It was weird. Covey was never really in consideration to make the White Sox entering the season. After a 2017 in which he was thrown to the wolves as a Rule 5 pick forced into major league action before he was ready, Covey seemed most likely to spend the year in Triple-A developing as potential rotation depth down the road.

But injuries, Carson Fulmer’s existence, and service time manipulation happen, and Covey found himself in the rotation by late May, and for a while, he was good. During a five-start span from May 23 through June 13, Covey struck out 30 against just 8 walks in 29 1/3 innings, sporting a 1.53 ERA. He was suddenly sporting a mid-90s two-seamer with a whole lotta life, generated double-digit swinging strikes on two separate occasions, and went toe-to-toe with the likes of Chris Sale and Trevor Bauer in back-to-back starts.

Things were bonkers. Covey was out there dealing while Lucas Giolito was floundering, Reynaldo Lopez was kinda meh, and Carlos Rodon was on the shelf. Folks were wondering aloud and un-ironically if he could be part of the rotation of the future. Our pets’ heads were falling off.

The success was fleeting, as it turns out. The stuff was improved, but the league kind of figured him out, and he started allowing more hard contact. He wasn’t long for the rotation.

After a string of subpar starts following that absurd stretch, Covey exited the rotation when Michael Kopech was promoted, only to rejoin it again when Kopech departed. While his final numbers wound up less-than-stellar — 5.18 ERA, 91 strikeouts, 52 walks in 121 2/3 innings, as well as a DRA (5.15) that says he absolutely deserved that ERA — the improvements he made, particularly in the stuff department, make it easy to see him having a role on the White Sox as they maybe, potentially, start to transition into contenders.

Just … not in the rotation. The main issue that plagued Covey once that hot stretch ended was not all that uncommon — he got beat around after his first time through the order. As a starter, opponents hit .216/.296/.329 off Covey the first time through the order. The second time? .307/.382/.454. Going a step further, in the extremely limited sample size of six games and 12 innings as a reliever, opponents hit .227/.292/.295 against him and he posted a 2.25 ERA with seven strikeouts and four walks.

These are not earth-shattering stats. If you’re looking at potential pieces of the White Sox bullpen going forward, there’s still a handful of guys ahead of Covey on the Excitement Index. But given where he came from as a former Rule 5 pick who might not have made it through his debut season with the White Sox if not for an injury, the fact that he’s made enough improvements to remain on the radar is a solid win.

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1. An uptick in velocity and command of his breaking pitches were the main fuel behind a month where Dylan Covey seemingly transformed from Rule 5 afterthought to a legitimate candidate for future rotation consideration. A Friday night in Texas where he struggled to command anything and left quite a few changeups high in the zone showed just how small his margin for error is, as Covey was tagged for eight earned runs in just 2 1/3 innings in a start that more resembled his forgettable 2017 than the pitcher we saw for the majority of June.

Covey didn’t show any ill effects of the groin injury that forced him out of his previous start early, but was routinely beat around during a second inning in which he allowed three of the four home runs the Rangers hit off him on the day. The fact that he walked three and struck out zero — he induced just four swinging strikes on the evening — only further illustrated how badly he was locating throughout his 74-pitch outing.

Covey showed enough during his hot stretch to earn more opportunities on a team going nowhere in 2018. But he’s now on a three-start stretch where he’s walked 12 against just three strikeouts, so while optimism regarding the 26-year-old is obviously higher than it was even just a month or so ago, it will be interesting to see how he adjusts and if he’s more like the pitcher we saw for the majority of June or not.

2. Carlos Rodon certainly has more margin for error than Covey in any given start, but the Rangers jumped all over his first sign of command issues and what started out as a dominant start ended earlier than expected. Rodon retired the first seven Rangers he faced, including three strikeouts, but hung a fastball to Joey Gallo in the third inning for a solo home run and lost control in the fourth when a single and a pair of walks came home on a Robinson Chirinos bases-loaded double.

It was the first truly bad start of Rodon’s five since returning from injury on June 9, but what’s prevented him from truly living up to his potential during his three-plus years in the majors has been an inability to consistently command from start to start or, like Saturday, inning to inning. The good news for Rodon is that he seems completely healthy after being plagued by injury for the better part of the last year and a half, but we’re still waiting for Rodon to put together a complete and consistent performance like we know he’s capable of.

3. The White Sox weekend woes were not limited to the poor starts by Covey and Rodon. The bullpen was overburdened and allowed eight earned runs in 8 1/3 innings between Friday and Saturday, although a large chunk of that can be attributed to Bruce Rondon, whose ERA has ballooned up to 8.31 after allowing five earned runs while retiring just one batter on Saturday. Similarly, the White Sox committed a pair of errors in each of their two losses and five for the entire weekend, which is only part of the story of a weekend where a team that already wasn’t exactly known for its smooth fundamentals appeared to lose control of it entirely

Things like this are going to happen when a team rosters a handful of borderline major leaguers or young players still getting their feet wet, but while we’ve somewhat gotten used to the White Sox losing more often than they win, one thing you’d prefer they shore up is on that side of the ball. It’s easy to excuse a rebuilding team playing, say, Adam Engel when his bat isn’t up to snuff,, but when players who are already limited extrapolate things by failing to communicate, missing the cutoff, or some other mental miscue, it becomes much more difficult to excuse. Those are aspects of the game within their control, and while mental errors costing the White Sox wins is hardly detrimental to the immediate future, it’d at the very least make watching the losing more aesthetically appealing, and one would hope they get under control if and when they have eyes on contention.

