Has clutch home-run machine Daniel Palka played his way into the White Sox long-term plans?

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He’s got 21 home runs and a flair for the dramatic. So has Daniel Palka played his way into the White Sox long-term plans?

Palka Power struck again Monday afternoon, smacking a game-tying homer in the bottom of the ninth inning and setting the stage for Matt Davidson’s walk-off blast two batters later. It was Palka’s sixth ninth-inning homer this season, the most in the major leagues.

He’s got a knack for the clutch to go along with his obvious He-Man power — a 115 mph liner off Palka's bat smoked Detroit Tigers pitcher Michael Fulmer in the shin and chased him from Monday’s game — a couple of pretty valuable attributes no matter what role he ends up playing on the teams of the future.

“Who knows why he’s able to do that,” manager Rick Renteria said after the win. “He just gets in there, he obviously takes a really good approach. He seems to bear down. He got a pitch he could handle and drove it the other way. He can pull it, he can hit it the other way, he can pretty much hit the ball out of the ballpark anywhere he’d like just depending on the pitch.

“He’s played left, he’s played right. He jokes about playing center, which isn’t going to happen. Made a nice catch down the right-field line in foul territory (on Monday). Again, I don't want to place limitations on any of our guys as to what they can or cannot do moving forward. You have to allow them to dictate based on how they prepare and perform to tell us by their actions what they’re going to be able to do or not to do.

“He’s a young man that we got obviously in the offseason, came into camp, put together a pretty nice camp and we’re still looking at him and trying to determine. He’ll tell us, his play will tell us, what he’s capable of doing or not doing and the consistency in which he’ll do it. We just have to keep our eyes open and make sure we’re seeing the right things.”

What the White Sox have seen so far are the 21 home runs, one away from the team lead, and this uncanny ability to come through in the clutch.

That alone, though, isn’t good enough for Palka, who would prefer his other offensive numbers looked as attractive as the home-run total. He came into Monday’s game with a .236 batting average and a .282 on-base percentage, numbers that don’t exactly scream everyday player on a contending team. That’s not to take anything away from how he’s stood out in this rebuilding season. But he’d like to see those numbers get bigger.

“I mean there’s lots of good things, but the consistency still isn’t what I want it to be,” he said. “Average wise, I’m not happy with that. But overall I feel like the positive has outweighed the negatives. The negatives are pretty simple fixes and adjustments.”

The good news is that a contending club has all sorts of roles to play. And when the White Sox exit this rebuilding process into what’s planned to be seasons’ worth of championship-caliber rosters, there will be a need for everyday players and bench bats alike.

Imagine being able to bring Palka’s bat off the bench in the ninth inning of a game like Monday’s — only a couple years down the road, a game like Monday’s figures to mean a lot more.

“Palka’s been great,” general manager Rick Hahn said before Monday’s game. “Twenty home runs already from the left side in a limited number of plate appearances. Our scouts did a really good job on him when they recommended bringing him in here.

“I think Palka plays a role on a very good club. That role, we’re still learning about. I think when we first had him out there in right field, it was shaky at times, but when we put him in left, he looked a little bit more comfortable. So we learned a little more about him there. Maybe at some point down the road we try him at first base a little bit more and see how that looks, to see if he can fit in that way.

“At the very least, we know the left-handed power plays. It’s a nice weapon to have at your disposal, whether it’s in your lineup every day or off your bench.”

The White Sox might not know exactly where Palka might fit on those teams of the future, but for a guy who wasn’t on this team when the season began, he’s done enough to be at the forefront of the conversation about what those rosters might look like.

And if he keeps hitting home runs in the ninth inning, well that will certainly help his cause.

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