Slow start to the baseball offseason, huh?

Marcus Stroman

So, it's Nov. 30. Thanksgiving has passed, and well, there haven't been any major trades or free agent signings around Major League Baseball.

Here's what has happened so far:

• RHP Marcus Stroman accepted the $18.9 million qualifying offer to remain with the New York Mets.
• RHP Kevin Gausman accepted the $18.9 million qualifying offer to remain with the San Francisco Giants.
• RHP Charlie Morton signed a one-year, $15 million contract with the Atlanta Braves.
• LHP Drew Smyly signed a one-year, $11 million contract with the Atlanta Braves.
• LHP Robbie Ray signed a one-year, $8 million contract with the Toronto Blue Jays.
• RHP Kendall Graveman signed a one-year, $1.25 million contract with the Seattle Mariners.
• RHP Josh Tomlin signed a one-year, $1 million contract with the Atlanta Braves.
• Utility player Josh Harrison signed a one-year, $1 million contract with the Washington Nationals.

The Kansas City Royals reportedly have a two-year agreement in place with LHP Mike Minor, and a one-year deal in place with outfielder Michael Taylor. Those moves have not yet been finalized.

Not exactly, earth-shaking stuff, huh? I figured maybe if I complain about the lack of news, we'll get some news and something to argue about.

Happy Thanksgiving from The Baseball Kid

 

With Mark Buehrle on the Hall of Fame ballot, here are a few more notes about his career

Mark Buehrle

Objectively speaking, Mark Buehrle is a longshot candidate to make the National Baseball Hall of Fame. He is a White Sox great, without a doubt, but I'm not entirely sure he'll get the 5% of votes needed to remain on the Hall ballot in this, his first year of eligibility.

But here a few notes that might cause voters to more strongly consider Buerhle's Hall case:

1. In the history of baseball, there have been four pitchers who have thrown two no-hitters and posted at least 15 double-digit-win seasons: Nolan Ryan, Randy Johnson, Warren Spahn and ... Mark Buehrle.

2. In the history of baseball, there have been four pitchers who have thrown 200 or more innings in 14 consecutive seasons: Greg Maddux, Phil Niekro, Christy Mathewson and ... Mark Buehrle.

3. In the history of baseball, there have been three pitchers who have pitched a no-hitter, pitched a perfect game and won a World Series all with the same team: Cy Young, Sandy Koufax and ... Mark Buehrle.

What do Ryan, Johnson, Spahn, Maddux, Niekro, Mathewson, Young and Koufax all have in common? They are all in the Hall of Fame. In fact, the only pitcher mentioned in this blog entry who is not in the Hall of Fame is ... Mark Buehrle.

Field of Dreams game rescheduled for Aug. 12, 2021

Here I am at the Field of Dreams in July 2020.

If you looked at the 2021 White Sox schedule carefully, you probably noticed the odd day off on Friday, Aug. 13. 

The Sox are scheduled to host the New York Yankees on Thursday, Aug. 12, then again on Saturday and Sunday, Aug. 14-15.

Why the day off? Well, the two teams will be traveling to Chicago from Dyersville, Iowa, where they will play in the Field of Dreams game on Aug. 12. 

Major League Baseball on Monday announced plans for this showcase game, which will be televised nationally on FOX.

The Sox and Yankees originally were scheduled to play at the Field of Dreams in August of this year, but then the COVID-19 pandemic intervened. At first, the St. Louis Cardinals replaced the Yankees as the Sox's opponent, but then the game ultimately was canceled.

With any luck, public health will allow this game to be contested -- with fans in attendance -- in 2021.

Latest White Sox list of top 30 prospects

Andrew Vaughn

With no games to watch, it's always fun to entertain ourselves by talking about lists, right? I visited whitesox.com Monday night and noticed that Jim Callis has his latest list of top 30 White Sox prospects available. 

You can peruse the whole thing by following the link, but the top 10 are usually the most notable, and here they are:

1. Andrew Vaughn, 1B
2. Michael Kopech, RHP
3. Nick Madrigal, 2B
4. Garrett Crochet, LHP
5. Dane Dunning, RHP
6. Jared Kelley, RHP
7. Jonathan Stiever, RHP
8. Matthew Thompson, RHP
9. Micker Adolfo, OF
10. Gavin Sheets, 1B

We've already seen four of those first five players in the majors. Madrigal, Crochet and Dunning were all useful-to-good during 2020, and we saw Kopech make his debut in 2018. He missed 2019 because of Tommy John surgery, and opted out of the 2020 season because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

All four of those guys figure to be on the roster when 2021 opens, and we'll almost certainly see Vaughn -- who is easily the top hitting prospect in the organization -- sometime next summer.

After Dunning, the depth thins out, but I do find the No. 6 player on the list of interest. Kelley, the 19-year-old pitcher the Sox drafted in the second round of the 2020 draft, stands 6-foot-3 and weighs 215 pounds. Like a lot of kids from Texas, he's got the big fastball, and he was good enough to get invited to the team's alternate training site in Schaumburg this summer. 

Kelley was featured in the organizational reports section of Baseball America's October edition. Here are some of the quotes from farm director Chris Getz, as told to beat reporter Scot Gregor:

"[Kelley's] looked very good. Jared's work ethic has jumped out to everyone observing. His attention to detail and willingness to learn are other factors that have quickly shown, the attributes we had seen and heard about prior to selecting him."

