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Veteran left-handed pitcher Zach Duke has bounced around the majors over the last several seasons, but he has reportedly signed a multi-year deal with the Chicago White Sox, according to Jon Morosi of Fox Sports:

MLB Roster Moves later confirmed the signing:

Duke, 31, started his career as a starting pitcher with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2005 but made the transition to the bullpen when he was traded to Arizona after the 2010 season. He floated from Washington to Cincinnati before making his way to the Milwaukee Brewers in 2014.    

In a career-high 74 appearances (58.2 innings) last season, Duke amassed an impressive 74 strikeouts, 12 holds and an ERA of 2.45. The White Sox needed pitching depth in the seventh and eighth innings, and they’ve now added a player who specializes in those moments.

With the ability to shut down left-handed hitters (holding lefties to a .198 batting average, per Baseball-Reference.com), Duke will join fellow relievers Jake Petricka, Ronald Belisario and Zach Putnam as the team continues rebuilding the bullpen.

Chicago still needs a true closer to emerge from the current group. If the organization doesn’t believe Scott Downs or any other pitcher on the roster is the answer, filling the void on the free-agent market would be an option.

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Chicago White Sox All-Star shortstop Alexei Ramirez is reportedly at the center of trade inquiries from at least a few prominent MLB clubs.    

This revelation comes from CBSChicago.com’s Bruce Levine, who offered more details on the high demand regarding the 33-year-old veteran:

The interested teams include the Mets, Yankees and Dodgers. All of these franchises are looking for a reliable shortstop to anchor their infields. The Mets have been the most aggressive in their pursuit of a shortstop over the past 12 months. General manager Sandy Alderson has had his top scouts looking at shortstops such as Ramirez.

Ramirez is a valuable asset in the infield with his strong arm and defensive ability. He also has some pop at the plate, evident in his two Silver Slugger Awards from 2010 and 2014.

The latter of those accolades was just announced Thursday, per ESPNChicago.com’s Doug Padilla:

Despite somewhat advanced age in MLB terms, there is plenty of incentive for a team needing a quality shortstop to attempt to land him in a trade.

Only two years remain on Ramirez’s current contract (h/t Spotrac.com), and he’s owed a rather modest $10 million in salary in each of the next two seasons. Considering how vital of a position shortstop is and Ramirez’s strong 2014 form, the Mets or another team could be looking at a great deal.

Newsday‘s Marc Carig weighed in on the speculation that Ramirez could wind up in a Mets uniform:

The Mets are an intriguing destination, as Ramirez would join an infield that already features seven-time All-Star third baseman David Wright. However, the lure of the Big Apple’s pinstripe powerhouse in the Bronx or the glamor of L.A. may be even more suitable.

Chicago also has to take its future outlook into account after two straight losing seasons before shipping a prized commodity in Ramirez out of town. Selling the fanbase may be difficult if the White Sox trade away Ramirez or any of their other valuable contributors.

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Jose Abreu can hit home runs. That much has been obvious from the moment he put on a big league uniform. But his talents, clearly, go well beyond the long ball.

Excitement has trailed the Cuban star since he inked a six-year, $68 million contract with the Chicago White Sox last fall. But his reputation, by and large, was that of a single-tool slugger.

Two-thirds of the way through his rookie MLB season, Abreu is shattering expectations.

After going 3-for-3 in Friday night’s 10-8 win over the Minnesota Twins, Abreu owns a .310 batting average to go along with 31 home runs and 84 RBI. The latter two stats lead the American League, meaning Abreu is suddenly a Triple Crown threat.

He’d have to hike his average, but that’s not beyond the realm of possibility considering he’s currently on a 21-game hitting streak and has hit safely in 39 of his last 40 games, per MLB.com‘s Scott Merkin.

To their credit, the White Sox saw more than dingers when they signed Abreu.

“He’s the only player that I’ve seen work out and then play in a game that I wanted to give a standing ovation to,” Chicago Executive Vice President Ken Williams told Merkin in October 2013. “One of the things that we did not want to entertain was a guy who was just one dimensional. This guy is a hitter.”

Unfortunately for the White Sox, and Abreu, his talents are being squandered on a club that’s mired under .500 and essentially out of the playoff picture.

But that’s this year. Going forward, Chicago has its hands on a legitimate, franchise-defining player. A guy you build around. A guy who belongs in the conversation with Mike Trout and Miguel Cabrera and the AL’s other top-tier talents.

