Season in review: Knights’ roster has plenty of upside

With the Knights on the road for two weeks, our beat reporter in Charlotte, Jeff Cohen, has had a chance to step back and look at the season to date.  Here’s his analysis, in a three-part series.  Part I examined the call-ups to date.  Today, he looks at the rest of the roster.

The Knights’ roster can be divided roughly into three groups: players that have and may again be called up, veterans yet to be called upon who provide emergency depth, and prospects.

The starting rotation features at least one of each.

Jimmy Lambert, of course, has made two spot starts in Chicago this year and will likely make a few more.

Conversely, Jonathan Stiever has yet to see time in Chicago this season, but he continues to progress, even though his stats don’t show it.  July was especially unkind, though his start on July 31 was one of his best of the year in terms of overall control and execution of breaking pitches.

Of course, there’s Mike Wright, the unquestioned ace of the staff.  If you’ve paid any attention to the Knights this season, you know Wright has been a life saver, tossing five to seven innings every start (except his last) when all the other starters rarely do so.

The 31-year-old had disappointing results in five major-league seasons, from 2015-2019.  The chance he sees the majors in 2021 is a longshot, but his performance this year could possibly earn him a spring training invitation somewhere next season.  He’s an easy guy to pull for: he wants the ball every fifth day, works quickly, throws strikes, gets the most out of his talent and wears his passion on his sleeve.  His love for the game is apparent.  The press box chatter is that he’ll make a great coach one day.

Finally, there’s Alex McRae.  The 28-year-old 10th round pick of the Pirates in 2014 pitched two innings for the White Sox in May and now finds himself in the Knights’ rotation.  His results are mostly so-so, though he has impressed at times.

The Bullpen

For the first two months of the season, the focus was simply on getting everyone enough work, regardless of results. It was taking longer than normal, Helms said, because few guys on the staff faced live hitting in 2020.

Not only were guys rusty, they were intimidated by the hitter-friendly ballpark in Charlotte.  Zaleski pleaded with the relievers to attack the zone and pitch to soft contact, but guys nibbled instead, and the result was a staff that averaged about seven walks a game.  More often than not, the bullpen let games get out of hand before the offense ever had a chance.

Finally, a new bullpen is taking shape.  A half-dozen guys have been released, included several in the past few weeks, arms have been added from Birmingham, a free agent veteran was signed and the result is the prospect of a more competitive pen.

The veteran is Kyle Crick, who was released by the Pirates.  The White Sox are hoping he can get back to his dominate form of 2017-18 when had WHIPs of 1.21 and 1.13, and batting averages against of .191 and .202.

Another veteran who has been on the roster all season is Nik Turley.  A 31-year-old lefty, Turley has closed a lot of games for the Knights, and has been extremely effective.  But he has had a couple of games when he’s lost his composure — and the plate — over the inconsistent umpiring, which is a bit surprising given his experience.

Among the relievers who’ve spent time this year in Chicago are Jace Fry, Ryan Burr, Matt Foster and Zach Burdi.  Fry has pitched well in Charlotte and Burr was just demoted from Chicago.  Burdi is an interesting case because his spot on the 40-man roster may be in jeopardy with a roster crunch in Chicago. Foster was returned only recently to create a spot for Jake Lamb.

Another highly-regarded reliever, Tyler Johnson, was released to open up a spot on the 40-man after the trade deadline.  The team hopes to re-sign Johnson, who had knee surgery last week and has struggled mightily this season in Charlotte.

It is too soon to assess the impact of three newer additions, Lane Ramsey, who pitched well this year in both Winston-Salem and Birmingham, and Ofreidy Gomez and Bennett Sousa, also up from Double-A after a solid seasons.

Hunter Schryver, Will Carter, Tanner Banks and Kodi Medeiros also have had mixed results so far in 2021.  Banks has begun serving as an opener since Lopez’ promotion.

Kyle Kubat has flown a bit under the radar but has had a promising season as one of the team’s few multi-inning relievers.