4. The White Sox did win a game this weekend, as Reynaldo Lopez threw 6 1/3 mostly successful innings in a 10-5 win on Sunday, allowing just two earned runs with three walks and six strikeouts. Most notable in the win, and over the weekend as a whole, was Jose Abreu busting out of his slump and Avisail Garcia putting together a nice post-injury streak. Abreu, who hit was in the midst of a .188/.233/.325 slump from June 5 through 26, is 6-for-20 with a home run, a triple, and three walks since Wednesday, hardly world-mashing numbers, but a vast improvement coming out of one of the worst slumps of his career. Garcia went 4-for-5 on Sunday and is hitting .333 with six extra-base hits in 42 plate appearances since returning from the disabled list on June 22. He’s still hacking away at an absurd rate — zero walks in 118 plate appearances overall this season — but if he can start making solid contact again like he did in 2017, it would be a great sign.

5. A mostly unsuccessful weekend was also felt at the minor league level, where Luis Robert was placed on the seven-day disabled list and Eloy Jimenez left Sunday’s game with an apparent leg injury (the severity is not yet known). The arms fared better, as Michael Kopech tossed six innings on Saturday, giving up just three hits and striking out eight, although he also walked four. Dylan Cease continues to be the biggest bright spot in their stable of prospect arms, rebounding from a rocky debut at Double-A to toss seven innings on Sunday, allowing just one earned run with seven strikeouts and two walks. Alec Hansen has yet to get completely acclimated to the same level since returning from injury, however, as he turned in his third straight rough start on Thursday, giving up three earned runs with five walks and four strikeouts in just 3 2/3 innings.

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1. Imploring a player to be more aggressive when he has the second most strikeouts and fourth highest strikeout percentage in baseball seems a strange gambit, but it’s been a focal point for  Yoan Moncada as his advanced batter’s eye has sometimes worked against him in the sense that he hasn’t afforded himself to drive hittable pitches. On Sunday, an aggressive approach paid off for the 23-year-old in the most opportune of spots, as he drove a first pitch fastball for a bases loaded, bases clearing double in the fifth inning to put the White Sox ahead for good in what turned out to be an easy 10-3 victory. He added a three-run homer, taking a grooved, 94-mph fastball on a 3-1 count out to right field (he swung at the first pitch of that AB, too, for what it’s worth).

Moncada’s been mired in a terrible slump since returning from the disabled list in mid-May, hitting just .195/.247/.305 with 56 strikeouts in 166 plate appearances entering play Sunday. But the tools that made him one of the top prospects in baseball and the centerpiece of the White Sox trade of Chris Sale 18 months ago were on display in what was undoubtedly the best game of his still very young career.

That last point is worth repeating again: His still very young career. Moncada still has fewer than a season’s worth of plate appearances in his career, and while it’s frustrating that Moncada isn’t one of those top prospects to come up and just start outright mashing, it’s important to remember that there’s no linear developmental path all prospects follow. Moncada has flaws, but he also has an immense amount of talent. And Sunday we saw the best that talent has to offer.

2. It’s been discussed enough during the last two seasons, but the focus during a rebuild is more on the individual progression of key young players than actual wins and losses. Along with Moncada, the White Sox got promising outings from two others in the form of Lucas Giolito and Carlos Rodon in their pair of weekend victories over the A’s.

Giolito’s performance in Friday’s 6-4 win was perhaps more surprising but also more desperately needed. He looked more the part of his late-2017 or even Spring Training self over seven innings, striking out a season-high eight with a fastball that topped out at 96 and sharp breaking pitches. The line was only diminished after Rick Renteria sent him out to start the eighth inning at 89 pitches only for him to allow back-to-back singles that ultimately scored when Jace Fry and Chris Volstad couldn’t limit the damage. Still, it was the type of performance that makes one optimistic the pitcher the White Sox hope he’ll become is still in there somewhere.

“I felt in sync,” Giolito said. “[Omar Naváez] and I were working really well, finally commanding the fastball the way I should. Definitely the best I felt out there this year, for sure. Velocity was up a tick. Just felt right, felt in sync. Just competed from there.

“Feel for slider today was really good. I felt like there were a couple of times I could have gotten it down a little bit better with two strikes but other than that it was a good go-to pitch. Curveball feel was a lot better, though I didn’t throw it very much. Overall just felt like I was getting on top of all my pitches a lot better. I’ll look at it tomorrow but especially the angle of my fastball was probably the best it has been, too.”

Rodon wasn’t at his absolute peak in his eight innings of work Sunday, as we didn’t see the overpowering fastball or devastating slider induce a whole lot of strikeouts. He only had three, but was efficient in a 99-pitch outing with 69 strikes, which is nice, and perhaps more importantly zero walks. Despite the low strikeout total, he still got 10 swinging strikes, including eight with the fastball.

