Prior to this afternoon’s series finale against the Rangers, the White Sox made two small roster moves: they added Lenyn Sosa to the 26-man roster while optioning Tanner Banks to AAA.
With Banks throwing two innings last night and the White Sox going to shortly be in need of infield depth when Tim Anderson eventually serves his suspension, this move makes a lot of sense. Though there has not been much discussion about Anderson’s appeal of his suspension, this move makes it clear that the White Sox are at least expecting this to happen sooner rather than later.
Banks, 30, is 1-0 with a 3.16 ERA and 36 strikeouts in 29 appearances this year. He was limited to low-leverage situations for the most part and was a pretty expendable arm on the team. With the Jake Diekman acquisition, Banks was no longer the only left-handed arm out of the bullpen.
Sosa has been an exciting player this season, and he made his major league debut with the team back in June. While he only went 1-for-12 over his four games with the team, he has slashed a combined .316/.367/.512 across AA and AAA this season. He has a .736 OPS in his last 15 games, which supports a pretty common trend throughout Sosa’s career: he struggles a bit when he reaches a new level, but is able to quickly adjust to the new level of pitching.
It is unclear how much time Sosa may see on the field or how long his stay might be, as it is likely he is one of the first players off the roster once Reynaldo Lopez is ready to come back from his back injury. However, for now, Sosa gets another shot to prove that he should be in the running for the starting second base job next season for the White Sox.
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The way Tim Anderson has been hitting he should have just served his suspension already and been done with it. This is not the first time TA has bumped an ump so the chances of a reduction in time are slim to none.
As for Lenyn Sosa, what difference will it really make? Chances are the White Sox genius manager will just roll out Leury Garcia to play SS anyway while Sosa rides the bench as depth insurance.