He’s certainly the prohibitive front-runner for Rookie of the Year honors. What about MVP? Is he in the running there?

White Sox skipper Robin Ventura thinks so.

“He is one of the best players in the league. That’s a fact,” Ventura told Colleen Kane of the Chicago Tribune. “Whether people put him in it, I don’t know, but I know he’s up there with anybody that’s running for it.”

The most obvious comparison for Abreu is probably Cabrera, who has already ascended the Triple Crown mountain. 

Here’s White Sox catcher Tyler Flowers on the two AL Central mashers, per Kane:

(Abreu is) not Miguel Cabrera, but he has a chance to be something like that. Every at-bat, every day, the way he works, that’s how I imagine Miguel works. It seems like he has just as much power, and a similar kind of swing too. He can take balls in and drive them out to right-center. He doesn’t seem to get fooled too often. He’s a complete hitter.

Baseball is a game of adjustments. Just as Abreu has adjusted to big league pitching and carved out a reputation as one of the game’s most exciting young hitters, so too will pitchers adjust to him. There will be slumps. There will be struggles.

For now, though, he’s riding high. Hitting home runs, yes, but also doing much, much more.

Maybe it shouldn’t be such a surprise. Here’s Abreu himself, to Merkin last October:

So much has been said about my power and the home runs I hit, but more than hitting home runs, when I’m at the plate, my mindset is to make sure I do what’s needed for the team, whatever is needed at that moment, whatever the team needs of me. That’s my strategy of play. I’m not thinking of home runs more than anything, it’s just delivering what I’m asked to do.

As he wraps up his first MLB campaign, he’s unequivocally doing what’s been asked—and then some.

All stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com.

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Chicago White Sox first baseman Jose Abreu, who pushed his hitting streak to 20 games Thursday afternoon, is just the second player in the last 65 years with multiple 18-game streaks during his rookie season, per Lee Sinins‘ Complete Baseball Encyclopedia. Abreu joins Ichiro Suzuki, who racked up hitting streaks of 23 and 21 games on his way to winning the American League MVP award as a rookie in 2001.

Per the Complete Baseball Encyclopedia (via GammonsDaily.com), Abreu is also the first White Sox player—rookie or not—to have collected two such streaks in the same season since Eddie Collins did so in 1920.

Over the course of his first 18-game streak—lasting from June 15 to July 4—Abreu registered 24 hits in 71 at-bats (.338 batting average), with eight home runs, 18 RBI and an impressive 1.100 OPS.

This second time around, Abreu’s run started July 6, just a day after his earlier streak ended. Over the course of the ongoing 20-game hitting streak, the slugging Cuban has 33 hits in 80 at-bats (.407 BA), albeit with somewhat modest totals of four home runs and 14 RBI. That said, 10 of his 33 hits have been doubles, contributing to a 1.153 OPS.

Set to challenge a slew of rookie records, Abreu has already joined Nomar Garciaparra (1997) as the only rookies in MLB history to record both 30 home runs and a hitting streak of 20-plus games, per STATS on Twitter.

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Fresh off of sending Chris Sale, Jose Abreu and Alexei Ramirez to Minneapolis for All-Star festivities, the Chicago White Sox began their post-All-Star break schedule by splitting six home games against the Houston Astros and Kansas City Royals

With the team entering play July 25 at 49-54, Baseball Prospectus is understandably pessimistic about Robin Ventura’s club gaining any meaningful traction in the standings the rest of the way, giving the team a 1.5 percent chance to reach postseason play.

General manager Rick Hahn did yeoman’s work in turning a 99-loss team in 2013 into a team that’s made strides behind the additions of Abreu and Adam Eaton.

Sale, perhaps the best lefty in the AL with his 9-1 record and scant 2.03 ERA, and Abreu, the front-runner to be named AL Rookie of the Year after Masahiro Tanaka’s injury with his .290 average, 29 homers and 74 RBI, are obviously the two biggest reasons to be optimistic about the White Sox going forward.

Jose Quintana, armed with a 3.5 WAR despite a 5-7 record and a 3.15 ERA, gives the White Sox a vastly underrated lefty behind Sale as he hopes to surpass 200 innings for the second time.

A late-season return of Avisail Garcia, who’s recovering nicely from his April 9 injury in Colorado, would improve an offense that’s averaging 4.22 runs. Acquired in last July’s three-way trade with the Detroit Tigers and Boston Red Sox, which saw Hahn ship out Jake Peavy, Garcia hit his only two homers of the year the night before suffering his injury.   

