The White Sox are going to call up prospect Chase Meidroth, as first reported by Thomas Nestico of TJStats. He is not yet on Chicago’s 40-man roster, so they will need to make a corresponding move to open a spot for him.
Meidroth, 23, will seemingly get to make his major league debut against his original club. A fourth-round pick of the Red Sox in 2022, he was one of four players flipped to the White Sox as part of the December 2024 trade which sent Garrett Crochet to Boston. The White Sox will be hosting the Red Sox for a three-game set this weekend.
Kyle Teel and Braden Montgomery were the headliners of Chicago’s return, as top 100 prospects and former first-round picks, but Meidroth was an interesting secondary piece in the deal. As mentioned, he was a fourth-round pick in 2022, signing for a modest $272.5K bonus.
During his time in the minors, he has seemingly been disproving nominative determinism, as his primary attribute has been his plate discipline. He has 1,187 minor league plate appearances in his career thus far, with more walks than strikeouts. He’s drawn a free pass in 17.4% of those trips to the plate while only getting punched out 15.6% of the time.
The power is more questionable, as he only hit 23 home runs in that stretch. However, the overall production is still strong. He has a combined .285/.425/.414 batting line and 136 wRC+ at the moment, indicating he’s been 36% better than league average.
He has other attributes as well. He stole 13 bags last year and in 2023 as well. Defensively, he has played the three infield positions to the left of first base. Prospect evaluators don’t consider it likely that he becomes an everyday shortstop, but he can be solid at second and third while occasionally taking short in an emergency. Baseball America currently lists him as the #8 prospect in Chicago’s system.
Meidroth had a chance to crack the Opening Day roster since he spent all of 2024 at the Triple-A level. However, he hit just .146/.300/.171 in the spring and got sent to Charlotte to start the year. His nine games with the Knights have resulted in a .267/.450/.600 line and a call-up to the big leagues.
The White Sox should have lots of ability to give Meidroth playing time. Miguel Vargas has been the everyday third baseman this year but is hitting .179/.289/.231. Second baseman Lenyn Sosa has a line of .194/.219/.323. Shortstop Jacob Amaya is at .115/.143/.115.
Perhaps not coincidentally, today is the last day that a player can be promoted and earn a full year of service time in 2025. A player needs 172 days in the majors to earn a full year of service, but there are only 171 days left in the season after today. The Sox played this afternoon and Meidroth won’t be added until tomorrow at the earliest. That means Meidroth will be under the one-year line even if he stays up with the club for the rest of the season. That will mean the Sox can control him through 2031 even if he immediately establishes himself as a big leaguer. Some players can still earn a full service year under such circumstances by finishing in the top two of Rookie of the Year voting but that’s only for top prospects and not guys like Meidroth.
The Sox lost 121 games last year and are firmly in rebuild mode. Their loss today dropped them to 2-10 in the current season. The 2025 campaign is mostly about playing time for young guys or potential trade candidates. Meidroth didn’t get his chance when camp broke but turned things on in Triple-A recently while others struggled in the majors, so he’ll get a crack at the big leagues now.
Photo courtesy of Rick Scuteri, Imagn Images
The Greek God of Walks. Begins a HOF career. Future batting champ.
Northeast – Well said!
Red Sox Nation is very happy for Chase and wishes him all the best in his MLB career.
Can’t wait until Sunday when he faces Crochet!
I don’t want to read more into it but while being within the rules, it just smells bad to be promoted after the deadline for service time. Just give the bonuses to the ROTY and not just top prospects. I wanted Boston to have given him a chance when Devers was injured and they went through their revolving group of players at second. His ability to not usually striking out can’t be understated.
dewey – Well said, I totally agree!!
There’s a really good chance Teel and Monty turn out to be solid MLB players …. if Chase does as well, the trade could turn into a steal for the ChiSox.
And Rafaela just badly misplayed a deep fly ball to CF ….. the wheels are falling off all at once.
Have you been watching the Netflix doc? Something Breslow said early on was really, really bad.
