White Sox Acquire Jose Urquidy

The White Sox are set to acquire right-hander Jose Urquidy from the Pirates, FanSided’s Robert Murray reports.  Pittsburgh will receive minor league righty Felix Doroteo in return, as per MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand.

Urquidy has an 8.53 ERA over 6 1/3 relief innings this season, and the righty hasn’t pitched in a big league game since April 13.  The Pirates signed Urquidy to a one-year, $1.5MM free agent deal in February, but his rough start earned him to a ticket to Triple-A, with Urquidy having to personally okay the demotion since he has over six years of MLB service time.

The move to Triple-A Indianapolis saw Urquidy return to his usual starting role, and he has posted a 3.66 ERA, 22% strikeout rate, and 5.4% walk rate over 17 starts and 83 innings.  It was a better K% and almost the same walk rate that Urquidy had in his brief stint in Pittsburgh, and it’s worth noting that Urquidy’s big-league ERA was inflated by such metrics as .519 BABIP and a 44.9% strand rate (on top of 6 1/3 IP being just a small sample size).

These improved results weren’t enough to prevent the Pirates from designating Urquidy for assignment two days ago, and he’ll now land on a White Sox team in need of rotation depth.  The surprise AL Central leaders are fairly short on experience in their starting five, and with top prospect Noah Schultz struggling in his first taste of the majors, Urquidy might be in line for a call-up in relatively short order.

Of course, the White Sox could very well make a more prominent addition to their rotation at the trade deadline.  Bringing in Urquidy and his barely $500K in remaining salary is a low-cost way of bolstering Chicago’s pitching staff for this unexpected pennant race over the final two months of play.

Urquidy knows all about high-pressure games from his days as a member of the Astros rotation, which included a World Series ring in 2022.  Following that championship year, however, Urquidy was limited to 63 innings in 2023 due to shoulder problems, and a Tommy John surgery cost him almost all of the 2024-25 seasons — Urquidy’s only MLB action last year consisted of two games and 2 1/3 innings with the Tigers.

Doroteo was an international signing for the White Sox in January 2025, and injuries kept the Dominican right-hander from starting his pro career until this season.  The 21-year-old Doroteo has a 4.50 ERA, 29.6% strikeout rate, and 13.6% walk rate across 18 innings for the Pirates’ Arizona Complex League team.