Oscar Colás couldn’t settle White Sox’s right field mess on first try

White Sox right fielder Oscar Colás
(Photo by Matt Marton/USA TODAY Sports)

If you took the returns of Tim Anderson and Hanser Alberto as a given, then Billy Hamilton was the first of the other 11 roster moves we learned about on Tuesday. Daryl Van Schouwen broke that particular news in advance of the rest, which allowed us a little time to wonder who he might be replacing.

It ended up being Oscar Colás, and if that came as a surprise, it’s only because Luis Robert Jr. commanded the attention with questions about his hamstring. Eliminate all that noise, and the demotion of Colás makes sense.

Colás started his MLB career by hitting .211/.265/.276 over his first 25 games, but that included two weeks of slipping. He’d gone 5-for-40 with one extra-base hit and 12 strikeouts over his last 44 plate appearances, and without the kind of quality contact that suggested he merely needed better luck.

In a different lineup, Colás would probably have more leeway to find his sea legs. In this White Sox lineup, Colás’ chief flaws exacerbate roster-wide issues. He has the highest ground-ball rate (59.6 percent) of any regular for a White Sox team with baseball’s second-highest ground-ball rate (48.3). He has the highest chase rate (43.0) of any regular for the team with the highest chase rate (36.6). Removing Colás doesn’t solve the White Sox’s issues, but maybe it reduces the multiplying effect.

Defense is more of an open question. The metrics are a mixed bag, as you might expect for a month of data:

  • OAA: -1
  • UZR: -2.6
  • DRS: -4

That last number sinks his bWAR to -0.9, which ties him for last with Romy González.

I’m not sure he’s that bad, but the eye test suggested that Colás was tentative at best. He seemed to play deeper than any other White Sox outfielder, and that bore out according to Statcast:

That’s not necessarily bad in and of itself, but Statcast also graded his jump in the 8th percentile. Anticipation wasn’t his strong suit, but it was better reflected in how he read the skips of balls coming his way.

Demoting Colás at this juncture is unfortunate but acceptable, and given that he’d previously played one professional season of stateside ball that topped out with seven games at Triple-A, there’s no individual alarm in sending him down.

It just reflects poorly on the White Sox, because this is the sixth year of right field being an open sore. Since 2018, the Sox have had the worst right field situation by far, producing -1.2 WAR (the Pirates are 29th, but even they’re 1.2 WAR in the black). Colás stood a decent chance of being a real solution by the end of the 2023 season, so he represented the Sox’s most promising option to start the season in right, but that’s saying very little when everybody else is a hard swipe left.

(Ted’s Sporcle from February covers everybody the White Sox have tried out there, in case you’re having too good a day.)

If there’s any good news, the White Sox are going to their next best option on that cursed WAR leaderboard. Gavin Sheets is only one of five players to finish with a positive fWAR, even among candidates with the smallest of samples …

  1. Avisaíl García, 0.8
  2. Gavin Sheets, 0.6
  3. Adam Haseley, 0.2
  4. Luis Gonzalez, 0.2
  5. Nomar Mazara, 0.1

… and he’s routinely producing tough at-bats, hitting .280/.351/.400 over his first 57 plate appearances this season.

Moreover, Sheets helps in the categories where Colás hurt. He has one of the team’s best chase rates and ground-ball rates, and he’s also left-handed. He has the range and athleticism of a moai, but with Colás not commanding all of his athleticism, the immediate difference might be muted.

It just makes Pedro Grifol’s job tougher, because Sheets requires various caddies — pinch-runner, pinch-hitting against lefties, and a defensive replacement. Hamilton can serve as Sheets’ legs, a sentence which brings an AT-ST to mind, but that only works when 1) the White Sox have leads, and 2) the White Sox have a bullpen that preserves those leads. That combination has proven elusive all year, including Tuesday night. Grifol tried to sub in Adam Haseley and Hanser Alberto under typical lead-protecting circumstances, and both ended up hitting for themselves at the end of the game because Alexander Colomé immediately surrendered a game-tying homer in the eighth.

Grifol is responsible for plopping a possibly washed reliever into high leverage sight unseen, but he won’t be held responsible for whatever comes of right field until or unless Colás figures it out. That’s been problem foisted upon the last three White Sox managers, because the White Sox general manager who’s overseen it all can’t square the circle. He only knows how to cut corners.

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Otter

“…the demotion of Colás makes sense”

Respectfully disagree. Hahn can’t have it both ways, and this is clearly a ‘both ways’ demotion. Colas cannot be your ‘fix’ for right field and then you bail on him after a month because he, unsurprisingly, isn’t ready for the major leagues given his minor league track record. If the White Sox were, you know, winning then maybe I could see moving him to AAA to get the seasoning that he should be getting in the first place, but they aren’t winning. They stink and the “upgrade” from Sheets to Colas is basically the difference between 74 and 72 wins. Who care. If you’re going to fix right field, go get someone who can actually play the position. If not? Let’s see what Colas can do considering that was the plan all along when the Sox actually had thoughts of the playoffs.

True incompetence from Rick.

As Cirensica

Let’s see what Colas can do

We did!

It wasn’t pretty.