To be totally fair, under the old system players used to be held down until practically May or later for service time manipulation and there’s also no guarantee he sticks. At least in the case of the White Sox they can legitimately say they were giving ABs to a former top prospect in Vargas to start the year, and he’s busted and Meidroth can take advantage. It probably would have looked differently if Chase hadn’t had a poor spring. If you’re a White Sox fan you probably have little faith any trade acquisition from this front office will stick on the active roster… 🙁
jsklfc: The way this organization works is to dfa players who are so bad they can’t make then re-sign them to minor league contracts because no one else wants them. That’s what Getz calls Rebuilding 101.
Fever, I choose not to subscribe to Netflix so no. Can’t subscribe to everything…
My comment was as much in general as with Chase M.
Sounds like Mr 3000 Nick Madrigal all over again.
Speaking of missing on can’t miss guys….
I get its only a tiny sample, but just saying:
Andrew Vaughn: : .111/.184/.406
Gavin Sheets: .333/.359/.915
great start in AAA
whitesox may actually compete in about 2-3 yrs when you factor in meidroth, teel, braden, hagen, Schultz
Only issue with this is Josh Rojas coming from the IL and Brandon Drury coming back from thumb injury. Maybe they send Maton back in AAA.
That’s not nearly enough, and it’s the White Sox, so they won’t fill the gaps in free agency while Reinsdorf is alive.
@matt
2 potential aces, 2 potential star bats, maybe a 3rd and thats not nearly enough? they also got quero + colson. thats a serious lineup. doesnt take much to get into the “postseason” these days seeing as half the league gets in
It’s easier to make the postseason these days rather than 30 years ago.
Colson has yet to prove he can be even average against minor league pitching, so you can delete that part. You’re projecting all these guys to hit their ceilings, which just isn’t realistic. Brayden Montgomery has barely played pro ball at any level. Teel is projected to be more of a solid regular than a star. I’m slightly more optimistic about the pitching, but there just isn’t that much depth or upside with the position player side.
Everyone is keenly aware of the postseason format.
i never said whitesox gonna win the WS or turn int0 the dodgers
all i said was they “may compete”
“may” = might, maybe, possibly, there’s a chance
“compete” = play well, win a few games
they could all turn out to be huge failures. but they also MAY COMPETE in 2-3 yrs
And to further recap what has already been established using random capitalization, then I replied pointing out why that is UNLIKELY.
Anyone that can get on base 42.5 percent of the time in over 1100 minor league at bats deserves a shot. Might be a great player to platoon to start off his career. Build confidence. High OBA and can steal a bag. What’s not to like?
Big: What’s not to like is, if Meidroth shows any kind of ability he’ll be flipped rather than used as a building block because this organization doesn’t know how to rebuild. Anyone that has potential will be gone so that, if they develop into a solid major league and there’s a danger they might hit $1M in arbitration, Reinsdorf would rather see them go than pay them. That’s why this team will never contend until someone sells or dies.
That’s nothing. You’re imaging those all become stars which they won’t. They will still have a bunch of holes and no depth. And, that would be 3 years more at the earliest any way.
Just a disgraceful franchise and ownership.
@chandler With the young players CLE, DET, and KC have I don’t see CWS even being all that competitive in AL Central let alone in the AL as a whole.
@Avenger65: That is the issue isn’t it.. I mean, when is this rebuild going to hit rock bottom? I do not think it has yet. Sure they have prospects but that is all they are, and seemingly forcing them up this year when this team clearly is not doing anything is just wasting service time. Yeah that is cold, but that is what the game is. Having all cylinders firing at the same time, for your ‘window to win’ (which is stupid, you build an org to be consistently good, not just for 1-3 years). This is why I do not have the faith that Getz, and his ‘Gming for dummies’ book, is going to help with.
Every news article about this kid seems to highlight the flaws in his game, but if he can play passable defense and get on base, that’s a huge improvement over everyone else on the roster.
God, how did the bar get set sooo low? (Its rhetorical, given its miser owner)
I think I can feel Darragh’s delight at pulling out “nominative determinism” for this article. Very funny observation.
Meow – Just to provide some background …… there’s been 9 Chases and one Chasen who have played MLB, all since 2003.
Of those 10 players, Utley & Headley & d’Arnaud are the only position players and their MLB careers all ended in 2018.
The other 7 (Anderson, Shreve, De Jong, Silseth, Shugart, Dollander, Whitley) are all pitchers.
