White Sox catcher to open season on IL

The White Sox placed catcher Max Stassi on the 10-day injured list Monday due to hip inflammation, per a club announcement. The club also recalled catcher Korey Lee from Triple-A Charlotte. Lee had previously been optioned to the minor leagues last week as Chicago settled on Stassi and Martin Maldonado as their catching tandem to open the season, but Stassi’s injury will instead create an opportunity for Lee to break camp with the club.

That Stassi is dealing with a hip issue is particularly concerning given the fact that he missed considerable time last season due to a hip strain that prevented him from taking the field with the Angels to open the year. While Stassi missed the entire 2023 campaign, only the first half of that absence was due to his hip injury; Stassi recovered from that issue midseason, but he and his wife revealed back in November that the three-month premature birth of their son necessitated Stassi to step away from the game and attend to his family for the remainder of the 2023 campaign. While it’s concerning to see him once again hit the IL due to hip problems, White Sox manager Pedro Grifol told reporters (as relayed by ESPN) today that Stassi is just “a little sore” after the long layoff from major league play and is still “getting his work done” despite the fact that he’ll open the season on the shelf.

Stassi, 33, was a fourth-round pick by the A’s in the 2009 draft. Upon making his big league debut with the Astros back in 2013, he spent several years as a reserve catcher shuttling between Triple-A and the majors; he appeared in just 44 games in the big leagues across his first five major league seasons. He took on a larger role with Houston in 2018, however, and made the most of the opportunity by hitting a respectable .226/.316/.394 (100 wRC+) in 88 games with the club that year while posting elite defensive numbers behind the plate.

Despite that solid performance, Stassi’s playing time with the Astros was once again limited by the arrival of Robinson Chirinos, and the club ended up dealing Stassi to their division rival in Anaheim. He took his game to another level with the Angels during the 2020 and 2021 seasons, maintaining that strong defense while slashing .250/.333/.452 with a 113 wRC+. Unfortunately, Stassi took a major step back in 2022, posting just a .180/.267/.303 (63 wRC+) slash line while his defensive metrics slipped from excellent to merely average behind the plate.

Between Stassi’s struggles in 2022 and his lost season last year, it’s hard to say what can be expected from the veteran in 2024. That uncertainty may have played a role in Stassi being dealt twice this offseason; once to the Braves alongside longtime Angels utilityman David Fletcher, an again to the White Sox the very next day. That said, Stassi has clearly shown himself to have the potential to be an average-or-better catcher both at the plate and behind it throughout his time in the majors, and it’s easy to imagine him contributing significantly to the club’s catching corps alongside Maldonado and Lee if he can get healthy.

As for Lee, the 25-year-old once received top-100 prospect buzz as a member of the Astros farm system, but has struggled badly in his first 36 games of big league action with a slash line of just .100/.156/.167 in 96 trips to the plate across the past two seasons. He was acquired by the White Sox at the trade deadline last year in exchange for veteran right-hander Kendall Graveman. Upon the club’s acquisitions of Stassi and Maldonado this winter it appeared that Lee was ticked for additional reps at the Triple-A level, where he’s a career .255/.313/.435 hitter in 841 plate appearances. He’ll instead return to the majors for at least the beginning of the 2024 season, where he’ll likely serve as the backup to Maldonado.