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Surprising White Sox Sign Former Fourth-Round Pick

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Jake Elman | Last updated Apr 3, 2025 11:46 AM ET

Imagine sitting Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder Joshua Palacios down in spring training and telling him he’d join a first-place Chicago White Sox team in April.

Welcome to the 2025 baseball season!

The White Sox are keeping busy, adding the 29-year-old Palacios on a minor-league deal Thursday morning. Palacios elected free agency earlier this week after the Pirates outrighted him to the minors.

Palacios will likely join the White Sox’s Triple-A affiliate, the Charlotte Knights.

Although the White Sox only won two of their first six games, they nonetheless entered Thursday leading the AL Central. Perhaps more importantly, Chicago already has two victories after only winning 41 games a year ago.

A 2016 fourth-round pick out of Auburn, Palacios hit .224 with two home runs, nine RBI, and a .333 on-base percentage in 23 games last year. He’s recorded a .230 average, .650 OPS, and -0.6 bWAR across four seasons with three teams: the Pirates, Toronto Blue Jays, and Washington Nationals.

Palacios had four singles and no RBI over 19 spring plate appearances for the Pirates.

At best, Palacios is what teams call a Four-A player. He’s good enough to perform well in Triple-A—Palacios owns a .303 average and .874 OPS in 701 Triple-A plate appearances—but he’ll likely never become a meaningful contributor in the majors.

Still, depth is depth, and Palacios has at least played all three outfield spots in the majors. He’s a low-risk minor-league signing, and we’ll see if he returns to the big leagues this summer.

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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