It didn’t take long for the White Sox to turn to the Knights for help, recalling Jake Burger to fill-in for Eloy Jimenez, Jesse Scholtens to replace the recently DFA-ed Jose Ruiz and most recently Kenyan Middleton for Joe Kelly.
Now, the White Sox face a new set of issues: Does Jake Burger return to Charlotte when Eloy comes off the IL in a week or so? Is there anyone else in Charlotte who can help a struggling Sox pitching staff? And has Lenyn Sosa’s phenomenal start put him in the conversation for a call-up?
Sosa Is Hot, But the Knights’ Offense Is Not
Sosa is sizzling: Through nine games, he’s carrying a slash line of .448/.556/.828, with two homers, five doubles and eight RBIs. He told FutureSox in preseason that he’s trying to be more patient at the plate and it is working, as evidenced by his seven walks to just five strikeouts, in 36 plate appearances.
Sosa is also on the 40-man roster, so it becomes a much simpler process to promote him if there’s an injury, especially to a middle infielder.
The Knights, meanwhile, are near the bottom of the 20-team International League in batting average and home runs. They are striking out too much and not walking nearly enough.
It is not your typical Knights team, with a lineup featuring more line-drive hitters than power bats. Removing Burger from the lineup only exacerbates the matter.
There are a few bright spots as Adam Haseley and Zach Remillard are among team leaders in OBP. Manager Justin Jirschele manned Haseley and Remillard in the lead-off spot on several occasions, presumably to see if his best two OBP guys can spark the offense.
The team is looking to Carlos Perez’ bat to drive in runs and he has two homers and four RBIs thus far. He was one of the toughest guys to strikeout last year in Triple-A and that hasn’t changed, with just three strikeouts in 36 plate appearances.
Victor Reyes, the former Tigers’ outfielder, also is a bit of a bright spot this year and is second on the team in batting average at .308. On a team short of big bats, he could have an outsized role this year.
Pitching Is The Key
The Knights opened the season with surprising depth in the rotation, but that is already being tested with Scholtens’ call-up and an injury to John Parke.
Davis Martin also pitched well in his two starts this year. He is on the 40-man and may find himself in Chicago fairly soon if reinforcements are deemed necessary.
That leaves Nate Fisher, who has been excellent in two starts; AJ Alexy, who walked seven and didn’t get out of the first in his lone start; and Jonathan Stiever, who tossed two scoreless frames in his first outing of the year.
Sean Burke will also be joining the rotation shortly after shoulder discomfort slightly delayed his preseason preparation. And the White Sox promoted Garrett Davila from Birmingham to Charlotte last week. Davila, a right-hander, spent all of 2022 with the Barons making 11 starts in 29 games and posting a 4.97 ERA.
The bullpen has been largely effective out of the gate this year, even if the stats don’t reflect it.
New arms also continue to arrive in the bullpen, including Lincoln Henzman, who joined the team last week after an extended spring, and veteran Alex Colomé, who was recently signed by the White Sox. Andrew Perez moves to the Developmental List to make room for Colome.
This Week
The Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp roll into Charlotte for a six-game series this week. It will be a good test for the Knights’ staff as Jacksonville is near the league lead in home runs. Conversely, the Miami Marlins are known for pitching, but the Jumbo Shrimp are off to a slow start on the mound, with the worst ERA in the International League.
I know this sounds crazy so please stick with me…it’s almost as if he got to the show, had a baptism by fire that showed him the flaws in his game and what it takes to hit in the bigs, and then he went down to the minors and worked on those things.
That’s just wild talk.
Where do you come up with this stuff?
From other organizations that are not the Chicago White Sox lol. The way this team usually handles its players is so beyond weird to me, and it was even weirder under TLR.