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Latest On Garrett Crochet, Nick Madrigal

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White Sox left-hander Garrett Crochet left the team’s Game 3 wild-card round loss to the Athletics on Oct. 1, though it wasn’t clear why his season came to a premature end. It turns out that Crochet suffered a flexor strain, general manager Rick Hahn revealed Monday (via James Fegan of The Athletic). While flexor strains often lead to Tommy John surgery, Crochet avoided damage to his ulnar collateral ligament, per Hahn. Chicago expects him to be ready for spring training.

Meanwhile, second baseman Nick Madrigal – another of Chicago’s key young players – underwent surgery on his left shoulder, Scott Merkin of MLB.com relays. Madrigal will require five to six months to recover, which could jeopardize his chances of being at full strength when the spring comes.

This news is a mixed bag for the White Sox, though it’s clearly a relief that Crochet seems to have dodged an especially serious injury. The 21-year-old was the 11th overall pick in this year’s draft, and he wasted little time making a significant impact in the bigs. After the White Sox promoted him in September, Crochet used his blazing fastball to throw six scoreless regular-season innings with eight strikeouts and no walks. Crochet then struck out both batters he faced in his playoff debut before walking off the mound in what proved to be a season-ending defeat for the White Sox.

The 23-year-old Madrigal had a highly effective rookie campaign in his own right, as he slashed .340/.376/.369 in 109 plate appearances. But Madrigal’s shoulder, which he separated Aug. 5, shelved him for almost a month. The hope now is that he’ll be ready when the 2021 season opens.

White Sox Designate Nicky Delmonico For Assignment

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The White Sox have designated outfielder Nicky Delmonico for assignment, per a team announcement. His spot will go to outfielder Jarrod Dyson, whose previously reported acquisition from the Pirates has now been formally announced. Chicago also announced that second baseman Nick Madrigal has been reinstated from the injured list, with catcher Zack Collins and outfielder Luis Gonzalez both being optioned to the alternate training site in a corresponding move.

Delmonico, 28, was released by the ChiSox last year but found his way back to the club on a minor league pact over the winter. He appeared in six games this year, going 3-for-20 with two walks and two strikeouts. The former Orioles prospect has spent time with the South Siders in each of the past for seasons, hitting at a combined .224/.312/.384 clip. However, since a terrific rookie showing at the plate in 2017, Delmonico has mustered only a .210/.287/.326 slash.

Sox fans will surely be thrilled to welcome Madrigal back into the fold. The 2018 No. 4 overall pick and top prospect debuted earlier this season but separated his shoulder while diving into a base. He’s 5-for-17 to begin his big league career, but the Sox hope that Madrigal, who slashed .311/.377/.414 with 35 steals and a minuscule 3.0 percent strikeout rate across three minor league levels in 2019, will cement himself as their second baseman of the future.

AL Injury Notes: Yordan, White Sox, Donaldson, A’s

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Astros slugger Yordan Alvarez was out of their lineup for the second straight day on Monday on account of right knee soreness, and it doesn’t seem as if a return to a regular role is imminent. While Alvarez’s MRI on Monday came back negative, he may only be a pinch hitter for the club in the near term, Alyson Footer of MLB.com writes. Alvarez’s lack of availability (he didn’t debut until Aug. 14 because of coronavirus-related problems) has been an enormous blow to a Houston team that has also dealt with several other significant health woes in the early going. The club lost yet another standout Saturday when it placed outfielder Michael Brantley on the IL with a right quad injury.

  • General manager Rick Hahn issued updates Monday on a pair of injured White Sox, second baseman Nick Madrigal and left-hander Aaron Bummer (Twitter links via James Fegan of The Athletic). The news on Madrigal is encouraging, as Hahn said the rookie has resumed “virtually all baseball activities” and remains on track to return by the end of this month after separating his shoulder Aug. 5. On the other hand, there’s no timetable for Bummer, who went to the IL on Aug. 8 with a left biceps strain. The groundball-heavy Bummer was off to a great start before then and seemed as if he was on his way to a second straight season as one of the game’s most effective relievers. Now, Bummer only has a little more than a month to return to regular-season action, and he’ll have to go through a throwing program before then.
  • Twins third baseman Josh Donaldson isn’t dealing with any issues in his recovery from a right calf strain, Betsy Helfand of the St. Paul Pioneer Press tweets. Donaldson went on the IL on Aug. 7, and it remains unclear when the big-money offseason signing will return to their lineup. The 34-year-old came out of the gates slowly prior to the injury, albeit over a mere 27 plate appearances, as he hit .182/.296/.318 with one home run. Nevertheless, The Twins have started 15-8 and sit atop the AL Central – a division they won last season.
  • Athletics right-hander Burch Smith headed to the IL over the weekend with a a forearm strain, which is always ominous for a pitcher. Manager Bob Melvin said Monday that Smith does not have any structural damage, but it’s up in the air whether he’ll pitch again in 2020, Matt Kawahara of the San Francisco Chronicle relays. Smith has been part of a slew of organizations, but he finally seemed to find a home in Oakland this season before the injury. The 30-year-old has logged a 2.25 ERA/2.30 FIP with 9.75 K/9 and 0.75 BB/9 in 12 innings from the A’s bullpen.

