• Dylan Cease continues to add to his breakout 2018 season, as he has now thrown 40.2 dominant innings in Double-A after coming into the year having never pitched above Low-A.  Although Cease had some things in common with Kopech–elite fastball velocity, potentially wipeout breaking pitch–Cease’s issue had been staying healthy and on the mound more than Kopech’s bugbears of command and control.  That’s not to say Cease is Greg Maddux, exactly, but he does not boast Kopech’s musclebound build and had never thrown more than 93.33 innings in a pro season before this year.  On the other hand, he hasn’t gone totally walk crazy the way Kopech has from time to time either.  He’s now up to 112.33 innings in 2018 and judging from his stat line he’s showing no signs of fatigue.  Indeed, his last three starts have been triumphs, combining to 19 shut out innings with 28 strikeouts and only three walks.  One suspects he’ll start 2019 in Double-A again, but this is what he needed to do to make up for his time lost to injury and has thoroughly revived his chances to actually stick as a starting pitcher.
• The Winston-Salem Dash of High-A have lost Micker Adolfo to injury and Luis Alexander Basabe to promotion, and their lineup is still loaded with talent.  Blake Rutherford continues his bounce-back 2018 campaign, continuing to hit for contact and improving his power numbers with a .305/.352/.450 line.  On Tuesday, Luis Robert returned from his most recent injury and went two-for-four.  He joins Rutherford and Luis Gonzalez, the 2017 third-rounder who is posting an identical .850 OPS in High-A as he had in Low-A while working with Aaron Rowand to try to stick in center field.  From the outfield, all three can look in to see Nick Madrigal on the dirt who, unsurprisingly, has been a fast mover.  After 19 pro games, Madrigal finally had his first strikeout, but he has hit for average and gotten on base as advertised.  If they play well down the stretch, all four of these are candidates to start 2019 in Double-A.
• Ian Hamilton and Ryan Burr have been reunited at Triple-A Charlotte, as Burr has  joined his brother in history puns.  While the Mets have devoted a lot of resources without a lot of results to replenishing their organizational right-handed relief depth–this was essentially their only return for their sell-off last trade deadline, for example–the White Sox may have found a brace of setup men or even closers via trading international pool money (Burr) and the use of an 11th round pick (Hamilton).  Burr hasn’t skipped a beat in his first three innings in Charlotte, as he has yet to allow a run, and Hamilton keeps cruising along with an ERA in the low 2.00s and peripherals to match.  As fun as it is to see Matt Davidson’s surprising success in his relief outings, it seems likely these two will arrive sooner rather than later and take up some of the innings that have gone to lesser talents of late.

Lead Image Credit:  Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports

BP’s prospect team released its Midseason Top 50 Prospects list on Friday (read the whole thing here), and the White Sox were about as well represented as you might expect, with Eloy Jimenez, Michael Kopech, Dylan Cease, and Luis Robert making the cut. That the two pitchers on the list are two of the White Sox prospects not befallen by injury this year is not surprising, nor is the inclusion of Jimenez or Robert, despite their injury woes.

There’s not much that can be written about Jimenez at this point that hasn’t already been said. After destroying Double-A for the better part of two months, he kept pace in Triple-A for a few weeks before being disabled for the second time this season with a strained left adductor muscle that isn’t expected to keep him out for a prolonged period of time. One can reasonable surmise that if it weren’t for that and the missed time during the first month of the season, he’d be ineligible for this list as he’d be in the majors already. Barring further setbacks, he’ll likely be in Chicago at some point this summer.

Kopech is another name that you might not have expected to be eligible for the Midseason Top 50 at the beginning of the season, but his command struggles have at least given some pause for a pitcher who still has No. 1 starter upside. Kopech has walked at least four batters in nine of his last 12 starts and failed to get through five innings in five of those. It’s both easy and foolish to scout the stat line, but those who watch him have expressed some concern about the fact that he hasn’t yet harnessed his command, as that will be the different between Kopech being the starting pitcher everyone hopes he can become and a pitcher whose stuff plays better in relief.

