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.

Here are the 44 players coming to White Sox camp

The White Sox will report to Guaranteed Rate Field on Friday for their 2020 summer camp, ahead of the anticipated July 24 opening of the season.

As many as 60 players can participate, but for now, the Sox are bringing 44. Additional players eventually will be added to bring the roster to the full complement of 60, but general manager Rick Hahn says those players will not report until mid-July.

Thirty players will make up the Opening Day roster, while the remainder will make up a "taxi squad," which will conduct workouts elsewhere in Chicago to stay ready in the event of an injury or a COVID-19 infection. It is anticipated that no minor league baseball will be played this summer.

For now, let's take a look at the 44 players, position by position:

Catchers (4): Yasmani Grandal, James McCann, Zack Collins, Yermin Mercedes

Comments: Grandal and McCann are roster locks, if healthy, and it remains to be seen whether the Sox want to use either Collins or Mercedes as a bench bat. Collins has the advantage of being a left-handed hitter, and of having had previous major league experience. Mercedes was impressive in March and played his way into the conversation.

Infielders (10): Jose Abreu, Leury Garcia, Tim Anderson, Yoan Moncada, Edwin Encarnacion, Andrew Vaughn, Andrew Romine, Danny Mendick, Nick Madrigal, Cheslor Cuthbert

Comments: If healthy (a common phrase right now), Abreu, Anderson and Moncada are entrenched starters. Let's include Encarnacion in the entrenched starters group, as he will be the primary designated hitter. But what about second base? Garcia will be on the club as a super-utility guy, and the guess here is he starts the season at second base. The Sox will hold Madrigal back for a week for service time reasons. One week of sitting him out is all they need to retain another year of team control. Vaughn is a great prospect, but there are no at-bats for him right now at the big league level. Romine is a Quad-A extra who could see time in the event of an injury. Will Mendick make the 30-man roster, or will the Sox carry extra pitching? We'll see.

Outfielders (6): Eloy Jimenez, Luis Robert, Nomar Mazara, Adam Engel, Nicky Delmonico, Luis Alexander Basabe

Comments: We know the starters, if healthy, are Jimenez, Robert and Mazara. We know Engel is the extra outfielder, and we know Garcia provides extra depth when he's not playing infield. Delmonico is on the roster bubble. He was impressive in March, but he has a thin track record against major league pitching. Basabe's inclusion shows the Sox view him as the most rosterable among the remaining outfield prospects not named Robert.

Starting pitchers (9): Lucas Giolito, Reynaldo Lopez, Dylan Cease, Gio Gonzalez, Michael Kopech, Carlos Rodon, Dane Dunning, Jimmy Lambert

Comments: Kopech and Rodon should be completely recovered and ready to go after elbow surgeries. Neither man was expected to be on the Opening Day roster had the season started as scheduled, but now we figure to see both in the Sox's rotation. Gonzalez may no longer be needed as a starter, since he was viewed as a stopgap to get the Sox through the April, May and June. Still, he's a veteran presence, so he'll be on the team, perhaps as a long reliever. Only Dunning and Lambert, two others who are coming off elbow surgery, figure to not make the Opening Day roster. Suddenly, the Sox have seven starting pitchers to choose from.

Relief pitchers (15): Alex Colome, Aaron Bummer, Jimmy Cordero, Jace Fry, Kelvin Herrera, Steve Cishek, Carson Fulmer, Evan Marshall, Jose Ruiz, Ian Hamilton, Ross Detwiler, Codi Heuer, Tayron Guerrero, Tyler Johnson, Drew Anderson

Comments: Will they carry eight relievers? Perhaps nine? Maybe even 10? I guess it depends on how much they want to protect their starting pitchers, who probably won't be ready to pitch deep into ballgames right at the start of the season. The roster locks, if healthy, are Colome, Bummer, Cordero, Fry, Herrera, Cishek and Marshall. There's seven. At the start of the year, we thought Fulmer would get one more kick at the can because he's out of options. Maybe that's still true. Heuer impressed in Arizona in March and is a dark horse to make the roster.

Notable omissions: RHP Zack Burdi, C Seby Zavala, OF Micker Adolfo, OF Blake Rutherford, OF Luis Gonzalez, LHP Garrett Crochet, RHP Jared Kelley

Comments: Any or all of these guys could be added when the roster fills out to 60. It's a surprise Burdi isn't in the mix in the first group, just because so much has been invested in the former first-round pick. I figure Zavala will eventually come on board. What if two of the other four catchers get the coronavirus? Wouldn't it be nice to have a good defensive catcher such as Zavala hanging around? I believe so. As we said in the outfielders section, evidently Basabe is more highly regarded that the other fringy outfield prospects, all of whom I included on this list. Crochet and Kelley are the Sox's top two draft picks. Is there any plan for them this year? Crochet, in particular, could contribute immediately as a reliever, depending on how the Sox want to develop him.

