The Chicago White Sox DFA high value reliever in odd move

The Chicago White Sox needed to add another lefty to their starting rotation, so they went out and made a deal to sign left-hander Martin Perez on a one-year deal.

Perez will figure to be the ‘Ace‘ of the White Sox rotation and hopefully, a valuable trade piece come next year’s trade deadline.

When signing Perez, the White Sox went over the 40-man limit for their roster, so they needed to make a move to accommodate the signing. Sadly, one right-hander was designated for assignment.

The Chicago White Sox DFA Ron Marinaccio

When the White Sox signed Perez a roster move needed to be made and sadly Ron Marinaccio was the one to get the axe with the White Sox announcing it via their X account.

“The Chicago White Sox have agreed to terms with veteran LHP Martín Pérez on a one-year, $5.0-million contract, which includes a mutual option for the 2026 season. To make room on the 40-man roster, the White Sox designated RHP Ron Marinaccio for assignment.”

The Chicago White Sox have agreed to terms with veteran LHP Martín Pérez on a one-year, $5.0-million contract, which includes a mutual option for the 2026 season.

To make room on the 40-man roster, the White Sox designated RHP Ron Marinaccio for assignment.

— Chicago White Sox (@whitesox) January 21, 2025

The New York Yankees originally drafted the 29-year-old Marinaccio in the nineteenth round of the 2017 MLB June Amateur Draft and came to the White Sox when he was picked up off waivers back on September 23rd, 2024. Marinaccio spent his 2024 campaign being shuttled from Triple-A and the Major Leagues with the majority of his year being spent at Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

For his time in the big leagues, the University of Delaware alum pitched in 16 games where he had a very respectable 3.86 ERA with 25 strikeouts in 23.1 innings. While at Triple-A Marinaccio was even better posting a 1-3 record with a 2.04 ERA, punching out 41 batters, allowing a .179 average against in 39.2 innings pitched.

A strange move for the Sox to make

This was an odd move for the White Sox to make in my honest opinion. Understandably, a move needed to be made to clear space for Perez, but certainly there was another option more worthy than Marinaccio.

Marinaccio would’ve been a valuable option to have in the backend of the pen to further boost his trade value for the season. Marinaccio also still has some roster flexibility with having one minor league option still available according to FanGraphs.

Marinaccio has been a very exceptional reliever during his career and for some reason or another Chris Getz and the White Sox didn’t think so and saw Marinaccio as expendable.

What happens now?

Now that Marinaccio is on waivers the White Sox have just seven days to either trade Marinaccio or outright him to Triple-A.

Certainly, given his pedigree and teams always needing arms in the bullpen a team will come calling the White Sox for Marinaccio.

Hopefully, when the White Sox do trade Marinaccio they can get a decent prospect back in return who is major league ready and can compete for one of the open spots the White Sox have available.