With Eloy Jimenez out for the foreseeable future with a left pectoral injury and Andrew Vaughn in the running to take over the slugger’s position in left field, catcher Zack Collins is now in line for the everyday DH job with the White Sox. With that in mind, the club needed another catcher on the roster, and that catcher will be Yermin Mercedes. On Monday, news broke — first via Mike Rodriguez and Hector Gomez — that Mercedes has made the major league squad out of spring training.
As a result of the move, the White Sox released catcher Jonathan Lucroy. Numerous reports indicated the veteran catcher asked for his release after being told he would not break camp with the Opening Day Sox.
Making the club out of spring training puts a nice exclamation mark on Mercedes’ long and winding career thus far. After being signed by the Washington Nationals 10 years ago, he was released two years later, despite hitting well for three seasons in the DSL. The Dominican backstop landed with the Baltimore Orioles as a free agent in 2014 and continued to hit Stateside, clobbering 59 home runs from 2015 to 2017 while keeping his average around .300.
Baltimore, however, decided not to protect Mercedes from the Rule 5 draft in late-2017, and the White Sox selected him in the minor league phase. Mercedes hit 14 home runs and produced a .840 OPS in Single-A Winston-Salem in 2018 before hitting an additional 23 bombs with a combined .968 OPS between Double-A Birmingham and Triple-A Charlotte. A call-up to Chicago never materialized, but the White Sox gave the catcher a long look in spring training 2020. Mercedes seized the opportunity and led the team (minimum 10 ABs) in home runs (4), SLG (.955), OPS (1.371) and finished second on the team to Adam Engel with 9 RBIs in 22 at-bats. Still, with both James McCann and Yasmani Grandal on the roster, there was really no spot available for Mercedes.
DEBUT AND SPRING TRAINING 2021
He did make his debut during the abbreviated pandemic season. On Aug. 2, 2020, in a series against the Kansas City Royals, Mercedes was called upon to pinch hit for struggling DH Edwin Encarnacion in the top of the eighth inning. Mercedes grounded out on a Glenn Sparkman 3-2 pitch and did not receive another at-bat.
And then the offseason arrived. James McCann and Encarnacion both departed. Suddenly, a spot as backup catcher or DH seemed possible for the affable Dominican. Mercedes once again, for the second year in a row, seized the opportunity to display his abilities on a baseball field in spring training. Despite increased competition, as the White Sox signed Lucroy to a minor league deal with an invite, Mercedes maintained. He did not “Yerminate” a single pitch over the outfield wall to this date, and his OPS dragged compared to his torrential performance one year ago, but Yermin showed off his defensive skills by throwing out multiple would-be base-stealers throughout March and catching solid games behind the plate.
With Zack Collins raking all spring, as well, the White Sox will reward two-thirds of their catcher contestants. Lucroy is left on the outside looking in. For now, it’s Yermin Time.
Photo credit: Sean Williams/FutureSox
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