Right-hander David Sandlin returns to the rotation for Friday’s series opener against Kansas City, hoping to reclaim a rotation spot.
The Chicago White Sox have made a roster move before Friday’s series opener against the Kansas City Royals.
The White Sox have recalled right-handed pitcher David Sandlin and optioned left-handed pitcher Joe Rock down to Triple-A Charlotte. Chicago needed a starter for Friday’s game, hence the move.
This will be Sandlin’s second go-around in the big leagues. He was first called up in late May to fill a spot in the White Sox’s rotation, and the results were mixed across his first three starts before being optioned back down to the minors in mid-June.
Sandlin was fantastic in his Major League debut, throwing six innings of one-run ball with four strikeouts against the Minnesota Twins. After allowing a leadoff homer to Byron Buxton, the young right-hander then sent down 18 straight Twins hitters at the plate.
Unfortunately, Sandlin couldn’t follow up on that performance in his next two starts as he battled through some control issues. He gave up eight runs on eight hits with four walks and four strikeouts across four innings against the Twins again on June 1 and allowed three runs across 3 ⅓ innings against the Phillies on June 7.
That ultimately led to Sandlin getting optioned down. But despite those poor results in his last two big league starts, the 25-year-old will get another shot to prove his potential at the next level.
He has thrown the ball well with the Charlotte Knights since being demoted and has the stuff to stay in this White Sox rotation for the foreseeable future. Sandlin allowed just three combined runs across 11 innings (2.45 ERA) in two June starts at Triple-A.
The corresponding move for Sandlin is Rock, who has given the White Sox some much-needed length out of the bullpen.
Rock had a 3.48 ERA and 12 strikeouts in his four relief appearances. He got at least six outs in each of those appearances, and his best outing came against the Yankees when he threw three scoreless innings with four strikeouts back on June 16.
The 25-year-old southpaw will now head back to Charlotte, where he will need to work on his control a bit. Rock had a whopping 20.8% walk rate across those four appearances and walked 11 batters across 10 ⅓ innings pitched.
Sandlin will start Friday’s game against the Royals. This is a nice matchup for the right-hander in his first start back up with the big league club. Kansas City ranks in the bottom half of the league in both runs per game (4.27) and slugging percentage (.394).
