Chicago White Sox

Pittsburgh Pirates starting pitcher Jose Quintana is reportedly "drawing interest" from the Chicago White Sox and New York Yankees ahead of Tuesday's 2022 MLB trade deadline.

Fansided's Robert Murray reported the update Wednesday and noted the Toronto Blue Jays are also a potential suitor for Quintana, who's posted a 3.70 ERA in 19 starts this season.

The 33-year-old left-hander isn't the most exciting name on the trade market, but he'd provide solid back-of-rotation depth for a contender down the stretch.

Quintana has compiled a career 3.83 ERA and 1.28 WHIP across 302 appearances in 11 seasons with the White Sox, Pirates, Chicago Cubs, Los Angeles Angels and San Francisco Giants. He made four outings (three starts) for the Cubs in the 2017 playoffs.

Along with his experience, he'd also arrive with a limited financial impact as he's playing under a one-year, $2 million contract.

He'd provide a safety-net option for the Yankees (66-32), who've enjoyed a lot of rotation success thanks to Gerrit Cole, Nestor Cortes, Jordan Montgomery and Jameson Taillon but face some uncertainty with the fifth spot.

Domingo German recently returned for New York after an extended stint on the IL with a shoulder injury and Luis Severino is currently sidelined with a lat strain.

It's a similar story for the White Sox, with whom Quintana previously pitched from 2012 through 2017. They could use a depth starter in case Lance Lynn, who's posted a 6.43 ERA in eight starts since returning from a knee injury in mid-June, can't find his form.

In both cases, as well as Toronto, it's possible Quintana could end up in the bullpen by season's end. The Jays are close to getting Yusei Kikuchi back from the IL to fill the No. 5 spot in their rotation.

Getting an asset or two for Quintana would be smart business by the Pirates, who've faded out of playoff contention with a 40-58 record and will likely use the stretch run to evaluate fringe roster players with an eye toward 2023.

All told, it would be a surprise if the 2016 All-Star isn't moved before the deadline.

"Fire Tony" chants rang out at Guaranteed Rate Field on Saturday as Chicago White Sox fans expressed their displeasure with manager Tony La Russa amid the team's 11-9 loss to the Texas Rangers.

A win appeared inevitable with the White Sox holding a 5-0 lead and ace Lucas Giolito on the mound in the top of the fifth, but Chicago allowed four runs in that frame, including three following an Adolis Garcia homer.

Chicago responded with two runs, but Texas added one in the sixth and two in the seventh to tie the game.

The Rangers then poured it on in the 10th with four runs as Matt Foster allowed the first four runners to reach base.

The White Sox got the tying run on base with one out in the 10th, but Luis Robert and Jose Abreu both got out to end the game.

It's been a tough season for the 27-30 White Sox and a rough week as well.

On Thursday, La Russa decided to intentionally walk Los Angeles Dodgers shortstop Trea Turner on a 1-2 count with the White Sox down 7-5 in the top of the sixth. That brought up Max Muncy, who corked a three-run homer for a 10-5 lead en route to an 11-9 win. La Russa came under fire for the decision but defended and then doubled down on the call.

Now the reigning AL Central champions find themselves six games out of first and three games under .500. They'll look to bounce back in the rubber game of the Rangers series on Sunday at 2:10 p.m. ET.

Tony La Russa's curious choice to intentionally walk Los Angeles Dodgers shortstop Trea Turner on a 1-2 count during backfired immediately in Thursday's 11-9 loss, as Max Muncy followed it up with a three-run homer.

But the Chicago White Sox manager stuck to his guns on Friday.

"Pssssh, 24 hours later, I'm even more surprised," La Russa told reporters of the backlash to his decision. "That's not even a close call. I mean do you know what Muncy was hitting from the left-hand side this season? .125."

With Freddie Freeman on second base and first base open, White Sox lefty Bennett Sousa went up 0-2 on Turner before throwing a wild pitch. That was when La Russa chose to intentionally walk the star shortstop, and Muncy made him pay.

Depending on how you break down the numbers and the sample size you employ, you could make a case for or against La Russa's unique decision.

According to ESPN Stats & Information, Turner is hitting .333 (5-for-15) in a 1-2 count against left-handed pitchers this season.

"Turner is a tough hitter with no strikes, one strike, two strikes," La Russa told reporters. "He shortens up and he's got all kinds of ways to put the ball in play and hurt you. Now, if it had been a right-handed pitcher, yeah, I probably would have tried to make a pitch."

The question, then, is why La Russa didn't simply intentionally walk Turner immediately. Why wait three pitches into the at-bat before pulling the trigger?

"That's when the pitch got away," La Russa answered after the game, referring to Sousa's wild pitch.

No matter what La Russa's argument was after the game, two things were abundantly clear. First, that White Sox fans and baseball pundits alike were beyond perplexed, and it some cases downright angry.

And two, even if you agree with La Russa's process for choosing to walk Turner, the outcome was a game-changing home run. The move, quite simply, blew up in his face.

