The White Sox announced that they have signed the right-hander Bryse Wilson on a one-year contract worth $1.05MM. Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reported those terms before the official announcement and added that Wilson will compete for a trade spot and could reach $250K worth of bonuses in the deal. The Sox had a full 40-man roster but made room by trading a catcher Chuckie Robinson in the Angels.
It’s an early birthday present for Wilson, who turns 27 on Friday. Despite his young age, he has pitched in seven major league seasons so far, starting with Atlanta as a 20-year-old back in 2018. Heading into the 2019 season, he has spent most of his career thus far as an incredible swingman.
Atlanta kept Wilson in a deep role, not allowing him to get more than 34 innings in any season from 2018 through 2021. He was then traded to the Pirates as part of a 2021 deadline deal that he sent. Richard Rodríguez otherwise. He spent the next year and a half chasing a position in the rotation in Pittsburgh without fully establishing himself there. He completed his final year in 2022 and would be hard pressed to continue on the list going forward. He was designated for assignment in 2023 and was traded to the Brewers for cash.
Milwaukee used Wilson as a multi-inning reliever in 2023 and as a swingman in 2024. He could have been retained through 2025 through arbitration, when MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz offered him a minimum salary of $1.5MM, but the Brewers flatly rejected him. program in early November.
Generally, the results have been overwhelming but Wilson’s average. His control was good but he couldn’t collect a lot of balls or ground balls. Overall, he has a 4.61 ERA in 413 2/3 innings so far in his career. His 7.4% walk rate is better than average but his 17.1% strikeout rate and 38.8% ground ball rate are both low.
He had a solid 2.58 ERA in 2023 in relief, but that seems like a lot of luck. His strikeouts, walks and slugging percentage were all close to his career norms but he had a paltry .232 batting average on balls in play and a career high 81.2% strikeout rate. His 4.13 FIP and 4.31 SIERA suggested he was unstable. In 2024, he returned to his normal trajectory with a 4.04 ERA as his BABIP and strike rate normalized a bit.
Although the numbers weren’t encouraging, they’re fairly consistent across the board. Despite being a top prospect, Wilson was never given a full rotation opportunity. His career spanned 115 2/3 innings in 2022, with the Pirates sending him to the minors and the bullpen more often than not. Going to a club as volatile as the White Sox is certainly an attractive prospect for him.
For the Sox, this investment is nothing in baseball terms. Wilson’s salary will be slightly above the league minimum of $760K for next year. And almost nothing is established in their circulation at this time. They have four pitchers who have made 21 or more starts in 2024 and three of them are gone. Erick Fedde was traded to the Cardinals at the deadline last year. Garrett Crochet traded to the Red Sox last week. Chris Flexen became a free agent at the end of the season. That goes Jonathan Cannonwho just debuted in 2024, as the only guy who has pitched a respectable number of innings this year and is still on the roster.
The Sox have guys too Drew Thorpe, Davis Martin, Sean Burke, Jared Shuster, Nick Nastrini, Jairo Iriarte, Jake Eder, Wickelman Gonzalez again Ky. Bush on the roster but no one on that team has a full year of major league service or 115 innings pitched in the majors.
Although Wilson is not much older than the guys on that team, and is actually younger than Martin, he has spent a lot of time against big league hitters. He can serve as an experienced veteran, relatively speaking, while trying to take advantage of a wide-open lane with a perimeter role. If several of those young pitchers move on and get big league auditions, Wilson could move into a bullpen short on proven options.
Wilson’s service life is between four and five years, so the Sox could keep him in arbitration until 2026 if things go well next year. Although things are going very well for him, he may end up being traded at next year’s deadline.
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