PHOENIX -- There's some dispute about whether players on the 60-day injured list count -- Jesse Scholtens is throwing after undergoing Tommy John surgery last year, Ky Bush is not after undergoing it last week -- but the White Sox have around 70 players in camp. At the extreme risk of tempting the incredibly vengeful baseball gods, it could be more than they'll need.
"Players wanted to come here because of the opportunity, and we hope to take advantage of that," said general manager Chris Getz. "The competition is probably be greater in this camp than perhaps years past, and that makes it exciting for us."
For example, the White Sox have five outfielders on guaranteed deals, making that position group set, barring injury. When Cactus League opens, it could theoretically begin with starters getting two at-bats, before giving way to backups, then the layer of Triple-A bound outfielders walled off from the 26-man roster (Dominic Fletcher, Oscar Colás, Cal Mitchell, Corey Julks), before figuring out how to get prospects like Braden Montgomery and Wilfred Veras into action.
"There'll be challenges with that, but I think that we haven't oversaturated our camp to that degree that we're worried about getting guys the at-bats that they need," said Will Venable. "We have a plan in place and we're confident that we'll be able to get guys what they need to be able to get a good look and get comfortable and get a real perspective of where they're at."
Regulars playing back-to-back games -- or any games -- is still a ways off, and how many Cactus League at-bats Braden Montgomery gets before heading to A-ball is not how success will be measured for his first professional season. The real crunch comes at the end of March, by which time injury and underperformance could dictate that there is no crunch at all. But just the infield picture offers a snapshot of the competing forces at work.
There's a host of easily optionable players that the White Sox certainly want to see force their way into the picture this year, if not right away: Colson Montgomery, Brooks Baldwin, Bryan Ramos, Chase Meidroth. There's a trio of power-hitting veteran non-roster invites who could all jump to the forefront if they look like the best version of their past selves: Brandon Drury, Joey Gallo, Bobby Dalbec. And there's a pair of out-of-options 25-year-olds who have mostly struggled in the majors, but the Sox would understandably be inclined to check out before showing the door: Miguel Vargas and Lenyn Sosa.
Getz acknowledged at Cactus League Media Day that the option statuses of Vargas and Sosa would be a factor to weigh, and between Vargas adding 20 pounds and significantly altering his stance and hand setup, there's a lot to be curious about with the headliner of the Erick Fedde trade. Dalbec is coming off a full season of adjusting to his new contact lenses, Getz talked up Gallo's efforts to shorten his swing path, and Drury's conversations with hitting coach Marcus Thames about restoring his stride length to pre-2024 levels date back to months before his signing. And ideally, the prospect wave eventually overtakes all of them.
So if a team with a less crowded camp has needs emerging at the end of spring and the White Sox are holding more intriguing veteran NRIs than they need by the end of next month, they're still a rebuilding team trying to stock their farm system, and they could be open for business.
"That's a definite possibility," Getz said. "First and foremost, you want to put together the best club you can for the upcoming season. Knowing that we've got some really talented players in camp that are going to be watched and tracked by other clubs, and if there's an opportunity to improve our long-term health, we're going to do that."
Approximately 0.6 percent of all "potential roster crunch?" articles written about this physically punishing sport present any scenarios that actually come to pass. But someone has to get lucky eventually.
Drew Thorpe isn't the most emotionally expressive man who has ever lived, so to see him visibly exhale Monday after throwing off a mound for the first time since last August said plenty.
"It’s been a while," Thorpe said. "I haven’t put on a jersey in a while. Obviously, it kind of sucks being behind everybody and seeing everybody throws lives and I’m still stuck here."
Thorpe said his surgically repaired right elbow hasn't had "any bad days" since receiving a cortisone shot for nagging discomfort the day before SoxFest. Easing toward maximum effort, he didn't throw harder than 85 mph over his 20 pitches, and Thorpe revealed he's scheduled for three more weeks of bullpens before he's cleared for the live at-bats in which his counterparts in the rotation are already participating. A critical first step comes alongside indications of just how far behind he could wind up being.
But Thorpe has made it clear he'd gladly trade the first few weeks of the season to be free of longer-term complications, and Monday brought indication that he might have such a swap in place.
"I still had surgery," Thorpe said. "It was a little less invasive than a TJ or something, but still went in there and dug some stuff out, and it’s just part of the buildup process that I had to get past."
Grant Taylor is on the record for fewer than 100 innings since the start of 2022, some of it featuring fairly the under-developed command of someone who hasn't pitched much. He has a large mix of breaking balls (cutter, slider, curve) that scouts think he will have to pare down eventually, though he said he has no intention to at this point. The kick change he's been happily working on through the offseason has yet to be seen enough in games to really factor into how he's evaluated publicly yet.
Still, he's cracking in the back of many outlets' top-100 prospect lists. What gives?
"He threw a live session the other day and it was 97-99 mph," Getz said.
That'll do it.