Therefore Darragh had to wait 7 long years before he could finally use “nominative determinism” in an article.
I admire his patience and determination!!
I just heard someone else reference nominative determinism in a baseball context when discussing whether Dennis Santana or Colin Holderman would be the favorite for saves after Bednar was sent down, with nominative determinism suggesting that Santana would be a better bet for saves since Holderman should be the one getting holds..
Odd, well his name is Holderman. Stands to reason he should be getting holds.
Had to look that up. I don’t think he’ll meidroth, too.
It can be argued that Homer Bailey, with an excellent career HR/9 rate of 1.12, also disproved nominative determinism, whereas Bob Walk (606 career BBs, 3.27/9), sadly, did mot.
My favorite was always Grant Balfour. He didn’t want to grant ball four, he wanted to earn strike three!
Meow – Win Remmerswaal won only 3 games in the majors.
draker – I’m just glad nobody brought up Boof Bonser ;O)
Or Johnny Dickshot for that matter.
We all know why Cum Posey wasn’t allowed in the majors.
That and baseball was racist back then.
Neither did Luke Walker (408 BB in 825.1 IP, 4.4/9).
I wanted the Red Sox to give Meidroth a chance with their issues at 2B last year, hoping the kid crushes it.
How sad is it that this is the best thing that’s happened for Sox fans in a week?
It would have been sadder if it was not expected
Am I reading this wrong or misunderstanding? It says that players can still earn a full year of service time, but that’s only for finishing to two in ROY voting, but that’s only for top prospects and not guys like Meidroth? Does that mean that only a top 5 prospect can earn service time? If he comes up and steals 20 bags and hits .300/.400/.350, and plays good 2B defense. It’s possible he could be in ROY conversation. It’s not a if he’s coming up halfway through the year. Or is it just implied that he likely won’t win?
It’s implying that he won’t win Rookie of the Year.
To get the full year of service boost, you have to be on two of the three Top 100 prospect lists from ESPN, BA and MLB Pipeline.
I didn’t fully explain it in this piece, but even if Meidroth finishes second in ROY voting this year, he won’t get a full year of service.
I like this move, put him in one spot and leave him alone.
Yes. By all accounts that spot should be 2B. Meidroth also looks to be the White Sox best long term bet as their leadoff hitter or a “traditional” #2 grunt. Defensive versatility is nice but I’d prefer he gets full time reps at 2B. If he falters down the road they can then view him as a potential “swiss army knife” type or at worse, a solid utility player.
Knowing this org, they will shuttle him all over the filed, then complain that he did not meet their needs.. That is what this org’s MO has been since KW. We want super utility guys all over the field instead of guys that can focus on a role and develop there.
The problem they also have is the guys they ‘think’ can play in one place, cannot even be good enough for the majors…
Picked him up and dropped Max useless Muncy. Call me crazy
Might as well. It’s a no loss situation for them at this point.
His 17.4% walk rate over 1,187 minor-league plate appearances gives him a .425 OBP — nearly 150 points higher than the team’s .280 OBP in 2024 (29th in MLB). That kind of plate discipline could add ~90 extra baserunners over 600 PA and help flip a couple of their 25 one-run losses. By calling him up after the service time cutoff, Chicago keeps him under team control through 2031 — all for league minimum
The fact that a team compiled a .280 OBP over the course of a full season is impressively bad. The fact that another team had an even lower OBP (assuming it’s the Marlins) is even more impressive. At least these two franchises should know exactly what trait they should aim to develop in their hitters.
He sounds like a LOTR character. Godspeed on your journey.
Chase Meredith, promoted just in time for Boston Cheers weekend. Isn’t that Doctor Frasier Crane’s uppity Ivy league wife?
Sounds remotely promising given more than half of this offensive team. Any logical team would have made changes, especially pitching wise. But the Sox are of course forced to watch the same guys give us bad performances even knowing we’ll after that they don’t have it. But that’s the psyche with this team. Most can’t hit, some can pitch. The rest is terrible. And it’s bad.
Looks like the right move to me. He’s done okay in the minors recently, and at the age where more minor league seasoning is unlikely to improve him.
It will be interesting to see if he can keep near this walk rate in MLB.
A single and three walks in his MLB debut.