White Sox Place Top Reliever On IL, Call Up Former First Round Pick
The White Sox made a series of moves before the middle game of their weekend series against Cleveland on Saturday and unfortunately the bullpen is going to be without its top reliever.
Lefty Aaron Bummer departed with two outs in the seventh inning after throwing a pitch to José Ramirez in Friday night’s 2-1 win. Bummer called for the team trainer and quickly exited following a short discussion. The White Sox said it was a biceps injury and on Saturday morning Bummer was placed on the 10-day injured list.
The White Sox also DFA’d right-hander Brady Lail, who was called up earlier this week to replace the injured Carlos Rodón on the roster. Lail pitched in Thursday’s 8-3 loss against the Brewers, giving up no runs on two hits and striking out one in 1.1 innings.
Bummer and Lail have been replaced by 2016 first round pick Zack Burdi and ex-Phillies pitcher Drew Anderson.
Burdi was taken 26th overall in 2016, and after reaching Triple-A that year his trajectory took a turn for the worse. The hard-throwing reliever had Tommy John surgery in July 2017, and since then has only pitched 29 innings in the minors. Burdi has a total of 100.1 innings in the minors.
As for Anderson, he’s seen a little time in the majors, making nine appearances for the Phillies from 2017-19, but hasn’t had much success. He’s posted a 7.71 ERA in 21 MLB innings.
Anderson has made 94 starts in his minor league career, but struggled at Triple-A in 2019, when he had a 5.77 ERA in 48.1 innings. Anderson was also limited to only 11 starts last year because of injury.