White Sox outfielder Adam Engel will be re-evaluated by team doctors tomorrow after straining his right hamstring in spring play today, per Daryl Van Schouwen of the Chicago Sun-Times (via Twitter). Engel, 29, has a relatively important role on the South Side this season as the fourth outfielder responsible for backing up Eloy Jimenez, Luis Robert, and Adam Eaton. While Engel unequivocally comes in behind those three in the outfield hierarchy, he nevertheless could see significant playing time as the only true reserve outfielder likely to make the roster. Engel had a career year in 2020 with a 122 wRC+ in 93 plate appearances after producing 38 percent below average over his first 1,047 plate appearances. Clearly, the sample size matters, but even if he regresses at the plate, Engel runs well and brings a quality glove to the outfield grass. If he ends up missing time, Leury Garcia would become their top outfield reserve. If Engel is out, that could open up an opportunity for the recently-signed Billy Hamilton or Luis Gonzalez to make the roster. Micker Adolfo, and Blake Rutherford would be the other contenders from the 40-man roster. Adolfo is the only right-handed hitter among that quartet. Elsewhere in the AL…
- The Astros are unexpectedly trying to fill upwards to forty percent of their rotation for the first few weeks of the season. Framber Valdez’s finger injury led to the signing of Jake Odorizzi, but he won’t be ready by opening day. Cristian Javier is also in doubt for the start of the season. That’s opened a window for Brandon Bielak, who impressed manager Dusty Baker with a 70-pitch outing today, per MLB.com’s Brian McTaggart. Bielak worked on getting himself in shape to pitch deeper into games, and it’s showed so far this spring in Baker’s estimation. Bielak made six starts and twelve total appearances in his debut last season. He totaled 32 innings with a 6.75 ERA/7.00 FIP.
- Top offensive prospects Spencer Torkelson and Riley Greene were re-assigned to minor league camp today by the Tigers, per Chris McCosky of the Detroit News. Neither Torkelson, 21, nor Greene, 20, were expected to sniff the opening day roster, and both struggled throughout spring training. Still, the 1st and 5th overall selections of the past two drafts, respectively, have bright futures ahead of them in Detroit. Torkelson has yet to make his pro debut in a regular season game, while Greene finished his first pro campaign in Single-A.
Hopefully it’s nothing serious that would keep him out for quite a while. It doesn’t sound that way, but then again, I’m not a doctor.
The one thing that does concern me about this season for the Sox is the injury bug. Injuries are inevitable, and you never know who get them or when. But if the Sox miss the playoffs this years, injuries will play a major part in it.
I know, don’t blame failures on injuries. I’ll be the first to yell that from the rooftops. But one of the biggest knocks on this team is they aren’t very deep. That’s where I’m getting at with injuries potentially playing a major factor in why they wouldn’t make the playoffs (if they were to miss the playoffs).
Hopefully it won’t matter and the Sox make the playoffs regardless of whatever injuries that may occur this year.
I can’t wait until Opening Day!
Agreed. They don’t have a ton of depth.
Maclunkey!
They have some depth.
But the outfield was always a concern due to Eaton and Garcia’s injury history. Engel was the one of all of them with no injury history. It’s why trusting Eaton without another addition was always a risk.
At what position? There’s a ton of depth with Collins and Mercedes at catcher. They have a stacked bullpen and some of those guys are starters. Give Burger a shot if Moncada goes down. On and on, my point is I don’t agree
This White Sox team is loaded. I mean, how many teams can say they have players like Billy Hamilton and Jonathan Lucroy at their disposal? Without a doubt, they are by far, the most over hyped team in MLB. That is one thing Reinsdorf always has excelled at.
my Padres have been super overhyped too. getting hard to temper my enthusiasm!
Something I don’t understand……
For years here I read how sensational the Padres prospects were. I believe one person even wrote that Fangraphs said it was the greatest collation of prospects ever. Pitcher, position players, etc. Fair enough.
Now I look at their depth chart. With the exception of Tatis and maybe one other person, their team basically consists of guys they signed as free agents, or traded for using said prospects. It appears most of their pitching staff was acquired within the past year via trades. And after 3 years of reading how dropdown great MacKenzie
Gore will be, when does he throw a pitch at the ML level?
