It has been a long and winding path back to the big leagues for White Sox righty Gregory Infante, as Dan Hayes of CSN Chicago writes. After briefly making his MLB debut at 22 years of age, the now-29-year-old had bounced around the upper minors waiting for another shot. That finally came after Infante threw 13 dominant innings at Triple-A Charlotte to open the current season, earning him a ticket back to the majors. “I am very happy and glad to get this opportunity,” Infante said. “The last seven years were tough years, but I also worked a lot in the last seven to get to this point because this is where you want to be as a player.”
- That White Sox bullpen of which Infante is now a member figures to draw plenty of attention over the coming months. With a variety of interesting arms — closer David Robertson, injured setup man Nate Jones, and suddenly interesting righties Tommy Kahnle and Anthony Swarzak — on hand, the rebuilding organization could be in quite a nice selling position at the deadline. In the meantime, manager Rick Renteria tells Hayes, the organization plans to carry eight relievers — helping to spread the burden in the pen and alleviate any innings shortages from the rotation.
- Tigers reliever Joe Jimenez is expected to miss about a month with a back injury, writes John Wagner of the Toledo Blade. Jimenez, 22, has been working at Triple-A after a rough debut in the majors. Since his demotion, Jimenez has continued the dominant path he charted over the preceding four seasons, racking up 13 strikeouts against four hits and two walks over 6 1/3 scoreless innings. Had that continued, he may well have been positioned to return to the bigs in relatively short order. Instead, he’ll first have to rehab the injury.
- Indians outfielder Austin Jackson appears to be progressing from his toe injury, as Jordan Bastian of MLB.com reports on Twitter. The veteran is with the club today, participating in agility drills and baserunning work. It’s not clear whether he’ll require a brief rehab stint once he’s back to health, but presumably he’ll be ready for MLB duty in relatively short order once his toe is healed.
Quintana, Robertson, Jones, Swarzak, Kahnle, Holland, Gonzalez. The store is open for business!
I think they’ll try to package guys up. If Frazier and Melky start hitting and drawing interest, teams could look at acquiring Frazier or Melky and Holland or Gonzalez. Moves like that to maximize the value of those guys. Robertson, Quintana and Jones likely get moved separately.
Agreed. But it’s not going to be a discount store. Hahn may price himself out of anything. I think he may have already done so with Quintana and his poor start
Jose Quintana has averaged a 4.5 WAR since becoming a full time member of the White Sox rotation in 2013 with zero missed starts. That number includes a 5.4 metric from last season that bested former teammate Chris Sale’s 5.0 number. Quintana’s age, contract, production and durability over the past 5+ seasons should not reduce his value in the coming weeks and months.
Despite a slow start in 2017, Quintana has still managed 5 quality starts in his 8 appearances, including 4 in his last 5 outings. Barring an injury or total meltdown in his stats, “Q” will have considerable value come the trade deadline. Most importantly, with his bargain contract and control the White Sox are not in a position where they have to deal him this summer. They can easily wait until the offseason where the market for quality starting pitching may not be as good as it once looked, especially with Jake Arrieta pitching awful while Johnny Cueto and Masahiro Tanaka have to first opt out of existing deals. The other “premium” starter, Yu Darvish has a history of injury that Quintana lacks.
Holy cow. Are you his agent? You sold him well.
“Q” sells himself. There isn’t a team in MLB who wouldn’t want him in their rotation or clubhouse. He’s the consummate professional and ideal teammate, one who has had every reason to complain over his 5+ years on the South Side but refuses to make excuses or feel sorry for himself. He’s probably the single most favored player among White Sox fans over the past few seasons and with good reason.
If not his agent you must be a relative..because if not how do you know about him being such a great guy?
You have to acknowledge that Quintana doesn’t have the best offense behind him so it isn’t all his fault. Or people can look at it as the White Sox offense was able to hide Quintana’s flaws and they are now becoming visible to everyone
The “wins” stat isn’t entirely his fault, true, but his walk rate is.
I feel like he meant to say defense, which is true.
Hence the “behind him” part of his comment. Also, the White Sox offense never scored/s run for Quintana in the past so they never hid his flaws. Dude has had the most no-decisions and least run support in the league the past 5 years.
That would certainly make more sense.
I hope that’s what he meant anyway lol
“Q” has also pitched in one of MLB’s more hitter friendly home ball parks since becoming a full time starter in May of 2012. That fact might alleviate some concerns for interested contenders that also have “launching pads”.
They’d be happy to salary dump Frazier or Melky to a club with injury issue. Below average pricey vets. Abreu is the bat hopefully they can find someone to sell high on in next couple months. False narrative out there that he needs to be here for Moncada or recruiting effort for Cuban prospect Robert.
I don’t think Abreu goes until off-season or next trade deadline.
False narrative? It worked just fine for the White Sox in 2013 when the organization utilized fellow Cubans Alexei Ramirez and Dayan Viciedo to recruit Jose Abreu in a highly contested international free agent sweepstakes. They were also his teammates in his historic rookie season.
Imo, Abreu will not only be a member of the White Sox come August he will likely be their starting first baseman on opening day of 2018. I also believe that he will be the most likely of their current veterans to have a chance of remaining with the club throughout his remaining 2+ years of contract control. If any of their current vets signs an extension, my money would be on Abreu.
They need to move him to DH ASAP.
Way to perpetuate that narrative.
The Sox offered Abreu the most $. That’s it.
The market will determine Abreu’s future with the Sox. Not Moncada, Robert or his likeability.
