Chicago White Sox Sign Former All-Star To Minor League Deal

CHICAGO –– White Sox general manager Chris Getz used the term "creative" three times on Monday when discussing managing the innings of the team's young pitchers.

There's been upwards of three examples of that less than halfway through the season, with the latest coming on Tuesday morning. The team announced it agreed to terms on minor league contract with pitcher Noah Syndergaard. He has reported to the complex in Glendale, Ariz.

"Excited about that," Venable said. "He’s got some work to do. He’ll go to Arizona. We’ll get him stretched out and a couple of things that I know we’ve highlighted we want to work on with him and see where we are at."

Here are the contract details, per Jon Heyman of the New York Post.

Noah Syndergaard
White Sox

2025. Minor League contract for $30,000/mo.

$1,750,000 in Majors

Plus: $50,000 for 40ip; $100,000 each for 55ip; 75ip

Release clause (Opt out if not in majors) 8/1
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) June 24, 2025

Syndergaard, 32, has not pitched in the major leagues since 2023 with the Cleveland Guardians and Los Angeles Dodgers, but he was once an elite starting pitcher. The 6-foot-6 right-hander broke into the league in a big way in 2015, when he finished fourth in NL Rookie of the Year voting and helped the Mets reach the World Series.

His best season came in 2016, when he recorded a 2.60 ERA and a 1.14 WHIP with 218 strikeouts and 43 walks across 183.2 innings. Nicknamed "Thor," Syndergaard finished second among all pitchers with 6.0 wins above replacement that season, behind Miami's Jose Fernandez.

Injuries limited Syndergaard to just 30.1 innings in 2017 and two innings in 2021, and he didn't pitch at all in 2020, signaling the end of his Mets tenure. Across six seasons in New York, he posted a 3.32 ERA across 718 innings. But his career would never quite be the same.

He pitched 134.2 innings in 2022 with the Los Angeles Angels and Philadelphia Phillies and 88.2 innings with the Dodgers and Guardians in 2023, his last season in the big leagues. In 2023, he finished with career-worst numbers with a 6.50 ERA and a 1.38 WHIP. Syndergaard's fastball averaged at least 97 mph from 2015-19, but it dipped to 94.4 in 2021 and 92.2 mph in 2023.

Coincidentally, White Sox manager Will Venable faced Syndergaard at the tail end of his playing career. Venable imagined his numbers weren't good in those matchups, but he actually went 3-for-6 with a triple and two strikeouts across two games, much to his surprise.

"Wow, yeah, I don't know what happened," Venable said. "... Yeah, I'm shocked I put the ball in play against him at all, so I'll take it."

An article by Pat Ragazzo of New York Mets On SI from March of 2025 reports, "Syndergaard is ramping up in preparation of a potential MLB comeback in the future. Syndergaard has been throwing and working out at Kova Sports baseball training center in Alvarado, Texas." (For more details on Syndergaard's potential return, CLICK HERE.)

"All I know is that he has tried to make a lot of adjustments over the last couple years and kind of big changes and has really been searching," Venable said. "So I think, you know, without knowing that the history of all that is, I think for us, it's just gonna be about simplifying his mix and getting him downhill and just sinker, slider, just trying to keep it simple. So what the exact plan for that is, or how he looks coming in, I don't know."

The White Sox signing Syndergaard can be compared to the midseason acquisitions of veteran pitchers Adrian Houser, 32, and Aaron Civale, 30. Houser was in Triple-A when the White Sox signed him to a one-year deal, but he's been a great addition with a 2.27 ERA in his first six starts.

The White Sox traded first baseman Andrew Vaughn to the Milwaukee Brewers for Civale, who requested a trade after being moved to the bullpen. Through two starts with the White Sox, he's given up seven earned runs in 12 innings.

The hope is that acquiring these veteran pitchers serves multiple purposes. The White Sox have a mostly young pitching staff, many of whom are already approaching their career-high inning totals. In a season in which the White Sox are out of the playoff picture, they want to protect these young arms so that they can produce in future seasons.

"It’s huge for us to be able to survive the season," Venable said. "We are going to need a lot of help and to be able to bring in veteran guys who can navigate a Major League game even without their best stuff. We’ve seen it with the veteran guys we have brought in. Even without their best stuff, they have that experience to get through traffic. They know how to manage a game, manage damage. Everything they bring on the field and then you have the example they are set, the professionalism off the field helping our young starters develop."

It's also an attempt to improve the team through the trade market. If pitchers like Syndergaard, Houser and Civale have some success, the White Sox could flip them at the trade deadline for younger prospects, for example.

Getz spoke to that dynamic on Tuesday.

"We're always monitoring what's going on at the minor league level, the major league level, if a player has an opt-out, he's on waivers or there's a trade opportunity that makes sense," Getz said. "Any move we made –– whether it be Houser or Civale, because those are obvious examples –– the biggest value is being able to protect some of our young arms, but also knowing there was some upside in acquiring those players, that perhaps they could help us at the deadline. But the priority is getting those guys out here and pitching well, and that happens in a lot of different ways."

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