Former San Francisco Giants Slugger Signs Deal With Chicago White Sox

When former top prospect Heliot Ramos finally emerged for the San Francisco Giants this year, their outfield became fairly crowded during the season and when looking ahead towards the future.

Despite Jung Hoo Lee being sidelined with a shoulder injury that ended his rookie campaign, the everyday addition of Ramos alongside Michael Conforto, Mike Yastrzemski, Austin Slater and a rotating cast of minor leaguers because of injuries created a logjam.

Because of that, the Giants decided to ship Slater out to the Cincinnati Reds on July 7 in exchange for pitcher Alex Young.

That ended his eight-and-a-half-year tenure in San Francisco after he was taken in the eighth round of the 2014 MLB draft before becoming a top prospect ahead of his Major League debut in 2017.

But despite a few good seasons during his time with the Giants, namely in 2020 with a 151 OPS+ and in 2022 with a 121 OPS+ across his 125 games, they viewed him as expendable and shipped him out of town.

Slater’s tenure with the Reds was short, only playing in eight games before they sent him to the Baltimore Orioles ahead of the trade deadline.

Upon the season ending, the veteran outfielder elected to hit free agency, and according to Jon Heyman of The New York Post, he has now signed a Major League deal with the Chicago White Sox, although the terms have not been revealed.

The White Sox are coming off a historically poor campaign last year, so with them looking to turn the corner by getting established MLB talent into the mix, there’s a chance Slater gets a good amount of playing time.