After a disappointing (to put it mildly) April, the White Sox looked to shake things up in May, making eleven roster moves prior to yesterday’s game. To put this into perspective, reassigning eleven players at one time during spring training would be highly irregular. Making eleven roster moves on one day during the regular season is unheard of. Twenty percent of the active roster changed! In one day!
To start things off, Tim Anderson and Hanser Alberto were activated from the injured list. Joining them from Triple A are pitchers Alexander (nee Alex) Colome and Sammy Peralta and outfielder Billy Hamilton. To make room for these five, Joe Kelly was placed on the paternity list, Romy Gonzalez was placed on the injured list, Oscar Colas and Lenyn Sosa were demoted to Triple A, and Jake Diekman was designated for assignment. In addition, Frank German was designated for assignment to make room on the 40-man roster.
Diekman was the big (and lone) acquisition the White Sox made at the trade deadline last year. To say he has been a bust would be quite the understatement. Since being acquired from the Red Sox, Diekman has posted a 7.04 ERA in 39 games. In thirteen games in April, that ERA ballooned to 7.94.