The Bats

In anticipation of having a competitive major-league team, the White Sox put several veterans on the Knights.  Less competitive teams tend to load their Triple-A affiliates with younger prospects to see if they might someday help the major-league club.

Among the veterans on the Knights at the start of the season were infielders Tim Beckham, Marco Hernandez and Matt Reynolds and outfielder Brian Goodwin.  Two other older but less proven outfielders, Mikie Mahtook and Nick Williams, were also added to the squad.

Beckham was having a solid year before knee surgery ended his season.  Goodwin is in Chicago — though he could be odd man out when the White Sox bring back Luis Robert — and Williams was released last week. Gavin Sheets is another possibility.

Williams didn’t do much early, but heated up in July, hitting .298.  I’ll be curious to find out when the team returns to Charlotte if Williams asked to be released to find more consistent playing time elsewhere or if he was just the victim of a team that had too many outfielders ahead of him.

Hernandez has hit well all season though the Cesar Hernandez acquisition probably seals his fate, and Mahtook leads the team in home runs with 15, but a slash line of .218/.286/.492 is holding him back.  Reynolds is among the team leaders in OBP at .372.  But he may hard-pressed to get regular at bats in the near term, given who is ahead of him.  Even though he has played shortstop through most of his career, longer term, he might stand a better chance for advancement at second base, which may suit his skillset better.  

So who plays?

Right now, there just are not enough at bats to go around.  Even after Robert returns to Chicago, Burger, Mendick, Yermin Mercedes and Micker Adolfo are going to play regularly.  

Adolfo is a talented, imposing athlete, with a powerful arm and prodigious power — but a suspect hit tool.  And he is out of options next year, so the White Sox need to find out now just what they have in him.  It has yet to click in his brief stint in Charlotte, but he’ll likely get every opportunity in the remaining two months of the season.  Helms is an ardent supporter and is working hard to unleash Adolfo’s potential.

The White Sox have a much better idea what they have in Mercedes — a mercurial player with an impressive slash line of .286/.333/.571 across 25 games in Charlotte.  But it remains to be seen if he is anything more than a designated hitter.  He has demonstrated poor catching skills in Charlotte, and has spent a lot of time recently at first base, where his inexperience is evident.  Helms would like to get Mercedes playing time at third base and in the outfield as well, but those spots are a bit crowded right now.

When Mercedes is not behind the plate, the bulk of the playing time may go to Deivy Grullon, who profiles as a power-hitter with a lot of swing and miss.  Despite being just 25-years-old, Grullon has bounced around the league (raising some red flags) after strong minor-league seasons in 2018-19 with the Phillies.

Here’s where it gets interesting.

Blake Rutherford has gotten a long look this season.  Without access to proprietary White Sox data, it is hard to know just how hard he is hitting the ball and how good his plate discipline is.  But the former number one draft pick of the Yankees in 2016 has an anemic OBP of .282 and leads the team with 80 strikeouts.  Yet he also is tops on the team with 20 doubles and has flashed a beautiful opposite-field, line-drive stroke. 

Another outfielder who will be near the front of the line for at bats when he returns from the IL is Luis Gonzalez.  He’s having a solid season, with a slash line of .241/.352/.423 and continues to show plenty of upside though it is still unclear as well if he is an every day major-league player.

The team also has two interesting middle-infield prospects up from Birmingham: Ti’Quan Forbes and Laz Rivera.  Playing time has been hard to come by but both have shown well in small sample sizes in Charlotte. 

Forbes hit .299 over 147 at bats in Double-A this year before his call-up, and is slashing .243/.299/.300 in 70 at bats in Charlotte.  When Forbes has had a chance to play third base, he’s looked terrific, though most of his time has been at first base.  The team has not had a natural first baseman since Sheets’ promotion and number of guys have found at bats there.

Rivera has played even less in Charlotte, but is off to a great start, with 10 hits in 35 at bats. And he had a big three-run homer on the road at Gwinnett recently.

Back-up catcher Nate Nolan and infielder Zach Remillard round out the roster.

Photo credit: Sean Williams/FutureSox

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