"We will be focusing on his four-seam fastball, breaking ball and changeup. All his pitches flash major league potential, so we're aiming for consistency within his delivery and arm action to fully allow him to be efficient with all his pitches."

"He is a strong, powerful kid who knows how to generate power. He knows how to use his size and strength as a weapon."

It's something new for the Sox to have three pitchers who were drafted out of high school in the top 11 on their prospects list.

Thompson, a 6-foot-3, 20-year-old right-hander, is No. 8 on the list and was drafted in the second round in 2019. Andrew Dalquist, a 6-foot-1, 20-year-old right-hander is just outside the top 10 at No. 11. He was drafted in the third round in 2019.

It will be a good test for the Sox's player development staff to see if they can get at least one of these three guys to become useful members of a big-league rotation in the years ahead.

White Sox add 4 players (including Jake Burger) to 40-man roster

The deadline to add Rule 5 Draft-eligible players to the 40-man roster was 5 p.m. Friday, so the White Sox added three of their prospects to the roster: third baseman Jake Burger, first baseman Gavin Sheets and right-handed relief pitcher Tyler Johnson.

The Sox also claimed right-handed pitcher Emilio Vargas off waivers from the Arizona Diamondbacks. These four additions bring the 40-man roster to its maximum number.

Burger (first round), Sheets (second round) and Johnson (fifth round) all are members of the 2017 Sox draft class.

Of the three, the only surprising addition is Burger, who hasn't played a game in three seasons after twice rupturing his Achilles' tendon. Burger, 24, had a shot to return healthy to affiliated baseball in 2020, but you know, that pesky pandemic got in the way. 

The team's No. 14-ranked prospect ended up playing in something called the CarShield Collegiate League in Missouri this summer, before eventually reporting to the Sox's alternate training site in Schaumburg.

Anyone who gets chosen in the Rule 5 Draft has to stay on his new team's major league roster for the entire season, or else get offered back to his former team, so it seemed unlikely to me that Burger would be chosen -- if he were left exposed. Turns out, the Sox aren't going to risk that possibility with a player they liked enough to select in the first round of the draft.

Johnson, the Sox's No. 24-ranked prospect, doesn't seem all that far from the majors. He's 6-foot-3, 210 pounds, possesses a high-90s fastball and was successful during a stint in Double-A Birmingham in 2019. The Sox gave him a look in summer camp this year, and he was at the alternate training site in Schaumburg for the rest of the season. 

At age 25, it's not too hard to envision Johnson being selected if he were available in the Rule 5 Draft, so it was pretty much a no-brainer to add him to the 40-man roster.

Sheets is an interesting case. He's a left-handed-hitting first baseman, so he's blocked in the organization by American League MVP Jose Abreu and top hitting prospect Andrew Vaughn. But he is the No. 10-ranked prospect in the organization, and he had 83 RBIs in 2019 at Double-A Birmingham.

Even though Sheets, 24, lacks a clear path to the majors with the Sox, he's a decent enough prospect that you'd prefer not to lose him for nothing. Like many players, 2020 was basically a lost season for him, but if he opens 2021 strong, maybe he's a piece that can be included in a trade midseason.

If the Sox would have left him exposed in Rule 5, maybe a rebuilding team snaps him up and gives him a shot -- especially if the designated hitter rule becomes permanent in the National League.

Vargas, the fourth player added to the roster, is a 24-year-old who has topped out at Double-A. He has made 23 starts at that level over the course of 2018 and 2019, pitching 121 innings with 100 strikeouts and a 3.86 ERA. Sounds like an organizational depth piece, and anything more will be a bonus.

Miguel Cairo expected to be hired as White Sox bench coach

Miguel Cairo

Slowly, the White Sox are assembling a coaching staff around new manager Tony La Russa. Last week, we learned that Ethan Katz will replace Don Cooper as pitching coach. Now comes news that Miguel Cairo is expected to be named bench coach.

The hiring was first reported in an article by James Fegan of The Athletic.

Cairo was a utility player during his 17-year career in the major leagues. He played for La Russa in St. Louis on two separate occasions -- from 2001 to 2003, and again in 2007. In total, Cairo played for nine different teams.

He finished his career with Cincinnati in 2012, and he stayed with the Reds as a special assistant to the GM from 2013 to 2017. His most recent role was that of minor league infield coordinator for the New York Yankees.

So, when Cairo joins the Sox, this will be his first time in a uniformed role at the big-league level since he retired as a player. Everybody's got to start somewhere, so we'll see what he can do.

More details are expected on the rest of the Sox coaching staff next week, but we've heard that one before -- they said that just last week, in fact.

The latest report from Scott Merkin on MLB.com says that hitting coach Frank Menechino, first-base coach Daryl Boston and assistant pitching coach Curt Hasler are expected to be retained.

It already has been announced that third-base coach Nick Capra will not be returning. The fate of former bench coach Joe McEwing is unknown. Obviously, Cairo is taking his role, but it's possible McEwing will get the third-base coaching job -- a role he served in previously with the Sox during the Robin Ventura era from 2012 to 2016.

McEwing does have ties to La Russa. He played for him as a member of the Cardinals in 1998 and 1999.