Nick Madrigal Headed For IL With Separated Shoulder

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Just-promoted White Sox infielder Nick Madrigal is headed directly to the injured list. He has been diagnosed with a separated shoulder, GM Rick Hahn told reporters including James Fegan of The Athletic (Twitter link).

Fortunately, it sounds as if the prognosis is generally good. Madrigal could return to action by the end of the month, Hahn says. It is still possible he’ll also require surgery after the campaign ends.

The South Siders also reported rather promising news on both Carlos Rodon and Reynaldo Lopez. They’re both dealing with shoulder problems but don’t appear to have structural damage. In each case, a return to the MLB rotation could be several weeks away.

Hahn further weighed in on veteran slugger Edwin Encarnacion. He’s said to be dealing with some SC joint inflammation. It’s a day to day situation at the moment, so it sounds as if the hope is Encarnacion won’t be out for any notable stretch.

Edwin Encarnacion, Nick Madrigal Exit With Shoulder Issues

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10:55pm: Manager Rick Renteria announced that Madrigal’s dealing with a jammed shoulder, Fegan relays.

9:27pm: The White Sox suffered a pair of potentially alarming injuries in their game against the Brewers on Tuesday, per tweets from James Fegan of The Athletic and Scott Merkin of MLB.com. Designated hitter Edwin Encarnacion and second baseman Nick Madrigal departed early with left shoulder problems. The team will reevaluate both players Wednesday.

Encarnacion was one of several key offseason pickups for the White Sox, who signed him to a one-year, $12MM deal in free agency. At the time, they surely expected the eight-time 30-home run hitter to continue as a powerful force in their uniform. That hasn’t happened in the early going, as the 37-year-old has slashed an unimposing .200/.250/.300 with one homer in his first 33 plate appearances this season. That’s obviously not a large enough sample size to pass judgment, however, and there’s plenty of time for Encarnacion to get on track if he’s healthy enough to do so. Chicago replaced him with Zack Collins on Tuesday.

Madrigal, meanwhile, was only in his fifth major league game before he exited. The recently promoted 23-year-old, who’s regarded as one of baseball’s top prospects, got off to a .294/.333//.294 start in 18 PA prior to his injury. Chicago called on Danny Mendick to fill in for Madrigal at the keystone.

White Sox Promote Nick Madrigal, Designate Kelvin Herrera

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The White Sox have called up second baseman Nick Madrigal, according to Jeff Passan of ESPN.com (via Twitter). His promotion had been anticipated but was not yet confirmed to be imminent.

Reliever Kelvin Herrera was designated for assignment to create 40-man and active roster space. He was in the second season of a two-year, $17MM deal.

Madrigal, the fourth overall pick in the 2018 draft, will not have a chance to accrue a full season of MLB service. He will, however, be on track to ultimately qualify for arbitration after the 2022 season as a Super Two player.

It’ll certainly be fun to watch the 23-year-old in the majors. He has quite an unusual skillset, with negligible power but otherworldly contact ability and plate discipline.

A consensus top-50 prospect leaguewide, Madrigal have to keep hitting and walking at a tremendous rate to be an above-average MLB hitter. Last year, over the three highest levels of the minors, he logged 532 plate appearances of .311/.377/.414 hitting. Though he managed only four home runs, Madrigal amazingly struck out only 16 times while drawing 44 walks.

As exciting as it is for the Sox to welcome Madrigal, bidding adieu to Herrera represents an acknowledgement of a disappointment. The 30-year-old signed his contract after recovering from a major foot procedure but just hasn’t returned to form.