Today is the one-year anniversary of the White Sox trading Jose Quintana to the Cubs, and while Jimenez remains the prize of that trade, the continued progress of Cease has been perhaps the biggest bright spot for the White Sox farm system this year. After pitching a combined 162 innings in his first four years as a pro and never topping 93 1/3 in any single season as the Cubs handled him extremely carefully following Tommy John surgery in 2014, not only is Cease already at 88 1/3 innings in early July, he dominated High-A and hasn’t missed a beat in three starts since a late June promotion to Double-A. Pure stuff has never been the question for Cease, it’s been a question of both mechanics and command. He’s passed every early test the White Sox have given him so far and is starting to serve notice.

Robert is the biggest enigma of the group, just as he was before the season. After spending all of 2017 after his signing in the Dominican Summer League, he’s been limited to fewer than 100 plate appearances between Low-A and High-A this season, but has shown enough of why the White Sox gave him a $26 million signing bonus despite the limited action for him to remain one of the top prospects in the game.

BP’s lead prospect writer, Jeffrey Paternostro (who is doing a Q&A on the list at 2 p.m. CT today, follow along and ask questions here), has said on a number of occasions that the midseason list is constructed from scratch and not based on the Preseason Top 101 at all. Still, it’s tough not to compare the two. In the White Sox case, the most notable difference is with Alec Hansen, who checked in at No. 40 in the Preseason 101 and was omitted from this iteration. This makes sense if for no other reason than because Hansen hasn’t pitched much since that preseason list was constructed. He made just one appearance in the Cactus League before being shut down with a forearm muscular issue that wound up sidelining him for three months. He’s made five starts since his return and hasn’t quite returned to the form that shot him up the rankings a year ago.

Beyond Hansen, there aren’t a lot of players you could’ve expected to see. Luis Alexander Basabe is definitely trending up despite a rough start at Double-A, and Dane Dunning was likely close despite an injury that will sideline him likely through the end of the season. Blake Rutherford and Zack Collins are both having fine seasons and if this were a Midseason Top 101, might have made the cut.

Lead Photo Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

The most obvious example of this was the trade that brought Adam Eaton to Chicago. The White Sox, long known for their successes developing starting pitching, traded one of those developmental successes, former 30th round draft pick Hector Santiago, to bring in an outfielder who had already been fully developed in Arizona.

As the White Sox transitioned into rebuild mode, acquisitions like Yoan Moncada and Eloy Jimenez weren’t exactly “ready-made” players, but hitters who were premium enough that it was (or is, in Jimenez’s case) more about getting more reps before being major league ready than anything specific in their development.

The White Sox have taken measures, as detailed in the above link, to streamline their hitter development, and the dividends thus far have been in the form of Tim Anderson fulfilling, at least thus far, more or less what they hoped he’d become. There are other lesser development triumphs, such as Yolmer Sanchez or Leury Garcia. Nicky Delmonico’s 2016 emergence, as fleeting as it might prove to be, is something you’d more likely expect from an organization like the Cardinals or Dodgers than the White Sox. Likewise, players like Marcus Semien and Tyler Flowers, who spent the better part of the developmental stages of their careers, have blossomed into useful players, although it’s unclear how much the White Sox had to do with either cases.

The rebuild becoming successful is going to be based primarily on the White Sox top prospects living up to their potential. Moncada, Jimenez, and the glut of young pitchers both at the major and minor league levels panning out will be the biggest factor in the White Sox snapping their long playoff drought sometime in the near future. Of course, ownership proving it’s willing to open its wallet for premiere free agents to supplement said roster should it come to fruition will be important in filling roster holes as they emerge, too.

But while the White Sox path toward future contention has primarily centered around a group of top-level arms and two top-tier hitters, proving the advancements they’ve made in hitter development will go a long way toward not only contention in 2020 or so, but sustaining that success long term. While not top-tier prospects like Moncada or Jimenez, there’s a group of talented but volatile hitters whose development is integral in them doing just that.

That group includes the likes of Luis Robert, Zack Collins and Blake Rutherford, but also Micker Adolfo, Luis Alexander Basabe, Seby Zavala, Gavin Sheets, and a few others you could convince me to mention. Jake Burger, of course as well, but his last few months has zapped a lot of that hope for the time being.

Some of these prospects have a better chance that others, but the point is that while Moncada, Jimenez, and the arms are the biggest keys in building the team the White Sox hope to have, some of that next tier becoming major leaguers is a big factor, as well.

