First White Sox cut made decent first impressions

Nick Madrigal (Clinton Cole / FutureSox)

The White Sox made their first round of cuts on a day they lost both halves of a split-squad afternoon, including one to Cleveland by an 11-0 score. We’ll have to table the wheat/chaff metaphor until we have a better idea which players are which.

That said, the Sox weren’t particularly punitive about who they chose to send down first. Of the five, Jordan Guerrero probably would’ve wanted to hang around longer. He made three appearances, each one tougher than the one that came before, culminating in a three-walk, three-run eighth inning against the Indians on Tuesday. That’s not the best way to ward off the dreaded “organizational player” tag.

As for the others, they were all recent draft picks getting their first taste of the big-league life, and all acquainted themselves respectably.

*Bernardo Flores: At the time of his dismissal, only Carson Fulmer gave the Sox more innings than Flores’ 6⅓, which were spread out over three appearances. He threw strikes (one walk), and maybe too many of them (two homers), but averaging two innings an appearance counts as a positive first impression during a time where so many of his peers are struggling to notch three outs over an afternoon.

*Blake Rutherford: He went 4-for-15 with a double, no walks and four strikeouts over his 15 plate appearances, and drew rave reviews for his offseason conditioning. The question from here is whether that translate into enough power for it to show up in his Regions Field slugging percentage.

*Luis Gonzalez: Like Rutherford, he went 4-for-15. Unlike Rutherford, all his hits were singles. Unlike Rutherford, he drew a walk against five strikeouts. Like Rutherford, it’s a decent debut that doesn’t move the needle much, but didn’t cost him anything, either.

And last but not least, unless you’re talking about stature…

*Nick Madrigal: A cut is probably not the birthday gift he envisioned, but infield reps are going to be harder to find when Cactus League play resumes after today’s off day. Madrigal went 4-for-13 with a pair of walks and a strikeout. All the hits were singles, but there should be more extra-base hits in store when the regular season rolled around, because he found the pull field in the air far more frequently.

Assuming he doesn’t reinjure his wrist or hand somehow — Luis Robert winced reading this clause — Madrigal is setting a course for a more productive start to his second shot at minor-league pitching. For the time being, he’ll get a break from taking spring losses way too hard.

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knoxfire30

How is the rebuild going?

Well we are getting excited about top 5 picks flying out now, so I would say exactly as planned 🙂

PauliePaulie

The difference is that we’re excited about a pick we made, vs. picks we will make.

johnnyg83

“We’re equally impressed with the people we drafted and the people we traded for.”

lil jimmy

I like Bernardo Flores’s chances. Throwing Left handed helps, but he stays focused, throws strikes, keeps the ball down and moves it around. He still needs to miss more bats.

ParisSox

A couple of years ago I remember reading that someone who’s good at rating prospects gave hm the best chance to be a major leaguer. More the highest floor rather than ceiling.   At which point I called dibs on that other sight.  

I’ve stopped dibsing here but suffice it to say that when Flores and Zangari make their MLB debuts,  you shall here from me.  And now you know why.