If you couldn't already tell by the video, Edgar Quero was "a little surprised" by the news on Wednesday that he was being called up to the majors. He had to rush to pack his stuff, and suddenly the White Sox heading out on a 10-day, three-city, three time zones road trip is relevant to him.
"It’s hard because I know we go out on this road trip the next two weeks," Quero said. "I’m good with that. I just want to play baseball."
Quero will wear No. 7, a decision he sheepishly said he talked over with the White Sox public relations staff late Wednesday night, and he's managed to arrange to have family in attendance for his hastily announced debut.
"It’s a lot of hard work behind this, a lot of years," Quero said. "And I’m so happy to have my mom and all my family here. It’s a good moment."
The team tasked the 22-year-old with a number of mechanical tweaks to his receiving behind the plate, which he identified as his biggest source of pride so far this season.
"There's a lot that goes into catching and he's doing everything he can to make sure he's the best defensively that he can be," said Matt Thaiss, who was in camp with Quero with the Angels in 2023 and now again with the White Sox in 2025. "It was really cool to see how far he's come. He was really good then, but where he's at now is really impressive to see."
The Sox are shifting from Thaiss and Omar Narváez calling games with years of major league experience to someone who probably would have some trouble getting approved to rent a car on his own, so the coaching staff is prepared to be a bit more hands-on with Quero in games.
"I really like our advance process and the way we prepare anyways, so it's just pregame is going to look a lot similar," said Will Venable. "Maybe in-game you make your adjustments and maybe have more communication in between innings."
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Chase Meidroth's walks and contact-oriented skill set give him a natural top-of-the-order profile that Venable acknowledges, but he devoted more of his answer to making sure no one assumes too much out of a single game lineup.
"He's there today, but that might not be the case tomorrow," Venable said. "We'll take it day-by-day. Don't want to lock into anything long-term here, knowing that there's some flexibility and on certain days it might not be the best thing for him to lead off or be at the front end of the lineup. We'll certainly look at him and obviously like that skillset towards the top."
Having led off a few times in his day, Andrew Benintendi had what might be considered unexpected advice.
"Don’t take pitches," Benintendi said. "When I was leading off you kind of have that mindset like see some pitches. But the way pitching is now strike one sometimes is the best pitch you’ll see. Be selective, but be aggressive as well."
Benintendi is active but not in the lineup on Thursday, though he doesn't profess to have any physical limitations that would make it necessary to ease him back in after his adductor strain. The 30-year-old said the running and cutting work he had to do with training staff to be cleared from the IL was more rigorous than a typical game in left field.
"He'll be in there tomorrow, starting," Venable said. "But today I thought with a lefty on the mound we can use him to pinch hit. There's only one left-hander for them in their bullpen. I thought it was a good time to ease him into it today."
First pitch: White Sox vs. Athletics
TV: CHSN
Radio: ESPN 1000 AM, WTRO 1200 AM (Spanish)
Lineups:
| Athletics | White Sox | |
|---|---|---|
| Lawrence Butler, RF | 1 | Chase Meidroth, 2B |
| Jacob Wilson, SS | 2 | Luis Robert Jr., CF |
| Tyler Soderstrom, 1B | 3 | Andrew Vaughn, 1B |
| Brent Rooker, LF | 4 | Miguel Vargas, 3B |
| J.J. Bleday, CF | 5 | Lenyn Sosa, DH |
| Seth Brown, DH | 6 | Michael A. Taylor, RF |
| Jhonny Pereda, C | 7 | Edgar Quero, C |
| Max Muncy, 2B | 8 | Brooks Baldwin, LF |
| Max Schuemann, 3B | 9 | Jacob Amaya, SS |
| JP Sears | SP | Davis Martin |
