Following up: Tim Anderson heads to injured list; Yermín Mercedes commands attention

After a couple days of trying to get through the road trip without resorting to the measure, the White Sox placed Tim Anderson on the injured list with a strained left hamstring retroactive to April 5. Danny Mendick, who has been traveling with the team as part of the taxi squad, is on hand to take his place.

The addition of Mendick gives Tony La Russa another option at shortstop besides Leury García, who has been hitting like a pitcher. I say that not because he’s 2-for-20, but because he seems kinda lost at the plate if bunting has been taken off the table.

It might be just as important to provide an alternative to Nick Madrigal, who’s been a little better at the plate (4-for-18), but a little bit of a mess in the field. The record only shows one error, but he’s up to a few non-error misplays that have made life harder for White Sox pitchers.

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An unprecedented, out-of-nowhere start brings an unprecedented amount of attention, and after 10 years of slugging it out in the minor leagues and independent baseball, Yermín Mercedes is finally getting his turn. He set a record by opening the 2021 season 8-for-8, which makes his current line of 13-for-23 appear that he’s cooled off.

Alas, not all the attention is positive. Ken Rosenthal wanted to know why Mercedes couldn’t find traction with his first two organizations, because Mercedes seemed to tumble down the charts of both the Washington Nationals (after which he spent a few years in independent ball) and the Baltimore Orioles (from whom the White Sox claimed Mercedes in the Rule 5 draft). Representatives from both organizations said Mercedes proved them wrong, but unspecified knocks on Mercedes’ makeup leaves them short of mea culpas.

“I misjudged the makeup,” [Nationals assistant GM of international operations John] Dipuglia said. “For him to get to the big leagues after the struggles he had, it shows me he had a lot more mental fortitude than I thought he did. He had some discipline problems over here, I won’t deny that.” […]“There’s a reason why he’s moved around,” former Orioles manager Buck Showalter said Monday night on MLB Network. “Trust me, it’s not just pure baseball. I remember when he was taken in the (Rule 5) draft, we were glad they took him.

“It doesn’t mean he can’t play. You trust your people. I saw the numbers. He could hit a little bit. (But) I remember talking to the farm director, talking to the general manager: ‘What do we got on this guy?’ They did not think his ability would override the other challenges he had.”

Rick Hahn says the White Sox “were certainly aware of some of the question marks,” but he also doesn’t clarify much.

Mercedes’ breakout had me looking back at the first time I saw him play, which was one day short of three years ago. He wasn’t the first prospect I came to see — Dylan Cease started one of the games, and Winston-Salem’s roster also had guys like Gavin Sheets, Luis Basabe and Blake Rutherford — but Mercedes managed to catch my eye for other reasons.

Yermin Mercedes was my favorite player to watch in the non-Cease division. There’s a lot going on there — a strong arm, a lot of dropped pitches (and passed ball), two-foot hops after swinging through pitches, a bat slam after popping one up, for example.

He also got nailed in the groin with a foul tip that put him on his back.

He stayed in the game, only to get clipped in the same area with a pitch in the dirt. On a possibly related note, he was the only player on the field in short sleeves.

It should be said that Mercedes went 0-for-7 with three strikeouts during that doubleheader, so one could make the argument that he shouldn’t have stood out to me when I wasn’t looking for him. He’s a player with considerable design flaws, so I can see the possibility that a team might determine he’s not directing his energy toward a viable path to MLB playing time. This would be described in a scouting report as “the dude is a trip.”

But it’d be helpful — or at the very least, not unfair — to specify something of the sort, rather than leave the topic completely open-ended. Baseball’s on a little bit of a creep streak, so if the reader is left to fill in the blanks, there are a few too many places the mind can go. Likewise, I’m reminded of how Nicky Delmonico was knocked by the Brewers as somebody who ghosted them, and it turned out he had addiction and mental health issues to address. Knowingly or unknowingly, baseball men can filter out players who don’t meet the “future baseball man” description.

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Dallas Keuchel takes the mound for the White Sox today after a lackluster debut. The player I’ll be measuring him to the next couple years, Zack Wheeler, was also covered by Rosenthal in the same notebook, because Wheeler is coming off a sensational start to his 2021 season.

Back on April 3, Wheeler tossed seven shutout innings, striking out 10 Braves while allowing just one measly hit. And if Phillies pitching coach Caleb Cotham is to be believed, Wheeler has more such performances in them.

Zack Wheeler told the MLB on Fox broadcast team last week that his goal is to attack hitters the way Clayton Kershaw, Max Scherzer and other aces do, and first-year Phillies pitching coach Caleb Cotham said Wheeler’s commitment to becoming that type of pitcher is the thing that jumps out most about him.

Cotham is well-versed in data, but also sees the importance of incorporating more subjective elements. He said the ability to “make it personal” and “get after hitters” is actually a skill pitchers develop.

If the reports are to be believed, the White Sox made the top offer for Wheeler, something along the lines of $125 million when Wheeler stopped at $120 million to sign with the Phillies. Both figures blew the Wheeler’s projected contract estimates out of the water, so $125 million seemed like a reasonable place to stop, and the Sox instead redirected their resources toward Keuchel, who commanded only three years and $55.5 million guaranteed, with an option that could make it four and $74 million.

The White Sox weren’t necessarily wrong to go that route, although the lack of an impressive follow-up to the Grandal/Keuchel winter puts a different spin on it. But if Keuchel gets off to a slow start while Wheeler looks like a world-beater, it’ll be hard for Rick Hahn to continue to claim that Keuchel proves the White Sox can shop the top of a free agent market. The $70 million gap between commitments already made that a stretch, and should the performances of Wheeler and Keuchel diverge from here, that stretch will snap.

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