Sox Machine’s top 10 White Sox prospects for 2021

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asinwreck

From the first sentence, it is clear that this piece is worth every dollar we pay for it. That’s leaving aside the particular order of the prospect list.

Just John

Indeed!

Jake Burger is not precocious, jovial though he may be. Ramos is very precocious. It’s pleasant.

As entertaining as they are enlightening, my favorite prospect list to consume. Thanks, Jim.

Oddvark

How old is Norge Vera? You say 18 years old here, MLBTR referred to him as 19, while Fangraphs lists him as 20.6. Not sure how much difference that makes as far as prospect rankings and future potential, but it’s not irrelevant.

John SF

Fangraphs is correct but I ran into this issue recently while researching him.

The original Chicago Tribune, Sun Times, and MLBTR posts about his signing listed three different ages ????

He was born in the summer of 2000 so it shouldn’t be that hard to calculate. But the issue came up I think of writers just re-publishing ages that had been true a few months earlier over and over during his nearly 2 year long signing process.

Last edited 3 years ago by John SF
Trooper Galactus

Given the way this season’s trade market trended, I hope they go all out in picking up more guys like Thompson, Dalquist, Kelsey, Vera, Ramos, Bailey, etc.. They really need that young upside talent in their pipeline in big numbers.

ParisSox

Am I still number 12?

GrinnellSteve

I think this is an exciting top 10. The next 10 have a whole lot of provin’ to do.

jorgefabregas

The system is depleted, but it’s still a lot better than when Nestor Molina was the top prospect.

ParisSox

I’d buried those memories

shaggy65

Ugh. Scott Merkin’s write-up of the position battles on the White Sox official site gives all disappointing answers:

  • Minnesota is still the team to beat
  • Sox’ improvement will depend on the progress of youngsters
  • Lucroy is going to make the opening day roster
  • Rodon will start the season as the 5th starter
  • Lopez will certainly make the team
  • Lucroy or Leury Garcia could rotate into the DH spot
  • Mercedes is a long-shot to open with the team

I know he’s not an official spokesperson for the team, but he’s pretty close. The whole “gosh darnit, we’ll sure try our best” tone of this piece is so patently White Sox that I can’t stand it.

jhomeslice

I hope they have the sensibility to let spring training have some bearing on who makes the team and what roles they play. If Kopech looks great and healthy, and Rodon looks anything like he did last year, will they insist that Rodon is the 5th starter, out of pure madness? They can’t afford to literally give away games like they did last year every time he or Lopez pitched. I can’t imagine they would not conclude they are better off with 3 innings of Kopech at the start of the year than Lopez or Rodon, who combined for an ERA of near 6 the past 2 seasons. I hope Rodon wins comeback player of the year, but come on… he’s been hurt each of the past 4 years and has gotten worse every year. The only thing he ever had going for him was his velocity, and now that’s gone too. It isn’t a guarantee that he will even make it out of spring training without an injury. I’ll go out on a limb and say that it is far from certain the Rodon will be their 5th starter at the beginning of the season. I’d rather watch Kopech even if he struggles than two guys all Sox fans have seen more than enough of.

metasox

Seems pretty clear, Rodon was signed with the idea he goes into the rotation. And either way, Kopech will be handled with kid gloves.

jhomeslice

Rodon can’t go into the rotation if he is injured, whatever the idea was when they signed him. He has gotten hurt every year, for the past four, averaging 60 innings per year. That isn’t going to change because of wishful thinking. It is simply not likely that he will be physically able to make more than a few starts, no matter what they do with Kopech.

Kopech is over 2 years removed from surgery, and Katz said Kopech looks great and that he expects him to be a “big contributor” to this team. If this team is to have any hope at all, it is that those words are more true than any notion that Rodon (or Lopez) is going to be their 5th starter for very long.