MOST importantly, though, is that through four starts Rodon looks healthy and unencumbered by the injuries that plagued him for most of the last year and a half. Seeing Rodon perform well and injury free for the rest of 2018 will make you feel a lot better for both him and the team going forward.

3. Believe it or not, it’s not all sunshine and roses with this 26-51 team. Dylan Covey got battered around for his second straight start before leaving with what turned out to be a groin injury. Fortunately for both him and the White Sox, it doesn’t seem as serious as the oblique that sidelined him for three months a year ago, but it’s still unknown how much, if any, time he will miss.

It’s amazing we’re at a point where Covey missing starts is considered a detriment to the team, but here we are. If he’s sidelined for any significant amount of time, the White Sox will have a couple of different options in terms of what to do with that rotation spot. The obvious and boring answer would be to insert Hector Santiago back in that spot, or even to call up Triple-A veteran Donn Roach, who’s 28-year-old but put together solid results for the Knights.

4. The option everyone will be clamoring for, of course, is the promotion of Michael Kopech. The 22-year-old top prospect has struggled mightily over the last month, and James Fegan of The Athletic detailed his command issues at great length last week, but given his pedigree and advanced stuff, the White Sox are bound to give him a shot at getting major league hitters out before long. He’s still posting high strikeout totals amid the slump, after all.

BP’s lead prospect writer Jeffrey Paternostro said in his weekly chat that “you should be a little worried” when it comes to Kopech, and when I asked him to expand on that thought he mentioned that, at some point, you get tired of waiting for the command to show up, particularly with a pitcher who is as close to major league read as Kopech.

It’s true that the command is a worry, but no prospect is a finished product by the time they reach the majors. Even with the struggles, you get to a point where you need to prove it at the major league level and Kopech has about reached that point. (Some may argue he was there long ago, and I wouldn’t necessarily disagree). We don’t yet know if Covey is going to miss significant time, but if he does, whether or not the White Sox opt for Kopech will be interesting to see.

5. Kopech hasn’t been promoted, but several White Sox prospects were, in fact, promoted after their respective leagues’ All-Star breaks last week. You surely already know the whole list, but the highlights include Eloy Jimenez and Seby Zavala going to Triple-A, Dylan Cease and Luis Alexander Basabe going to Double-A, and Luis Robert going to High-A.

Starting from the top, Jimenez’s promotion had been telegraphed and was wholly unsurprising. That he’s off to a solid start in Charlotte (he hit his first home run Sunday) only further proves how close he is to the majors. Zavala’s promotion isn’t what you would consider surprising, but it’s an important step for a player who has continued to surprise along every step of his development since the White Sox selected him in the 12th round of the 2015 draft. The difference between Zavala and his former Double-A counterpart, Zack Collins, as James Fegan detailed, was the defensive improvements, with Chris Getz saying he’s “major-league ready” in terms of how he handles the pitching staff.

Cease’s promotion would have been considered aggressive at the beginning of the season, as the 22-year-old had yet to surpass 93 innings at any point in his still very young professional career. Having a clean bill of health thus far in 2018 has allowed him to show the advanced stuff that make many scouts project him as a potential frontline starter, as he struck out 82 in 71 2/3 innings at High-A before his promotion. Similarly healthy after an injury-riddled and ineffective 2017, Basabe is displaying all the tools that the White Sox believed he had when they acquired him in the Sale trade prior to last season.

Robert going to Winston-Salem after just 13 games in Kannapolis may surprise some, but even at just 20-year-old, he’s advanced enough that his initial Low-A assignment was never going to be much more than a pit stop.

One final note: In the area of prospects who aren’t yet technically prospects, first round pick Nick Madrigal is not yet a White Sox. The reason being that his collegiate season just won’t end. Madrigal and Oregon State begin a three-game series with Arkansas Monday night in the College World Series final. His season will end no later than Wednesday, we know now. One would hope he’ll be signing with the White Sox shortly thereafter.

Lead Photo Credit: David Banks-USA TODAY Sports

The White Sox are 6-4 since the calendar flipped to June, taking 2 of 3 from both the Red Sox and Brewers, two teams who are a combined 83-47, with a four-game split against the Twins sandwiched between those two series. Aesthetically, the last week and a half has been much more enjoyable than the first two months, to say the least.

The source of the positive results this weekend was mostly the starting pitching, as Dylan Covey, Rodon, and Reynaldo Lopez combined to allowed just three earned runs in 17 1/3 innings. Covey, in particular, continued his surprising ascent by going toe-to-toe with Sale. He struck out seven and allowed just three hits and one walk in six innings of work, and has been the most impressive member of the rotation since re-joining the team May 23. In four starts (excluding the brief doubleheader promotion he had in April), he’s struck out 25 and walked eight in 22 1/3 innings and hasn’t allowed more than two earned runs in any individual start.

It’s been a helluva turnaround for the 26-year-old who was thrown to the wolves and promptly devoured last year as a Rule 5 pick after only throwing 29 1/3 innings above A-ball up to that point. A former first round pick whose career path and life completely changed when he was diagnosed with diabetes during a post-draft physical, Covey’s development has been anything but linear. It’s only been four starts, but the heavy sinking fastball that’s sat 93-95 has given hitters fits. Six of his eight swinging strikes on Friday came off the sinker, and against one of the best teams in baseball and opposed by one of the best pitchers in baseball, he put together the best start of his still young career, befuddling Red Sox hitters all night before a conservative Rick Renteria lifted him at just 83 pitches.

