Caleb Bonemer reported to the Arizona Fall League as the White Sox's main attraction, and he's lived up to the billing thus far.
Glendale's 10-0 victory over Mesa on Thursday featured Bonemer's best game of the showcase to date. He went 3-for-5 while finishing a double shy of the strikeout, and the home run was the weakest of his hits.
He got on the board with a 110.6 mph single in the third, then blistered a 106.9 mph line drive off the left field wall, with the sizable carom allowing him to stretch a double into a triple. The homer, by comparison, lazily drifted over the left field wall at a mere 98.1 mph.
The triple encapsulates the most fascinating parts of the viewing experience: the combination of his raw power and surprising top-line speed. James did what he could to limit the Mike Trout comparisons to physical resemblance...
There are some in White Sox player development who think 21-year-old prospect Caleb Bonemer looks like Mike Trout.
Not because he’s on a Hall of Fame trajectory, not yet. Not even after 39 home runs and counting this year through 143 games across the minors and the Arizona Fall League.
Rather, when he’s manning center field in Arizona despite a build more typical of a lead blocker for Bears running back D’Andre Swift, Bonemer looks like Trout, down to the Michigan native’s tree trunk of a neck and the deceptively suitable footspeed.
...but that's still too easy to mis-aggregate, which is why I limit my comparisons to the Many Names of David Ryder. If you wanted to see what I see when I watch Bonemer, we're not going to do better than this:
"Caleb Bonemer" isn't all that different from "Crud Bonemeal" when you think about it. And I do think about it.
⚙️⚙️⚙️
The AFL season has crossed the halfway point, and Bonemer is leading the way among White Sox position players, although Colby Shelton's AFL season is a condensed version of his Birmingham experience in the sense that he's starting to see the hits fall after an unsustainably low BABIP early.
| Player | PA | 2B | 3B | HR | BB | K | AVG/OBP/SLG |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bonemer | 55 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 6 | 12 | .286/.364/.633 |
| Shelton | 42 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 7 | .206/.310/.294 |
| Magill | 24 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 9 | .227/.250/.273 |
As for the pitchers, Jonathan Clark has been the biggest revelation, allowing just four of the 24 batters he's faced to reach (there are two HBPs the standard pitching line doesn't account for):
| Pitcher | G | IP | H | HR | BB | K | ERA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Altermatt | 6 | 4.2 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 7 | 1.93 |
| LaCombe | 5 | 6 | 5 | 2 | 5 | 3 | 6.00 |
| Wright | 5 | 6.1 | 9 | 0 | 5 | 10 | 0.00 |
| Clark | 5 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 8 | 1.50 |
| George | 1 | 0.2 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 13.50 |
| Vail | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 0.00 |
With Pierce George sidelined by an elbow fracture -- Tommy Vail has taken his place -- Mathias LaCombe is front and center, as his AFL showing may have some say in whether the White Sox add him to the 40-man roster. Then again, Major League Baseball might simplify the matter. The Rule 5 draft was a casualty of the last lockout in 2021, and if a lockout this winter drags well beyond the scheduled dates of the winter meetings, MLB could very well cancel it once again.
⚙️⚙️⚙️
The various winter leagues have started, and Baseball America's latest roundup of minor league transactions includes winter ball requests, including a bunch for the White Sox:
- Winter league request: RHP Juan Carela (AA)
- Winter league request: RHP Adisyn Coffey (AAA)
- Winter league request: RHP Riley Gowens (AA)
- Winter league request: C Korey Lee (AAA)
- Winter league request: C Edgar Quero (AAA)
- Winter league request: OF Jake Cave (AAA)
Not included in that list is Samuel Zavala, who is batting .217/.351/.261 over his first eight games with Lara in the Venezuelan Winter League.
