The White Sox are selling catching prospect Edgar Quero to the group’s taxi squad previous to their subsequent sport on Tuesday, in response to reporter Francys Romero (by way of X). Whereas Quero is technically not a part of the group’s energetic roster but, the transfer would appear to indicate that the Sox are planning to have the 21-year-old switch-hitter make his Main League debut earlier than the season is over.
Quero left his native Cuba in 2019 and signed with the Angels in 2021, then instantly hit the bottom operating with some large numbers in his first professional seasons. The Angels’ acquisition of Logan O’Hoppe in 2022 after which their desperation to succeed in the postseason in 2023 (Shohei Ohtani’s final 12 months with the membership) made Quero an expendable piece, and the younger backstop was despatched to the White Sox as a part of the 2023 deadline deal that despatched Lucas Giolito and Reynaldo Lopez to Los Angeles.
The transfer to the White Sox group didn’t sluggish Quero down, and he has a mixed .281/.368/.467 slash line over 397 minor league plate appearances in 2024. The final 105 of these journeys to the plate came about at Triple-A Charlotte, although Quero solely simply returned this week from an IL stint. Quero missed over 5 weeks of taking part in time coping with a again downside, and if he had been wholesome, it appears probably that he already would’ve been up within the large leagues earlier in September.
MLB Pipeline ranks Quero because the 59th-best prospect in baseball, and Baseball America has the catcher 79th on their top-100 record. (The Athletic’s Keith Regulation additionally had Quero 67th on his preseason top-100 rating.) Quero has typically been extra productive towards left-handed pitching than towards righties, however had good contact numbers from either side of the plate. His energy dipped in 2023 however rebounded this 12 months, transferring to a .467 SLG and 16 homers after posting solely a .351 slugging proportion and 6 homers in 455 PA in 2023.
Defensively, BA’s scouting report appears a bit extra bullish than Pipeline about Quero’s future at catcher, as each websites observe that the 5’10”, 210-point Quero might want to watch his conditioning to assist his mobility. Even when Quero tops out as a mean defensive catcher at finest, his offensive potential ought to nonetheless enable him to carve out at the very least a part-time function within the majors.
Korey Lee’s first full Main League season acquired off to a pleasant begin, however he went right into a deep hunch because the season went on, and he has solely a 60 wRC+ and a .207/.238/.341 slash line over 382 PA. Identified extra for his glovework than his bat anyway, Lee has struggled when it comes to blocking and framing, however he has thrown out 23 of 100 baserunners making an attempt to steal this season, giving him one of many higher caught-stealing proportion of any catcher in baseball.
Even when Lee had completed sufficient to take a firmer grasp of the on a regular basis catching job going ahead, the White Sox are naturally nonetheless going to look in the direction of the longer term within the tail finish of this disastrous season. If Quero does certainly make his large league debut on Tuesday, he might share in some unlucky historical past, because the 36-120 White Sox are another defeat away from breaking the 1962 Mets’ fashionable document for losses in a season.