Not every player in a contending team’s lineup is a superstar. But every contending team features a stable of capable players able to produce. The White Sox have a few players with star potential, and a whole stable of them who could become the latter. Hitting development has been a sore spot for a while, but has made great strides in recent years. Just how far they’ve come will be determined over the next few years.

Lead Photo Credit: Ray Carlin-USA TODAY Sports

With a long rebuilding year ahead, we’re pressing fast forward and taking a look at the White Sox prospect pipeline for 2019. To make it easier for you, here’s a quick recap of the season. Sox beat projections and finish 75-87. Michael Kopech arrives in early June and finishes second in ROY voting behind Shohei Ohtani. Yoan Moncada’s WAR is 1.5 higher than Rafael Devers‘, permanently silencing the critics. Eloy Jimenez debuts in early August to great fanfare and just barely loses his rookie eligibility. Lucas Giolito wins the AL CY Yo… Sorry. That went too far.

With that out of the way let’s take a look at the 2019 White Sox prospect pipeline. BP South Side’s Editor Emeritus James Fegan of The Athletic, put together a spectacularly deep and insightful review of the 2018 farm system, and, if you haven’t already subscribed, you’re missing out. Now, let’s look into the crystal ball and project the Sox 2019 system. As acknowledged above, Kopech and Jimenez both lose rookie eligibility in 2018 meaning we have a new face at the top of the list.

1. Luis Robert (Baseball Prospectus 101: #4)

Luis arrives in early June and absolutely torches both levels of A ball before earning a promotion to Birmingham for a handful of games in August. The players above him on the prospect list have MLB parents.

2. Alec Hansen (Baseball Prospectus 101: #12)

2017’s strikeout king doesn’t miss a beat in Birmingham. Hansen locks in his delivery, and his 6-foot-9 frame becomes a monstrous weapon instead of a hindrance. His BB/9 rate drops to 2.5 and analysts wonder whether Kopech or Hansen will be the staff ace. Alec gets a cup of coffee with the major league club but still maintains 2019 rookie eligibility.

3. Dylan Cease (Baseball Prospectus 101: 20)

Cease turns in an (almost entirely) healthy season, racking up 115 innings and finishes the season in Triple-A. His fastball/curve combination helps him carry a K/9 rate of 11.3 across the season. The emergence of a changeup solidifies Cease’s case as a frontline starter.

4. Dane Dunning (Baseball Prospectus 101: 58)

A solid, if unspectacular, year between High-A and Double-A helps move Dunning up prospect lists, but, in an organization flush with pitching talent, he is mainly overlooked by the public.

5. Shane McClanahan (Baseball Prospectus 101: 74)

The Sox can’t resist using the fourth pick of the 2018 draft on a player who gets occasional Chris Sale comps. Scouts worry about the long-term repeatability of his mechanics. Rick Hahn and Nick Hostetler do not.

6. Zack Collins (Baseball Prospectus 101: 96)

Collins’ hit tool improves enough where he can manage a .250 batting average, which, coupled with his power and patience, secures a .840 OPS across a season mainly at Birmingham. Splitting time with Seby Zevala, Collins proves the better receiver and sneaks his way back onto the BP 101.

7. Micker Adolfo (Baseball Prospectus 101: 98)

The perpetual prospect sleeper finally has a coming out party in 2018 despite the fact that he’s unable to take the field for the first half of the season. His developing power helps him to an .860 OPS for the year, and he closes the season with a month in Birmingham.

8. Ian Clarkin (Baseball Prospectus 101: NR)

Clarkin fulfills the primary task set out for him: staying healthy. He throws 80 innings at High-A before taking the Alec Hansen’s vacated spot in Birmingham where he closes out the season with a combined ERA of 3.45.

9. Jake Burger (Baseball Prospectus 101: NR)

A lost season and concerns about his mobility after surgery drop Burger off the prospect lists. His hit and power tools still warrant excitement in the organization, but he’ll need to prove he’s capable in 2019.

10. Courtney Hawkins (Baseball Prospectus 101: NR)

Just kidding. He retires in June.

Candidates for the tenth spot:

Spencer Adams: He throws a lot of strikes in 2018. Many of them get hit hard.

Blake Rutherford: Bounces back from a horrendous short stint in Kannapolis but much of the prospect shine has worn off. There’s still time to develop into an everyday starter but he doesn’t make it past High-A in 2018.