As MLBTR’s Connor Byrne examined in depth recently, the once-excellent reliever has struggled mightily in Chicago. He limped to a 6.14 ERA in 51 1/3 innings in 2019 and was shelled for four earned runs over his first two outings in 2020. Worst still, his typically upper-nineties fastball velocity has drooped to about 94 mph thus far this season.

With the decision, the White Sox will owe Herrera the remainder of the pro-rated portion of his $8.5MM salary this year. They’ll also still have to pay him a $1MM buyout on a 2020 vesting/club option.

Nick Madrigal “Pretty Close” To White Sox Promotion

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Even though the White Sox have begun the season without one of their top prospects, second baseman Nick Madrigal, it doesn’t seem as if he’ll wait much longer to make his MLB debut. Director of player development Chris Getz said Thursday (via Daryl Van Schouwen of the Chicago Sun-Times) that Madrigal is “pretty close” to joining the club, though he didn’t provide a timeline for when it could happen.

Now 23 years old and a top 100 prospect, Madrigal became a member of the White Sox when they chose him fourth overall in the 2018 draft. Madrigal, who’s a diminutive 5-foot-7 and 165 pounds, has only hit four home runs in professional ball since the Sox drafted him, but he has nonetheless been productive. He reached the Triple-A level for the first time last season and slashed .331/.398/.424 (117 wRC+) across 134 plate appearances. The hope is he’ll maintain those type of numbers (or even exceed them) when he reaches the White Sox, who also boast the steady trio of first baseman Jose Abreu, shortstop Tim Anderson and third baseman Yoan Moncada in their infield.

With Madrigal off their 30-man roster in the early going, the White Sox have primarily gone with Leury Garcia at second base. Garcia has never been a threat at the plate, though, and with Chicago off to a 2-4 start in a 60-game season, it may behoove the club to bring up Madrigal in the very near future. Service time shouldn’t be a concern for the White Sox in regards to Madrigal in the coming days, as keeping him down for a week of games will clinch an extra year of control for the team.

AL Central Notes: White Sox, Madrigal, Kopech, Royals, Perez, Mondesi

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SoxFest is a victory lap trap for the Chicago White Sox this year, but Rick Hahn won’t cop to it. “We haven’t won anything yet,” said the Sox’ GM, per The Athletic’s James Fegan. With the golden boy Cubs hanging a winter goose egg (Steven Souza notwithstanding), the White Sox’ rebuilding efforts are cusping at the right time to steal the spotlight from their crosstown rival. Hahn was promoted to GM late in October of 2012, the last time the Sox posted a winning record. After seven years at the helm of an extended rebuild, Hahn is getting an opportunity to show a different aspect of his GM profile as he oversees the Southsiders’ push for contention. The handling of Nick Madrigal and Michael Kopech, in particular, will be interesting litmus tests, writes Fegan. For Madrigal it’s a question of service time, an issue Hahn and company sidestepped with fellow youngster Luis Robert and Eloy Jimenez by signing them to extensions. For Kopech, it’s a question of inning and pitch limits as he returns from injury. After an aggressive winter, look to Madrigal and Kopech to track their pedal-to-the-metal approach into the season. Let’s check in on a division rival…

  • A couple of injury updates for key players came out of Kansas City yesterday. Both Salvador Perez and Adalberto Mondesi are expected to be ready by opening day, per The Athletic’s Alec Lewis (twitter links). Perez hit an important benchmark yesterday, throwing down to second base for the first time since Tommy John surgery. Royals catchers were a bottom-10 unit in 2019 by measure of fWAR, wOBA, and wRC+. Power was one of Perez’s calling cards, which should help the unit if he can return without any lingering effects.
  • Mondesi, meanwhile, underwent shoulder surgery in the fall and expects to be ready. The 24-year-old is arguably the Royals’ best young player, despite a history of poor on-base skills. Speed (43 stolen bases), dynamism (20 doubles, 10 triples, 9 home runs), and lynchpin defensive skills up the middle (4 OAA, 10 DRS, 9.1 UZR) make Mondesi a key figure moving forward for the Royals. Any push for contention for the Royals will probably come coupled with another development step from Mondesi and/or the other Kansas City youngsters.