All White Sox draft picks are signed; 5 players released

All five of the White Sox's 2020 draft picks have agreed to contracts. Their second-round pick, right-handed pitcher Jared Kelley, signed for $3 million, which as expected was overslot. Fifth-round pick Bailey Horn, a left-handed pitcher, agreed to sign for $150,000, which as expected was underslot.

Kelley basically got late first-round money. By way of comparison, his bonus matches the money received by another high school pitcher, Nick Bitsko, who was selected 24th overall by the Tampa Bay Rays. Kelley was the No. 47 overall selection.

Here's the final rundown on Sox draft picks and the money they signed for:

First round: Garrett Crochet, LHP, $4,547,500 ($4,547,500 slot)
Second round: Jared Kelley, RHP, $3,000,000 ($1,582,000 slot)
Third round: Adisyn Coffey, RHP, $50,000 ($733,100 slot)
Fourth round: Kade Mechals, RHP, $10,000 ($517,400 slot)
Fifth round: Bailey Horn, LHP, $150,000 ($386,600)

All total, the Sox spent $7,757,500 of their bonus pool. That is $7,300 less than their maximum allowed total of $7,764,800.

Five players released

Major League Baseball ended its roster freeze Friday, and the Sox released these five players: Caleb Frare, Zach Putnam, Matt Skole, Matt Tomshaw and Ramon Torres.


Remember spring 2019? We used to think Frare could be a viable left-handed reliever out of the bullpen, but he forgot how to throw strikes and hasn't seen the bigs since posting a 10.13 ERA in five April appearances last year.

Putnam was a pretty good reliever for the Sox from 2014-17. He appeared in 130 games with the South Siders and posted a 9-6 record with a 2.71 ERA and six saves over that time span. But, he had Tommy John surgery in 2017 and has never made it back to the majors. It's possible he's thrown his last professional pitch.

Skole, a left-handed hitting first baseman, somehow managed to get added to the 25-man roster in both 2018 and 2019. He batted .217/.290/.277 with one home run in 31 games and 93 plate appearances over those two seasons with the Sox.

Tomshaw and Torres? Well, I don't have much to say about them. Tomshaw is a 30-year-old lefty pitcher who was decent at Double-A, but he got hit around every time he was promoted to Triple-A. Torres, a utility infielder, was last seen playing for the Kansas City Royals in 2018. There's no reason to believe he would have had any role in the Sox organization.

ICYMI: White Sox sign top draft pick Garrett Crochet

Garrett Crochet

Perhaps because of the labor negotiations, we neglected to mention that the White Sox signed their No. 1 draft pick, Garrett Crochet, on Monday.

Crochet, a left-handed pitcher out of Tennessee, received a $4,547,500 signing bonus, which is equal to the recommended slot value for the No. 11 overall pick in the draft.

Among the five Sox draft picks, second-rounder Jared Kelley and fifth-rounder Bailey Horn remain unsigned.

Kelley's slot value is $1,580,200, but as we stated in a previous blog, he's getting more than that. No doubt he's getting first-round money.

After signing Crochet for slot, the Sox have $3,157,300 remaining in their draft pool. The guess here is they can get Kelley in the fold if they offer him about $3 million.

White Sox have signed 2 of their 5 draft picks (but not the top 2)

Jim Callis, senior writer for MLB Pipeline, has been using his Twitter feed to keep the world updated on draft signings.

I'll spare you a lot of scrolling and just tell you that the White Sox have agreed on contracts with both third-round pick Adisyn Coffey and fourth-round pick Kade Mechals.

The Sox's top two picks, left-handed pitcher Garrett Crochet and right-handed pitcher Jared Kelley remain unsigned, although a tweet from MLB.com's Scott Merkin said Crochet would be in Chicago for a physical this week, and that contract could be wrapped up soon. Fifth-round pick Bailey Horn also remains unsigned.

Coffey, a right-handed pitcher and sometimes shortstop out of Wabash Valley Community College, signed with the Sox for $50,000, well below the slot value of $733,100.

Mechals, a right-handed pitcher out of Grand Canyon University, underwent Tommy John surgery in May, so he had no leverage in contract negotiations. He got the standard rate that you would normally assign to a college senior who was selected on the second day of the draft: $10,000. In case you were wondering, slot rate is $517,400.