Oddvark

@jhomeslice — I’m a little unclear on your position. Do you want the team to use Spring Trainging to carefully and objectively evaluate their options and make their decisions based on that? Or do you just want them to come to their senses and realize that Rodon and Lopez are hopeless and Kopech is a better option, regardless of what happens during Spring Training?

jhomeslice

@Oddvark I would agree with the 2nd part of what you said, coming to their senses. Although it never makes sense to have a rigid opinion. I would reconsider if Kopech either looks really bad, or like he needs more time to build up to be able to handle some level of innings as a starter. I would think he is healthy by now and would hopefully be ready to go at least 3 innings as a starer by the time the season starts. If that’s the case, it’s hard for me to believe that isn’t their best option.

Spring training is not often a great metric to base decisions on. What Rodon or Lopez did in the spring would not carry much weight with me even if they looked good, not enough to keep a starter with Kopech’s potential on the bench unless it was for mostly his health. I know I am biased, but I see it very simply as Kopech having a bright future and someone who might even be good in the postseason this year, while the other two have so little chance of that, it isn’t worth likely wasting a few games at the start of the season and seeing probably close to what we have the past 2 years. I wish either of those guys well, just being realistic as a fan… I think we’ve been punished enough by them not getting better options than those 2!!

I assume this is close to your opinion?

Oddvark

I am more interested in what we see in Spring Training, and I hope that will appropriately inform decisions for Opening Day.

I expect that Kopech will make significant contributions in 2021, and I would be thrilled if he looks great and ready to go full speed to start the season. But I suspect that, even if he is throwing gas right out of the gate, he will need to work on his conditioning and/or command/control for a bit given his extended layoff from competitive baseball. If he can only pitch 3-4 innings at a time, I would not put him in the starting rotation. I would rather Kopech be treated properly rather that rushed just because he has a brighter future than other options.

And I can’t say that I’ve given up hope on ReyLo. 2018 was not that long ago, and Lopez turned in an excellent performance that year, considering he was only 24-years-old and it was his first full season as a major league starter. There were a few games that year that he looked utterly dominant. I get that his peripherals weren’t great, and 2019-20 was disappointing/bad (though I don’t give too much weight to 2020 considering the weirdness of the season, his injuries, and the small sample size), but there is enough potential for me to still think that he could be a serviceable back of the rotation starter. I wouldn’t bet a lot of money on it, but I’d like to see how he looks in Spring Training before relegating him to the trash heap of failed pitching prospects.

Similarly, Rodon has shown flashes of ability in the past, and his velocity even looked good last year. I think he was handled poorly in 2020 and was not put in a position to succeed. The injury concerns are real, but if he looks good in Spring Training, I would be on board with him winning the Opening Day 5th starter job, at least until he gets hurt again or until Kopech is ready. I do hope that he has to earn that assignment and it isn’t just handed to him because of the $3M contract, which seems to be a legitimate fear.

jhomeslice

I hope you are right on the optimism. I would hope it can be agreed that if this year is anything like 2020/2019 for either Rodon or Lopez, then enough is enough… no more excuses and wishing, they need to go.

Whether this offseason was a complete waste or not will be proven by the results, plain and simple. I think their best hope is Kopech being really ready to take over the 5th spot by sometime in May… hopefully without losing just about every game Rodon or Lopez starts before that. We’ll see. If either of them is actually decent, well then, praise the Lord!

metasox

I will be honest that #6 made me throw up a little, even though I fully expect to see that

Last edited 3 years ago by metasox
Sophist

The flip side of that Madrigal argument — that there are reasonably priced comparables out there — is that he is so cheap.Kolton Wong was mentioned as one of those up-until-recently available second basemen who could be had for cheap, but he is costing the Brewers $9M AAV. The extra $8M or so could have filled the holes in the rotation and back-up catcher, at least, though I’d bet Rick Hahn would say that they used that money to pay for 2/3 of Liam Hendricks.

Eagle Bones

Hey jim – for some reason I’m unable to view despite being logged in with patreon. Any ideas? Thanks!

soxygen

Me too.

Eagle Bones

That worked, thanks jim!