Chicago was able to keep organizational depth intact after Drew Romo and Jairo Iriarte cleared waivers following recent 40-man roster moves.
Every roster move this time of year tends to be paired with a difficult decision that needs to be made.
Making a trade or a free-agent signing is great. It can fill a big need and make the team more complete heading into spring training.
But if you’re like the Chicago White Sox — and you already have a full 40-man roster before the transaction — adding someone to the mix requires someone else to be designated for assignment (DFA).
A DFA occurs anytime a player is removed from an organization’s 40-man roster.
Once a player is designated for assignment, the team has seven days to either trade him, place him on waivers, outright him to the minors (only if the player has options and accepts), or release him outright.
A DFA does not automatically mean a player is cut — although it often leads to them going to another organization — it simply removes him from the 40-man roster while the team decides his fate.
Most recently, the White Sox were forced to DFA two players in order to make space on the roster for right-handed pitchers Jordan Hicks and David Sandlin after acquiring them in a trade with Boston.
The corresponding move saw catcher Drew Romo and right-handed pitcher Jairo Iriarte designated for assignment.
Romo, 24, is a defense-first catcher who landed in the White Sox organization earlier this winter and could give them more talent behind the plate with upside.
Romo’s presence on the 40-man roster gave the White Sox more flexibility with someone like Korey Lee, and it remained unclear whether the club wanted to carry a third catcher on the active roster or stash both Lee and Romo in the minor leagues.
Iriarte was one of the prospects sent to Chicago in the Dylan Cease trade a few years back. He found success in 2024 as a starting pitcher in Double-A and earned an MLB debut out of the bullpen.
Despite a 1.50 ERA in six MLB outings, Iriarte imploded in 2025, failing to make a big-league appearance and struggling to the tune of a 7.13 ERA in the minor leagues.
He’s been even worse in the Venezuelan Winter League over the offseason, and with his control going completely out the window, it became hard for the White Sox to justify using a 40-man roster spot on Iriarte.
But it is for that very same reason that the White Sox were able to keep both Romo and Iriarte in the organization. Both players were subjected to waivers and cleared, allowing them to be outrighted and given non-roster invites to White Sox spring training.
That’s the ideal scenario when a player is DFA’d, especially young players with upside who could still develop into big-league contributors.
The White Sox certainly have a lot of work to do if they want to extract value from Iriarte — and, by extension, value from the Dylan Cease trade — but the book is not entirely closed yet.