The White Sox have sent right-hander Penn Murfee to Triple-A Charlotte, reports Scott Merkin of MLB.com. There had been no previous indication that the righty had been removed from the 40-man roster but the Sox evidently passed him through waivers in recent days. Their 40-man count drops to 39. Merkin adds that infielder Bobby Dalbec, who was designated for assignment two days ago, also cleared waivers but has exercised his right to elect free agency.
Murfee, 31, was claimed off waivers from the Astros in November. His White Sox tenure got off to a rough start. He logged 12 2/3 innings over 15 appearances, allowing 11 earned runs for a 7.82 ERA. That’s a small sample and it’s possible luck played a part in it. His .390 batting average on balls in play and 67.3% strand rate are both to the unfortunate side. His 3.85 SIERA suggests he deserved better. But on the other hand, his 20.6% strikeout rate was a big drop from his previous work.
Prior to joining the White Sox, Murfee logged 83 1/3 innings with the Mariners over 2022 and 2023. In that time, he had a 2.70 ERA, 27.9% strikeout rate and 8.5% walk rate. Unfortunately, he required UCL surgery in June of 2023, wiping out the remainder of that season and his 2024.
After the 2023 season, the Mariners put him on waivers. Even though he was facing a notable absence, his numbers were good enough that he bounced to the Mets, Braves, Astros and White Sox on waiver claims. All his pitches have seen a slight drop in velocity this year relative to 2022. Perhaps that provides some explanation for the reduced strikeout rate and, in turn, the lack of interest on the waiver wire.
Murfee finished 2024 with two years and 169 days of service time, just three days shy of the three-year line. By spending the first month-plus of the 2025 season on the active roster, he pushed over that three-year marker. He qualified for arbitration in the winter as a Super Two player but couldn’t push his salary up terribly high due to his injury absence. He and the White Sox avoided arbitration in January by agreeing to a salary of $780K, just a bit above this year’s $760K minimum.
Since he has over three years of service, he has the right to reject this outright assignment in favor of free agency. But since he has less than five, he would have to forfeit his remaining salary in order to exercise that right. As such, he is likely to report to Charlotte and attempt to work his way back onto the roster.
Dalbec, 30 next month, signed a minor league deal with the Sox in the winter. He got added to the roster about two weeks ago when Chase Meidroth hit the injured list but was bumped off when Josh Rojas returned from the IL. He has shown huge power in his career, with 47 home runs in 1,065 plate appearances, but has undercut that with a massive 36.6% strikeout rate.
Like Murfee, Dalbec is between three and five years of service. His deal with the White Sox reportedly came with a $1.25MM salary in the majors but it’s possible that it was some kind of split deal that wasn’t fully guaranteed and/or wouldn’t pay him as much in the minors. Whatever the details, Dalbec felt comfortable walking away and heading to the open market to see what other opportunities are out there.
Photo courtesy of Patrick Gorski, Imagn Images