Qubort

I agree it’s true incompetence from Hahn to not have a legit right fielder. But I think Colas going down may be the fastest route to getting him ready. He’s now seen what he needs to work on. Work on it in Triple A while building his confidence back up. Even Trout needed some more time in the minors after his first cup of coffee.

calcetinesblancos

This is an interesting take, and I definitely agree with many of your points. Colas now has 84 MLB plate appearances. That experience will serve him well, but maybe they should have let him play a little more before sending him down, especially if the replacement in RF is going to be Sheets.

upnorthsox

But he’ll be back up(unless he totally can’t adjust) and will probably end up with over 400 ABs anyhow which is fine for a rookie. The kid was downing and you all want to give him more water.

calcetinesblancos

Are we still talking about baseball? Hahaha.

brianp88

I’m curious to see if Diekman accepts an assignment to the minors or elects free agency. He’s likely to clear waivers. Someone might want a veteran left-hander at the MLB minimum…

a-t

I dunno about ‘recovered’. He’s thrown 8 innings in 7 appearances, in which 30/31 of his batters faced were with low leverage (w/ one medium). He’s got a 7:0 K:BB, tho he’s hit a batter and given up two long balls. Nothing about that little ARZ sample says Ruiz is anything other than exactly what we thought he was: a middle reliever whose effectiveness is, regrettably, inversely proportional to the game state’s leverage.

calcetinesblancos

Diekman has now looked horrible for two consecutive seasons, and he can’t throw strikes. He’s definitely a guy to have around if you want that high draft pick though.

upnorthsox

So Oakland will be picking him up then.

FishSox

“…but he won’t be held responsible for whatever comes of right field…”

.I respectfully disagree.

While I joke about being an Adam Haseley fan, I’m not. I concur that he takes questionable routes and his bat hasn’t shown enough to warrant handing an OF job to him. However, neither has Sheets. The difference is that Sheets is a 2nd rd (49th) pick and Haseley is a cast off FA.

The reality is, of recent vintage, Haseley has demonstrated more upside than Sheets. It would be different if Sheets was a legit OF prospect that needed reps to continue to play for years in RF at the MLB level, but no one thinks of him that way. He’s the guy holding the placard in the team photo for, “Stopgap Players”.

Grifol is making the decision to play a lesser player in RF than what he has on his roster. If you don’t like Haseley, bring up Reyes, at least he’s a switch hitting OF’r. You aren’t getting any long ball production out of Sheets anyway.

So yes, Grifol can take the blame for not having the stones to play the best option in RF. He just can’t be blamed for not having a high caliber pool of options to draw from. That doesn’t excuse him however.

Otter

Haseley likely only getting a chance because he was a first round pick tbh.

Yolmer

Major league career .270/.332/.372 triple slash, 1.8bWAR/.5 fWAR in about ~400 PA says 4th outfielder to me. I’d like to see Haseley out in right more than Sheets. Sheets’ poor defense have cost the Sox multiple games over the past 3 years.

As Cirensica

I agree with this stance. When deciding who to play, I think a manager should always err to the side of who is a better fielder if they cannot differentiate much with the bat. I particularly don’t see a lot of difference between Haseley and Sheets offensively speaking.

(Small sample caveat) Sheets GB% almost doubles that from Haseley. Sheets hits it a lot harder. Haseley is what we call “a slapper”. Sheets has a better approach at the plate and does not strikeout much, but he loses the edge by grounding so much.

In any event, I think Sheets is slightly a better hitter than Haseley. Is that difference worth the defense edge we gain by playing Heseley in RF? not sure.

FishSox

8th overall is why he gets a minor league shot, not why he gets to MLB as a castoff FA. He gets there by having a decent spring and the organization thinking he’s the best option from the minors. His versatility to play all three spots probably had a lot to do with that.

Regardless, when he got his shot, he delivered. Sitting a guy down after a day like that to play an out of position high draft pick sends messages up and down the organization that, you will not get a fair shot if you’re not some persons favorite draft pick. When you want to look at organizational rot from within, things like this are what breeds it.

If the Sox are really trying to win, why do they sit the guy who just lit the place up?

Last edited 10 months ago by FishSox
To Err is Herrmann

Here to start the Jake Marisnick bandwagon — in less than 2 weeks his BA has soared from .212 to .239!

670WMAQtheElder

Hahn signed Colume for exactly the situation Grifol used him. Pedro didn’t sign or call him up. If Colume is done that’s on Hahn….again.

Greg Nix

I wasn’t watching, but seems like a fair gamble to me considering the rest of the bullpen dreck.

a-t

I don’t have any disagreement on having Colas in RF to start the year, nor with sending him down now. I object only to not signing a Duvall type 4th OF/RF backup plan

King Joffrey

I strenuously object.

ParisSox

Oh where have you gone, Jermaine Dye? A White Sox nation turns its lonely eyes to you. Coo coo ca choo.

asinwreck

He has the range and athleticism of a moai

If Sheets proves half as durable as that comp, it’s a major win for the training staff.

BillyKochFanClub

Stage IV!! Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma

Liam is a certified badass.

peanutsNcrackerjack

When was the last time the White Sox got a positive surprise from a minor league position player call up? Mercedes had a month, Zavala I guess, as a backup, t but the list of 2nd base, outfield, prospects that underwelm

is long and sad.

Adam

Jake Burger is a surprise in my opinion. Not sure if he’ll break out or stay at Josh Fields level but it’s at least a positive. I know he’s a first round pick so it could be argued it’s not a surprise but with the injury history and this orgs lack of development it surprised me.

Right Size Wrong Shape

I don’t know how much of Sheets in right and Burger at third I can stand this year.

Whoops. Wrong thread.

dongutteridge

Who could have guessed this would happen? Only a sports Nostradamus!