As a 22-year-old in Triple-A back in 2024, Drew Romo popped 14 home runs in 85 games, and Will Venable isn't overselling his appearance when he describes him as "a strong, physical kid."
Still, if you're surprised by the power display of a guy who essentially started the year as the White Sox's No. 4 catcher, that gives you something in common with someone pretty central to the process.
"It's really interesting, because kind of the way I've been hitting the big leagues is not the way that I've been as a hitter," Romo said, hours before lifting his fourth home run in 10 games. "Historically, I've been a high-contact guy. I hit for some power, but that's not the main part of my game. And in the past, I would chase a lot, but like, good bat-to-ball. Like, I'll fight stuff off, I'll get a piece of it.
"But earlier this season, I kind of found something in my swing that helped me stay back more, let the ball come to me, and it's helped me see the ball better. And so, since I've gotten back up to the big leagues, I've been chasing less and walking more, which is kind of like a new thing for me. Walking this much, not striking out much -- which is great -- putting the ball in play. And when I am getting hits, I'm showing power. It's kind of like a new thing for me. Normally, I don't really profile this way."
As tempting as it is to just continue to let Romo sum up the situation better than I ever could, most of his goofy .185/.389/.667 line through 10 games is too noisy to parse, other than that he is indeed still making good amounts of contact (75.8 percent) and resisting the urge to chase (24.1 percent) to a degree he's never shown before as a professional, even after a three-strikeout night. Whether all five of his hits going for extra bases indicates that he's developed something significantly more than 40-grade raw power of his prospect days, or has simply altered his mechanics to wring the most out of it, is probably too early to say.
That Tuesday night's homer was both a true wall-scraper and also came on on an 80+ mph swing is the type cognitive dissonance Romo's offense is providing. Perhaps that's why Will Venable talked about it like something he's enjoying more than he's deeply scrutinizing just yet.
"When he started hitting homers, really," Venable said of when he noticed Romo's power. "We saw Drew in spring training and that was the first time I had seen him. Very professional in how he goes about his business. Obviously was able to put together really good at-bats from both sides of the plate."
There's a much weightier endorsement of Romo's skill that Venable has been issuing for over a week now, which is putting him in the lineup. Especially with Kyle Teel beginning his rehab assignment Tuesday night -- and homering in his second at-bat -- it bears reiterating that Romo has started two games out of three in the last three Sox series, and is well on his way to a fourth.
For that, it's not too soon to identify the reason.
"Right now it's kind of tough for me, you guys know, so I'm just getting in the box and trying to make good contact, that's it," said Edgar Quero. "Just keep doing what I'm doing, I know how to work with [playing less]. I've been in the same spot before and I'm just trying to do my job and be ready for when I've got the time to play."
After spending the offseason working to shorten the hip load in his swing, even training at Driveline with the goal of catching fastballs out front and driving them in the air for power more, Quero has seen his offensive performance crater in that specific area at the three-quarters pole of the season. At this stage, he said he's thinking more in terms of repairing his timing than anything mechanical, and there have been some recent hints of better contact quality. But in either case, Quero is batting .180 against four-seamers with a .200 slugging percentage while seeing them at one of the highest rates in the league, after batting .281 and slugging .389 against heaters last season.
"Edgar, having a tough go of it offensively, admittedly, but still working really hard. We rely on him a lot from a run-prevention standpoint," said bench coach Walker McKinven. "We do know that he can hit. So we’re expecting that to get back. Got to be reminded, Edgar’s younger than Sam Antonacci, Edgar’s younger than Braden Montgomery, or the same age as Braden really, and we ask a ton of him in his second year in the big leagues. There’s going to be ups and downs for him."
Quero's makeup and work ethic is universally lauded, and his framing and throwing both display incremental improvements from last year. But he's hitting .159/.258/.171, which are the type of results that even got the best defensive catcher in the league traded out of San Francisco. More to the point, as McKinven noted, Quero is a young player with a history of offensive success and still plenty of promise, who currently isn't getting much run on a team that is trying to ride the wave of their exciting recent play.
Teel returning doesn't figure to improve the situation for Quero, so a simpler expectation is that it resolves it, and that the Sox option him to Triple-A as the corresponding move to give him a long runway to get right offensively. It's not a clean nor preferred outcome, rather a deeply disappointing one. But between Quero and Romo, there seems to be such a clear split of one hitter that needs a chance to get right, and one that needs a chance to show if he's really found something.
"I really started to learn about it in Double-A and then just working on it every year, and I think this year I'm just starting to get more of a feel for it and a better understanding," Romo said of staying in his back leg on his swing. "Just focusing more on being in my back hip and coiling and rotating, as opposed to jumping out toward the pitcher and trying to go get the ball. I think it's helping me let the ball come to me and that gives me more time to make a decision and see the ball better."
It certainly is an adjustment that's producing immediate results. And for the first time in a long time, that feels like the route for the White Sox to follow right now.
