White Sox Release Dan Altavilla Amid Dominant Season

The Chicago White Sox made a surprising move this week, designating right-handed pitcher Dan Altavilla for assignment.

On Friday, after he passed through waivers unclaimed, the team officially released him to free agency.

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Altavilla, 33, joined the White Sox on a minor league contract this past offseason. He’s been dominant in his first year in Chicago, making 28 appearances and sporting a 2.48 ERA over 29 innings pitched.

It wasn’t all smooth this season, though, as Altavilla exercised the opt-out clause in his contract in March and then re-signed on a minor league deal a few days later. He was then released by the White Sox again in May without making a major league appearance, but then re-signed, this time on a major league contract.

Now, Altavilla is heading to free agency for the third time since late March, likely hoping to find a contender to join this time around. The White Sox, although better than they were last year when they lost an MLB-record 121 games, enter Friday at 57-90, by far the worst record in the American League.

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In spite of Chicago’s shortcomings, Altavilla has enjoyed a career year and an impressive resurgence. A 2.48 ERA would be the lowest of his career since his rookie year, when he had a 0.73 mark across 12.1 innings.

Dan Altavilla Career

Altavilla was initially drafted by the Seattle Mariners in the fifth round of the 2014 MLB Draft. He debuted with Seattle two years later and enjoyed a dominant first campaign. Then he began to struggle.

After 2018, when he had a 2.61 ERA across 20.2 innings, Altavilla didn’t have an end of season ERA below 5.50 until this year.

Spending time with the San Diego Padres, Boston Red Sox and Kansas City Royals, he wasn’t able to get back to his early career success. A Tommy John surgery in June 2021 that kept him out through the 2022 season didn’t help.

Now, Altavilla is back with a four-pitch mix he uses just about evenly, relying on his most-used pitch (the four-seam fastball) 26.1 percent of the time and his least used pitch (the changeup) 23 percent of the time. He also has a sinker and slider, the latter of which is his worst offering.

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Altavilla will now look for his next home, where he could potentially help a contender for the next few weeks. However, he would not be eligible to pitch in the postseason since he wouldn’t have been on the new team’s roster before Sept. 1.

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