White Sox place Alex Avila on the 15-day DL, purchase contract of Omar Narvaez

As expected, the White Sox have placed Alex Avila on the 15-day DL today due to a hamstring injury he aggravated last night. To replace him, the White Sox have purchased the contract of catcher Omar Narvaez from Charlotte. To make room for Narvaez on the 40-man roster, the Sox have also moved Jake Petricka to the 60-day DL.

Narvaez, 24, has made it the White Sox in a rather roundabout way. Like Adrian Nieto, Narvaez came to the White Sox in the Rule 5 draft from Tampa Bay in December 2013. He was picked in the minor league portion of the draft meaning the Rays really didn’t think he was in the top 70 or so players in their organization. Since he hadn’t played full season baseball yet, that was probably a safe bet.

Narvaez split time in 2014 between Kannapolis and Winston-Salem and played all of last season in Winston-Salem. He got his first taste of baseball above A-ball this season with a promotion to Birmingham. He did, however, get a decent chunk of the catching duties with the major league team during spring training. After the injury bug started to hit White Sox catchers, he got promoted to Charlotte in early April. Between both stops, he’s hit .239/.291/.314 with two home runs, 13 walks, and 25 strikeouts in 205 plate appearances.

With these moves, the Sox 40-man roster stays at 40, but Webb and Petricka are now both on the 60-day DL.