What Covey is going to be is still unclear. It’s only been four starts after all. But at the very least, he’s proven himself worthy of getting an extended look and further opportunities in a rotation that’s beginning to steady overall.

Rodon’s debut was mostly successful, even if it came during the White Sox one weekend defeat. After missing the first two months because of offseason shoulder surgery, the 25-year-old flashed the type of front-end stuff he’s always had while occasionally battling control that limited him to just five innings of work.

The rust was to be expected for a pitcher who has only thrown 69 1/3 mostly nice innings since the start of the 2017 season. Rodon is at his best when he’s working ahead and able to unleash his hellacious slider as a put-away pitch. But he often found himself behind in the count and relied on his change-up a bit more than you’d probably prefer considering it’s his third best pitch. Still, while his velocity was understandably not yet at full strength, he showed the ability to ramp it up when necessary to get out of trouble.

It wasn’t peak Rodon, but he showed no ill effects of the injury, and having a full-strength Rodon for the duration of 2018 will be a good thing for both this year’s team and the prospects of future contention.

Finally, there was Lopez, who again got positive results even if they may have been better than his peripherals. Six strikeouts and just one earned run in 6 1/3 innings works just fine, of course, but he also walked three and hit a batter, battling the usual bouts of wildness he’s displayed despite 13 generally successful starts.

Even if Lopez appears to be playing with fire from start to start and even hitter to hitter at certain points, he shows enough promise to instill hope even if we wait for what sometimes seems like an inevitable crash toward mediocrity.

While we often get impatient waiting for prospects to become what we want or think they’re going to become, it’s important to remember that you rarely get a finished product from someone Lopez’s age. That may seem overly optimistic, but Lopez is getting good results while simultaneously working through command issues and a developing breaking pitch. It’s entirely possible he does come crashing back to earth in the way the advanced stats predict, but he’s still shown enough promise to make you feel better about his future than you might have before the season began.

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1. On a team in contention for the number one overall pick, which has somehow also been ravaged by injuries, you’re going to have playing time for organizational soldiers.  Daniel Palka homered again, and continues his pleasantly strong 26-year-old rookie year.  He’s hitting .283/.315/.557, which is probably not sustainable unless he starts getting a little more selective, and his glove is an issue, but let’s not get overly cynical here.  The guy put in 2,500 minor league plate appearances and is getting a chance to finally earn some decent money and potentially earn future major league jobs as a bench piece as his power so far looks like it plays against major league pitching.

To a lesser degree, as he was just bounced back to the minors to activate Matt Davidson from the disabled list, the 28-year-old former prospect Matt Skole got his major league debut after 3,000 minor league plate appearances.  He only made it into four games, but he hit .273/.385/.545 and hit a home run in front of his parents.  His career was derailed by injury, but again, on a human level, this was a Good Thing.

2. Let’s keep rolling with these.  Alfredo Gonzalez, the fourth string catcher on the depth chart, got his first major league hit–driving in a run in the process–and was clearly extremely happy about it.  Kevan Smith is back off the disabled list so Gonzalez will bring his glove-only game back to Charlotte, but if you can’t enjoy moments like these I’m not sure what we’re doing.

3. James Shields turned in another quality start, going seven innings allowing three runs on three solo homers against a good Brewers lineup on Saturday.  He struck out six and walked one, so even though Tim Anderson bailed him out of a jam on a Ryan Braun line drive double play, the peripherals don’t necessarily reflect a mirage of an outing either.  Prior to the past few seasons where teams started getting odd about money and whether they are going for it or not, I’d say Shields is even pushing himself into the territory where you might be able to trade him, but it’s hard to imagine him bringing back anything more useful than his ability to protect the bullpen, turn in credible performances, and mentoring the younger players.

4. Dylan Covey has started four games and has an ERA of 2.82.  This goes with a FIP of 2.57 somehow.  Covey is unusual in a lot of ways.  He is not without pedigree, as he was the 14th overall pick in the 2013 draft.  The White Sox claimed him in the Rule V draft and actually successfully stashed him throughout 2017 as he got pummeled in the majors and got hurt a lot.  In hindsight, perhaps we were too hard on him for his ERA of almost 8.00 last year as he had pitched all of 30 innings above High-A in his pro career previously.

But 2018 has seen Covey throwing his sinker about two ticks harder than in the past, averaging 94.56 mph (!!) on the pitch.  He’s throwing it twice as often too, up to 66.40% of the time while having completely abandoned his four seam offering.  He’s still walking too many batters, but a power sinker can play up, particularly–as has been the case thus far–when you don’t allow many/any home runs.

I’m not saying Covey is the White Sox Rebuild version of Dallas Keuchel, but he’s still only 26 and he looks better to go with his better results.  If he can spam a 93-96 mph sinker and avoid injury this can work, and is probably what the White Sox hoped Carson Fulmer could do.  He got 13 swinging strikes on 97 pitches against the Brewers on Sunday throwing primarily a sinker! That ain’t nothing.  For all that we’ve written about Carlos Rodon or Michael Kopech coming to the rotation’s aid, Covey has to have won a rotation spot until proven otherwise, no?