1B/DH types aren’t fetching what they used to. But if the Sox get an offer, he’s gone.
Yes-false narrative. Moncada is here and with a calm/Spanish speaking player friendly manager, Abreu’s Cuban heritage is not essential for recruiting Robert to an organization whose ties to Cuba go back decades. He insists on being at 1B where an absolute butcher to make him even less valuable. After first season he’s been consistent at going into extended slumps. If you like him wonderful, but a DH isn’t hard to find later on IF he can be a chip to get a couple more versatile everyday player prospects in a rebuild.
The White Sox are not your typical MLB organization. They are not some cold-hearted corporate entity that embraces the bottom line at all costs. They pride themselves on loyalty, often to a fault.
The front office is making a concerted effort to establish a positive, team-friendly clubhouse as part of their current rebuild which led to the departure of Chris Sale and Adam Eaton and the hiring of Rick Renteria as manager. They see value in a player like Jose Abreu taking on the role of a big brother influence for Yoan Moncada just as Alexei Ramirez did for Abreu back in 2013. It would not surprise me in the least if Abreu is around through his final controllable year of 2019 or longer as the team also makes strides to become a perennial contender.
I expect Abrea and Moncada to feed off of each other as the White Sox #2 and #3 hitters once MLB’s #1 prospect is promoted later this season. It wouldn’t surprise me in the least to also see the trio of Abrea, Moncada and Luis Robert in the heart of the White Sox batting order come 2019.
Note: It’s not like the White Sox have an abundance of sluggers in their organization. Their system strength is in pitching and the key to success since they moved into their new park back in 1991 is solid pitching coupled with a powerful batting order. In fact, every season in which the White Sox reached the postseason since 1991, the team has combined excellent starting pitching with 200+ HR’s. Aside from Abreu and Moncada, the only player currently projected to supply plus power come 2019 is last June’s #1 draft pick Zack Collins who can hopefully do it as a catcher. Robert would add to that as a 5-tool outfield prospect while future Rule 4 drafts and trades involving their key veterans will also focus on position players with solid hit tools.
Good narrative. Some teams that have been rumored to be interested have some thumpers, but not sure we can pry them loose. A Robertson/Swarzak package get the Nats to let go of Robles and others? Red Sox hanging on to Devers at 3B but will need SP this year. Yankees have some OF depth that maybe Hahn can get. Astros have Tucker? Anyways, Hahn has me chewing fingernails but I have faith he’s maximizing returns on these guys.
Btw-The latest from Jon Heyman this afternoon concerning the Luis Robert Sweepstakes: ‘Be A Surprise If He Went Somewhere Else’ Other Than White Sox.
chicago.cbslocal.com/2017/05/15/white-sox-a-favori…
The sox’ player development has been very very poor. Let’s say a failure. Their drafting was thought to be good and then nothing. When did they produce a home grown successful player that wasn’t a pitcher? And Buddy Bell, another Williams yes man is still in charge of the minors. Saladino and Anderson’s batting averages are slipping.
No doubt. But there have been signs of improvement with some additions to the White Sox scouting and player development staffs recently. The early returns on their 2016 June draft have been encouraging with their selection of 3 advanced college bats that include C Zack Collins, CF/OF Alex Call and OF/1B Jameson Fisher.
The organization has also done a better job in acquiring talented younger hitters in international free agency and through trades. FA Jose Abreu was an advanced bat out of Cuba who never spent a day in the minor leagues while Adam Eaton was a top OF prospect with some limited MLB experience as a Diamondbacks who never needed any development in the White Sox farm system. Each led the team in WAR and oWAR among White Sox position players from 2014-2016.
It’s a little early to be judging Tim Anderson at this point. Obviously the White Sox are confident in his ability or they wouldn’t have offered him a 5-year contract with two additional options that keep him potentially controllable through 2024. They offered a similar deal to Eaton after just one season in Chicago and that added immeasurably to his trade value this past offseason.
Btw-Tyler Saladino was never projected to be much more than a decent utility player in MLB. His performance last season as the White Sox starting 2B after Brett Lawrie’s injury exceeded expectations. On the other hand, Yolmer (formerly Carlos) Sanchez had higher expectations as a White Sox prospect but his ceiling now appears similar to that of Saladino. Of course, Sanchez is hitting and playing well early on in 2017 and may yet reach his earlier expectations, although it certainly won’t be as the White Sox starting 2B with Yoan Moncada’s imminent promotion.
Other young players the White Sox have traded for in recent years are also starting to finally show some ability that was originally projected for them. They include Avisail Garcia who looks like an All-Star hitter thus far in 2017 as well as versatile Leury Garcia who has filled in admirably in CF and the #1 spot of the White Sox batting order after the spring training injury to Charlie Tilson and the struggles of rookie Jacob May earlier this season.
Draft strategy was a MUCH bigger issue than player development in the past. You can thank Kenny for that.
Excellent commentary about Quintana. I agree he is a quality starter with a team friendly contract. Keeping him is a good option. I like Abreu for his offense-which improves as the weather warms up. However, the Sox clearly need more pop at the plate. Robert has great potential. But where will he wind up? Nobody knows.
The Sox track record of developing position players has been terrible. Getz seems to actually have a plan on how to scout, draft and develop players. I’m interested to see what they do with kids like Adolfo and Basabes, and of course, Robert, if we can land him. The minors were neglected for too long. It’s going to take a while to restock the pond. I think they’re moving in the right direction