White Sox make offseason changes at catcher

Martin Maldonado

When the offseason began, it looked as though the White Sox were poised to play younger players at catcher in 2024.

Both 25-year-old Korey Lee and 27-year-old Carlos Perez had spots on the 40-man roster. Both have some major league experience, and the conventional thinking was at least one of them would be with the team when the season starts in March.

Now, perhaps not.

The Sox are adding 37-year-old catcher Martin Maldonado on a one-year deal, according to reports. The contract is worth $4 million, and reportedly contains a vesting option for the 2025 season.

Earlier in December, the Sox acquired 32-year-old veteran catcher Max Stassi from the Atlanta Braves in exchange for cash and a player to be named later.

Maldonado comes to the Sox from Houston. He was the starting catcher for the Astros from 2019 to 2023, and he was part of two American League pennant winners (2019, 2022) and one World Series champion.

He has a reputation as a terrific defensive catcher, although his framing statistics fell off a cliff in 2023. He's still a good blocker and thrower, but he's a notoriously weak hitter.

Here are his offensive numbers from the past three seasons:

• 2021: .172/.272/.300, 12 home runs, 36 RBIs
• 2022: .186/.248/.352, 15 home runs, 45 RBIs
• 2023: .191/.258/.348, 15 home runs, 36 RBIs

In short, expect Maldonado to bat ninth, hit the occasional home run and otherwise be terrible with a bat in his hands. The Sox will be counting on him to provide veteran leadership and game-planning to help what figures to be a young pitching staff.

Stassi did not play during the 2023 season because of a hip injury and a family health emergency -- his son was born three months premature in April. 

When he was last seen on a major league field in 2022, Stassi struggled with the Los Angeles Angels. He batted .180/.267/.303 with nine home runs and 30 RBIs in 102 games.

But, in 2020 and 2021, Stassi was serviceable for the Angels. If you combine his numbers over those two seasons, they pencil out to a .250/.333/.452 batting line with 20 homers over 118 games. His defensive metrics all were strong, so that's a useful profile if he can regain that form.

Perez was recently designated for assignment, so we can eliminate him from the 2024 catching mix. Maldonado will certainly be on the team, if healthy, so that leaves Lee and Stassi competing for a roster spot.

Lee got 24 games in with the Sox last year, after coming over from the Astros in the Kendall Graveman trade, but he didn't do much with the opportunity. His defense was OK, but it certainly wasn't enough to overcome a .077/.143/.138 slash line in 70 plate appearances.

Also notable on the organizational depth chart is 24-year-old Adam Hackenburg, who has a good defensive reputation and ascended to Triple-A Charlotte by the end of 2023.

Hackenburg also had his best season at the plate. He batted .271/.366/.388 with eight home runs and 30 RBIs in 101 games split between Charlotte and Double-A Birmingham.

The intrigue here comes with whether Maldonado and/or Stassi can improve the Sox's game preparation. The 2023 season began with manager Pedro Grifol and field coordinator Mike Tosar boasting about how the team would be "elite" in that area.

After 101 losses, the season ended with Grifol lamenting how the Sox were actually subpar in that area. Interestingly, he didn't make those remarks until after the previous catching duo (Yasmani Grandal and Seby Zavala) had been shown the exit. 

If Grandal and Zavala were poor in that area, Grifol should have stepped in and addressed it during the season. Perhaps he tried and failed. From the outside, how are we to know? 

But, it is 100% fair to not trust Grifol to deliver on his promise of "elite preparation" after what we saw last year. So, perhaps it falls to Maldonado to clean up the mess. That won't be easy for a player in his first (and maybe his only) year with the organization, but that's the task at hand.

White Sox send Oscar Colas to Triple-A Charlotte

Remember when the White Sox opened the season with rookie Oscar Colas as their starting right fielder in the middle of an alleged contention window?

Yes, that was a major mistake, and it's the type of misstep that contributes to a general manager's firing. Indeed, former general manager Rick Hahn is fired.

But while Hahn is gone, Colas remains in the organization. However, the 24-year-old Cuban outfielder's future is in doubt after he was optioned to Triple-A Charlotte for the second time this season before Monday's game against the Kansas City Royals was postponed.

Colas got off to a brutal start in April. He was sent to Charlotte the first week of May, after batting .211/.265/.276 over the season's first month.

He was brought back to Chicago on July 4. Since then, he's batting .219/.253/.331. His on-base percentage is actually lower in this bigger sample, and while we've seen a slight increase in slugging, no one is excited about four home runs and seven doubles over a two-month period from a player whose power is supposed to be his carrying tool.

The Sox are 19-47 in the 66 games Colas has started this season, and he's weighing down the team with more than just poor offense. 

Colas has been called out multiple times by manager Pedro Grifol for his poor decision-making in the outfield. On Sunday, he threw to third base on a single to right, failing to retire a Detroit runner who was headed to third, and allowing the batter to take an extra 90 feet into second base. On a later play, Colas nearly decapitated second baseman Elvis Andrus on a collision in shallow right, turning what should have been an out into a double.

This comes on the heels of a big mistake in the bottom of the ninth inning last Tuesday in Kansas City, when Colas threw to second base on a play where he needed to throw the ball toward home. The Sox eventually lost that game in walk-off fashion.