5. The draft is tonight! The White Sox have the fourth overall pick, which is a pretty big deal and means it’s a chance to acquire a really good prospect.  I think it’s fair to say our prospect team is reticent about amateur coverage.  It requires basically a full time staff devoted to that purpose and BP’s focus is on pro prospects.  Based solely on general principles which should be followed–e.g. draft the best player available, bats are safer than arms, a guy who can mash but is non-traditional might be great value, etc.–I am personally hoping for Nick Madrigal, but he may not be available and he might also not be the best player available! Feel free to sound off in the comments with your own preference.  We’ll know this time tomorrow.

6. Bonus Thing: Carlos Rodon’s rehab start on Sunday went relatively smoothly.  He walked a few more batters than you’d like to see but made it through 5 innings on 92 pitches, meaning he’s roughly stretched out and should be ready to rejoin the major league rotation at some point this week.

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Dylan Covey was kept on the major league roster all of 2017, but mostly because he was a Rule 5 pick rather than any present major league success.  Now the White Sox can send him to the minors freely, and have done so.  Even including Covey’s 83 innings in Chicago last year, he still only has approximately 150 innings above High-A in his pro career and it isn’t crazy to think he would benefit from some learning down in Charlotte.  Ultimately, I believe he could have a successful career out of the bullpen without changing much, but if he wants to stick in the rotation he’ll need to make some improvements.

Covey will be joined by Thyago Vieira, the newly acquired flamethrower.  Back of the roster decisions can certainly be determined more by contract status than present ability, particularly in a rebuild, but it seemed possible Vieira might crack the Opening Day bullpen.  Barring injuries (or in Nate Jones’ case, injury-related setbacks), Jones, Joakim Soria, Luis Avilan, Juan Minaya, Gregory Infante, and Danny Farquhar were all pretty clearly ahead of Vieira.  Relievers Bruce Rondon, Jeanmar Gomez, and Xavier Cedeno are all in camp for auditions, as is Hector Santiago (a starter who could potentially be more of a swing-man out of the bullpen) and Vieira’s remaining options may have made it more attractive to stash him in Charlotte until they can sort through these other candidates for the suddenly crowded White Sox pitching staff.  All of the above combined with his lackluster 2017 makes Michael Ynoa’s assignment to minor league camp an even easier call.

Charlie Tilson was also sent to Triple-A.

Now, given that Tilson basically hasn’t played since August 2, 2016, it could be as simple as giving him time to knock some rust off without the pressure of trying to win a major league job.  Still, Tilson was certainly a candidate to get the first shot at the starting center fielder job, something the White Sox have wanted to see him try since they traded Zach Duke for him what seems like forever ago.  Barring some sort of really weird move like signing Carlos Gonzalez to play center field, which he can no longer do, it seems like Adam Engel is going to get one more crack at showing he can hit better than a pitcher before Tilson gets another shot at it.

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Aaron Bummer: In some respects, Bummer is an unsual relief prospect.  Many relievers of consequence are starting pitchers who couldn’t hack it and got bumped to the bullpen for lack of durability, command, or a third pitch.  The White Sox had Bummer pegged for relief from day one, and the 19th rounder with Tommy John surgery under his belt still blitzed through the minors at blinding speed.

Bummer dominated High-A, Double-A, and Triple-A en route to the majors all in 2017 with his mid-to-high 90s heat from the left side and slurvey breaking ball. His time on the South Side didn’t go smoothly, which is understandable given how rapidly the quality of his opposition improved.

The pedigree and profile will always foster doubt. But heat from the left side is heat from the left side, and one has to imagine he has a solid claim on a bullpen spot next year, and crazier things have happened for players with his repertoire to turn into good setup men. Sometimes they’re just LOOGYs and then sink back into the ocean.

Dylan Covey: Scooping up former Top 10 picks in the Rule V draft is a perfectly good idea for a team in the 2017 White Sox’ position. Hence Covey. But, you know, he was available in Rule V for a reason. His DRA of 7.61 matches the eye test as major league hitters absolutely tuned him up between DL stints

Fortunately, there’s still some hope for him, especially now that he has made it through ’17 and the White Sox have secured his services if they want them.  And, while it is not true of every failed starter as some would have you believe, Covey’s velocity and breaking stuff visibly improves when he airs it out in a relief role. He could even wind up being a pretty good one, and getting pretty good relievers for free is more valuable than it has ever been.

Tyler Danish: In his first full crack at Triple-A after only 29 innings there last year, the 22 year old should have gradually improved at the level and been knocking on the door for some starts in the second half of the year. Instead, he was generally effective right out of the gate, and earned a spot start in late May with the big club.  He somehow struck out 6 and also walked 6 over 5 shutout innings, then went back to Triple-A and was dreadful the rest of the year.