Chicago White Sox manager Tony La Russa called for an intentional walk on Los Angeles Dodgers shortstop Trea Turner on Thursday despite the batter having a 1-2 count with two outs in the top of the sixth inning.

The decision backfired when the next batter, Max Muncy, deposited a three-run homer for a 10-5 lead en route to an 11-9 win.

After the game, LaRussa defended his decision, saying it "wasn't a tough call" and that the choice was made after left-hander Bennett Sousa unleashed a wild pitch to Turner with an 0-2 count.

He also said they had a better matchup with Muncy facing a left-hander despite Turner being down 1-2.

Joe Sheehan, Foolish Baseball and James O'Brien of Jomboy Media broke down the numbers:

The intentional walk decision was the first two-strike IBB of the year:

The White Sox fell to 26-29 after losing their second straight game. The Dodgers (37-20) extended their lead in the National League West to two games.

The Chicago White Sox will be short-handed for at least the rest of Sunday's game against the crosstown rival Chicago Cubs.

The American League Central team announced shortstop Tim Anderson suffered a right groin strain and was removed from the game. He is scheduled to undergo further evaluation Monday.

White Sox manager Tony La Russa told reporters Anderson will go on the injured list, but he is unsure for how long.

Sunday's contest was tied at zero when the shortstop suffered the injury, and he was replaced by Danny Mendick.

Anderson suffered the injury when fielding a ground ball by P.J. Higgins. He still completed the play and made an impressive throw from the outfield grass to retire the Cubs catcher but fell to the ground shortly afterward.

The training staff helped him off the field.

The 28-year-old entered play slashing .354/.392/.503 with five home runs, 19 RBI and seven stolen bases. His resume includes a Silver Slugger in 2020, an All-Star selection last year and the batting title in 2019 when he slashed .335/.357/.508.

Anderson brings an impressive combination of power, speed and the ability to hit for average to the diamond every day for the White Sox all while playing solid defense in the middle of the infield.

They will be hard-pressed to replicate his production, as Scott Merkin of MLB.com noted the team is 122-89 when he plays and 28-28 when he does not since 2020.

Mendick has been with the White Sox his entire career since his first appearance in 2019, but he has appeared in just 131 games with a .237 batting average and eight total home runs.

Chicago is in second place in the AL Central at 22-23 and five games behind the Minnesota Twins.        

The Chicago White Sox announced Saturday that they designated veteran starting pitcher Dallas Keuchel for assignment.

Keuchel, 34, has struggled mightily this season, going 2-5 with a 7.88 ERA, 2.16 WHIP and 20 strikeouts in 32 innings over eight starts.

The lefty is best known for his seven-year run with the Houston Astros from 2012 to 2018, in which he won the American League Cy Young Award in 2015 and the World Series in 2017.

Thursday's start against the Boston Red Sox was apparently the final straw for the White Sox, as Keuchel was tagged for seven hits, two walks and six earned runs over two innings in a 16-7 Boston win.

The past two seasons have been a far cry from what Keuchel has accomplished during his career, including his first season with the White Sox in 2020.

During the COVID-19 pandemic-shortened 2020 campaign, Keuchel pitched like an ace for the White Sox, going 6-2 with a 1.99 ERA and 1.09 WHIP over 11 starts. That netted a fifth-place finish in the AL Cy Young voting and a stray AL MVP vote.

His downfall began last season when he went 9-9 with a 5.28 ERA and 1.53 WHIP, marking arguably the worst year of his career until this season.

During a four-year stretch with the Astros from 2014 to 2017, Keuchel posted an ERA under 3.00 on three occasions and was named an AL All-Star twice.

Most notably, Keuchel went 20-8 with a 2.48 ERA, 1.02 WHIP and 216 strikeouts in 232 innings en route to the AL Cy Young Award in 2015.

After departing Houston, Keuchel spent one season with the Atlanta Braves and then joined the White Sox.

He has started 251 of the 262 regular-season games he has appeared in across 11 seasons and posted a 101-87 record with a 3.86 ERA, 1.30 WHIP and 1,193 strikeouts over 1,559.1 innings.

He also boasts a solid playoff resume, going 4-3 with a 3.71 ERA and 1.24 WHIP in 13 appearances, including 12 starts.

Additionally, Keuchel is perhaps the best defensive pitcher of the past decade, having won five Gold Glove Awards.

Despite entering 2022 as the favorite to win the American League Central and a contender to go to the World Series, the White Sox are 22-22 and five games behind the Minnesota Twins for the American League Central lead.

The starting rotation is led by Lucas Giolito, Michael Kopech and Dylan Cease, but what made Keuchel expendable was Johnny Cueto's solid start and the impending return of Lance Lynn.

Cueto has not allowed a run in 12 innings over two starts, while Lynn was set to begin a rehab assignment this weekend after suffering a right knee injury in early April.

With Keuchel out of the picture and Lynn's return on the horizon, the White Sox may soon have an excellent rotation from top to bottom.

The Chicago Sports Alliance, which includes the NFL's Bears, NBA's Bulls, NHL's Blackhawks and MLB's Cubs and White Sox, made a commitment of $300,000 to find "evidence-based solutions to gun violence" after recent mass shootings in Texas and Buffalo.

