White Sox trade De Aza to Orioles
After trading second baseman Gordon Beckham to the Angels last week, White Sox general manager Rick Hahn dealt outfielder Alejandro De Aza to the Orioles Saturday night.
The Sox get two right-handed minor-league pitchers from Baltimore — Mark Blackmar and Miguel Chalas. They are both 22.
“The motivation behind this is not only the two arms we received back, both of whom we believe have a fair amount of upside and add to our pitching depth, but also as with the Beckham move to free up not only a little salary flexibility going forward but also some playing time for some of the younger guys over the last few weeks of the season,” Hahn said. “Alejandro has been somewhat of an underrated guy for us. He contributed with the bat fairly regularly for us, played center field and was at an above average offensive level when he was here.
“He was a good player for us but it's time to give someone else an opportunity and try to find out who else potentially can fit in with what we're building here over the foreseeable future.”
De Aza batted .243 with 19 doubles, 5 triples, 5 home runs, 31 RBI and 15 stolen bases in 122 games this season. Rosters can expand in September, so look for former first-round draft pick Jared Mitchell to get his first shot with the Sox.
Blackmar is 10-1 with a 3.18 ERA in 26 games (18 starts) with Class A Frederick this season. Chalas is 3-4 with a 4.48 ERA in a combined 30 relief appearances with Frederick and Class AAA Norfolk.
“(Blackmar) has had a very productive year,” Hahn said. “Intriguing kid. Good pitcher's body. Nice mix. Has some sink and command of his off-speed pitches. Chalas has the probably bigger arm of the two. Chalas with a bigger fastball is also probably a little bit more of a project.”
Sale wins Game 1
White Sox ace Chris Sale was hit hard in Game 1 of Saturday's doubleheader against the Tigers.
The left=hander gave up a solo home run to Ian Kinsler and Victor Martinez's 2-run shot in the first inning before settling down in a 6-3 win.
“I think for the first time, this year anyways, I start overthrowing and start coming out of my shoes and things just compound after that,” Sale said. “Coop (pitching coach Don Cooper) and I talked a lot this week about slowing things down, not gripping and ripping when bad things start happening. Kind of slowing it down and that's what I did today.”
Sale wound up pitching 7 innings, and he allowed 3 runs on 6 hits while striking out 13. He now has 17 games with double-digit strikeouts, tying Hall of famer Ed Walsh for the franchise record.
“We got to Sale early and once they tied the game up this guy found something from within and just shut us down,” Detroit's Torii Hunter said. “His slider was good today, he had the changeup working, his fastball was explosive. Sale is probably one of the best, if not the best lefties in the game. You talk about three of the best lefties, (Clayton) Kershaw, (David) Price and him. Not fun.”
Bassitt loses Game 2
Chris Bassitt came up from Class AA Birmingham and made his first major-league start for the White Sox in Game 2.
With 70 family members and friends in the stands, the right-hander took the loss after allowing 5 runs on 7 hits and 4 walks in 6⅓ innings.
The Sox dropped the nightcap to the Tigers 8-4.
“You can't make mistakes here, so that's the biggest thing,” Bassitt said. “Getting ahead early is definitely important. Limiting walks, you can't give anyone free baserunners in this league. I know I still have some things to work on. Not overthrow, that's another one. But I mean, we'll go from here. Nice building block.”