He’s young, but he doesn’t project to add anything to his stuff. He has what he has and he’s going to go as far as his command takes him. Some have had him pegged as a reliever for most of his career, but I’m of the opinion, given his repertoire, that either he’s a back-end starter or he’s not a major leaguer.  Even with injuries and uncertainty plaguing the ’18 rotation, Danish is almost certainly going to go back to Charlotte to keep refining in the hopes that he can break through next year instead.

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Jace Fry on Tuesday became the eighth member of the 2017 White Sox to make his major league debut. That number doesn’t even include the more heralded young players on the roster, as Yoan Moncada, Lucas Giolito, and Reynaldo Lopez all saw time in the majors late in 2017. But nonetheless, I thought I’d take a look at those eight newcomers to the league, ranked in order of who I believe has the best chance of having a prolonged big league career.

1. Nicky Delmonico

Major league debut: Aug. 1
First plate appearance: Swinging strikeout against Toronto’s Marcus Stroman
First hit: Same day, single to center field against Toronto’s Ryan Tepera

Delmonico has simultaneously been the most surprising and most successful player to make his major league debut for the White Sox in 2017, hitting .307/.429/.573 with more walks than strikeouts in 91 plate appearances before going on the DL with a wrist injury (he’s expected back soon). Delmonico has been written about on a number of occasions in this space already this season, but it’s worth remembering he wasn’t among the White Sox Top 30 prospects even before the influx of talent, nor was he among the hundreds of players who received comment in last season’s BP Annual. However, he’s proven he can handle the bat at the major league level thus far, albeit in a very small sample size. While he’s limited defensively, whether it’s at an outfield or infield corner, he’s at least earned himself a further look going forward.

2. Aaron Bummer

Major league debut: July 27
First hitter faced: Chicago Cubs’ Anthony Rizzo, who struck out swinging
First strikeout: Rizzo

Bummer is one of the more fascinating players to debut this season. As a 19th round pick just three years ago, the odds of him making the majors, let alone this quickly, were incredibly slim. But he’s shown throughout his minor league career the ability to get left-handed hitters and as a potential LOOGY with three pitches and mid-90s heat, is obviously someone the White Sox see as a part of their future bullpen. He’s struggled through 18 appearances and 13 2/3 innings, with 10 strikeouts, nine walks, and a 6.59 ERA, but that’s to be expected given his inexperience. Like everyone else on this list, Bummer’s debut might not have happened if it weren’t for the state of the White Sox roster. Unlike most, however, his chances of sticking around are a little better than slim.

3. Willy Garcia

Major league debut: April 14
First plate appearance and hit: Same day, double to left-center against Minnesota’s Adalberto Mejia

The White Sox claimed Garcia off waivers from Pittsburgh in the offseason, and narrowly missed out on making the team out of spring training before making his debut just two weeks later when Melky Cabrera went on the paternity list. Garcia performed adequately in just 105 plate appearances, hitting .258/.317/.441 while playing passable if unspectacular defense in the corners. He’d undoubtedly still be getting run if it weren’t for the concussion he suffered in a nasty collision with Moncada, and the odds of him finding a role with a contending tim remain slim (sensing a theme here?) but for a player trying to prove himself for a non-contender, you could do a lot worse than Garcia has shown in 2017.

4. Adam Engel

Major league debut: May 27
First plate appearance: Swinging strikeout against Detroit’s Buck Farmer
First hit: Same day, a single to left field against Detroit’s Shane Greene

Engel actually scored his first career run before ever stepping foot in the batter’s box, appearing as a pinch runner and crossing home plate on a Leury Garcia triple in the first game of that day’s doubleheader. His first start, first plate appearance, and first hit came a few hours later in game two. Engel has gotten a lot of playing time for the rebuilding White Sox, something that might not have been the case on a team trying to compete. This is mostly because of his inability to handle the bat, and he’s proving that point through 246 plate appearances with a .170/.249/.284 line. Engel’s speed and defense plays, and he could very well find a spot on a major league roster beyond 2017 if his bat improves any. But right now, that seems like a long shot.

5. Dylan Covey

Major league debut: April 14
First hitter faced: Minnesota’s Brian Dozier, who singled to right field
First strikeout: Same day, Byron Buxton swinging

Cover was virtually guaranteed to be given every opportunity to stick around given his status as a Rule V pick in the offseason as well as the White Sox lack of pitching depth. A two month stint on the disabled list made it easy for them to avoid sending him back to Oakland despite his struggles. In 46 innings, Covey has a 8.41 ERA with 20 walks, 27 strikeouts, and an even-more-absurd-than-those-numbers 17 home runs allowed. Once the season ends, the White Sox will be able to send Covey to the minors with no repercussions, and he’ll likely continue his development and represent additional pitching depth going forward as a member of the Triple-A Charlotte Knights.

6. Jacob May

Major league debut: April 4
First plate appearance: Strikeout looking against Detroit’s Justin Verlander
First hit: April 22, single to right field against Cleveland’s Carlos Carrasco

Remember when I said you could do a lot worse than Garcia if you’re a player trying to prove himself for a non-contender? You should. It was like five lines ago. Anyway, that’s May. The surprising Opening Day addition to the roster started his professional career 0-for-26 in 30 plate appearances before finally getting a hit as a pinch-hitter nearly three weeks later. He was back in Triple-A Charlotte just two weeks later and spent the rest of 2017 there. We spent a lot of ink wondering what the White Sox had in May in the days leading up to the start of the season, and he’s not unlike Engel in that both are outfielders with good speed and the potential to play solid defense. But May’s April (or is it April’s May?) was downright disastrous. If he never sees a major league field for the rest of his career, he’ll still have those two professional hits to remember for the rest of his life. For his sake, I’m hoping he gets another shot somewhere down the road.