So, if you combine the savings on these two underslot deals for Coffey and Mechals, you get $1,190,500 that the Sox can put toward signing Kelley for first-round money.

The slot value for Crochet is $4,547,000. The slot value for Kelley is $1,582,000. I'm expecting Crochet to get right at that figure, or somewhere in the neighborhood.

Assuming Crochet signs at slot, the Sox would have $3,157,300 remaining in their draft pool with which to sign Kelley and Horn. With the 5 percent overage, the Sox can spend as much as $3,545,540 before they would have to surrender future draft picks.

The slot value on Horn is $386,600. He doesn't have a lot of leverage here as a fifth-round pick, so expect most of that $3 million-plus to go to Kelley, who most people believe was a first-round talent who slid to the second round because of signability issues.

White Sox end up with two of the top 18 prospects in 2020 MLB Draft

There are two ways to look at the five pitchers the White Sox selected in the 2020 MLB Draft. Glass half full: They got two of the top 18 prospects in the draft. Glass half empty: Well, those two guys better pan out, because those other three guys are nothing special.

Believe it or not, the highest-rated player the Sox took in this draft was the guy they took in the *second* round. First-round pick Garrett Crochet was rated 18th overall by MLB Pipeline, while second-round pick Jared Kelley was ranked as the 12th-best prospect in the draft.

How did this happen? Well, let's go over it.

Kelley, a 6-foot-4, 225-pound right-handed pitcher out of Refugio High School in Texas, was considered the best high school arm in the draft. He can run his fastball up there in the high 90s, and he already has a changeup that he can use in games. The breaking ball is a work in progress, but this is a kid who has two pitches he can get outs with from day one.

Before the coronavirus ended high school baseball seasons everywhere, Kelley worked 12 innings this spring without allowing a hit. He struck out 34 batters and was named Gatorade National Baseball Player of the Year.

So, how in the hell did the No. 12 prospect in the draft fall all the way to the Sox at pick No. 47? You could argue it's because of Kelley's lack of a slider, but the real reason is teams didn't think he would sign a contract. Kelley is committed to the University of Texas, and apparently, most clubs believed he intended to honor that commitment.

Not so fast, because the Sox are going to pay an overslot deal to sign him, and I'm sure they would not have chosen him had they not determined he was amenable to signing.

For those unfamiliar with the process, the Sox had a pool total of $7,764,800 that they could spend on their five draft picks. The No. 11 pick was slotted at $4,547,500, the No. 47 pick at $1,580,200 and so on.

The Sox might very well pay Crochet, the No. 11 overall pick, that $4,547,500. However, there's no question they are going to pay Kelley more than $1,580,200 to sign with them.

In fact, it's quite likely the Sox will pay most of that $7,764,800 on their first two picks. The other three guys? They will take whatever is left, and the Sox quite intentionally chose guys who aren't in position to command much:

Third round: Adisyn Coffey, RHP, Wabash Valley CC
Fourth round: Kade Mechals, RHP, Grand Canyon University
Fifth round: Bailey Horn, LHP, Auburn University

Coffey and Mechals weren't even ranked among the top 500 prospects in the draft. Mechals and Horn have already had Tommy John surgery. You can see how the Sox probably won't need much money to get these guys to sign on the dotted line.

Coffey is 21 years old, old for a junior college player, and he was slated to head to the University of Louisville, where he was going to pitch in the bullpen. But hey, he throws 95 mph and has a slider. Maybe that two-pitch mix will some day amount to something.

Mechals, a college senior, is a 5-foot-11 sinker-slider righty who is lauded for his command and pitchability. He had Tommy John surgery in May, so see you sometime in late 2021. Odds are, Mechals will be a guy who can provide competent innings as organizational filler in Triple-A Charlotte or Double-A Birmingham. A big-league career would be a pleasant surprise.

Horn, a 6-foot-2 lefty, is healthy after missing the 2018 season with Tommy John surgery. He made four starts at Auburn before the pandemic this spring, and he struck out 27 batters against five walks over 17.1 innings. The fastball sits at 92-93 mph. The slider is his second-best pitch, followed by his change. I've heard his curveball described as "meh."

In case you were wondering, the slot values for the third through fifth rounds are as follows:

Third round: $733,100
Fourth round: $517, 400
Fifth round: $386,600

I'm guessing those last three guys sign for below these figures, so that the first two guys -- especially Kelley -- can sign above theirs. Maybe Horn has a case to get the slot value, but Coffey and Mechals will definitely be below slot.