A lot of fans are very angry about the demotion of Colas, believing the Sox are bullying a younger player. 

But guess what? Colas isn't a big leaguer. Nobody likes his .571 OPS, but with the team out of the race, you could live with that if the player were correcting his mistakes and showing competence in other facets of the game.

Unfortunately, Colas is a poor hitter, a bad baserunner and an even worse defender. He should not have been the right fielder at the start of the season. He should not be the right fielder now, and he should not be the right fielder at the start of next season either. 

As Sox fans, we've been screaming about the need for more accountability. Well, here's some accountability for a player. Good. Now apply the same standards to the more veteran players on the team, who have been dogging it far too often.

The Sox need to make more decisions like this.

Catcher Carlos Perez is taking Colas' spot on the roster. The Sox also optioned pitcher Edgar Navarro to Triple-A Charlotte and recalled pitcher Deivi Garcia.

White Sox take two of three at Cincinnati; Eloy Jimenez back to the IL

Coming into the weekend, we stated that the White Sox needed to win at least two out of three games on the road against the Cincinnati Reds.

That's exactly what they did. The South Siders scored 11 runs in the top of the second inning Sunday and went on to beat the Reds, 17-4, in the rubber match of the series.

Hanser Alberto's two-run homer and Gavin Sheets' 3-run homer on a 3-0 pitch highlighted the rally, which was the biggest inning the Sox have had since they hung 11 runs on the Kansas City Royals on Sept. 17, 2007.

The 17 runs are the most the Sox have scored in a game since they put up 17 against the Cubs on Aug. 27, 2021. (As a cautionary tale, the Sox got shut out in their following game, so you can't be assured that the momentum will carry over into Monday.)

In any case, the Sox lost Saturday's ballgame, 5-3, because they were only 1 for 8 with runners in scoring position. That's been a severe problem as of late. Since April 22, the Sox rank last in the league with a .176 batting average in those situations.

But on Sunday, they went 8 for 13 with runners in scoring position, including 5 for 6 in the second inning alone.

Alberto had his best game as a member of the Sox. He went 4 for 4 with a homer, two doubles, a single and a walk, plus four RBIs. Luis Robert Jr. reached base in all four of his plate appearances -- two doubles and two walks -- and he came around to score all four times. With the score out of hand, Robert was subbed out in the late innings. Andrew Vaughn finished a home run short of the cycle. He was 3 for 5 with four RBIs.

Michael Kopech (1-3) picked up his first win of the season. He wasn't sharp, but he didn't need to be. He lasted six innings, giving up four runs -- all on solo homers. He struck out only two, which shows his stuff wasn't his best. We know from the past that Kopech misses bats when he's on, but he generated only six whiffs on 99 pitches Sunday. 

The good news is Kopech walked only one. He was staked to an 11-1 advantage by the time he hit the mound in the second inning, and it's never a bad idea to throw strikes with a double-digit lead.

In the big picture, the Sox's record is still an ugly 12-23, but if you're looking for silver linings, they are 5-2 in their past seven games.

But, of course, all good news must be balanced out with some catastrophe. This weekend, Eloy Jimenez was hospitalized with severe stomach pain. He had surgery for acute appendicitis, and he is expected to be out for four to six weeks.

The Sox placed Jimenez on the injured list Sunday and recalled catcher Carlos Perez from Triple-A Charlotte.

I'm a little surprised we aren't seeing Oscar Colas, but it looks as though the Sox have decided to carry an extra catcher and give Yasmani Grandal more at-bats as the DH.

Grandal was the DH on Sunday, and he went 2 for 4 with two RBIs and two runs scored. For the season, he's batting .275/.357/.441. That's much, much better than anything we saw from Grandal during the 2022 season. He has recently left a couple of games early because of back spasms, so maybe catching less and DH'ing more will keep him healthy. The Sox need him to continue producing while Jimenez is out.

White Sox trim spring training roster by 9

The White Sox on Sunday announced a series of roster moves that trim their spring training roster by nine players.

Catcher Carlos Perez and infielder Lenyn Sosa were optioned to Triple-A Charlotte. Infielders Bryan Ramos and Jose Rodriguez were optioned to Double-A Birmingham. Outfielder Yoelquis Cespedes and pitchers Edgar Navarro, Nate Fisher, Andrew Perez and Sammy Peralta were optioned to minor league camp.

Most notable here is the optioning of Sosa, who saw some big league time in 2022 and was mentioned at one point as a possible starting second baseman.

The 23-year-old was 2 for 15 in the Cactus League with two RBIs. The good news is he didn't strike out in any plate appearances. The bad news is he also did not walk. He'll always be a free swinger, but a little more time in Triple-A should help Sosa make better swing decisions at the plate.

Ramos, a 21-year-old third baseman, is the No. 2 prospect in the Sox system. He had a good showing in camp, going 7 for 19 with a homer and five RBIs. Rodriguez is also a top-10 prospect in the Sox system, and he'll start at second base for Birmingham.

One wonders whether shortstop Colson Montgomery, the Sox's top prospect, will also end up in Double-A Birmingham. That would be an interesting starting infield for the Barons.