In a sense, we’re going back to March when it comes to trying to figure out who’s going to be on the White Sox roster come Opening Day.
The huge difference, of course, is that Opening Day will — should COVID-19 not wreck Major League Baseball’s plans any further — be in late July as opposed to late March. But that hasn’t changed the uncertainty surrounding where two big pieces of the White Sox long-term future will begin the 2020 season.
Michael Kopech threw just one inning of Cactus League action, hitting triple digits on the radar gun multiple times that day. But it was expected that after more than a yearlong layoff while recovering from Tommy John surgery he would need some time in the minor leagues to build up arm strength. Well, three months later and no minor league games have been played, and the minor league season isn’t expected to happen at all.
Click to download the MyTeams App for the latest White Sox news and analysis.
So what does that mean for Kopech? The White Sox could just put him on the Opening Day roster. After all, he’s three more months removed from surgery, which should be good from a health standpoint. And with just 60 games on the schedule, any innings limitations the White Sox might have imposed in a 162-game season are surely much different if not entirely moot. Maybe Kopech could just let it rip over the course of the two months?
With a second round of spring training set to start in a week at Guaranteed Rate Field, the White Sox will take their time answering those questions, waiting to see what everyone’s health status is — from a baseball and COVID-19 standpoint — before making those decisions.
Still, the team sees the obvious benefit having Kopech on the roster for the full season, however short, could provide.
MLB
“As for individual guys, we’ll wait to see where we are from a health and performance standpoint once everyone shows up at big league camp,” general manager Rick Hahn said Thursday. “We talked about where Michael was in spring training and about how impressed we were as to how he came out of the gate despite the layoff.
“Hopefully he’s still in that spot when we all get together in Chicago next week. He’s certainly someone who could make a real impact for us over the course of 60 games.”
When it comes to Madrigal, the decision seems a lot more complicated.
Hahn said way back in September 2019 that he expected Madrigal, who excelled at three minor league levels last year, to be the White Sox second baseman for the bulk of the 2020 campaign. In January, Hahn said there were still some things Madrigal needed to show the team he could do before making his major league debut.
While Madrigal obviously didn’t get a full slate of Cactus League games to show the White Sox those things, it seemed as if he was going to begin the season at Triple-A Charlotte before making his way up to the bigs. After all, Madrigal is still saddled with service-time issues, something the White Sox have never said is part of their decision-making process but remains a reality of the game. Just like was discussed with Eloy Jimenez and Luis Robert in recent years — those two eventually avoided these issues when they signed long-term contracts — the White Sox could benefit from an extra year of team control if Madrigal’s debut doesn’t come until after a certain point in the calendar.
RELATED: 2020 MLB season: 6 White Sox players who could thrive in 60-game schedule
That calendar is obviously now much different, but the same rules would seem to apply. The White Sox could potentially wait just a little bit to call Madrigal from the "taxi squad" that will serve as a pool of players teams can use to make roster moves and control him for an extra year.
But could things become even more complicated? What if they really need to see additional minor league development from Madrigal before calling him up, development that wouldn't be available this season? Could he not be ready until sometime in 2021?
Again, Hahn didn't say exactly what will end up happening — and perhaps the team hasn't even settled on that yet — but did describe Madrigal as a "candidate" to wind up on the Opening Day roster.
“Nicky, we only got to see him for a handful of games up in Glendale, but he’s been, for the portion of big league camp we’ve had so far, as advertised and certainly is a consideration for breaking with us,” Hahn said, “if not immediately then certainly helping us at some point over the course of this summer.”
And so that unfortunately provides little clarity when it comes to whether those guys will be part of the 30-man group that heads into the 60-game regular season. Know, too, that rosters will get shaved down to the originally planned 26 after a while.
Kopech seems like a much better bet than Madrigal to be on the team for the entirety of the season, if for no other reason than he's already made his big league debut and has achieved all the goals the White Sox set out for him at the minor league level. But in these unusual times for baseball, Madrigal could find his way there, too, particularly with no minor league system in which to polish off his development at that level.
So stay tuned. Further clarity should come once that second round of spring training gets started.