The White Sox made room on their 40-man roster by designating left-hander Joe Rock for assignment after claiming catcher Jake Rogers on waivers, a move the club had already been expected to make.
Rock, 26, arrived from the Rays in May in a deal that sent infielder Oliver Dunn to Tampa. Since then, Chicago has mostly parked him in the minors, and his brief big league run hasn’t given the club much reason to keep him around.
In four major league appearances, he allowed four earned runs over 10 1/3 innings, while striking out 12 and walking 11. He also hit two batters and uncorked a wild pitch.
The command problems have followed him to Triple-A. Rock has thrown 32 2/3 innings there this season and posted a 6.89 ERA.
The raw stuff has shown up in flashes - his 28.1% strikeout rate and 50.6% ground ball rate are both solid - but the free passes have buried him. He’s walked 31 of the 171 hitters he’s faced, an 18.1% clip, and has also hit six batters, meaning 21.6% of his opponents have reached first base without putting the ball in play.
That kind of wildness is what pushed him off the roster and into DFA limbo. Because the trade deadline has already passed, Rock will hit waivers in the next few days. He can still be optioned for the rest of this season, and he’ll have one more option year after that.
There’s still some appeal in the package, though. From 2023 through 2025, Rock logged 329 minor league innings with a 4.79 ERA, a 23.1% strikeout rate and a 7.5% walk rate. This year, the White Sox have used him primarily in relief, and while the early returns haven’t been encouraging, another team could still decide there’s something to work with - either in the bullpen or by stretching him back out.
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White Sox Lose Trade Deadline Arm At A Brutal Time
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Rikuu Nishida Just Got Another Shot To Make White Sox Notice
The White Sox made a quick roster move before facing the Rangers, putting Andrew Benintendi on the bereavement list and bringing up utility player Rikuu Nishida from Triple-A. For Nishida, it is another short-term opening with the big-league club after he previously appeared in 12 games with Chicago, giving him a familiar chance to slide back into the mix while the roster is a man short.
Benintendi is expected to miss the rest of the series in Texas, and the timing keeps Nishida around only as long as the White Sox need coverage. The bigger question is what he can do with the limited window, because the club may need him for just a brief stretch before Benintendi is eligible to rejoin the team in Minnesota. [Read more 🡒]
White Sox Could Land A Proven Arm If Toronto Changes Course
As the September waiver deadline looms in the 2026 season, the White Sox are at least worth keeping in the conversation for a possible shot at Shane Bieber if Toronto decides to change course. Biebers name still carries weight because of the track record he built before the injuries started piling up, and his recent work has suggested there is still something usable there for a club looking to add a proven arm without paying full freight.
Torontos place in the playoff race makes the whole thing a moving target, though, which is why this sits more in the realm of possibility than certainty right now. If the Blue Jays stay in the hunt, they have little reason to make things easy on anyone else, and the White Sox would have to wait and see whether Bieber ever actually becomes available in the way that would make a claim realistic. [Read more 🡒]