PHOENIX -- In a backfield game Thursday afternoon against the Dodgers, Samuel Zavala launched a no-doubt home run to right off high-dollar IFA signing Hyun-Seok Jang*, so don't go writing your summary judgments of the Dylan Cease trade just yet.
Especially since Drew Thorpe's outing on the Dodgers side of Camelback Ranch might provoke some concerns. Thorpe was scheduled for two innings against a lineup composed largely of Triple-A hitters, but left with trainers midway through warming up for his second frame.
"Sounds like discomfort of the elbow," said manager Will Venable. "We’ll evaluate it and likely do some imaging and see where we’re at. Really unfortunate, he’s been working really hard to get back, and obviously for the whole organization it's disappointing when there’s a setback. But for him, he’s just been working so hard. Hopefully just a hiccup and he can just get back on track."
With the season a week away, Thorpe was already set to start the season on the injured list and this stalls his progress in the best-case scenario, before even knowing if a new injury was suffered and its severity. Thorpe said the MRI after his setback earlier in the offseason was clean, which was encouraging at the time, but presently only serves to deepen the mystery about what's cropping up to cause him discomfort.
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The White Sox are seemingly finalizing their rotation in the mean time, since Rule 5 pick Shane Smith was told Thursday morning that he's made the opening day roster, and the role that he's earned seems fairly clear. The early glimpses on the seam-shifted changeup that Smith developed over the offseason -- with the team's guidance but really built during his own training before he arrived in camp -- quickly answered the organization's primary concern about his ability to start.
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"Anytime you are a starter and you get a chance to compete for a big league job with a new club, you are going to go out and attack almost like a reliever," said Brian Bannister of Smith's spring performance. "You’ve seen those upticks in velo and you combine that with his ability to spin and the addition of the new changeup, it’s a really exciting arsenal."
Bannister specified that it's an oversimplification to describe Smith's fastball as having cutting action, and that it varies between cutting to the glove side or backing up to the other side, seemingly at random, which provides its own distinct challenge for hitters. Any decisions that have to be made at 96-99 mph are difficult ones, after all. No one is really stepping up to claim credit for the velocity jump that's really made Smith's spring extra interesting, and at this point it's most easily credited to the 25-year-old finally being free of the injury troubles that made this journey so emotional for him and his family.
"A lot of tears from my mom and tears from my dad, which is new," Smith said of the reaction to his making the roster. "I had two major surgeries in college and then signed as a free agent in ’21 and then missed all of ’22. To be in this situation three years later is really crazy to me. I’m thankful to be here."
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Jonathan Cannon's place in the rotation has been one of the few parts of the roster the White Sox have been willing to write in pen all offseason. The command problems that have produced a 10.32 Cactus League ERA and 22 hits allowed in 11⅓ innings aren't going to change that, but as spring comes to a close, it's starting to be openly acknowledged as an issue to tackle.
"We’ve been diving in with him; the hits allowed are high this spring and he knows that," Bannister said. "Is he giving the hitters a little earlier look in his delivery? We’ve been getting into the nuances of that. Sometimes it’s just an Arizona thing, some pitchers just have a bad spring or give up more hits because we’re a little more elevation and you get back to sea level, to cold weather and all of a sudden it starts playing again.
"So we want to make sure he’s putting in the right preparation. He knows his attributes. We’re going to do some good work this next week and give him a few adjustments. But he’s been sitting down with Ethan Katz. Is this a short-term phenomenon? Is this controllable or should I make adjustments? It's really not pressing, but just knowing, 'Hey I did it last year and when April comes and the lights turn on I’m going to be there.'"
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The hits aren't falling for Chase Meidroth in games this spring (.121/.310/.152) but he's continuing to see a lot of action at shortstop for a White Sox team that needs to pick someone for that spot, and has veterans in the clubhouse regularly praising his at-bat quality for a team that will need to work counts and draw walks to score with any regularity.
"There’s some evaluation to take from his performance beyond the box scores, he’s had consistent bats where he controls the zone," Venable said. "We know it’s what he does well. For him it’s increasing the swing rhythm on pitches in the heart of the plate. He’s done that. I’m happy with the performance of his at-bats."
Of course, if this writer wanted to, there's a positive-leaning quote from Venable about veteran Nick Maton's performance this spring that could be presented in a way to lead readers to believe he's making the team. But I'm drawing from my experience in Arizona to lead you toward expecting to see Meidroth.
