Minaya still throws hard and strikes out a good amount of batters.  Compared to 2017, he cut his home runs and his already too high walk rate climbed even higher to 14 percent, which is almost 3 points higher than the qualified leader in the majors on that statistic.  With the bat missing and velocity there is always the temptation to keep trying in the hopes he figures things out, but improving his 5.71 DRA to 5.05 from 2017 to 2018 may tell more of the story here.  The odds are Minaya is simply a mediocrity who has shown us about the best that he can do, and it’s not like the White Sox haven’t given him opportunities, appropriate to a team in the situation the White Sox are in.

You can never have too many relievers, and I’d be surprised if he weren’t pitching for the major league team at some point next year.  That said, the relievers part of the rebuild are likely the first to arrive.  Nate Jones, Jace Fy, Ian Hamilton, and Ryan Burr are all ahead of him in the pecking order and one has to imagine some combination of Aaron Bummer, Caleb Frare, and maybe even Jose Ruiz would be ahead of him as well.  Throw in Zack Burdi, Carson Fulmer, and whoever the annual relief pickups are, and Minaya is going to have a lot more competition for a bullpen he washed out of early in 2018 as it is.

Pitchers get hurt. Minaya has been durable. Modern bullpens are huge. And Minaya could pop up throwing 99 for Oakland in three years, too.  But hopefully phasing out Minaya for younger, better options could similarly be representative of the White Sox actually moving meaningfully toward the next phase, wherein they are actually trying to win at the major league level and succeeding at it.

Injuries have been the defining factor of Jacob May’s career so far, and not just injuries to himself. May’s minor league career had a fairly decent start for a 3rd round speedy centerfielder until he ran full-speed into Tim Anderson in 2015 and lost half a season to a concussion. His numbers understandably suffered upon return, but there was still promise if he could get healthy. Two stints on the DL with separate abdominal injuries in 2016 suggested that might not be such an easy feat to accomplish and he finished the year with a pretty dismal .266/.309/.352 batting line in Charlotte. He earned an invite to Spring Training and it looked like he’d maybe get a September call-up.

And then Charlie Tilson did what he’s done since coming over from the Cardinals in the Zach Duke trade: get unfortunately injured at a terrible time. The Sox felt confident enough about May that they sold Peter Bourjos to the Rays and just like that, May was the Opening Day starter in centerfield. This experiment lasted until May Day. Over 15 games, May managed to hit .056/.150/.056 with three walks to seventeen strikeouts. May’s game is completely speed based, but it’s all but impossible to make a difference on the base paths when you only get on base six times in 42 PA. May was painfully overmatched and mercifully sent back to Charlotte where he had the worst minor league season of his career while repeating a level he’d just played at one year prior. Bourjos hit .223/.272/.383 as Tampa’s reserve outfielder.

One of the more repeated and accepted truisms about roster construction is that unless that relief pitcher is the last missing puzzle piece for your championship team, you shouldn’t spend real money on your bullpen arms. There’s an entire ocean full of failed starters, third chance prospects, position players giving it one last go, and discarded international sensations to trawl up a more than serviceable relief corps out of and that’s been the White Sox modus operandi (give or take a David Robertson here and a Scott Linebrink there). Juan Minaya is one of the latest castaways to find a home in the Bullpen of Misfit Relievers.

Minaya signed with the Astros as a starting pitcher in the impossibly long ago year of 2008. After a couple years of middling results, Houston turned him into a reliever with mostly the same results. He was cut loose in late 2016 and the White Sox took a chance. He was fungible over 10.1 innings in the majors and was sent back to Charlotte to get more work. Something clicked. Over 19 innings, he allowed zero home runs and cut his walk rate almost in half. This understandably earned a promotion and Minaya pitched well enough in low leverage innings.

Once the continued selling off of parts reached the bullpen and the troika of Robertson, Anthony Swarzak, and Tommy Kahnle were gone, his role changed by necessity. Over his last 15 games of the season, Minaya more or less became the team’s default closer. He responded by earning 9 saves while striking out 13 hitters over 14.2 innings. It’s not all rainbows, as he gave up 7 earned runs in that stretch. But in his final 8 appearances, he gave up none. Minaya’s mid-90s fastball and low-80s breaking ball aren’t quite powerful enough to remain a full-time closer, but he’s shown enough promise to get innings as a seventh or eighth inning guy going forward.

Lead Photo Credit: Matt Marton-USA TODAY Sports