It sure appears that the owner got sick of wafting for these historic prospects to bloom, put his foot down, and demanded Preller get some bona fide major leaguers in or Preller goes out. The owner is paying the salaries and I assume Mr. Preller is walking the plank.
Now here’s the thing…….
I’ve noticed that the can’t miss prospects I read about here that were the finest collection of prospects ever, are spread around over a half-dozen MLB teams. Now I’m sure there are a few of the dozen that are just killing it on the field, but for the life of me I can’t find one. Did Renfroe won a HR or batting title? Maybe a gold glove? How many MVP votes did Manuel Margot get last year – I was told he was a superstar about to hatch. And lucky they held onto Chris Paddack – although I assume as the ace of the staff his agent probably wants $200m-plus.
This offseason I read that the Padres are the 2nd best team in MLB. Boy, that’s really something! A few Dodger injuries and they’re a cinch for the championship this year. No?
BELIEVE THE HYPE ! ! ! !
Your depth doesn’t always have to be having a player equally as good as the one you lost. Sometimes your depth comes from having a ton of talent at a lot of positions so if you lose one guy it’s not catastrophic. Consider last year….the way Moncada played is comparable to losing him to injury, yet they survived and still had a great year. If the Sox lose Abreu, or Moncada, or Robert, or Jimenez, they have the depth in the lineup to be ok. Now if they start losing
I meant to finish that with if they start losing multiple guys at the same time, of course that could be tough, but that’s the case for EVERY team in the league!!!
Kevin, you are absolutely right about replacing ‘the way Moncada played’. Defensively Moncada at his best, is average. I love watching him in April and May, in Chicago. He looks like he wishes someone would bring him out, a winter coat. Yet Steve Stone and young Jason, pump him up, to be Brooks Robinson.
The W Sox have far to go, to be able to say they won the Chris Sale trade. Kopech could take his one win, and call it a day.
These are shaping up to be hard times for the old Dogdick.
Moo
Were you crying when you typed that out?
Wah Reinsdorf wah.
@ dogbone
The Tigers have Derek Hill, and Grayson Greiner. Pretty much the same but younger players. Not that difficult to have AAAA players at their disposal. Would be a different story if those players were in their prime. They are far from it.
Engel has become a decent hitter. Engel has worked hard to improve the stick .Hope he makes it back before May.
Engel had a career year in large part because he only had to face LHP. He’s coming into the year as a sort-of platoon partner for Adam Eaton. If he’s going to miss time, I’d guess Hamilton or Adolfo fills in for that reason.
I mean outside of the fact he had 55 abs vs right handers and 33 vs left. Oh he also had a .291 average and ops over .800 vs righties. With a 127 wRC+ as well.
Daynl, you make a good argument. At this stage of their careers, I believe that Engel is the better of the two Adams.
Eaton also has a difficult time staying healthy.
You’d think the ChiSox would prefer a lefty fourth/fifth outfielder
Do the results of Spring Training even matter? JaCoby Jones, Niko Goodrum and Nomar Mazara have performed about as badly as possible. They will be on the DET opening day roster and they will be starting lineup.
JaCoby Jones has hit during the regular season, so I see him getting the benefit of the doubt. Goodrum has tools and is their best defensive SS, but man, those strike outs! If he had options left, I don’t think he would have made the team, and will have to produce to hold his spot. Mazara was wasted money. The newness of his contract gets him on the team. It will be interesting to see how long he stays when he doesn’t produce for Hinch.
The Contract is the only reason Miguel Cabrera is on the team as well. If you were to put the best team on the field, none of these four are on it.
Adam Engel has always had a plus glove and run tool. He has also shown improvement with the bat in each of his 4 MLB seasons. Engel had always hit better versus left-handed pitching up until last year’s abbreviated season when he raked from both sides of the plate. This did not come by accident but through hard work in which he has altered both his swing and approach at the plate. The best news is that he was continuing all this in spring camp and was particularly outstanding this past week with multiple hits games that included HR’s, triples and doubles. He fell a single short of the cycle two games ago which is a rarer occurrence in spring straining considering few players get enough PA’s in which to accomplish that feat.