According to Brian Sandalow of the Chicago Sun-Times, Garcia is making such good progress in his rehab that he could be close to going on a rehab assignment.

“Everything has been positive,” he said. “They know what they’re doing, so they don’t want me to get hurt again. They just tell me to relax, easy, so now I’m good. They [checked] me out yesterday, and nothing hurts.”

Sale and Quintana headline the staff, but the bullpen—hurt because of in-season injuries to Nate Jones and Matt Lindstrom—needs to find a way to stabilize.

With the offseason trade of Addison Reed to the Arizona Diamondbacks and the setbacks Jones and Lindstrom have suffered, Ventura hasn’t had a set closer all year.

Looking to the second half of the season, ESPNChicago.com’s Doug Padilla said the organization’s goal is to remake its bullpen in the image of the Royals—as one that gets the job done consistently despite having the 13th-best ERA in all of baseball:

“That’s a good bullpen,” said White Sox catcher Tyler Flowers, who had two hits off Shields and never got a chance against Davis or Holland since they combined to retire all six batters they faced. “It seems like once they get to the seventh, it’s a challenge to get a runner on base, much less try to get a run in. That makes it more important to take advantage of the situations early on.”

Contrast that to the White Sox’s plan and there couldn’t be two more different scenarios. The White Sox rotate their closer and setup man on a daily basis, a plan done out of necessity since nobody has been able to hold down the ninth-inning spot.

The White Sox still have 10 games remaining with the division-leading Tigers, along with road trips against the NL West-leading San Francisco Giants and the New York Yankees. The other two AL division leaders, the Oakland Athletics and Baltimore Orioles, are part of the White Sox’s remaining home schedule—which also includes three games with the Toronto Blue Jays.

Baseball Prospectus estimates that the White Sox will go 27-32 the rest of the way, which would represent a 13-win improvement from 2013 with a 76-86 record.

Hahn surely will be getting calls on the likes of Gordon Beckham, Dayan Viciedo and John Danks as the July 31 trade deadline approaches and as he continues to put his fingerprints on the club. Whether or not Beckham, Viciedo and Danks are still with the organization Aug. 1, continuing to build momentum toward 2015 may come from those who are still with the organization for the season’s final two months.

Marcus Semien saw action earlier in the year and could get called up once again should Beckham get moved. Micah Johnson, who entered 2014 as the organization’s sixth-ranked prospect, according to Baseball America, will be in Chicago sooner than later.

Sale, Abreu, Eaton, Garcia, Johnson and 2014 No. 3 overall pick Carlos Rodon represent the organization’s future. How quickly that future gets here may depend on the work Hahn gets done or doesn’t get done before July 31.

Blake Baumgartner, who has covered prep events as a freelancer for both the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times, can be reached on Twitter @BFBaumgartner.

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What are the odds of this? 

On Friday night, Chicago White Sox outfielder Adam Dunn got about as close to hitting a home run as one can get with the ball bouncing off the top of the outfield wall twice while still remaining in play. 

While it’s not completely clear whether or not the ball hit Houston outfielder L.J. Hoes’ glove, it looks like it hits the wall first and bounces on it again, which is absolutely mind-boggling. 

The White Sox went on to win 3-2.

[MLB]

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It’s no secret that Chicago White Sox first baseman Jose Abreu has burst onto the scene, but the rate at which he’s threatening first-year player records still comes as a bit of a surprise.

The Cuban rookie has already set a pair of records among first-year players in the All-Star Game era, with 29 home runs, 50 extra-base hits and 203 total bases before the break, per MLB Stat of the Day. The Midsummer Classic, of course, goes back to 1933, covering all but 13 years of the live-ball era.

Going back to 1933, Abreu’s 29 home runs before the All-Star break rank second-best among all rookies, trailing only the 33 that Mark McGwire hit for the Oakland Athletics in 1987, according to ESPN Stats & Info.

McGwire finished that season with 49 home runs, setting a rookie record that stands to this day. With 29 home runs through his team’s first 96 games, Abreu is on pace to match McGwire, despite spending time on the disabled list in late May and early June.

On a per-game basis, Abreu has bested McGwire, homering once every 2.83 games. “Big Mac” logged 151 contests as a rookie in ’87, hitting one out every 3.08 games.