7. Jace Fry

Major league debut: Sept. 5
First hitter faced: Cleveland’s Carlos Santana, who singled to left-center field
First strikeout: N/A

Fry, of course, is the most recent of the newcomers, facing three batters in Tuesday’s loss to the Indians. He allowed the single to Santana, got Giovanny Urshela to line out, and walked Lonnie Chisenhall before giving way to Chris Beck, who promptly allowed a three run homer to Yan Gomes. Fry spent the entirety of 2017 before Tuesday with Double-A Birmingham, and has undergone two Tommy John surgeries in the last five years. That fact alone gives him long odds of having any type of lengthy major league career, so his story is the kind that I’m talking about when I say I find joy in any major league debut.

8. Brad Goldberg

Major league debut: June 3
First hitter faced: Detroit’s Justin Upton, who hit a home run
First strikeout: June 22 against Kansas City’s Alex Gordon

The White Sox have seen a lot of bad pitching performances in 2017 but Goldberg’s 11 appearances put together were about as disastrous as they come. In 12 innings of work, Goldberg walked 14 hitters and struck out just three, and allowed 11 earned runs. He exited a game unscored upon in just four of those 11 appearances. 2017 wasn’t all bad for Goldberg, however, as he helped a really fun Team Israel qualify for the World Baseball Classic and tossed two scoreless innings during their run in pool play. There isn’t much positive to say about Goldberg’s major league career thus far, and it’s tough to say whether he’ll get another shot (the White Sox are sure to be bad again in 2018, and he is a reliever, so you never know), but he’ll always have that.

Lead Photo Credit: Ray Carlin-USA TODAY Sports

Eloy Jimenez and Zack Collins have been promoted from High-A Winston-Salem to Double-A Birmingham. While there are only a few weeks left in the minor league season, players are human beings and when you excel in superlative fashion at your job a promotion is in order.  There’s also reason to believe that they have mastered the level and are ready to be promoted.  Jimenez has hit .345/.410/.682 in 122 PAs since arriving in Winston-Salem.  As Rafael Devers and Yoan Moncada have demonstrated, elite hitting prospects can move really quickly, and Jimenez will therefore start next year in Double-A, and if these trends continue this time next year he could be a candidate for a September call up.

It speaks to the expectations for Collins’ bat that as a 22-year-old catcher in his first full pro season his .808 OPS is viewed as a disappointment.  If you are of the opinion that he will not remain as a catcher, then it is a troubling offensive output for an advanced college bat in the low minors.  However, he has devoted a lot of his time and energy to developing on the defensive side of the ball and catchers tend to take a long time to figure things out, if they ever do at all.  It’s an arbitrary endpoint, but dating back to a doubleheader on July 30, Collins has hit .342/.490/.658 and walked more than he has struck out.  There’s no specific reason to believe he’d be overmatched at Birmingham or that he’s being moved too quickly, although per James Fegan over at The Athletic, there are still mechanical changes he wants to make to shorten his swing this offseason.

The promotion to Double-A also means that we will finally have some pitch framing data for Collins, although it isn’t quite as precise as at the major league level.  The general sense is that Collins has made a lot of defensive improvements since becoming a pro, but with something like catcher defense the more information we have, the better.

The White Sox also announced that Dylan Covey would be promoted from Charlotte having completed his rehab to take Tyler Clippard‘s spot on the 25-man roster.  It looks like the White Sox will be able to keep the Rule V pick on the roster all season, which means he’s theirs permanently if they want.  I am curious to see what he can do in relief, as I’m not sure there is starter’s durability there, regardless of stuff.

On Free Agency…

There is something of the magical when thinking about free agents. As opposed to draft picks, where you have to wait years and years for likely disappointment, or a trade where you have to give up something to get something. Free agents can just be shoved into the roster.  Instant gratification.

A byproduct of the White Sox rebuild, where you are theoretically building as much of a contender as you can from within, is that the roster should be cheap, composed of a higher percentage of players being paid the league minimum, or suppressed salaries through the arbitration process.  Therefore, such a team should have a surplus of money to allocate to free agency.  The Cubs, for example, were able to sign Jon Lester (nice!) and Jason Heyward (whoops!) to huge contracts to supplement their homegrown core, and have made deep playoff runs including a World Series win, as you may have heard.

And, given that Rick Hahn has floated 2019 as the first year he foresees the White Sox potentially contending again if everything breaks right, some have noticed that syncs up with the 2018-2019 free agent class.  For reference, that class projects to contain Bryce Harper, Manny Machado, Josh Donaldson, A.J. Pollock, Charlie Blackmon, Clayton Kershaw, Dallas Keuchel, Andrew Miller, and more.

