Making it to the major leagues is tough. But one former minor leaguer believes the journey was made even tougher because he was drafted by the Chicago White Sox.
Tyler Osik was drafted by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 40th round of the 2017 MLB Draft out of Chipola College. However, instead of going pro, Osik opted to transfer and play another two college ball at the Univerity of Central Florida instead. Two years later the White Sox selected him in the 27th round of the 2019 Draft.
Osik was a versatile player, with the ability to play first base, left field, and catcher. During four seasons in the minor leagues, he hit a respectable .269/.357/.418 and took home the minor league batting title in 2022, after batting .310 in 89 games with the Winston Salem Dash in High-A. However, Osik never made it past Double-A Birmingham in the White Sox organization, before leaving to play Independent Ball in 2024. In a recent social media post, he said the organization was to blame.
“In 2022 I won a minor league batting title hitting .310 in the South Atlantic League. In 2023 after a good spring to follow it up I started in Double A splitting time with a guy that had already played 6 years in Double A & another guy that made it to the big leagues but never had success & was almost 30. Some would say it’s a tough business… but now I have realized it was just bad luck getting drafted to a bad organization that was in shambles… & I signed for 2500 dollars.
Tyler Osik on X Feb 7, 2025
Not many organizations if any other organizations in baseball other than the White Sox would have a guy win a minor league batting title then not play him everyday the next year to see if he can do it again & produce at the next level. From my 2022 performance. I should have been given every day at bats the following year the entire season.
Out of the top 5 hitters in the South Atlantic League that year. 4/5 made it to the big leagues. (Vaughn Grissom, Thomas Saggese, Justin Henry Malloy, Endy Rodriguez) The only one that didn’t make it… was me
& anybody that thinks it doesn’t matter to win a Milb batting title. Never won a minor league batting title… lol”
It should be noted that Osik was 25 years old when he won the batting title with Winston-Salem when the average age for hitters in High-A ball is roughly 22 years old. He was 26 by the time he left the organization.
The White Sox have also come under fire for their use of advanced analytics, something that Getz is working to change. White Sox owner Jerry Resindorf has reportedly said he is ‘not an analytics person’ while his front office turns to private outside firms to handle its number crunching. Using a third party made it making it difficult for the White Sox to find a competitive edge since most other teams develop their own customized models for players. When their analytic people provide data, it often differs from the numbers they receive from the third party, making it nearly impossible to evaluate players.
This likely wasn’t the reason that Osik never got an extended look but it’s not often that a player is willing to blast his former organization.
Jerry is half an analytics guy – the first half of analytics being ANAL. Sell the Sox and Bulls Reinsdorf! We’re tired of your mismanagement.
Can you imagine anyone being overjoyed with being drafted by the Sox?!! Wasn’t Getz in charge of the minor leagues during the period in question? And Jerry says he’s not an analytics person, is Jerry even a baseball person?