Grading the White Sox: Ryan Burr

At midseason, the SSS staff graded the 46-46 White Sox, from head of the class Dylan Cease all the way down to Dallas Keuchel. We invented a WARsss metric that could very well be just a cute way to trot out our special site grades — but really for all you know could be the product of years of research in a stats lab.

Our expanded report card will take us through everyone who saw time in uniform for the White Sox, plus some front-office types. Most of our writers will take on a couple of players, with final grades and short writeups, running through the end of November. Enjoy!

Ryan Burr
Right-Handed Relief Pitcher
Midseason: -1.2 WARsss
Final: -3.4 WARsss

Not really sure what happened here for Burr’s WARsss to tumble by essentially a factor of three. We can’t be that angry at him for trashing the White Sox organization after being released after surgery. Or can we?

The social media controversy that ensued in June, after Burr announced his surgery/release on Instagram, was likely prompted by this:

Funny how just repurposing news rather than creating original content, with no context or explanation, works on Twitter today. The rest of the story, which would be easy to provide given the 280 characters Twitter offers, is that Burr’s medical care remained paid for by the White Sox, through and after release, as mandated by the union. We also have no clue what precipitated Burr’s decision; notably above, for all the people (teammates included) Burr consulted, team personnel/doctors are not listed.

Yes, cue the “White Sox training staff” jokes, or “hey just put him on the 60-day IL and punt the 40-man roster decision, no harm” takes. But clearly this had been an issue (per Burr) since the spring; did the White Sox recommend surgery then, and he ignored the advice? Was the team’s recommended course to continue rest and rehab for possible contribution in the stretch run (ha) and to get surgery immediately after the season?

We don’t know. And the White Sox could well be in the wrong here. But Burr was really great (1.1 rWAR) for the 2021 White Sox, and they’d invested years in him since the ol’ international bonus money swap that got him to Chicago five years ago — it doesn’t make sense to outright dump him.

Burr is 28 years old, and probably regrets making that post, or at least the tone of it. You wouldn’t think it would have made other orgs fall over themselves to be the next to get a post-release trashing — but the righthander skated on this one, because Tampa inked Burr in August.

Au revoir, Der Burr.

2022 White Sox Grades

Dallas Keuchel, LHSP, -3.9
Tony La Russa, MGR, -3.5
Ryan Burr, RHRP, -3.4