Amaya Struggles In Debut As White Sox Continue Experimenting With Castoffs

Jacob Amaya’s White Sox debut did not go as planned. The 25-year-old went 0-for-3 with a strikeout in the White Sox 5-1 loss to the Mets on Friday after being claimed off waivers last week. 

In one game Amaya tripled his total number of MLB at-bats this season.  Before getting picked up by the White Sox, he got just one at-bat in his lone game with the Astros. After Friday’s game, he now has just 13 MLB at-bats under his belt. Given that he is out of options at the end of the season, the White Sox will likely give him an extended look to see if he can be an everyday infielder.

Opportunities in the big leagues have been hard to come by for Amaya. In 2023 he got his first taste of MLB action, playing in four games for the Marlins. In his six career MLB games, he owns a .154 batting average and .308 OPS. While this is an incredibly small sample size, it begs the question of why the White Sox insists on playing other teams’ failed prospects over actual prospects in their farm system. 

There is a reason both the Marlins and Astros had no interest in keeping him around. In seven seasons in the minor leagues, Amaya is a career .251 hitter, with 62 home runs and 331 RBIs. This season he was batting just .223 with a .649 OPS in Triple-A’s Pacific Coastal League, which isn’t exactly known for its dominant pitching. Amaya is considered a defensive-minded infielder and has shown the ability to draw walks. However, the defense hasn’t been enough for teams to overlook the lackluster offensive production.

Despite Chris Getz’s best efforts to improve the defense, the White Sox fielding has been horrendous. However, the bigger issue is the lack of quality hitters across the organization. Byron Ramos has the potential to be an impact bat down the road. Amaya does not. He has done nothing in his career to justify playing time over Ramos, who was recalled after one game to make room on the roster for Amaya. 

Taking fliers on other team’s castoffs and failed prospects has been a common trend for the White Sox in recent years, with little results to show for it. Last season the White Sox picked up Clint Fraizer, Adam Haseley,  Brett Honeywell, and Devi Garcia, all of whom were former top-100 prospects or first-round draft picks. None of them are still with the team. This season the White Sox added Nick Senzel on to DFA him weeks later. Transactions like this show a complete lack of faith in the farm system, which is ironic since the current general manager used to be the Director of Player Development. 

The 11th-round pick out of El Monte California is an easy guy to root for. Before Friday’s game, he talked about being grateful for the chance to be a starting shortstop in the MLB after getting designated for assignment. He added that he hopes to bring some energy to the clubhouse, which is something a historically bad team like the White Sox could certainly use.

It is nice that Amaya is getting an opportunity to prove himself in the big leagues, something he likely wouldn’t have gotten with any other team. But it is hard to be optimistic when we have seen this movie before.