A line popped in my head on Monday when watching Chris Volstad walk off the mound after Daniel Palka couldn't close the distance on a pop-up in shallowish right, which scored runs made possible by Matt Skole's inexperience at first base. It took me a few minutes and searches to source it, and it turned out, like most things, to be a random riff from Mystery Science Theatre 3000.
This one came 26 minutes into "Future War," to be specific.
"Is this a halfway house for huge guys?"
Skole joined the roster on Monday by replacing another Huge Guy, as Matt Davidson hit the disabled list after succumbing to his back spasms. There are now nine players on the White Sox' 25-man rsoter who started the season on Charlotte's Opening Day roster, and that number grows to 10 if you count Jace Fry.
Charlotte entered the season as the White Sox' third-most exciting affiliate.
On one hand, it's cool to see stories like Skole's. He played 781 professional games and accrued 2,500 minor-league plate appearances over eight seasons before making his MLB debut, and it caught him completely by surprise.
Skole signed with the Sox as a minor-league free agent on January 22. He will wear No. 41 and have family in the stands to see his debut. Before calling them to share the news, he said he “had to sit down for about 30 minutes and had to get myself together.”
“I was shaking, I was so excited. It’s been a long journey for me. I’ve been through a lot of stuff: injuries, being in the minor leagues, on and off the roster. It’s been a long road, so just to get that call and make that call to my dad and mom, it was pretty cool.”
Skole shot a single to right on the first pitch he saw, then spanked a 418-foot homer over the right-field wall his second time up. He also drew a walk to cross that often-elusive first off his list.
It was a tremendous story, even if it was eventually consumed by yet another case of White Sox self-sabotage. Skole certainly surpassed the previous MLB debut the White Sox afforded. Alfredo Gonzalez went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts on Saturday, including a three-pitch strikeout in his first plate appearances. All three pitches were low sliders, and he whiffed each time.
But there's a reason why the promotion surprised Skole. He wasn't on the 40-man roster, nor was he tearing up the International League. He heaved his OPS over .800 thanks to BB&T Ballpark, but it came with a 28 percent strikeout rate.
Fortunately for Skole, the White Sox are just the halfway house he needed. The 25-man roster is a nonjudgmental space for the previously unloved (Skole, Palka, Gonzalez), as well as those seeking a second chance (Dylan Covey, Charlie Tilson, Jose Rondon), if not an umpteenth (Volstad, Trayce Thompson).
This phase should be ending shortly. There's Carlos Rodon, who pitches for the Knights tonight after taking a line drive to the forehead his last time out. Assuming he can get through this one without needing staples, it might be the only outing he needs to warrant a return to the White Sox rotation. (Rodon's schedule might be why Hector Santiago pitched the ninth on Monday).
After that, the arrival of June marks the closing of that pain-in-the-ass Super Two window. As I wrote for The Athletic, this 25-man turmoil is the reason why Eloy Jimenez has stayed in Birmingham despite tremendous production in the Southern League. If he were in Charlotte, there's no way the Sox could have justified calling up all the bodies around him. As it stands, they've successfully used Triple-A as an artificial barrier that keeps this waiting period from being even more of a farce.
Ironically, this roster riptide is the leading reason Jiménez remains sealed in his original Barons packaging. Had Jiménez joined Charlotte in early May and met even bearish expectations, there’d be no way to justify calling up everybody else around him.
As long as Jiménez has yet to play a game in Triple-A, though, the Sox are largely protected from the direct pressure to call him up now. Skipping a level is a form of rushing, and rushing a key prospect is the last thing a team would want to do during a rebuilding season.
This also applies to Michael Kopech, whose secondary pitches aren't ever going to be truly tested when his fastball is already so devastating to minor-league hitters.
Skole's first day in the majors was heartwarming, and yet I'm hoping we don't see another like it for a while. Whether it's Palka's defense or Gonzalez's work as the backup catcher, the roster is already waterlogged with the hangovers from these surprise calls. The standards eventually have to creep upward. Such an aim won't prevent the White Sox from handing opportunities to prospects over the next two weeks, but maybe they can save the debuts for the ones we've been anticipating.
