It was a hectic week of roster comings and goings, highlighted by the debut of Eloy Jimenez in Charlotte on a rehab assignment. In addition, the White Sox obtained catcher Deivy Grullon in a trade and assigned him to Charlotte, released pitcher Matt Tomshaw, called up Reynaldo Lopez, demoted Jace Fry and Matt Foster and sent Jake Lamb to Charlotte to rehab.
The team also announced that fan-favorite Tim Beckham re-injured his surgically repaired knee and would need season-ending surgery. Infielder Laz Rivera was promoted from Birmingham on Friday to fill Beckham’s spot.
Against this backdrop, the Knights played their worst baseball of the season, losing all six games to the Gwinnett Stripers, an affiliate of the Braves and a team that the Knights just can’t seem to beat.
Eloy Jimenez Watch
Most importantly, in a chat with media on Thursday, Jimenez pronounced himself healthy and painfree. His swing is another story, as he continues to shake off the rust and regain his timing. For the week, Jimenez was 5-20 with a home run, double and 10 strikeouts.
How long Jimenez is in Charlotte remains to be seen. Manager Wes Helms said early in the week that the White Sox would reassess after Jimenez’ first week in Charlotte. But Jimenez clearly needs many more at bats before he is ready for major-league pitching — the question is whether the White Sox want him to get those plate appearances in Charlotte or Chicago.
Week In Review — Hitting
Assigned to Charlotte one week before Jimenez arrived, Yermin Mercedes made his presence felt in the lineup, positively, with his bat, and negatively, with his catcher’s mitt. Mercedes was 8-for-23 on the week, with six extra-base hits, eight runs scored and seven RBI.
Unfortunately, the number of passed balls and wild pitches on his watch have been astronomical. Fortunately, with Grullon’s arrival, Mercedes will likely see more time at first and third base, DH and perhaps even the outfield.
Grullon had a debut to remember, hitting a mammoth home run over the center field batter’s eye, the first time that that has been done this season. Acquired from the Rays for cash, the 25-year-old catcher is an intriguing prospect, at a position where the White Sox are thin while Yasmani Grandal is on the IL.
Grullon broke out in 2018 in Double-A, where he hit 21 home runs for the Phillies. The next year, in Triple-A, he again hit 21 homers. The Phillies elected to DFA Grullon in late 2020 when they needed to create space on the 40-man roster.
Among other hitters, Luis Gonzalez had a strong week, with seven hits in 16 at bats, along with seven walks, five runs scored and five RBI. He is hitting .241 on the season. Blake Rutherford chipped in six hits on the week.
In a week like this, when everything that could go wrong did go wrong, it is hard to draw too many conclusions. A lot of guys are scuffling right now, especially Matt Reynolds and Zach Remillard.
But I’m curious to see what Grullon can do over the next several weeks. He definitely has a track record of hitting home runs. In addition, Ti’Quan Forbes has looked impressive defensively and was hitting .299 in Birmingham when he was promoted; I’m curious to see if his hit tool holds up in Triple-A.
Near term, Gonzalez, Rutherford and perhaps Williams are the prospects closest to the major leagues. They’ve all had nice stretches this season but haven’t shown near the consistency necessary at this point and are a long way off, it at all.
Week In Review — Pitching
In minor-league baseball’s Covid-driven schedule that features weekly six-game series, it was Jimmy Lambert’s turn to get two starts this week. In his first start, Lambert was victimized when his infield bungled a potential double play ball, opening the door to a 39-pitch, two-run first inning. Because the White Sox require their pitching prospects be removed after any inning in which they throw more than 30 pitches, that was it for Lambert.
Lambert was then scratched on Sunday, the Knights opting to give the ball instead to reliever Tanner Banks.
The Knights’ other young talented starting pitching prospect, Jonathan Stiever, had an excellent outing, scattering three hits over five innings while tying his season-high of eight strikeouts.
“He commanded his pitches better,” Helms said. “He’s getting swings and misses that he wasn’t getting earlier in the season.”
Mike Wright gave up four hits and three earned runs over six innings in his start on Saturday, though he appears a little less dominating lately. Pitching coach Matt Zaleski said there is a slight issue with Wright’s mechanics that the veteran continues to tweak.
The bullpen has improved dramatically over the past few weeks, but Gwinnett seems to bring out the worst in the Knights and that was certainly the case for Charlotte’s pen this week. Kyle Kubat was really the only reliever who distinguished himself over the past six games.
A Closer Look at Some Relievers
I asked Zaleski on Friday about two of the Knight’s relievers, Tyler Johnson and Zack Burdi, who are among the more important arms in the pen because they are both on the White Sox 40-man roster.
Zaleski said Johnson has struggled much of this season to find the mechanics that worked so well for him in 2018 and 2019, and more recently had been pitching through a hip injury. But Zaleski is seeing signs of progress recently, though Johnson could only manage one-third of an inning on Saturday while surrendering four hits and two walks.
As far as Burdi, Zaleski said the White Sox sent him down to Charlotte to get the reliever to become quicker to home plate. “They want him to not let guys steal on him,” Zaleski said. “So we’ve gone into more of a slide step, a quicker-tempo delivery, and it has looked really good.”
Among other relievers, Zaleski singled out Connor Sadzeck as one guy who has made great strides of late. “He struggled a lot early on, but has really picked it up the last month or so,” Zaleski said. “We had him put his sinker and curveball in his back pocket for now. Being a reliever throwing one inning, why do you need five pitches. So he’s been attacking with that four-seam slider/cutter, whatever you want to call it, and he’s done a nice job.”
Just How Bad Were The Knights This Week?
The offense and defense were both mediocre on Tuesday and Wednesday. On Thursday, the bats broke out in a big way, only to see the bullpen stage its most epic collapse of the season when four relievers gave up 10 walks and eight earned runs in three innings.
On Friday, the offense got enough guys on base, but couldn’t get the right hit at the right time. The team mustered just six hits on Saturday and the bullpen stumbled again — but Sunday’s loss was the most brutal of them all.
Powered by four doubles and six home runs, the Knights were up 11-3 heading to the seventh, and it looked like the team had finally exorcised the demons within. And then, in the blink of an eye, five relievers surrendered 10 runs over the final three innings, and the Knights lost 13-12.
Reynaldo Lopez Call-Up
The rumor mill went into overdrive when Reynaldo Lopez was a healthy scratch Wednesday night on direction from the White Sox. But the suspense ended 48 hours later when Lopez was added to the White Sox roster.
Zaleski attributed Lopez’ turnaround this season to a tweak that improved the repeatability of his mechanics and stopped him from drifting during his delivery. Zaleski said he also worked with Lopez about re-locating his breaking pitches.
Lopez primarily throws a fastball and slider, but Zaleski said the White Sox encouraged him in spring training to add a curve ball to his repertoire and “it has been pretty good lately.
Up Next
Speaking of teams that give the Knights fits, Charlotte is off to Durham this week to battle the Rays’ affiliate. At 44-20, the Bulls sit atop the seven-team Triple-A East/Southeast Division (really, THAT’s the best name MLB could come up with???). Even though the team’s top two prospects, Wander Franco and Vidal Brujan, have joined the major-league club, Durham still has plenty of stars and presents a formidable challenge.
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