CHICAGO – The Chicago White Sox severed ties with former first-round draft pick Jared Mitchell, releasing the minor league outfielder Sunday after a slow start at Triple-A Charlotte.

The White Sox signed free agent outfielder Tyler Colvin to take Mitchell’s roster spot at Triple-A.

Mitchell’s White Sox tenure started out promising when the two-sport athlete was drafted out of LSU in 2009. He had won a BCS championship in football in 2007 with the Tigers and a College World Series title with LSU two years later.

He was seen as the ideal five-tool player the White Sox routinely targeted when Kenny Williams was the team’s general manager. After an impressive start to his baseball career at Single-A Kannapolis in 2009, Mitchell was invited to big league camp at spring training the following year.

But a serious ankle injury suffered in a big league spring game cost Mitchell the entire 2010 season, and aside for some bursts of production, he never turned into the player he was projected to be.

Mitchell, 26, was just 2-for-40 (.050) in 13 games with Charlotte this season. He is a career .226 hitter in six minor league seasons with a .334 on-base percentage and a .381 slugging percentage.

Colvin, 29, was a Chicago Cubs first-round draft pick in 2006. He has hit 49 career major league home runs with 178 RBIs in stints with three teams: the Cubs, Colorado Rockies and San Francisco Giants. Colvin opted out of his contract with the Miami Marlins in early April.