McGwire also had the advantage of some previous big-league experience, as he logged 58 plate appearances in 1986, falling well short of the threshold needed to lose rookie eligibility. Therein lies the distinction between “first-year players” and “rookies,” as Abreu qualifies as both while McGwire was merely a rookie in 1987.

Of course, McGwire was also only 23 years old at the start of the ’87 season while Abreu turned 27 in January.

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The rebuilding process in Chicago that general manager Rick Hahn began in earnest last year has already begun to pay dividends.

Newcomers Jose Abreu and Adam Eaton look like long-term fixtures in the team’s lineup, while the team’s top draft pick this year, North Carolina State left-hander Carlos Rodon, could be a regular in the team’s rotation as early as next season, as Hahn recently told CSN Chicago’s Dan Hayes.

But the current edition of the club has a handful of veteran pieces, both at the plate and on the mound, that could be of interest to contending clubs, some of which could bring back a significant package of talent to U.S. Cellular Field.

How’s a White Sox fan supposed to keep up with all the rumors surrounding the team as the trade deadline nears?

Keep it here for the most up-to-the-minute rumblings about the White Sox, along with analysis and everything else that comes with it. While the post date will always show up as July 1, simply click to the next slide to see the latest from the rumor mill as the White Sox look toward a possible playoff run in 2015.

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One thing that can be said about the 2014 Chicago White Sox is that they have certainly been more fun to watch than they were last season, but then again that’s not saying much.

In 2013 the White Sox were one of the worst offensive (or most offensive, depending how you look at it) teams in all of baseball, which made for some long days at U.S. Cellular Field. This ineptitude led general manager Rick Hahn to desperately start searching last off season for somebody, anybody, who could come in and help reignite the stagnant offense.

Hahn had actually begun that process during last season when he acquired the highly regarded Avisail Garcia from the Detroit Tigers at the trade deadline. However, Garcia was lost to injury early this season. Thankfully, Hahn hadn’t stopped there in his quest to rebuild the lineup, and the additional moves he’s made have helped turn around the offense.

According to TeamRankings.com, the 2014 White Sox are averaging the most ninth-inning runs scored (.59) of any team in baseball, and they have also averaged the second-most runs scored (1.04) from the eighth inning on. 

In other words, they don’t quit—which seemed to be a problem last year.

Overall, the team is scoring 4.31 runs per game (ninth in MLB), which is a vast improvement on what they averaged last season (3.69) when they were the lowest-scoring team in the American League and second-lowest scoring team in all of baseball.

So things have definitely improved offensively in 2014 for the White Sox. Unfortunately, however, there are two other important aspects of the game: pitching and defense. And there is definite room for improvement in both areas.

The top three in the starting rotation have been solid, but the four and five spots have been inconsistent. More importantly, the bullpen has been a mess for most of the season as guys have failed to find their roles.

And defensively, well, let’s just say that things can improve there as well.

As we head into July and towards the All-Star break, let’s take a look at five things we have learned about the White Sox so far this season.

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Chicago White Sox first baseman Jose Abreu slugged two home runs in Friday night’s contest against the Toronto Blue Jays to become the first player in MLB history with 25 homers through the first 67 games of his career, per ESPN Stats & Info.

Abreu led off the fifth inning of Friday’s game with his 24th home run of the season. He hit his 25th of the year and second of the game in his next at-bat in the seventh inning.

Blue Jays first baseman Edwin Encarnacion also hit home run No. 25 Friday night, creating a three-way tie atop MLB’s home run leaderboard. The third player, Baltimore Orioles outfielder Nelson Cruz, went deep in the second game of Friday’s doubleheader against the Tampa Bay Rays.

With his 25 home runs in only 67 games, Abreu has shattered the previous record of 72 games needed to reach 25 homers, set by Rudy York of the 1937 Detroit Tigers. Mark McGwire was second fastest, needing 77 games to reach the mark during his rookie campaign with the Oakland Athletics in 1987. Wally Berger of the 1930 Boston Braves now drops to fourth on this list, hitting 25 home runs in his first 79 career games.

AL Home Run Derby Captain Jose Bautista should be looking forward to this year’s Derby, as Abreu, Encarnacion and Cruz are all American Leaguers. Florida Marlins outfielder Giancarlo Stanton currently paces the National League with his 21 homers, while Colorado Rockies shortstop Troy Tulowitzki sits in second with 18.

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