At this point in October, we're usually wrapping up the season reviews for White Sox affiliates. But with the Birmingham Barons going the distance to nearly match the Triple-A season in length, they created enough uncertainty with season-ending assignments to interrupt the project. That, and we were preoccupied with the exhilarating tension of following the White Sox's quest to lose more games than any team in modern MLB history.
All's well that ends well, because we can spend time in the minor league weeds and delay acknowledging the 121-loss White Sox until we regain feeling.
PERTINENT: 2024 DSL White Sox season review
A reminder as we go along: Prospects will be covered at the affiliates with which they finished the season, barring some late-season emergency duty, like a Winston-Salem outfielder filling a spot in Charlotte for the final week due to simpler logistics. In this case, while Ryan Burrowes, George Wolkow and many others spent a little bit of time in the ACL, we'll touch upon their seasons when we get to Kannapolis.
You would've liked to have seen a little more movement from the ACL to Kannapolis, but most of the Complex White Sox had their hands full on both sides of the ball, so the 2024 draft picks ended up getting the A-ball roster spots at the end of the season.
| Hitters | Age | R/G | BB% | K% | AVG/OBP/SLG |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ACL White Sox | 19.4 | 4.77 | 10.3 | 28.6 | .256/.348/.396 |
| League | 19.8 | 5.76 | 12.9 | 25.0 | .261/.370/.392 |
The chief flaw of the ACL White Sox was an inability to control the strike zone. They finished with the fewest walks and lowest OBP in the league where walks aren't all that hard to find, and it mitigated the damage from their 43 homers, which was tied for second in the league. The number of runs scored is alarming, but we'll get to why that's a little misleading in a second.
| Pitchers | Age | RA/9 | BB% | K% |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ACL White Sox | 21.1 | 6.52 | 13.1 | 27.2 |
| League | 21.1 | 6.46 | 12.9 | 25.0 |
The ACL White Sox put forth an average performance on the mound more or less, but there is one caveat: They threw the fewest innings in the league with 455⅓, which is nearly 30 fewer than the average ACL team. Part of that's due to their record, but they also played zero split-squad games while opting into an above-average total of seven-inning games. That was the trend across the league because the ACL season started a month earlier than usual, depriving pitching staffs of the usual depth that extended spring training supplied early and the draft supplemented later, but it makes it a little harder to trust the aggregate stats compared to previous seasons. Individual performances remain the same.
Hitters
Javier Mogollón: The breakout star with the 2023 DSL White Sox, Mogollón opened his stateside career by striking out in his first eight plate appearances as he adjusted to a new leg kick. If you split his 46-game body of work into halves, you can see progress in his strikeout rate along the way, although it still remained elevated:
- First 23 games: .210/.347/.469, 44 K over 98 PA
- Last 23 games: .323/.476/.597, 25 K over 82 PA
He hit .259/.406/.525 on the whole, with eight homers, 14 doubles and a 16-for-16 performance on the basepaths, all of which is outstanding for a guy who doesn't turn 19 until the start of next month. The K rate is just a sizable flaw, because if his professional success is contingent on maxing out his 5-foot-8-inch frame, then he'll have to take big hacks and stick at short. And as any Nick Madrigal will tell you, higher motors become less rare at the higher levels. It's a narrow path to upper-level success, but James Fegan says you'll want to see him throw his best effort at it.
Abraham Nuñez: Nuñez had a decent transition to stateside ball, hitting .292/.382/.371 over 207 plate appearances as he overhauled his setup in the batter's box. Like Mogollón, he showed signs of progress as the year wore on, hitting .407/.485/.463 with an improving K-rate in July, the ACL season's final month. From here, you'd like to see more of a carrying tool. He's still searching for his first stateside homer, and he was inefficient stealing bases (20-for-29), which makes it a problem if he grows out of center field.
Angelo Hernandez: Hernandez had the opposite trajectory to his season, opening with four homers over his first 11 games, then hitting .213/.298/.307 the rest of the way. His walk-to-strikeout success from the DSL the previous year (16 BB, 8 K over 78 PA) was turned on its head in the ACL (8 BB, 38 K over 126 PA). He looked no less raw behind the plate than any other ACL catcher.
Adrian Gil: Another success story from the 2023 DSL White Sox after hitting .340/.481/.517 as a 17-year-old, Gil's ability to draw a walk carried over to Arizona, as he led the team with 37 walks (along with 10 HBPs) in 56 games while bouncing between third, second and first. The problem is that the hit tool suffered over the course of the season, as he finished the year hitting .167/.274/.389 with 26 strikeouts over his final 62 plate appearances. It balanced out to a decent stateside introduction (.225/.392/.391), but with some warts for a corner-infield profile.
Stiven Flores: Flores hit .287/.338/.329 while leading the team with 30 appearances behind the plate. He only produced one homer, one triple and one double over 157 plate appearances, although at least he capitalized on the homer with a grand slam.
Erick Hernandez: There's little point in mentioning that Hernandez was relegated to bench duties in the ACL less than three years after signing for $1 million out of the Dominican Republic because he's already out of the organization, but it might help explain why the Sox are overhauling their personnel there.
Pitchers
Christian Oppor: Coming out of the Wisconsin prep ranks and biding his time at junior college for a year before the White Sox selected him in the fifth round in 2023, Oppor came into the organization with perhaps less awareness of his metrics than most White Sox draft picks. His arsenal is undergoing a pretty substantial revision as a result, and you'll be able to tell if he's making any headway on it if he cuts his walk rate. He issued 28 over 38 innings, spanning 12 weekly appearances, and including 14 walks over his last 13⅓ innings.
Luis Reyes: Unlike Oppor, Reyes' strike-throwing improved over the course of the season, as he walked eight batters total over his last six starts. It just didn't do much for his overall performance, because he still gave up plenty of hits and finished with a 5.74 ERA as a result. The 26-percent strikeout rate is decent, and the hope is that it plays up with better defenses behind him.
Jordany Chirinos: Chirinos sandbagged his numbers by walking the only four batters he faced in his first appearance, with three of them coming around to score. He eventually lowered his ERA from "infinite" to 5.27, or 4.61 if you forgive the initial jitters. He authored some of the more impressive starts among the ACL teenagers, offset by some lapses in control. The league hit just .237/.335/.355 against him over those last 12 outings.
Maximo Martinez: Martinez posted a 16.62 ERA over four games, giving up 16 runs on 16 hits and 11 walks over 8⅔ innings before spending the rest of the season on the IL. The good news is that Aldrin Batista is pulling more than his fair share of the weight in the international pool money trade that brought them both over from the Dodgers.
Mathias LaCombe: Since the White Sox selected the French-born righty last July out of the Arizona junior college ranks, he still has yet to throw a professional pitch due to lat and shoulder issues. At this rate, we'll never "meet LaCombe."
