It would have been easier to write about the ethos of Chase Meidroth as a player after his first 45 major league games.
Offensive results are the easiest thing to embrace, and Meidroth's were living up to the wildest dreams for his long-term outcome right away, slashing .296/.385/.365 with as many walks as strikeouts, with the swing decisions to match.
He was also pairing it with shortstop defense sharp enough that Sox Machine readers were often asking if Colson Montgomery would need to slide over to accommodate Meidroth, and lo and behold he sometimes does these days. That the Red Sox's initial offers for Garrett Crochet offered Meidroth as the second piece in the deal, without Braden Montgomery, felt less out of whack back then. That White Sox front office members still reasoned that with all their investments in up the middle talent, Meidroth's ultimate spot on a championship team was still more likely to be that of a high-level utility player, might have gotten more resistance a month ago.
"He's proven that he's a winning player," said Chris Getz. "He's got the ability to play anywhere on the infield. We're really happy where Chase is in his development. There's definitely a place for him on a championship club."
Seven hits and four doubles in his last three games mitigates it, and it would have further helped if his two almost-homers got a lucky bounce, but it's gotten trickier to describe Meidroth's value since mid-June. He's hit .192/.263/.242 in 30 games since.
More chasing, more getting challenged in the strike zone, and shallower outfield alignments against him have accompanied the slide, but also a .225 BABIP which reads like Meidroth's same-old contact-heavy attack running into a lot of gloves. His playing time hasn't dissipated, nor have expressions of faith in him waned.
"Even when he doesn't get hits, it seems like it's a hard out, it's like a little force field behind the plate," said Colson Montgomery. "He'll tell you his game's not hitting homers, that his game is getting on base for the guys behind them. That's what makes him a special player too, that he knows his role and he knows his strengths. Sometimes I feel like different guys, and even I felt it too, you feel like trying to do more than what you're supposed to do, and he's just done a really good job of staying true to what he does."
It was apparent enough even when hits were falling for him, but Meidroth's struggles and the slammed helmets, flung bats, the loud profanities and gritted-teeth demeanor that mark when he feels he hasn't come through, speak to the 23-year-old's approach to the sport that brings a lot of grins from his colleagues.
If only for amusement of how much his easygoing San Diego surfer demeanor in the clubhouse belies his on-field nature.
"I don't really hear him talk much," said offensive coordinator Grady Sizemore. "Then in the box he looks like an animal. He's very animated. He's very – he's screaming, he's yelling, it's fun to see. I encourage those guys to play with that edge and be themselves and not change who they are just because of, you know, they're in the situation of being at the top of the order in the big leagues. Use everything you have to your advantage."
"Once the game starts, he becomes a little angry and very competitive," Andrew Benintendi. "In here, he's chilling out. You'd never know. But he's got a little fire in him."
"He's a gritty, hard-nosed player," said Kyle Teel
As in turns out, if the White Sox didn't wind up prying Roman Anthony nor Marcelo Mayer from the Red Sox for Crochet, Meidroth still gives them a smaller piece cut from the same cloth.
"Coming up in the minor leagues, it was with guys like Marcelo and Roman and that was the stuff we talked about: It was winning pitches," Meidroth said. "If I'm not having a result, it's like, 'Am I competing every pitch? Am I winning most pitches?' And if it's 'Yeah, I am,' then it's OK, and the next week it'll flip."
If the intensity only manifested as displays of frustration, that would make Meidroth easier to connect with fans, but his veteran teammates have been mentioning him as an asset to the roster since spring based on how it produced a level of preparation that quickly passed the smell test.
"I saw that early," said Josh Rojas. "He was putting together great at-bats in spring training. Good zone discipline, didn't swing and miss. I thought offensively he was ready to go in spring training but his defense has definitely been the most improved thing for him."
"He's come up and done a great job and I can't say I was super surprised because of what I saw," said Mike Tauchman. "If you can consistently make quality swing decisions, and consistently swing at pitches inside the strike zone and not outside the strike zone, that allows you to tread water at a bare minimum and you're in every at-bat."
A livelier burst of contact has returned with Meidroth from the All-Star break. Especially after a first half that saw him play through a number of nagging ailments (thumb, shoulder, ankle) during his first brush with an everyday workload at the big league level, the hope is he's treaded for water long enough that he can now swim his way out.
Even if there's no unexpected power surge coming, the Sox feel like there's more to his development than a hot start and a fade.
"At some point pitchers are going to make an adjustment to you at this level and you have to respond back," said assistant general manager Josh Barfield. "He got off to a great start. I think one of the things, and what we try to target with players, is guys that have the ability to impact the game, not just getting hits. It’s playing really good defense, moving around the field. He’s a good base runner. He has a good way to control at-bats even when he’s not getting hits, seeing a lot of pitches and finding ways to get on base. I think he’s gonna find his legs in the second half and make that adjustment but we’ve been really pleased."
"One of his gifts as a baseball player is his strike zone, his ability to recognize shapes and stuff like that," Tauchman said. "The league will adjust to that, and then he'll have to make adjustments. But I think he's really perceptive, and I think he processes things pretty well, processes what pitchers are trying to do. The game moves really fast, especially with the pitch clock. You don't have a lot of time to say, 'Hey, he just did this. Is he setting up this? Or is he gonna do this?' That's just going to continue to get better for him."
It's an easier argument to make on the heels of possibly Meidroth's best offensive game of his career Monday night in Tampa, especially when it looks a lot like the spurts of success he's already had at this level. The undersized infielder still may not look like the other players the White Sox are marking out as part of their positional core, but if you get a closer look at Meidroth, it can convince you a breakthrough is coming eventually.
"It's just the game of baseball," Meidroth said. "It just kind of comes and goes, ups and downs, ebbs and flows. But at the end of the day, if you know you've got a lineup of guys that are winning pitches, you're going to have good success through the course of the season."