Speaking of non-roster invites who seem likely to make the ballclub, Brandon Drury's .410/.439/.821 batting line doesn't need many endorsements, but his teammates are still willing to give him one.
"He was pretty injured last year," Mike Tauchman said of Drury. "Any time he's not injured, he's been an awesome hitter in this league. They don't just give away Silver Sluggers for free. If you look at his track record, that's a really good hitter that can lengthen the lineup."
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In a similar vein, Bannister did not directly say "Noah Schultz, Hagen Smith, Grant Taylor and Wikelman González will all start the season in the Double-A Birmingham rotation," but he certainly heavily suggested it, and it's a concept that's already been internally discussed a lot. He also said it a few minutes before Taylor started the Double-A minor league game against the Dodgers.
"It’s going to be a special rotation in Birmingham," Bannister said. "Ultimately in today’s game you kind of see it falling apart at the college level. High school level, it’s all travel ball. I think there is an important element to keeping guys together and having this continuity. When they get up to the big league level, it’s such a transient environment with so many players nowadays switching teams all the time. Them playing together and knowing each other builds something special, and that’s what I’m looking forward to. When the time is right they’ll all get their opportunity, but for now I’m just exciting about them being together."
Bannister has expressed a past fondness for introducing starting pitching prospects to the majors via late-season looks in the bullpen, which was done with both Jairo Iriarte and Jake Eder last year. He sounds more than open to that option with Schultz and Smith, and especially Taylor, who is acknowledged to have a much more significant chance of ending up as a high-end reliever than the other two.
"By the end of the year, you're going to see somebody in the pen, and somebody might be more than one," Bannister said. "We want them to go out, get their innings now and when the time is right and if the health is right, get them up and give them a taste of what it's like to pitch in the big leagues."
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Andrew Benintendi actually took good things away from rolling over grounders to second repeatedly in his first game back on Wednesday, because he felt no pain in his still-healing right hand despite the awkward contact.
"[It's] comfortable enough to where I’m not thinking about it when I’m hitting," Benintendi said of the injury. "Every day I’ll get a little better. I’m sure until that 4-to-6 week mark, there might be a little pain there. But it’s not too bad. Structurally they said it’s great. They only thing would be if I get hit on the hand again, that would not be good. I’ll wear that hand guard now and hopefully it doesn’t have to be used."
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Martín Pérez is entering his 14th major league season and has appeared in over 300 games, so that he closes Cactus League action with a 2.25 ERA is rather immaterial to him, but he nevertheless seems pleased with where he's at.
"I'm ready," Pérez said. "I'm not throwing 95-96 mph, but I think I'm throwing the ball where I wanted and that's what counts."
Pérez is staying in Arizona past the close of spring to throw five innings in a 'B' game on Tuesday. That would have him ready to pitch on regular rest in the Sunday finale of the opening series against the Angels. But since that would place Pérez against the same team he just faced in his Cactus League finale, perhaps an extra day of rest to start things off against the Twins could be in order. The White Sox aren't saying either way, and it's not clear they would reveal any part of their rotation publicly yet if there weren't an obligation to name their Opening Day starter.
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Speaking of the Opening Day starter, Sean Burke threw 95 mph with carry and two viable breaking balls before arriving in camp this spring, but it seems like his openness to expanding his game and embracing the White Sox initiatives with him pushed him over the top.
"[He] was really involved in his pregame process, getting to know the catchers, studying the major league hitters. His aptitude is very accelerated," Bannister said. "You have a lot of weapons in his arsenal where he can go out and handle both righties and lefties at the big league level, and just feel confident they can’t eliminate one side of the plate, or that he’s getting pigeon-holed in different counts and he has to throw a certain pitch. He has a lot more options to go to and the catchers can be a little more creative with him."
Burke's seam-effects changeup and his even newer sinker are the pitches that move arm side in his arsenal, and both have been added to his game within the last nine months.
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*Jang is who the Dodgers signed in the international market, using the extra bonus pool space they acquired from the White Sox in the trade that sent over promising prospect arm Aldrin Batista.
Ironically, Jang-Batista was the pitching matchup in a backfields game on Thursday that was essentially between High-A players. With both Zavala and Ryan Galanie homering off Jang in his second inning of work, it's fair to say Batista won the duel. Braden Montgomery, George Wolkow and Jeral Pérez were all in the lineup, so make of that what you will for season-opening assignments.
