{"id":60013,"date":"2025-06-06T19:45:49","date_gmt":"2025-06-06T19:45:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=60013"},"modified":"2025-06-06T19:45:49","modified_gmt":"2025-06-06T19:45:49","slug":"white-sox-designate-ryan-cusick-for-assignment-option-korey-lee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=60013","title":{"rendered":"White Sox Designate Ryan Cusick For Assignment, Option Korey Lee"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The White Sox announced that they have selected the contract of catcher <strong>Kyle Teel<\/strong>, a move that was reported yesterday. In a corresponding active roster move, fellow catcher <strong>Korey Lee<\/strong> has been optioned to Triple-A Charlotte. To open a 40-man spot, right-hander <strong>Ryan Cusick<\/strong> has been designated for assignment.<\/p>\n<p>Cusick, 25, was just claimed off waivers two days ago. While it may seem odd to grab a player and then cut him so quickly, it\u2019s possible the Sox are hoping he will clear waivers this time, which is a possibility. Cusick started this season with the A\u2019s but was put on waivers by that club a little over a week ago. He was claimed by the Tigers, the team with the best record in baseball and therefore the last waiver priority. That means the 28 other teams, apart from the A\u2019s and Tigers, passed.<\/p>\n<p>The Tigers then put him back on waivers but the White Sox, with a roster spot just opened by <strong>Miguel Castro<\/strong>\u2019s season-ending knee injury, claimed him this time. Now that Cusick is going back on the wire yet again, it\u2019s possible he goes through unclaimed. The Tigers nudged Cusick off by reinstating <strong>Parker Meadows<\/strong> from the 60-day IL and they have also since reinstated <strong>Sawyer Gipson-Long<\/strong>, tightening up their roster and perhaps giving them less ability to claim Cusick again.<\/p>\n<p>If he does indeed pass through waivers unclaimed, the Sox would be retaining a former first-round pick. Atlanta grabbed Cusick 24th overall in 2021 and then flipped him to the A\u2019s as part of the <strong>Matt Olson<\/strong> deal a few months later. The A\u2019s tried to develop Cusick as a starter without success. He tossed 143 innings over the 2022 and 2023 minor league seasons, missing time due to injury and posting a 5.60 earned run average in that span.<\/p>\n<p>He was moved to a relief role halfway through the 2024 season and showed some flashes of intrigue there. His final 26 innings of the year resulted in a 1.73 ERA. Walking 11.8% of opponents in that span was less than ideal but he recorded strikeouts at a 28.2% clip. That was enough that the A\u2019s thought he could get snapped up in the Rule 5 draft, so they gave him a 40-man spot in November.<\/p>\n<p>He couldn\u2019t carry that strong performance in 2025, or at least hasn\u2019t yet. He had a 6.75 ERA in 14 2\/3 Triple-A innings to start the season, giving out 13 walks to just 11 strikeouts. That kicked off his trip through the waiver wire in recent weeks. The next few days will reveal whether he will stick in the White Sox\u2019 system or perhaps get claimed yet again.<\/p>\n<p>Lee\u2019s optional assignment is also notable, as it sheds more light on Chicago\u2019s catching plans. They have had Lee and <strong>Edgar Quero<\/strong> as their primary catching duo for most of the season. With Teel\u2019s promotion, it wasn\u2019t clear how they would distribute the playing time.<\/p>\n<p>It was possible to envision a three-catcher setup, as the club doesn\u2019t have an everyday designated hitter. Teel has also been doing some work at first base. With <strong>Andrew Vaughn<\/strong> having been recently optioned, it would have been possible for Lee, Quero and Teel to all get regular playing time by sharing the catching duties as well as DHing and maybe Teel playing some first base.<\/p>\n<p>Instead, it seems the Sox will go with a more straightforward two-catcher setup, though it will be a very inexperienced duo. Teel has yet to make his debut while Quero has just 38 games under his belt.<\/p>\n<p>Lee isn\u2019t exactly a veteran but he has been around a bit longer than those two. He\u2019s still only 26 years old but got some brief big league time in 2022 and 2023 before becoming a regular in 2024. All told, he has 175 major league contests on his track record. That\u2019s not a ton, relatively speaking, but it does make him the most experienced of the three catchers and the one most familiar with the Chicago pitching staff.<\/p>\n<p>He also has the least upside of the three. He was a notable prospect, getting selected 32nd overall by the Astros in 2019, but his production has stalled out at the upper levels. He has a .192\/.231\/.315 batting line and 51 wRC+ in the majors. Dating back to the start of 2023, he has a .281\/.331\/.395 line and 85 wRC+ at the Triple-A level. Outlets such as Baseball Prospectus and Statcast aren\u2019t thrilled with his work behind the plate either.<\/p>\n<p>Quero and Teel, on the other hand, have each hit well at the Triple-A level recently. Quero\u2019s major league offense hasn\u2019t produced much power yet but he\u2019s drawing walks and avoiding strikeouts, leading to a passable .256\/.343\/.306 line and 91 wRC+. Rolling with the Quero\/Teel duo gives the Sox a fairly inexperienced catching corps in the short term but it seems that doesn\u2019t bother them. They surely aren\u2019t expecting to compete anytime soon, so they will let their best catchers get the big league playing time and gain that experience during the rebuilding process.<\/p>\n<p>That will leave Lee in the minors as a depth option. If he stays down for at least 20 days, he will burn his final option year in 2025. If that comes to pass, that would leave him out of options going into 2026.<\/p>\n<p><em>Photo courtesy of Rick Scuteri, Imagn Images<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Sox made room for Teel by bumping Cusick and Lee. Read more at MLB Trade Rumors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":60014,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[2151,552,2152],"class_list":["post-60013","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb","tag-korey-lee","tag-kyle-teel","tag-ryan-cusick"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>White Sox Designate Ryan Cusick For Assignment, Option Korey Lee - NEWS USA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=60013\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"White Sox Designate Ryan Cusick For Assignment, Option Korey Lee - NEWS USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Sox made room for Teel by bumping Cusick and Lee. 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