The White Sox reinstated Jordan Hicks from the 15-day injured list on Sunday and optioned rookie right-hander Tyler Davis to Triple-A Charlotte.
Right-handed pitcher Jordan Hicks is back healthy and has been reinstated from the 15-day injured list to rejoin the bullpen.
Despite his 5.60 ERA this season, Hicks is making too much money and has too much upside for the Chicago White Sox to move on from him.
As he returns from a right lat strain, the White Sox have added him back to the active roster while optioning right-handed pitcher Tyler Davis to Charlotte.
Davis first joined the White Sox as an unexpected call-up and a bit of an unknown. He made his MLB debut for the White Sox on April 25 and enjoyed some early success, posting a 2.45 ERA through his first 12 appearances.
Since the end of May, however, he has struggled, raising his season ERA to 4.63 after allowing eight earned runs over his last 8.2 innings pitched.
The opposite might be true of Hicks. While his 5.60 ERA certainly isn't pretty, 11 of his last 13 appearances have been scoreless. If not for an outing against the Chicago Cubs in which he allowed four runs while recording just two outs, Hicks would be having a pretty good season. That one appearance against the Cubs raised his ERA from 3.45 to 5.51, but there's still reason to believe he can be effective for Chicago moving forward and look more like the version of himself we saw in April.
Besides, the White Sox are still paying $8.5 million on Hicks' contract both this year and next year. They took on that money to acquire pitching prospect David Sandlin in an offseason trade with the Red Sox. But with that money on the books, Chicago is not going to have Hicks pitching in Charlotte if he's equally as effective as someone like Davis.
For both pitchers, walks have really been the problem. Tyler Davis maintained a 3.32 expected ERA despite ranking in just the eighth percentile in walk rate this season.
Hicks' walk rate is even worse, but his average fastball velocity of 98.4 mph and elite barrel rate of just 1.9% make it hard to ignore the upside when he's consistently pounding the strike zone.
I still don't think this is the last we'll see of Tyler Davis this season or in the future. He's a 27-year-old with a lively fastball who flashed some success as a rookie, but it's also important for the White Sox to keep fresh arms in the bullpen whenever possible. The White Sox need a hot streak now more than ever with a stretch of divisional games coming up.
