Chris Getz has had a very busy 24 hours as he has made some interesting moves. He signed Nick Senzel, DFA’d Danny Mendick, and demoted Lenyn Sosa. If that wasn’t enough, he now made an even more head scratching move, as according to Ken Rosenthal, the White Sox have now DFA’d Martin Maldonado.
This comes out of left field, as it seemed inevitable that Maldonado was going to finish the season with the team. Maldonado was consistently praised by the coaching staff for his veteran presence and his ability to help handle the young pitching staff. Those traits overlooked his poor performance on the field, as the White Sox continued to play him as he shuffled to a .070 batting average for most of the season. If they weren’t going to DFA him then, it seemed that it was never going to come.
But now, after Maldonado has looked much better at the plate, the White Sox finally decided to cut ties with him, shocking a lot of fans. Over his last seven games, Maldonado has hit .333 with a .400, adding three homeruns and six RBIs. As Korey Lee is in the midst of a slump, it was nice to see Maldy do some damage with the bat.
While it’s unclear if something clicked with Maldonado as of late, or if he was simply due to start hitting the ball out of the park, the improvement was noticeable and made him more valuable to the team.
That is what makes the decision to DFA him now even more confusing. If his leadership and work with the pitching staff was so important the last few months that you had to keep him when he was hitting below .070, why cut him when he’s looked significantly better as of late?
On top of that, more rookies are going to be called up to Chicago over the next few months, so his veteran leadership could have been important as the new guys acclimate to the MLB lifestyle. Plus, more young pitching is coming, so his work behind the plate and game calling could have been beneficial to the new young arms.
This is the second surprising move Getz has made today, as he seems dead set on completely overhauling this roster. According to Daryl Van Schouwen, it seems that the White Sox are calling up Chuckie Robinson to take Maldy’s spot.
This has been an interesting day in Soxland to say the least, but we wish Martín Maldonado the best of luck on his next journey.
