White Sox just made weird roster moves that featured 3 former Dodgers

No team seems as eager to pick at the Dodgers' discard pile as the White Sox. The two clubs are not infrequent trade partners — LA got Michael Kopech last year in exchange for Miguel Vargas, and they were reportedly keeping lines of communication open about a Luis Robert/James Outman deal this season — but it's also a little uncanny how frequently Dodgers players find their ways over to the White Sox after being dumped by the Dodgers.

Just to name a few in recent memory: Andre Lipcius, Yoendrys Gómez, Gus Varland, Hanser Alberto. Others who were formerly great with the Dodgers and flamed out ended up in Chicago: Yasmani Grandal, Noah Syndergaard. A few of the unlucky souls who were traded there: Vargas, Trayce Thompson, AJ Pollock, and so on.

That much overlap led to a weird roster move for Chicago involving two of the Dodgers' sloppy seconds. Gus Varland, who pitched six innings for the Dodgers last season, was designated for assignment and Jacob Amaya, a Dodgers 11th-round pick who was shipped to the Marlins in the Miguel Rojas trade, was promoted.

Down in the minors, Syndergaard was released by the Triple-A Charlotte Knights on Aug. 2.

Former Dodgers Jacob Amaya, Gus Varland swap places on White Sox roster; Chicago releases Noah Syndergaard

Amaya's been bounced across so many organizations in such a short period of time that it's a little hard to keep track. He was DFA'ed by the Marlins in April 2024 and then traded to the Astros for pitcher Valente Bellozo. He got a single pinch-hit at-bat in Houston before they DFA'ed him and the White Sox grabbed him off of waivers. The White Sox then DFA'ed him in January this year, the Orioles grabbed him off of waivers, and he was in that organization for all of nine days before they DFA'ed him and the White Sox picked him up again.

Chicago also DFA'ed him one more time this year on May 16 (if you lost count, that's six DFAs since April 2024) after he batted .097 with a .232 OPS in 35 major league games, but he cleared waivers and was sent outright to Triple-A.

Varland has yet to make his season debut in the majors, but he pitched 20 1/3 innings for a 3.54 ERA last season after the Dodgers dumped him.

Syndergaard signed a minor-league deal with Chicago on June 24, almost two years after he was released by the Guardians and kind of disappeared off the face of the planet. He made two starts in Triple-A (eight innings) and gave up nine earned runs.

Things seem to be going really well for former Dodgers over there on the south side of Chicago.