MLB Pipeline posted its official prospect list revision to account for trade deadline activity and the new draft picks entering professional baseball, and there are two ways to look at where the White Sox stand.
Rick Hahn did well to turn expiring contracts into real prospects. Edgar Quero (No. 87) joined Colson Montgomery (No. 17) and Noah Schultz (No. 66) to give the White Sox three top-100 prospects, which is a decent start.
Go a step further and look at the White Sox's top 30, and the top 10 looks considerably stouter than it did at the start of July (trade-deadline additions emphasized):
- Colson Montgomery
- Noah Schultz
- Edgar Quero
- Jacob Gonzalez
- Jake Eder
- Nick Nastrini
- Bryan Ramos
- José Rodríguez
- Ky Bush
- Cristian Mena
Cristian Mena as the fourth-highest high-minors pitching prospect is a lot better than Mena being the unquestioned top arm above Low-A. Likewise, the first likely utility infielder doesn't show up until No. 8, as opposed to there being multiple top-five candidates among that field the last time around.
This White Sox top prospects list looks like that of a middle-third farm system, which represents a major improvement over their bottom-five status entering the season. This would be a perfectly feasible list if the White Sox were faced with reshaping their roster as the original rebuild pieces fixtures started to be phased out of the plans. Maybe you could get ready to replace a Lucas Giolito with a Jake Eder or Nick Nastrini, with Colson Montgomery and Jacob Gonzalez lined up to take Tim Anderson's job, and feel OK about sustaining a 90-win team, or at least like your chances of regaining ground after a transition year.
But since the White Sox had to trade some of their better players from the current roster to boost the farm to the middle of the pack, it leaves more than a last mile to close.
It'd help if the Sox could get something out of Lenyn Sosa and Korey Lee, since both would help address immediate positions of need. Sosa dropped from eighth to 16th, which isn't only due to the influx of talent. He's also one spot behind Sean Burke, which might be a reflection of his pitch recognition stalling, or the midseason oblique strain throwing off his game. Sosa had a 1.015 OPS with the Knights before his injury on June 1, but he's hitting just .228/.259/.444 in the 39 games since returning.
Lee officially slots in at 18th, between George Wolkow and Ryan Burrowes, which doesn't offer a whole lot of inspiration about his ability to stabilize the catching situation. The Pipeline crew says an offensive identity is lacking, and he's still trying to learn the finer points of catching:
The Astros worked with Lee to quiet his load and shorten his stride after he turned pro, but he was still an extreme power-over-hit guy before 2023. After previously trying to get the most out of his well above-average raw power by launching balls to his pull side, he has settled down this season. Though he's making more contact, he's doing a lot less damage.
Lee didn't become a full-time catcher until 2019 and has yet to start more than 73 games behind the plate in a pro season. While he's quicker and more athletic than most backstops and features plus-plus arm strength, his receiving and blocking skills draw mixed reviews. He has done a better job in 2023 and the consensus is that he's an average defender.
The White Sox have a few decent near-term second-catcher options in the system, whether it's Seby Zavala or Carlos Pérez, and Adam Hackenberg running a dark horse campaign, but they're still lacking a 100-game option until or unless Quero completes the final steps of his climb.
On the bright side, if Ramos is indeed the seventh-best prospect -- and I might have him fifth in front of Eder and Nastrini -- at least there are more potential impact players even with the setbacks for Sosa and Lee.
Ramos is hitting .272/.396/.497 over 46 games with the Barons since returning to Double-A at the end of May. It's even more exciting if you divide it by the first and second halves of the season, since that's when the Southern League switched back to the standard baseball, instead of the enhanced-grip baseball that threw a lot of numbers out of whack:
- May 30-July 9: .233/.360/.388, 13.5% BB, 28.6% K over 140 PA
- July 14-now: .359/.471/.736, 12.9% BB, 11.4%K over 70 PA
Ramos has played entirely third base this season after playing some second base in the first half of the 2022 season while he dealt with some shoulder issues. Where he plays over the last month -- or the Arizona Fall League -- may tell us about how the Sox see him factoring into 2024 plans.
