Don’t Be Surprised If the A’s Pounce on This DFA’d White Sox Player
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With Opening Day here for the New York Yankees and San Francisco Giants, and looming for the rest of baseball, there have been a slew of roster moves as clubs have been making their final roster additions and subtractions before their own seasons kick off.
The Chicago White made an intriguing subtraction from the roster on Wednesday, but with the signing of backstop Reese McGuire just a couple of days ago, perhaps it was expected. With McGuire now making the White Sox Opening Day roster, they decided to designate Korey Lee for assignment, meaning he has to clear waivers in order to remain with the Sox.
With the A's finishing with a bottom-third record in baseball in 2025, they'll be one of the first teams that will have a shot at placing a claim on him, if they were so inclined.
The A's have Austin Wynns as their current backup to Shea Langeliers, but he's also set to hit free agency when the season is over. The question at hand here is whether or not Lee would be an improvement over Wynns, and that one is difficult to determine, since Wynns brings a number of intangibles and is already familiar with the pitching staff.
Even though he's not getting a ton of playing time behind Langeliers, he's always very involved in the preparation process for the team's game plans, and is a veteran presence behind the dish. He consistently walked around with his clipboard last season, even when he'd landed on the IL late in the year.
Lee, 27, was a first-round selection of the Houston Astros at No. 32 overall back in 2019, and was traded to the White Sox in 2023 for former A's pitcher Kendall Graveman.
In his 187 career games, Lee has hit just .193 with a 234 OBP, though he batted .257 with a .333 on-base last season in 40 plate appearances. He also lowered his strikeout rate, which had hovered around 30% or more the previous three seasons, to 17.5% last year.
This spring he ended up hitting .289 with a .426 OBP, two home runs, and a 23.4% strikeout rate. If his bat is coming around a bit, then he could be a solid backup option for the A's to consider. He'd also comes with more years of team control, which is an added benefit.
The flaw in this plan
Having Lee as a depth piece would be terrific for the A's after losing Daniel Susac to the Rule 5 Draft, but that may not be an option for the A's. While Lee can be claimed by any team, including the A's, he's also out of options, meaning that he would have to stick with the A's 26-man roster or he'd end up back on the waiver wire.
In order to acquire Lee, they'd have to remove Wynns from the equation, and that may not be the correct path to take, since Lee is by no means a sure thing for the club. He's a solid "see what we have here" candidate, and if what they have is suitable, perhaps he makes it to the big leagues and becomes a bigger piece for them.
The A's could certainly clear roster space for him, with a couple of players seen as potential DFA candidates for the green and gold. Adding Lee would be a very nice piece to have for the A's, especially if he comes closer to that first-round talent he showed at Cal. Fitting him onto the roster would be the tricky part, and likely the reason that he ends up not landing in Sacramento.
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Jason has been covering the A’s at various sites for over a decade, and was the original host of the Locked on A’s podcast. He also covers the Stanford Cardinal as they attempt to rebuild numerous programs to prominence.
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