Here's the teams' full statement:

On Tuesday, 19 students and two teachers were killed at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.

That tragedy occurred less than two weeks after a racist mass shooting at a Buffalo grocery store killed 10 people.

Both shootings were carried out by gunmen who used high-powered assault rifles.

Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr delivered one of the most impassioned speeches about his desire for improved gun-control measures on Tuesday:

It's one snippet of the effort made by sports teams and players since the shootings.

The New York Yankees and Tampa Bay Rays used their social-media accounts to raise awareness about gun violence rather than providing game coverage during Thursday's contest.

Minnesota Vikings cornerback Kris Boyd, a Texas native, started a GoFundMe fundraiser to benefit the families whose children were killed in Uvalde.

"These are children, man. ... Try to put that in your mind," Boyd said. "I saw something on Twitter that said they had to identify these kids by their backpacks. I was devastated. I cried."

Donations from the Chicago sports franchises will benefit two organizations.

The Robb School Memorial Fund was set up to help families impacted by the tragedy.

The Sandy Hook Promise Foundation was established after a 2012 school shooting in Connecticut where 20 children and six staff members were killed. It aims to "honor all victims of gun violence by turning our tragedy into a moment of transformation."

Chicago's teams said they are "committed to making a difference through our resources in this gun violence epidemic."

New York Yankees slugger Josh Donaldson has not spoken to Chicago White Sox shortstop Tim Anderson or Major League Baseball as of Sunday evening following a comment he made during a Saturday game, a Yankees spokesman told reporters. 

Anderson told reporters Saturday that Donaldson called him "Jackie," a reference to Jackie Robinson that he took offense to. White Sox manager Tony La Russa also deemed it to be a racist remark made by Donaldson.

ESPN's Alden Gonzalez reported Saturday that MLB would be looking into the incident and "speaking to all relevant parties."

Donaldson said after Saturday's game that he called Anderson "Jackie," saying the two have joked about it in the past. He told reporters that he was joking about the White Sox star calling himself "today's Jackie Robinson" in 2019.

"My meaning of that is not any term trying to be racist by any fact of the matter,'' Donaldson said. "... Obviously, he deemed it disrespectful. And look, if he did, I apologize. That's not what I was trying to do by any manner and that's what happened.''

Anderson noted in his postgame comments that he thought Donaldson's comment was "disrespectful" and "unnecessary." He also agreed with White Sox manager Tony La Russa calling the remark racist. 

"He just made a disrespectful comment," Anderson said. "Basically he was trying to call me Jackie Robinson. 'What's up, Jackie?' I don't play like that. I don't really play at all. I wasn't really going to bother nobody today, but he made the comment and you know it was disrespectful and I don't think it was called for. It was unnecessary."

Anderson went on to get his revenge against the Yankees in Sunday's 5-0 win. With the crowd taunting the 28-year-old by cheering "Jackie" while he was at the plate in the eighth inning, he proceeded to launch a 3-0 a homer to seal Chicago's victory. 

Anderson is in the midst of an impressive season, hitting .359/.400/.517 with five home runs and 18 RBI in 35 games. 

The White Sox moved to 21-20 with Sunday's win and sit second in the AL Central behind the Minnesota Twins. 

Chicago White Sox closer Liam Hendriks wasn't buying Josh Donaldson's explanation for referring to White Sox shortstop Tim Anderson as "Jackie" during Chicago's 7-5 loss to the New York Yankees on Saturday.

"Usually you have inside jokes with people you get along with, not people who don't get along at all," Hendriks told reporters Sunday. "So that statement right there was complete bulls--t."

Following Saturday's game, Anderson said Donaldson had called him "Jackie," in reference to baseball legend Jackie Robinson. When alerted to how White Sox manager Tony La Russa called the comment "racist," Anderson said he agreed with the assessment.

Donaldson told reporters he had begun calling Anderson "Jackie" after the 2021 All-Star compared himself to Robinson in a 2019 interview with Sports Illustrated's Stephanie Apstein. The veteran third baseman said he used the name jokingly and didn't have any racist intent behind it.

While not condemning Donaldson with the same force as Hendriks, Yankees manager Aaron Boone said Sunday he thought the comment was ill-advised.

Newsday's Laura Albanese reported MLB was already looking into the matter and that a suspension is a possibility.

Hendriks said Sunday he spoke to "four separate clubhouses" to get some outside opinions on Donaldson, and none of the feedback he received was positive.

Although the two-time All-Star spent five seasons with the Oakland Athletics, his tenure in the Bay Area didn't overlap with that of Donaldson. They did spend a year together with the Toronto Blue Jays in 2015, though.

This isn't the first time Hendriks has spoken critically about the 2015 American League MVP.

"Playing with Donaldson, I am not a Donaldson fan," he told Vinnie Duber of NBC Sports Chicago in July 2021. "On the field, one of the greatest. You want him on the team behind you. But I saw behind the curtain too much, and I'm not a fan."