Seby Zevala: The kid can hit! Unfortunately, he’s less kid and more 25 year old future DH in Double-A.

Evan Skoug: The kid can also hit! Unfortunately, he’s a future first baseman in High-A.

Lead Photo Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

Like the White Sox and the bottomless well of depression that has been center field since winning the 2005 World Series. Trading Aaron Rowand for Jim Thome made sense. The Sox needed a reliable DH (sorry Carl Everett) and some left-handed thump in the lineup. And Brian Anderson looked ready for the big leagues. Until he all of a sudden very much did not and the next two seasons involved the hideous amalgamation of Anderson, Jerry Owens, and Rob Mackowiak bringing their own unique weaknesses to center stage. Anderson couldn’t hit. Mackowiak didn’t belong in the outfield at all, much less in center. Owens couldn’t actually play baseball. Things weren’t great, but they were about to get worse.

I’ve had a pet theory for a while now that the Nick Swisher trades are the moment you can see Kenny Williams’ roster decisions start to falter. There were certainly misses before 2008 and hits after 2009, but things never quite went as well as they did before the failed one year experiment of starting the bro-iest bro of all time in center field for the last Sox playoff team. 153 games of disastrous BABIP-luck and grating personality later, the Sox were left with Anderson once more. Mid-2009 through 2011 saw the worst three year stretch of Alex Rios’ career, an abysmal morass worth 1.1 WARP over 333 games. A shift back to right field salvaged Rios’ value and gave Alejandro de Aza a brief window to shine over the next two seasons.

It looked like the Sox had finally found their man in Adam Eaton in 2014 before admitting his route running skills were better served in right and then in Washington instead with the last two seasons involving the horrific hodgepodge of J.B Shuck, Austin Jackson, Jacob May, Adam Engel, about one second of Charlie Tilson, and some Leury Garcia magic. It’s been less than ideal.

With Tilson having been reassigned to minor league camp and May being May, it’s looking like the starting center field job for 2018 belongs to Engel with Garcia filling in whenever he’s not manning one of five other positions any given day, and maybe a bit of Ryan Cordell. Depending on how much faith you have in Engel’s oft-tinkered swing, your mileage may vary. But the future at least looks less bleak than the majority of the past two decades. Luis Robert starts his inevitable march towards Chicago this year. We just have to be patient for a few more seasons.

Lead Photo Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports

It was a lot.

Fortunately, Thome did what he could to soften the blow—and Thomas went to Oakland where he destroyed the Twins in the playoffs, the memory of which still brings joy to my petty, petty heart.

Since Rowand was shipped out, however, the White Sox have seemed wholly unable to address center field for any meaningful length of time.  First up was Brian Anderson, who—other than that one random game against Felix Hernandez—just could not hit at all.  When that didn’t work, it prompted all manner of ridiculous and embarrassing scrambling as Jerry Owens, Darin Erstad, Andy Gonzalez, and Luis Terrero were thrown at the problem in 2007.

Sufficiently humiliated, the White Sox sent some, at the time, valuable prospect capital off to Oakland for Nick Swisher.  And while the 2008 squad made the playoffs, Swisher had a low-BABIP season and uh…did not fit in the clubhouse, such that by the end he was being phased out for Dewayne Wise.  Swisher was traded for pennies on the dollar and they were back to the drawing board.*

*The Swisher Saga merits further discussion, so stay tuned for Mark Primiano’s pending treatise on the topic.

2009 saw Brian Anderson back working in a ghastly tandem with Wise where neither hit although they caught stuff most of the time.  This edition also featured the husks of Mark Kotsay and Scott Podsednik getting innings in center. It was so bad the White Sox shocked the league and claimed Alex Rios’ then-ludicrous contract from the Blue Jays off waivers in the hopes of finally solving the problem.

Rios cratered and hit miserably to close out the season, but they thought they’d found their man.  And although the 2010 squad won 88 games—the best mark from 2009 to the present—they were dusted by the Twins.  2010 Rios looked something like what they had hoped for, hitting .284/.334/.457, a massive upgrade on what they’d come to expect from the position.

