The White Sox are coming off a 2-4 West Coast road trip, where they played decent baseball. Now, as they return to Chicago, they will kick off a nice seven game homestead against two division rivals, the Minnesota Twins and the Detroit Tigers.
These will be important games, as the Twins are right on their tail for second place in the division. If they can take two out of three from Minnesota, it would give them some nice breathing room in the Wild Card race as well.
With this return to Chicago comes a very interesting roster move. As we discussed yesterday, the White Sox are calling up infielder/outfielder Rikuu Nishida to make his major league debut. At that time, we didn’t know what the corresponding move would be. Today, we found that out.
According to the White Sox, to make room for Nishida on the roster, they are designating Jarred Kelenic for assignment.
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Kelenic was a former consensus top-20 prospect in all of baseball and was the 6th overall pick in the 2018 draft. Despite that pedigree, he struggled in his first season, as he hit .181 in his rookie year and .141 in his sophomore year. However, Kelenic figured something out in 2023, as he slashed .253/.327/.419, adding 11 home runs, 49 RBIs, and 13 stolen bases. This was good for 2.1 WAR according to Baseball Reference.
Kelenic was then traded to the Atlanta Braves, where he spent parts of the last two seasons. Kelenic had a decent year in 2024, as he hit .231, adding 15 home runs and 45 RBIs. While the overall season wasn’t as good as 2023, he still showed his power potential. Unfortunately for Kelenic, 2025 didn’t go his way, as he hit .167 in just 24 major league games.
Kelenic then joined the White Sox on a minor league deal in the offseason and didn’t have a great Spring Training. However, after getting hot in Charlotte, the White Sox called him up on April 29th.
In total, Kelenic appeared in 19 games for the White Sox, hitting .226 with a .305 OBP. He added one homerun, two doubles, and four RBIs. While this wasn’t a bad start, the White Sox for the first time ever, have a ton of depth at the outfield position, leaving Kelenic as the odd-man out.
Jarred Kelenic crushed that baseball 😮💨 pic.twitter.com/4KuEO7A8zp
— Chicago White Sox (@whitesox) May 16, 2026
I would imagine a team takes a flier on Kelenic, as he could still be a solid major league player. The White Sox may be able to flip him in a trade if a team wants to get ahead of another team on waivers to make sure they acquire Kelenic.
While this move is a surprise today, as I figured Kelenic would get sent down when Austin Hays came back, it will end the current tenure of Kelenic with the White Sox. If nobody claims him, he will likely return to Charlotte, where he will wait for another opportunity to get back to Chicago. We wish Kelenic nothing but the best moving forward.