Winter Meetings Previews: Royals, White Sox

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In advance of the winter meetings, let’s take a moment to quickly preview a couple teams from the American League Central…

  • The Kansas City Royals will look for value buys on the free agent market, per Lynn Worthy of The Kansas City Star. Given the sale of the team and the managerial transition underway, the Royals have more justification than usual for patience this offseason. With Kansas City, however, there’s often a sense that internal valuations of the talent on hand differs from those of the general public. The Royals continue to present the idea that they are happy with their core, an impression bolstered by the “moon, sun, and stars” type packages the Royals are demanding for players like Whit Merrifield, Danny Duffy and Ian Kennedy. Senior VP of Baseball Ops & GM Dayton Moore refined his fence-walking trick recently while saying both, “…we’re very encouraged with where we are based on how our players performed individually last year,” and also, “I think we’ve got to upgrade everywhere, really.” Pitching is definitely a target, and Moore has been active in trade discussions already, enough to have a sense of where trades might happen – though from Moore’s comments, it seems the Royals are disinclined to be major players on the trade market unless opposing GMs become more amenable to Moore’s ask(s). They do have four open spots on the 40-man roster and should be active in the Rule 5 draft, per The Athletic’s Alec Lewis.
  • After being spurned by Zack Wheeler, the White Sox remain in the hunt for starting pitching, per MLB.com’s Scott Merkin. Chicago was also among the teams in on Jordan Lyles before the righty signed with the Rangers, tweets the MLB Network’s Jon Heyman. Their rotation candidates are currently made up of high-ceiling but largely-unestablished youngsters, fronted by 2019 breakout superstar Lucas Giolito. Speculatively, Dallas Keuchel fits nicely from a culture perspective as the perennially-attention-starved White Sox have already added Yasmani Grandal from the nobody-believes-in-us free agent pool – and they like playing with a chip on their shoulder on the southside. As for position players, Chicago boasts close to a full house now that Grandal and Jose Abreu are officially on board. With prospects Luis Robert and Nick Madrigal expected to play a large portion of 2020 in the big leagues, they have one of the more intriguing groups on that side of the ball. Still, there’s definitely room to tinker around the edges, especially in the outfield, where Luis Alexander Basabe, Daniel Palka, Leury Garcia, Adam Engel, and Luis Gonzalez make up the flexible collection of candidates to join Eloy Jimenez and Robert in the outfield.

GM Meetings Notes: Mets, White Sox, Red Sox

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The Mets have about $20MM to spend to stay under the luxury tax, and though they haven’t ruled out going over for a season, history suggests otherwise, writes MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo. The rotation is largely set with Cy Young Jacob deGrom, Noah Syndergaard, Marcus Stroman, and Steven Matz locked into the top four spots. Despite the rumblings, GM Brodie Van Wagenen has been adamant about Syndergaard staying put, and as for the fifth rotation spot, relievers Seth Lugo and Robert Gsellman are very real candidates. Free agent upgrades are more likely to bolster the bullpen, which is already a man down if Lugo or Gsellman jump to the rotation. Of course, the best upgrade they could hope for would come in the form of a bounceback season from closer Edwin Diaz. Diaz is putting in extra work this winter in Puerto Rico, and for what it’s worth, new manager and fellow Puerto Rican Carlos Beltran “considers mentoring Diaz one of his top priorities.” Here are some more notes coming out of the GM meetings…

  • White Sox GM Rick Hahn attempted to temper expectations before projecting bloated win totals for his club in 2020, per the Chicago Tribune’s Paul Sullivan. It’s an exciting time nonetheless for those on the south side of Chicago, with high-end youngsters Nick Madrigal, Luis Robert, and Michael Kopech expected to establish themselves as big leaguers. They have money to spend on pitching or an outfielder, and a tough decision to make on newly-minted gold glover Yolmer Sanchez. Madrigal is likely to unseat Sanchez from his regular role at second, and with Sanchez due to make roughly $6.2MM through arbitration, he’s definitely a possible non-tender. The Sox love him from a character perspective and aren’t eager to kick him curbside, but even with his new hardware in tow, $6.2MM after a .252/.318/.321 season is probably a touch too rich for the ChiSox.
  • The Red Sox are facing a different kind of offseason under the leadership of Chaim Bloom, per Alex Speier of the Boston Globe. Scaling back the payroll is objective A, and the Red Sox are active in trade discussions around just about everyone on the roster. The media has Mookie Betts as the fulcrum of Boston’s trade activity, but he’s expensive on a one-year deal and unlikely to sign an extension, mitigating any trade return and making a deal unlikely. It’s more likely the Red Sox find their desired breathing room by trading from their rotation: David Price, Chris Sale, and/or Nathan Eovaldi. Meanwhile, discussions with free agents are largely on the backburner as they look for creative ways to free up space in the payroll.
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