Rick Hahn isn’t getting much love these days but early returns suggest he did at least one thing really well in 2023. Thanks to Hahn, the Triple-A Charlotte Knights is home to ample roster depth for his major-league squad.
Triple-A baseball — at least as far as affiliates of contending major-league teams are concerned — is much more about developing a taxi squad for the 26-man roster. And for an injury-prone team like the White Sox, adequate depth can make or break them.
Thus far, the Knights have supplied the White Sox with 11 players: Jake Burger, Lenyn Sosa, Jesse Scholtens, Adam Haseley, Tanner Banks, Billy Hamilton, Alex Colomé, Nick Padilla, Keynan Middleton, Sammy Peralta and most recently Carlos Perez.
There are still some interesting options left in Charlotte, including outfielders Clint Frazier, Jake Marisnick, Victor Reyes and Stephen Piscotty, as well as Oscar Colás, who began the season with the big-league club before his demotion on May 2. In addition, Zach Remillard continues to turn heads in Charlotte, and veteran Erik González provides even more depth.
On the pitching side, two starters, Nate Fisher and Jesse Scholtens, have been rock-solid all season, while Daniel Ponce de Leon is looking increasingly viable as well as a multi-inning reliever.
Sammy Peralta had a brutal re-entry to Triple-A on Sunday after a tough outing a few days earlier in his three-day stint with the White Sox. Still, he’s been Charlotte’s most consistent reliever, though others have certainly excelled at times and it wouldn’t surprise me to see a couple other arms make their way to Chicago as the season rolls along.
UPDATING THE STARTING PITCHING
The Knights’ ace, Davis Martin, is on the IL with some type of arm injury and hasn’t pitched since April 14. I’m wondering if what was thought to be load management and general soreness issues are not more serious.
Sean Burke is back in the rotation after a stint on the Development List to tweak his mechanics, and seems to be moving in the right direction. He remains a work in progress with a big upside.
A trip to the Developmental List and a break from starting might benefit AJ Alexy, who is struggling mightily with command. The 25-year-old righty pitched an inning of relief on Sunday, importantly, with no walks and requiring just 16 pitches.
John Parke, Jonathan Stiever and Johan Dominguez remain on the IL with no timetable for a return.
WILL THE KNIGHTS FINISH ABOVE .500?
They laugh at me in the press box — and understandably so — when I say that this Knights’ squad can finish with a .500 record this season. Years of last-place finishes in the 20-team International League and a ballpark that can destroy a team’s best pitchers have systematically racheted down the expectations of a lot of Knights’ watchers.
But this team, unlike the past few seasons, has pitching. Injuries and call-ups can change that picture in a hurry, but so far the Knights have demonstrated enough starting pitching and improved relief pitching.
At the outset of the season, I thought the preponderance of line-drive hitters, and corresponding lack of power, in the Knights’ lineup would be the team’s biggest problem. But the additions of Stephen Piscotty and Clint Frazier, plus the demotion to Charlotte of Oscar Colás, have turned the lineup into a pitcher’s nightmare, as evidenced by the team’s 51 runs in four wins in Gwinnett this week.
The Knights are one game below .500 (16-17) as they return home to face their pesky nemisis, the Durham Bulls. A series split, or better, will keep that .500 record well within reach.
Who is scraeming “CREDIT RICK HAHN” at my house. show yourself, coward. I will never credit Rick Hahn
dril for GM
Did Rick Hahn write this post? I’m supposed to be impressed by Lenyn Sosa (very bad at baseball so far), Jesse Scholtens (2 appearances and didn’t record an out in one of them), Billy Hamilton (has not been on base except as a pinch runner), Alex Colomé (lol), Nick Padilla (11 BB in 14 IP in AAA, no mlb appearances), Sammy Peralta (lol), and Carlos Perez (somehow the best call up option when Eloy goes on the IL)?
I can give credit for Burger (who of course is injured for the 100th time in his career). And Middleton has been fun. But I’m certainly not going to credit Hahn for this being some kind of an impressive group. (Also enjoyed seeing Colas thrown in there as “AAA depth” rather than “massive failure to properly address RF”)
Haseley has been good so far
Fair, although it’s such a small sample size at this point, if you take out just 1 game, he’s only 3 for 12.
If you take out the games that Tim Anderson has hits, he has a .000 batting average. DFA?
3 for 12 with 2 walks!
Even though he had an opt-out, Alberto’s ST deal was a minor league contract too.
Hahn is to blame for a poorly constructed roster around an injury-prone core, as well as the shallow farm system lacking ML-ready prospects. But this “avid dart-thrower” Rick Hahn is a GM we haven’t seen before, so credit for some development.
“…Jesse Scholtens (2 appearances and didn’t record an out in one of them)”
That was because he came in, in the 10th and the error by Alberto ended the game. So, your comment is quite misleading
This comment is what’s wrong with a lot of White Sox fans on this page. Short Term memories. Very, very small sample sizes in the highest level in the Majors. Baseball is 162 games a year, we won’t know if a guy can contribute or be a Major Leaguer in the first couple months. Look at Time Anderson, look at Marcus Semien, ect….
Haseley has hit .230 at AAA since 2019. I mean anything is possible, but guys who don’t hit at AAA don’t generally do well over a longer timeframe in the majors. I think comparing Haseley or any of the Sox AAA guys to TA or Semien is a bit ridiculous.
I have little doubt Colas will prove to be the best RF the Sox have anywhere, b/c he’s hit the best out of all at AAA by a mile. He is the only hope they have of filling their ever present void in RF.
