White Sox arbitration cases: They gone!

Andrew Vaughn gets paid big, and some others just get paid

As per tradition, the White Sox came to terms with all pending arbitration cases in advance of Thursday’s awkward, numbers-exchange deadline.

WHITE SOX AGREE TO TERMS ON ONE-YEAR CONTRACTS WITH FOUR PLAYERS, AVOIDING ARBITRATION

CHICAGO – The Chicago White Sox have agreed to terms on one-year contracts with the following four players, avoiding arbitration:

RHP Justin Anderson ($900,000)
RHP Penn Murfee ($780,000)
INF Andrew Vaughn ($5.85 million)
RHP Steven Wilson ($950,000)

Following the signings, the White Sox have agreed to terms with all their arbitration-eligible players for the 2025 season.

Predictably, the White Sox also saved a little money in the process, as is their annual wont. With Matt Swartz at MLB Trade Rumors projecting Vaughn being worth $6.4 million, Anderson $1.1 million, Wilson $1 million and Murfee $800,000, the club shaved a potential $820,000 off its books. Anything to screw over your labor, Jerry.

Now, at the same time, we can back off a bit and wonder on what planet does Andrew Vaughn warrant $6.4 million or even $5.85 million? Even when understanding that the system rewards tenured arbitration cases and simply showing up (AV has more than 2,000 at-bats in the majors, running up, uh, 1.1 WAR in the process) earns you money. Being a bad player just doesn’t enter into it.

Why in the world the White Sox didn’t simply non-tender Vaughn, we’ll never know.

And, of course, the White Sox realized further savings by simply releasing the other five of its arb candidates: Nicky Lopez (projected $5.1 million), Gavin Sheets ($2.6 million), Enyel De Los Santos ($1.7 million), Jimmy Lambert ($1.2 million) and Matt Foster ($900,000). Plus, Garrett Crochet was shipped off to Boston while due some $2.9 million.

The White Sox have no remaining arb cases and line up to begin 2025 with the No. 29 payroll in baseball, (barely) ahead of the Miami Marlins.