Then 2011 happened and Rios hit just about as badly as their patchwork of replacement dreck had for years before his arrival.  The Curse of Rowand flexed its muscles once more. Rios’ defense had clearly declined such that he was moved to right, and 2012 saw Alejandro de Aza produce decently on both sides of the ball. He held things down until the acquisition of Adam Eaton.  However, he too quickly looked like he needed to move to a corner.  Unfortunately, that meant center field was manned by a tandem of J.B. Shuck and Austin Jackson as 2016 sank into such despair that the organization finally blew everything up.

All of this brings us to 2018.  As an avid Leury Garcia fan, he has the capability of covering center adequately, although his optimal deployment would be as the Swiss Army Knife he is, backing up multiple positions and getting 200-400 PAs a year.

To my eye, Adam Engel appears to be in the fine tradition of Wise and Anderson—an athlete who can go and get it in center, but can’t hit a lick.  Even though he was a rookie in 2017, Engel is already 26, has been old at every minor league level, and outside of ~50-something PAs in the Arizona Fall League, has barely hit at any stop before arriving in Chicago.  If he can match his career .741 minor league OPS in the majors, then he’s a second division regular, but it looks like that may be more than he can manage while time is running out.

Ryan Cordell is intriguing, but center field is probably more of a once-or-twice a week thing for him rather than a full-time gig. Charlie Tilson looked like a potentially solid option, but that was two years, one catastrophic leg injury, and a cavalcade of subsequent setbacks ago.

That’s not to say the next long-term, star (or solid) center fielder isn’t already in the organization.  Indeed, they have a plethora of potential solutions even if you limit yourself to Guys Named Luis.  Luis Robert and Luis Alexander Basabe could both wind up as assets there, although even if they pan out, they are likely both at least two years away.  Luis Gonzalez has his fans, although his ceiling and ETA are a step back from Luises One and Two.  Tito Polo looks more like a fourth outfielder, but could also be a solution in 2019 or 2020.

The fact remains, however, should the White Sox fancy themselves contenders in 2019 and 2020, they may not have anything ready for a playoff competitor on time.  The 2018-2019 free agent class is much ballyhooed for the likes of Bryce Harper and Manny Machado, but it could also be where the White Sox invest in free agency.

Perhaps the White Sox will be positioned to sign a Charlie Blackmon or A.J. Pollock as part of shifting from talent hoarding to actually winning.  And, if so, hopefully whoever it is will be mighty enough to stave off Rowand’s Spectre for a few seasons.

Photo courtesy of Mark J Rebilas-USA Today Sports Images.

• The overall state of the White Sox farm system.
• The upside of Eloy Jimenez and Michael Kopech, what sets them apart from the rest of the system, and what went into picking between the two for the No. 1 spot.
• The high upside but risk of a prospect like Dylan Cease.
• Alec Hansen’s roller coaster ride from potential No. 1 draft pick to terrible college performance to top prospect.
• How the hell you rank Luis Robert.
• The next group of guys, what to like and dislike from Jake Burger, Dane Dunning, Blake Rutherford, and Zack Collins.
• Thoughts on guys outside the Top 10, including Micker Adolfo, Spencer Adams, A.J. Puckett, Yeyson Yrizarri, and more.
• The construction of the White Sox Under 25 rankings, as authored by Nick.
• Some always necessary talk about Japanese wrestling between Jarrett and Collin, while Nick tries not to fall asleep.

Be sure to subscribe to this podcast on iTunes by searching for “The Catbird Speaks.” Please be sure to rate and review us!

Among the specific topics:

-Why Reynaldo Lopez was omitted from the Top 50.

-The difficulty of slotting in the newly signed Luis Robert.

-Why they prospect team has always been so high on Alec Hansen.

-What’s the deal with Lucas Giolito?

-Why Yoan Moncada isn’t in the majors yet.

-Lower ranked White Sox prospects and what Craig thinks of them.

-Best names in the White Sox farm system.

Also be sure to check out the chat transcript from Jeffrey Paternostro, as he talked about the Top 50 list and more on Thursday. And Jarrett Seidler wrote up how the prospect team narrowed down its choices to ultimately land on Yoan Moncada as No. 1.

You can subscribe to this podcast on iTunes or our BlogTalkRadio page by searching for The Catbird Speaks.

Before the season, BP had four White Sox prospects in its Top 50 and six in the Top 101, which of course was helped by an offseason in which the White Sox traded away their two best players for a plethora of young talent. This updated version, with 51 fewer names, also has four in the Top 50, but not the same four as were there in the preseason.