Engel is destined to be more than just a typical 4th outfielder this season if his latest injury is just a minor setback. He will not only backup all three outfield spots with Gold Glove caliber defense but is also a likely short-side platoon option in RF with Adam Eaton. ‘Spanky’ is being given every opportunity to become a full time player in RF by new manager Tony LaRussa but he isn’t getting any younger and has a history of injury issues. I fully expect LaRussa to manage Eaton’s playing time in RF and that would mean more starting appearance on the grass for Engel.
Aside from health issues, Eaton has also struggled in recent years versus left-handed pitching so I fully expect a platoon situation between the two Adam’s in RF sooner rather than later. Engel should also spell Luis Robert in CF every so often and will be the primary late inning defensive replacement in close games when defensively challenged LF Eloy Jimenez is lifted. Even if the entire White Sox starting outfield remains relatively healthy in 2021 I still expect Engel to play in virtually every contest and also see upwards of 300 PA’s. Those numbers will increase significantly if any injuries do occur which is a more likely occurrence considering Robert and Jimenez also have had their share of health issues as young professionals.
@ AaronSapoznik;
Engel is one of my top 20 players. Love watching him.
He’s better than JBJ, and plays for less then 1/8th of the money.
With a league short of qualified CF’s, Engle could easily start for at least half the teams in MLB. And he’d make them better. I wish the young man well. He keeps playing and sooner or later fans – and especially the (groupthink) national baseball media – will catch on to how good and productive the man actually is. Not perfect. Not a superstar. But an extremely fine player.
I trust you’re correct about La Russa understanding what he has.
Engel has also spoken about being content with his role. He’s a team player and that makes him easy to root for.
Aside from speedy Billy Hamilton, the White Sox have one more NRI outfielder fighting to be the 26th man in lefty power hitting corner Nick Williams. As veterans, I believe both Hamilton and Williams are ahead of youngsters Luis Gonzalez, Micker Adolfo and Blake Rutherford to fill any potential reserve OF role on the White Sox after Adam Engel and Leury Garcia. Adolfo and Rutherford have already been optioned to AA and AAA respectively. Gonzalez still remains in camp but is ticketed for the alternate site and AAA short of multiple OF injuries. Tony LaRussa has always preferred veterans to hold reserve roles which is why NRI Jonathan Lucroy is likely to be the White Sox #2 catcher behind Yasmani Grandal. I also believe Zack Collins will make the opening day roster as the #3 catcher and as a lefty hitting bat behind primary DH Andrew Vaughn.
Williams was a former top Rangers/Phillies prospect who put up some pretty decent offensive numbers in his first two seasons in Philadelphia back in 2017 and 2018. His lefty power bat would be a fit on the current White Sox roster as a backup OF/DH. Williams has had a solid spring camp thus far. It would take an outfield injury for either Hamilton or Williams to crack the White Sox opening day roster but they would each supply some solid veteran insurance at the alternate site/AAA Charlotte if either is willing to remain in the organization when spring training concludes.
I don’t see the point in them keeping a one-dimensional player like Hamilton to start the season, especially if it’s only while Engel rehabs. Much better to give one of our young players some valuable big league experience to help them hone their approach at the plate once they go back down. This is especially important since those chances might be few and far between now that the team is completely geared towards competing.
I don’t think it will be Hamilton if Engel is on the shelf.
They probably will go with Luis Gonzalez and keep Hamilton around for injury to Eaton/Garcia or expanded rosters, since they’d lose him in option back to minors.
Luis Gonzalez is not out of options and Tony LaRussa has always preferred veterans to hold down reserve roles on his past teams. It’s better that Gonzalez and the other young White Sox prospects get regular playing time in the minors. With a World Series contending White Sox team they are better off filling reserve roles with the likes of Jonathan Lucroy and Billy Hamilton with the latter likely only making the team if Adam Engel is out for an opening day roster spot due to his latest injury. We all should know more today about Engel’s status.