White Sox May Have Let a Hidden Gem Slip to the Cubs
After a whirlwind offseason and a waiver claim by the Cubs, left-hander Ryan Rolison is showing increased velocity and renewed promise this spring — and the White Sox may regret letting him slip away.
Video Transcript
Sam Phelan here with the White Sox Roundtable.
Is it possible the White Sox let a hidden gem slip through their fingers right to the Chicago Cubs?
It very well could have happened this off-season with left-handed pitcher Ryan Rolison, and I don't think anybody knew it at the time.
Rolison is a former first-round pick by the Colorado Rockies, drafted in the two thousand and eighteen MLB draft out of Ole Miss, that struggled throughout a lot of his minor league career as a starting pitcher.
In twenty twenty-four, he transitioned into a bullpen role, and after pitching well across twenty outings in triple A Albuquerque in twenty twenty-five, Rolison earned the call and made his MLB debut in May with the Rockies.
However, that rookie campaign was rocky, no pun intended.
But over thirty-one appearances, Rolison posted a seven O two ERA and ranked near the bottom of the league in expected batting average, strikeout rate, barrel rate, chase rate.
It was an ugly season.
And early in the off-season, Rolison was designated for assignment, as you might expect.
It only got busier from there.
It became a whirlwind winter.
On November nineteenth, the Rockies traded him to Atlanta for cash considerations.
On December twelfth, the White Sox claimed him off waivers after Atlanta DFA'd him.
And then on January seventh, the Cubs put in a waiver claim and got Rolison after a roster squeeze pushed him off the White Sox forty man.
This time, he stuck.
He remains on the Cubs forty man roster, and through two spring training outings in camp, he has looked really sharp in Cactus League action.
Two scoreless innings, one hit, no walks.
And while he has yet to record a strikeout in spring training, that's not really his calling card, overpowering hitters and getting swing and misses.
And the real intrigue lies in the adjustments that he's made.
Working with the Cubs pitching lab in Tommy Hottovy and Tyler Zombro, Rolison has made mechanical tweaks to his delivery, and there's been a noticeable jump in velocity for one thing.
As a rookie, his fastball averaged ninety-two point nine miles per hour.
Ninety-five point five is the average on the fastball in his first two outings of spring.
A huge increase.
The changeup is at ninety point six, which is up three point three miles per hour from last season.
The curveball is up roughly three miles per hour than it was last season.
So those might sound like marginal improvements, but in the big leagues, the margins are everything, and a few ticks to velocity could change the shape of at-bats, tighten timing windows, and o-overall, just limit your quality of contact.
So according to Cubs insider Bruce Levine, Rolison is already catching the attention of Cubs manager Craig Counsell.
He's a name everybody seems to be talking about early in camp and could emerge as a sleeper candidate to make the Cubs roster or carve out a role early in the season on the North Side.
If that happens, the implications for the White Sox could sting because Rolison is a former first-rounder that's still just twenty-eight years old, has that pedigree, and comes with multiple years of club control remaining.
So if he's a productive multi-inning left-handed reliever for the Cubs, the White Sox may regret designating him for assignment and letting him get out their door.
This is something for Sox fans and Cubs fans alike to monitor moving forward.
