White Sox signed right-handed contract Daniel Ponce de Leon to a minor league deal, reports Jon Heyman of the New York Post (Twitter link). He’ll head to Triple-A Charlotte as a depth of rotation.
Ponce de Leon has featured in four major seasons. All of his MLB experience has come in St. Louis. A pick of the right-handed Cardinal made his debut in 2018. He remains with the Cardinals through 2021, working a 4.33 ERA in 147 2/3 innings in rotation. Ponce de Leon took down 23.2% of the enemy but had a hard time delivering continuous hits. He dribbled 12.7% overall and made free passes nearly 14% of the time during his last two seasons there.
Since having St. Louis fired, the 31-year-old has been floating around the league. He signed minor league contracts with four different teams last season. Ponce de Leon initially caught up with the Angels but was released during Spring Training. He moved on to the Mariners, Nationals and Tigers to close out the year. He’s had a tough season at the top minor league level, hitting an ERA of 6.52 in 116 plays between those three branches. He beats more than a quarter of opponents but goes 11.4% of hitters face and is fairly easy to bully.
Despite the tough 2022 season, Ponce de Leon brings a decent amount of experience at a higher level to the Chicago system. He misses a decent amount of bats and can work for long durations or the ability to start if the Sox needs to call him. They didn’t have to break through their top 5 Dylan Stop, Lucas Giolito, Lance Lynn, Michael Kopech And Mike Clevinger to this point in the season. However, the depth behind that group is a question, with davis martin, AJ Alexy and non-list players like Ponce de Leon and players that are completely recent Jonathan Stiever among potential considerations.
