GLENDALE, Ariz. — The White Sox enjoyed their only day off from spring training Tuesday but general manager Rick Hahn stayed at work, adding outfield depth by acquiring Adam Haseley from the Phillies in a minor trade. The Sox sent right-handed pitching prospect McKinley Moore to Philadelphia in exchange for Haseley.
Haseley, 25, started in center field and batted eighth in the Phillies’ 2021 Opening Day lineup but appeared in only nine games before leaving the team for personal reasons on April 15. He returned a month later but spent the rest of the season at three different levels of the minor leagues and appeared to have an outside shot at making the Phillies’ Opening Day roster this year.
Haseley has struggled at the plate this spring, though, going 2-for-18 with five strikeouts and no walks in seven Grapefruit League games.
Even with right fielder Adam Vaughn unlikely to start the season as he recovers from a hip pointer, Haseley figures to open the season at Triple-A Charlotte. The Sox like his pedigree and upside, and he provides depth at positions that needed it last season. Haseley has two minor league options remaining.
To make room for Haseley on the 40-man roster, the Sox designated outfielder Blake Rutherford for assignment.
A left-handed hitter and thrower, Haseley owns a .264/.322/.373 hitting line over three seasons, appearing in 160 games with 355 plate appearances and playing all three outfield positions. As a rookie in 2019 he led Phillies outfielders with 13 defensive runs saved despite making just 59 starts. He was drafted eighth overall in the 2017 draft, three selections ahead of Sox first-rounder Jake Burger.
Haseley hasn’t discussed his reason for walking away last season, only telling MLB.com last week, “It’s more just learning from things that personally went on. I don’t know if it necessarily feels like a second chance as much as it is just learning. It’s a process. It’s a road, and we’re all walking through stuff.”
Moore, 23, has gone 4-3 with a 4.43 ERA with high strikeout and walk rates in 59 relief appearances over two seasons in the Sox minor-league system (2019, ’21). A 14th-round pick in 2019, Moore was ranked 28th per MLB Pipeline among White Sox prospects.
The Sox outfield received a blow Sunday when Adam Vaughn was sidelined with a hip pointer, and Haseley adds to their depth chart. Defensively, Haseley would probably fall behind Luis Robert and Adam Engel and ahead of the remaining Sox outfield core that includes Eloy Jimenez, converted first basemen Vaughn and Gavin Sheets and Leury Garcia.
Rutherford, 24, is a career .272/.325/.401 hitter with 30 home runs in 482 games over five minor-league seasons. He came to the Sox from the Yankees in 2017 in the one Sox rebuild deal of four that season that provided no fruit. The Sox sent Todd Frazier, David Robertson and Tommy Kahnle to New York for Rutherford, Ian Clarkin, Tito Polo and Tyler Clippard.
NOTES: The Sox reassigned outfielder Yoelqui Cespedes to minor league game and optioned right-hander Jimmy Lambert in their second round of roster cuts.
Left-handers Tanner Banks, Wes Benjamin, Brandon Finnegan and Andrew Pérez and right-handers Caleb Freeman, Tyler Johnson and Yacksel Ríos were also reassigned to minor league camp. Forty-two players remain in camp.
Cespedes has made a nice showing in camp, hitting .263 with two homers and a double in seven games and throwing out two runners at third base from center field, but needs more minor league experience.
*Dylan Cease, who threw three innings of one-run ball with five strikeouts against the Mariners Friday, is slated for four innings. Reynaldo Lopez will pitch two.
