The White Sox have released right-handed reliever Dan Altavilla, per the transaction log at MiLB.com. He’d been on a minor league deal and pitching with their Triple-A affiliate in Charlotte.
Altavilla, 32, boasts a sharp 2.49 ERA in 21 2/3 frames with the Knights this season, including a recent run of 11 2/3 shutout innings. He’s fanned only 19.8% of his opponents against a bloated 11% walk rate, but it’s been a nice run of run-prevention for the journeyman righty, who’s averaging a hearty 96.1 mph on his four-seamer in Charlotte while yielding a lowly 24.6% hard-hit rate.
A veteran of seven major league seasons, Altavilla did his best work early in his career with the Mariners. From 2016-18, he pitched to a tidy 3.28 earned run average with a 25.3% strikeout rate and 10.7% walk rate over 79 2/3 frames. Persistent injuries have limited Altavilla’s time on the field, however. He’s managed only 40 total big league innings since that early run with Seattle.
Flexor strains in both 2018 and 2019 shortened two of Altavilla’s seasons with the Mariners. He struggled to a 5.52 ERA in the latter campaign and in 2020 was included alongside Austin Nola and Austin Adams in the lopsided trade that sent Andres Munoz, Ty France, Luis Torrens and Taylor Trammell from San Diego to Seattle. Altavilla then underwent Tommy John surgery in 2021, which wiped out nearly all of his 2021-22 seasons.
Altavilla made a brief big league return with the 2024 Royals, tossing 3 2/3 innings for Kansas City. He was tagged for six runs in that short look and subsequently designated for assignment. The former fifth-round pick spent the rest of the 2024 season with the Royals’ top minor league affiliate in Omaha, where he logged 41 innings with a 3.51 ERA, a league-average 22.2% strikeout rate and a heavy 12.9% walk rate. The rate stats were shaky, but the combined 44 2/3 frames between Triple-A and the majors were the most Altavilla had pitched in a season since 2019.
There’s no indication that Altavilla is dealing with any kind of injury in 2025. He pitched for the Knights just a few days prior to his release and tossed a scoreless inning. As was the case in 2024, Altavilla’s rate stats are a bit wobbly, but he’s throwing hard, limiting hard contact and keeping runs off the board. That should earn him a new opportunity before long.