Let’s look at where BP has these guys slotted as well as some of our own thoughts on the progress of these players. For the full list, which is absolutely worth your time, click here.

No. 1: Yoan Moncada

Moncada is BP’s top prospect in baseball, which isn’t a controversial pick as you’ll find his name at or near the top of literally any other publication’s list of top prospects. Moncada was No. 5 on the preseason list, but his four spot jump can be misleading. Of the four ranked ahead of him, two are no longer eligible for the list because of promotion (Dansby Swanson, Andrew Benintendi), one had Tommy John surgery shortly after the initial list was published (Alex Reyes), and one has flat out stunk this season (J.P. Crawford).

That isn’t selling Moncada short, of course. If you’re anywhere near the top of this list, it’s for good reason. And Moncada has performed at Triple-A this season about as well as one could have expected. As you’ll see in the write-up from BP’s prospect team, Moncada remains a five-tool talent with the only legitimate question coming about his hit tool. He’s still striking out a ton — 27.6 percent strikeout rate in Charlotte this season — while displaying otherwise phenomenal power and speed.

When the season began, many believed we’d see Moncada in Chicago relatively soon. That hasn’t happened, whether because of service time, the injury that cost him a few weeks and saw him slump badly upon his return, neither, or both, but it likely won’t be long before we see him get another shot at the big league level after a short, forgettable promotion with the Red Sox last fall.

No. 25: Michael Kopech

Kopech made a small jump from No. 36 in the preseason to No. 25 on the current iteration, and the White Sox were aggressive with him from the onset of the season as he’s spent the entire season at Double-A after spending most of last season in High-A with the Red Sox.

He’s pretty much been as advertised from when the White Sox acquired him over the winter, with an electric fastball that reaches triple digits on a regular basis, a plus slider, and all sorts of command issues. He’s had mixed results in Birmingham, striking out an absurd 101 in 78 1/3 innings, while also walking 53 batters.

Kopech’s progress over the next couple years will be as interesting as any of the guys on this list, given the thin margin for error there is for a guy with his repertoire between being a lights-out frontline starter and a hard throwing bullpen dude who struggles to find the strike zone. He won’t turn 22 until the first month of next season, so there’s plenty of time, and you know the White Sox are going to do everything in their power to make sure he ends up the former.

No. 31: Lucas Giolito

Giolito, along with Reynaldo Lopez (not on the Top 50 after being ranking No. 30 in the preseason) both fell from their preseason positions on BP’s list. Giolito was the No. 10 prospect in baseball according to BP just 3 1/2 months ago, but hasn’t done much to alleviate the concerns over his declining velocity.

We’re not very far removed from Giolito being considered by many to be the top pitching prospect in baseball, and there’s still plenty of hope. The White Sox have only been able to work with him for a few months now, and their reputation for both fixing and developing starting pitchers means there are worse places for Giolito to be, but his struggles thus far make it easy to see why he’s taken such a fall in the rankings.

No. 42: Alec Hansen

The biggest riser among White Sox on this list is Hansen, who was No. 97 on the preseason version. Hansen’s ceiling might not be all that high, but BP sees two plus pitches and mid-rotation upside, which is a hell of a projection when you consider just 13 months ago he was a second round pick who fell in the draft after a hellacious final season of college ball at Oklahoma.

Bonus: Luis Robert

Robert was left off the midseason list, but as noted within the article, it was mostly because the prospect team hasn’t yet gotten a look at the 19-year-old Cuban outfielder the White Sox inked to a $26 million deal less than a month ago. You’ll likely see him rank highly on most prospect lists going forward, but there’s a clear line between teams and evaluators who like Robert and those who don’t. Which side of the line BP’s prospect team falls is still to be determined.

Omission: Reynaldo Lopez

As mentioned above, Lopez was No. 30 on the preseason Top 101 and failed to make the Top 50 this time around. Whether or not a pitcher can last as a starter once reaching the big leagues is a question surrounding any pitching prospect, but the concerns seem much greater concerning Lopez than any of those who made the list, hence the omission. The White Sox obviously express publicly confidence that Lopez will remain a starter, and of the top pitchers in the system, he’s the one guy who seems closest to major league promotion at the moment, so we may find out if that’s truly the case sooner than later.

Lead Photo Credit: Joe Camporeale-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.

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