The White Sox have optioned outfielder Nicky Delmonico to Triple-A Charlotte, tweets James Fegan of The Athletic. While a corresponding move will be made official tomorrow, it’s expected that rookie outfielder Eloy Jimenez will be activated ahead of the series opener versus Houston.
Delmonico has scuffled out of the gates this season, posting a disappointing .586 OPS in 20 games for the White Sox. Following a promising rookie season in which a 13.9% walk rate carried him to a .373 OBP, Delmonico’s plate disciplined has trended steadily downward, culminating in a 6.3% walk rate that has fueled a .281 OBP in 2019. What’s worse, the 26-year-old’s strikeouts have moved in the opposite direction, with 35.9% of Delmonico’s 2019 plate appearances ending in strikeouts, compared to just 18.7% in 2017. Of course, the hope is that a stint in the minor leagues will allow the young outfielder ample opportunity to reverse these troubling developments and make the necessary adjustments to return to the big league club.
Assuming that Jimenez takes Delmonico’s place on the active roster, it will mark his first appearance since April 26, when he suffered a high ankle sprain. The highly-touted rookie has thus far experienced a mixed bag of results in the Majors, with a .674 OPS and 25 strikeouts in 85 plate appearances.
Glad to see that LF Eloy Jimenez was able to recover from his high ankle sprain quicker than originally expected. His anticipated reinstatement will give White Sox fans three core position players to concentrate on at the MLB level along with SS Tim Anderson and 3B Yoan Moncada.
Hopefully top prospects, CF Luis Robert and 2B Nick Madrigal, will follow suit with their MLB debuts next year and join recovering TJ surgery SP Michael Kopech who is expected to be fully healthy in time for spring training. Also looking forward to the debut of SP Dylan Cease some time this summer.
A future rotation of Lucas Giolito, Reynaldo Lopez, Cease and Kopech in 2020 bodes well for a White Sox team looking to contend sooner rather than later. Perhaps the front office and owner Jerry Reinsdorf will consider adding crafty veteran southpaw Dallas Keuchel to the mix of young right-handed power pitchers soon after next month’s MLB First Year Draft which concludes on June 5th.
Would rather wait and go after Y. Grandal and G. Cole this off-season.
Soft tosser like Keuchel at G.R. Field would be brutal. And he’s a 2 WAR pitcher at best who will likely be getting paid like a 3 WAR pitcher because he’s a name brand.
No thanks.
As a White Sox fan, try equating Dallas Keuchel with Mark Buehrle. After comparing the two you might have a different perspective.
I wouldn’t mind the White Sox making a run at Gerrit Cole. The competition for him will be steep next offseason and you best believe he will receive a QO from the Astros if the can’t extend him prior to free agency.
As for Yasmani Grandal lets wait and see what transpires with the June Draft two weeks from now. Maybe the White Sox will luck out and have Nick Madrigal’s former OSU teammate Adley Rutschman fall to them with their #3 pick. Even in the event they miss out on that particular switch-hitting catcher the White Sox still control James McCann through arbitration for one more season and will likely have catching prospect Zack Collins backing him up in 2020.
Except DK isn’t Buehrle and never will be.
Amen.
Clearly you haven’t compared their achievements statistically or otherwise. Each southpaw is a crafty TOR pitcher with multiple All-Star and Gold Glove’s to their credit. Each has succeeded despite pitching in hitter/HR friendly home ball parks. Each has a World Series ring on their resume.
The main difference I see is Keuchel’s durability with a couple of injury shortened seasons, only one the result of an arm issue. However, Keuchel also owns a Cy Young Award that eluded Buehrle in his excellent career.
I’m glad Eloy’s coming back. IT’s nice to see TA & Moncada staying fairly consistent up until now. We knew there was going to be a fall off, but the fact that TA’s still well above .300 & and Moncada’s still within sniffing distance of .300, that’s huge. And yes, I can’t wait to see Robert & Madrigal come up next year. I’ll even be a little excited once Collins makes it up this year (hopefully).
I’m still cautious about Giolito, but if he’s at worst our #5 in our contending years, I can definitely handle that. I’d like to see Keuchel in a Sox uniform, but I have a feeling he’ll go to a contender for an abbreviated one-year deal. But you never know.
The Sox future nucleus is starting to look better each month that passes, especially with all the adversity from the major injuries. There’s still quite a ways to go, but I think by season’s end, the future will look far better than it does now. Let’s just hope the major injuries are over.
I think we may have seen the last of Nicky D in a WS uniform.
I really Hope not
I hope not. He is an all around good guy. Good guys wear black.
Palka is killing it in AAA and has to get the call before nicky d next time an outfielder is needed. I like delmonico, but he has very little bat and bad glove. At least Palka can potentially hit w that terrible defense.
alonso can go. let palka DH. im ok with eloy,garcia and tilson.
Approved. And I’m all for replacing Rondon with Mendick. Let Mendick play every day at 2B, and throw Yolmer into the utility role that Rondon is currently in.
2020..year 8 of the rebuild
Whose rebuild are you referring to, the Reds or the Padres?
The Sox are only in year 3 of their rebuild.
Yes year 8
Wins previous 6 seasons
2013-63
2014-73
2015-76
2016-78
2017-67
2018-62
2019-won’t be much better
How are these numbers not rebuilding? If ownership tells anyone different they’re evidently lying
They still had high price free agents they tried to sign in hopes of contending. They kept their ace and made moves to build around those pieces. Just because they sucked, doesn’t mean they were trying up rebuild.
It was clear they were trying to rebuild after taking Sale and Eaton… Then Q during the season. This is still only the third year…
@Steven Chatwood
So using your logic, SF had a 1-year rebuild between their ’12 & ’14 WS rings (SF was 76-86 in ’13). See how silly that sounds?
If what the Sox were doing before the Sale trade was rebuilding, that was the worst attempt at a rebuild in the history of sports. Moves like the Frazier and Shields trades and grabbing F/A’s like LaRoche and Robertson were not rebuilding moves in any way, shape, or form. They were making an attempt (a feeble one at that) to make a run at the division.
It may sound like BS, but there’s truth that what they were doing was reloading/retooling. It was a very bad attempt at reloading/retooling, but that would explain why their record was subpar through those seasons before they decided to rebuild. It’s a shame it took them that long to realize they should rebuild instead of trying to plug holes in a feeble attempt to steal the division (since they almost stole it in ’12).
You can tell when a team’s in rebuild mode. The Sox record from ’14 to ’16 was too good in that 3-year frame to be in a rebuild. Now look at their record in ’17 & ’18, that’s a huge difference. Their average record from ’14 to ’16 is about 75-87, not great but not exactly a laughing stock. Their average record in ’17 & ’18 (and possibly ’19, too early too tell) is about 65-97. See the difference once the Sox declared the rebuild after the ’16 season?
Just having a below .500 record does not mean you’re suddenly in rebuild mode. To rebuild, you have to make the action to rebuild. If you’re trying to improve your team short-term (even if it’s a bad attempt), that’s not a rebuild.