The White Sox have added another relief pitcher to the organization. 28-year old RHP Dustin Antolin has signed a minor league deal with the club, according to his former team, the Somerset Patriots of the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball.
Antolin was drafted in the 11th round by the Toronto Blue Jays in 2008. The righty spent the 2009-early portion of the 2013 seasons in Single-A before being promoted to Double-A in May of 2013. He then saw time in Double-A and Triple-A before making his MLB debut on May 16, 2016. In the Major Leagues, Antolin only pitched 2.0 innings, giving up 4 hits, 3 earned runs, a walk, and one strikeout. Since that debut, Antolin spent the rest of his time down in Triple-A of the Blue Jays organization and later the Nationals organization after being DFA’ed. After struggling during the early portion of the 2017 season for Triple-A Syracuse (Washington Nationals): 24 G, 50.0 IP, 32 BB, 43 K, 6.30 ERA, 1.840 WHIP – he was released. Antolin later signed with the Somerset Pitchers, where he spent the rest of his 2017 season. With the Patriots, he put up solid numbers: 21 G, 21.2 IP, 3 BB, 29 K, 2.08 ERA, 0.969 WHIP.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8K_A9S2g_o]
It seems that Antolin will be a big work in progress when he comes over to the Sox organization. He will likely end up in either Double-A Birmingham or Triple-A Charlotte in 2018. He has a career 4.40 ERA and averages about 4 walks per nine innings. As he showed during his stint with the Somerset Patriots and other teams, he does have the ability to limit his walk rate at times and maintain a high strikeout rate, though his command has been an area of concern. As for his stuff, he has a fastball that sits mainly around 91-94 mph. He does have a slider and change-up that both have been clocked in the 80s mph range. However, in order to have any shot at the Major Leagues, Antolin will need to be able to consistently and accurately locate all of his pitches. He has shown flashes of MLB bullpen-arm potential in the past so he will need to see if he can regain that promise again.