He’s a career .269 hitter both identically in MILB and MLB. I believe the comparison was about development trajectory and not direct players.
Not what I was talking about. Was speaking to guys like Sosa, Colas, ect…. If they don’t start blazing and keep blazing they are suddenly bad. Sometimes it takes time for prospects to develop, or players to develop.
Sosa nor Colas have a 100 career at bats, but yes, massive failures. /s
I appreciate the article.
The number of Charlotte Knights that have played for the White Sox is less of an indication of Rick Hahn’s depth-building prowess and more of an indication of the number of injuries to the big league roster. Most of the guys they have promoted from Charlotte are bad.
Yeah, this was my first thought. There is a case to be made that Charlotte has more depth than in previous years. That the Sox have needed 11 players from Charlotte isn’t part of that case.
When you ask the Knights what’s up with Davis Martin, how do they respond?
My mind keeps flashing back to the way he came off the field in his final start last year clutching his arm like it was hurt. He had pitched great for a month, then suddenly looked used up, and left hurt. Crickets the whole off season. Doesn’t make me optimistic.
About 10 days or so ago Jirschele said it was a matter of load management and fatigue, and that he expected Martin to pitch sooner than later. Knights return home this week and I’ll hope to get an update then.
Thanks for the post, Mr. Cohen, but I could not disagree more with your perspective. Charlotte is filled with a bunch of has-been or wanna-be major leaguers who were picked up on the fly to fill the huge lack of talent in the farm system. There’s no rhyme nor reason to the roster building but rather a chaotic attempt to find bodies. There is zero credible pitching.I fully expect Moe Drabowsky to fill the next reliever spot for Charlotte. Mr. Hahn deserves credit for the terrific, Roland Hemond-way he patched up the MLB roster in 2021 and kept the Sox in the race. I do not believe he deserves any credit for the disaster that is the Sox farm system. Across town, we see the Cubs calling up Matt Mervis and probably soon Kris Morel. There are no comparable players in our system.
To clarify, I am not crediting Hahn for the MLB roster. It is poorly constructed.
Nor am I crediting Hahn for the minor-league system. It has been a big disappointment. Maybe things will be different in, say, two years, when we learn what the Sox have with Jose Rodriguez, Colson Montgomery, Cristian Mena, Matthew Thompson, Bryan Ramos, as well as all the guys in WS and Kanny, including all the young arms in last year’s draft. I’m “cautiously” optimistic, though that speaks to player development, which also comes under the GM’s purview. And, again, Hahn has a mixed record.
The White Sox are very injury-prone. Is that Hahn’s fault? Maybe. I don’t think so, but I don’t know.
Nor do I think Charlotte has a lot of guys who can move the needle much in Chicago. But, to me, that’s not the point when you’re filling in for Luis Robert, Tim Anderson or Eloy Jimenez with guys off your Triple-A squad. Ideally, you want a guy who has some MLB experience, with a decent baseball IQ, who is league average-ish at the plate. Beyond Jake Burger and Gavin Sheets, that hasn’t been the case in the past couple of years. But I think it is the case this year, as Hahn replaced Blake Rutherford and Micker Adolfo with Clint Frazier, Victor Reyes, etc.
Hahn did build depth in Charlotte. There are guys with MLB experience and, while they are cast offs, if they weren’t on the Knights then the Sox would be calling up AA guys. Would that Hahn would have created such depth on the MLB roster so that guys like Andrus are not the everyday 2B and Sheets isn’t playing RF (or Colas). So why didn’t he? Well, as we recently learned from JR himself, JR wasn’t going to pay the MLB market rate set by those “stupid” owners.
Someone should put this Rick Hahn guy in charge of a minor league baseball team
The richness of roster depth that the Sox have stocked up at Charlotte. Seriously?
I think their April start put to rest the question of whether the Sox have anything that constitutes roster depth.
Rick has assembled AAAA players for as far as the eye can see. Truly the next wonder of the MLB world.
Jeff – I can only think of 3 reasons for this article.
After catching a cold this weekend, you were reaching for the Nyquil and grabbed that old bottle of Sox koolaid instead.
Someone hacked your account, which means that SoxWin2023!! is no longer a safe password.
This was all done tongue-n-cheek to right mind us after a weekend playing the Reds and thinking the Sox can actually play this game.
I’m leaning towards the last one you cheeky bastard.
Hehehe. Nothing like saying something positive about Rick Hahn to get people’s attention.
Praise Rick Hahn? Gross.
I think if the Charlotte roster were the MLB White Sox roster, they too could have won 12 games through May 7th. I further agree, Rick Hahn should be the new Charlotte GM.
When you say Burke “seems to be moving in the right direction,” what does that mean? His last appearance was, I think, 38 strikes and 29 balls, so the box score doesn’t exactly scream “fixed it!”
I was thinking more of his start on April 30, when he gave up 3 hits over 4 IP & only walked 2. Let’s just see what Zaleski can do with him over the next 2 months before we give up.
I’ll wait a couple of months before reaching any conclusions about him either way! I hope Zaleski can get him on track – we need that depth.
The AAA depth is only good if you compare to past White Sox seasons. It’s piss poor if you compare to the rest of the league. Gwinett is terrible, given the Braves have one of the few farm systems worse than the White Sox, except their farm system is bad because it produces big leaguers and/or they trade prospects for stars.
Every organization in the league has guys like the minor league free agents the White Sox have signed, except most orgs sign guys who are better.
Seriously, go look at what like 20-25 other teams do with their AAA rosters. They have better prospects, and they also sign better minor league free agents.
Rick Hahn can surely fill multiple baseball rosters.