He has a career 21.2 K% and 9.6 BB%, but most interestingly, Shaw featured a 51.8% ground ball rate last season, which ranked 30th among qualified relievers last season. So, it’s pretty clear that in a bullpen with players such as Aaron Bummer and Kendall Graveman, groundball pitchers are considered very important alongside though with his strikeout rates.
It’s not yet clear if Bryan Shaw fits into the White Sox’ bullpen picture, however. With both Nick Avila (Rule 5) and Jose Ruiz (out of options) almost guaranteed to make the Opening Day roster, non-roster invites are likely on the outside looking in when it comes to an Opening Day role. However, should the White Sox find themselves battling injury or poor performance at some point this season, Shaw could find himself with an upper hand on the next available spot on the White Sox’ roster given his major league experience. Look for Ethan Katz and the White Sox to get Shaw back to his better form throughout the spring.
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