Eric Haase's brief run with the White Sox is already over. Chicago signed the veteran catcher to a minor league deal on July 28 and stashed him at Triple-A Charlotte, hoping he'd provide emergency depth while Kyle Teel nursed a high ankle sprain. Two weeks later, he's a free agent again.
The timing is what makes it sting. Joey Bart, the guy Chicago was actually counting on behind the plate, broke a bone in his hand, which should've been Haase's opening to get the call. Instead the Sox stuck with the Drew Romo-Edgar Quero pairing already on the 40-man and cut Haase loose rather than adding him to the active roster. That's despite Haase raking a bit in his short window at Charlotte, going 9-for-25 with two doubles and a homer in 7 games.
It's the second release of the summer for the 33-year-old. San Francisco let him go about a week before Chicago scooped him up, after he hit just.162/.235/.365 with 4 homers over 29 games with the Giants. Over 9 big league seasons with Cleveland, Detroit, San Francisco and now Chicago, Haase carries a career.224/.276/.394 line, built on above-average power but plenty of swing-and-miss — his best year came in 2021 with the Tigers, when he popped 22 home runs.
With Teel reportedly trending toward a September return and Korey Lee now the last catcher in the org with MLB experience, Chicago clearly decided it didn't need a third stopgap arm behind the plate. For Haase, it's back on the open market looking for organizational catching work yet again — a rough stretch for a guy who was a semi-regular starter for the Tigers not that long ago.