White Sox sign Xavier Cedeno to minor-league deal

The White Sox have agreed to a minor-league contract with lefty reliever Xavier Cedeno, according to a baseball source. He’ll reportedly earn $1.05 million if he makes the majors.

Cedeno, 31, was non-tendered by the Rays at the beginning of last month and drew interest from multiple clubs, including the Pirates, throughout the winter. He’ll likely have a good chance of making a White Sox team that currently only has recently acquired southpaw Luis Avilan in its bullpen mix, pending the addition of other pieces.

Chicago tore down its bullpen in trades over the summer, unloading David Robertson, Tommy Kahnle, Anthony Swarzak and Dan Jennings in various trades. They’ve done a bit to build it back up this winter, acquiring Avilan and Joakim Soria in a three-team deal and adding Cedeno and Rob Scahill on non-guaranteed deals.

Cedeno made only nine appearances for the Rays in 2017 before missing the rest of the season with a forearm injury. When he was fully healthy in 2016, he was effective, posting a 3.70 ERA in 41.1 innings of work.

Cedeno is a veteran of seven major-league seasons with Houston (2011-13), Washington (2013-15) and Tampa Bay (2015-17), owning a career 3.98 ERA and and 3.75 FIP in 142.1 innings in that span. For his career, lefties are hitting just .226 and OPSing .584 off of him in 320 at-bats.