A lot of teams with bigger budgets than the White Sox have been obviously targeting this free agent class for a long time.  The Red Sox and Yankees have made conspicuous efforts to remain below the luxury tax threshold of late, and the Dodgers have to be on the short list of favorites for basically any player they would want to sign, just to name a few.

In addition, the White Sox have never signed a free agent to a contract of more than $100 million.  Jose Abreu’s deal remains the biggest in franchise history, and not since Albert Belle has the organization really gone out and grabbed a splashy, top of the class free agent.  So, until they do, I will assume that that trend will continue.

But, for all that I would bet all kinds of money against Harper or Kershaw playing for the White Sox until maybe their early 40s, some of those names further down the list could fit really nicely to help push a young White Sox core over the hump and into the postseason.  And, speaking of Lester, the Cubs signed him slightly earlier than when people believed the Cubs would be ready to compete.  That type of move makes sense, given that it is difficult to assemble a whole roster all at once, and that free agency doesn’t always provide the player you want when you want him.  To that end, although this winter’s free agent class pales in comparison to the subsequent one, it may be worth monitoring to see what pieces–if any–the White Sox add this offseason to see if they too make “early” moves in advance of their contention window opening.

Lead Image Credit: Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports

The one piece that threw a bit of cold water on the excitement Tuesday came from ESPN’s Keith Law, who wondered if the White Sox committed too much money to someone who might wind up more like the Cuban imports who failed (Rusney Castillo, Hector Olivera) than those who succeeded (Yoenis Cespedes, Yasiel Puig).

Law is a respected evaluator and admits he’s yet to see Robert in person — instead relying on info he’s received from scouts who have — but while the concern that Robert won’t live up to the money the White Sox committed to him is valid, the risks that come with a player of his ilk are not unlike basically any other prospect.

No young player, whether he’s a draft pick or international signee, is a finished product. Robert is no sure thing, just like any Global Top 100 or even Top 10 prospect isn’t a sure thing. But in order for the White Sox to build a competitive core and find long-term success, they need to be able to take risks like committing multi-million dollar contracts to 19-year-old players.

So while Robert isn’t a sure thing, he’s a smart, calculated signing from a team that hasn’t been willing to commit those kinds of resources all that often in the past. A necessary and important step in the right direction.

2. Dylan Covey left Tuesday’s 5-4 loss to the Diamondbacks with an oblique injury after giving up four runs in 2 1/3 innings, and the White Sox somehow stayed within striking distance while Chris Beck, Gregory Infante, and David Holmberg survived the next 4 2/3 innings.

From a short-term perspective, that trio surviving the evening was important for a team playing its ninth of 10 straight west coast games. But while Covey hasn’t showed much in terms of progress during his eight starts, the White Sox pitching rotation depth is growing increasingly thin if Covey joins Carlos Rodon and James Shields on the disabled list.

If Covey does miss time, the White Sox options pretty much boil down to another quad-A placeholder like Chris Volstad (and his 6.55 ERA in Charlotte), the low ceiling but at least somewhat enticing Tyler Danish, or the anticipated ascension of Reynaldo Lopez. While the White Sox have a much needed day off Thursday, a doubleheader Friday complicates things. Whether they decide someone like Lopez is ready or not will likely be known by whether or not they opt for him or another short-term fix.

3. Speaking of injuries, Rick Hahn gave an update on the host of disabled White Sox Monday, and while no timetable was given on the return of Rodon, the fact that he is continuing to throw every fifth day and ramping up his workload is obviously a good sign.

We’re past the point of expecting Rodon to post the breakout season that was hoped for before the season began, and at this point him just proving he can look like his old self for a few months would be a step in the right direction. We’re still a ways off from him joining the rotation, but if he’s able to do that successfully, it’ll go a long way toward this injury becoming more of a minor road bump in his career than a major issue.

4. Omar Narvaez entered the season as one of several young players looking to prove they belonged on a major league roster. Thus far, he’s been about everything he was a year ago, which is to say his defense neither stands out nor offends, and he gets on base a ton while hitting for practically no power.

FRAA still doesn’t like him much — he grades out at -1.1, which is 14th out of the 21 with at least as many framing opportunities as him this season. But he was -4.1 a year ago in nearly as many opportunities, so there have been signs of improvement.

Offensively, his walk rate would be among the Top 10 in the league if he had enough plate appearances to qualify, but he also has all of two extra base hits, slugging a paltry .264, somehow about 70 points lower than a year ago. While Narvaez still has only a little more than 200 plate appearances to his credit thus far in his career, a pretty solid performance baseline seems to have been set.

5. One of the fun things about outscoring a team 26-3 over a three-game span, as the White Sox did over the weekend in Seattle, is that you wake up and your mediocre baseball team suddenly has the best run differential in the division.

The American League Central is proving to be about as average as everyone expected this season, with only the Royals looking like a hilarious train wreck thus far and Cleveland failing to separate themselves early on. Minnesota is off to a surprising but almost certainly unsustainable good start, and the Tigers are neither good nor bad, which is pretty boring.

Things will almost certainly stabilize, and the smart money is still on Cleveland running away with things before long (their odds of winning the division is 76 percent), but it’s easy to get wrapped up in the day-to-day of the White Sox rebuild and forget just how terribly average most of their main competition is as well.

Lead Photo Credit: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports