White Sox exercising ‘double patience' with top prospects

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When?

That’s the question being asked by just about every White Sox fan right now.

When will the dam break, and the White Sox finally call up Eloy Jimenez and Michael Kopech, their two best minor league prospects, from Triple-A?

Inquiring minds want to know.

“As I like to say there’s patience and then there’s patience. We’re exercising the double patience now,” White Sox executive vice-president Ken Williams said in an interview with NBC Sports Chicago.

Not too long ago when he was the White Sox general manager, the uber-aggressive Williams wouldn’t think about keeping such highly-touted prospects in the minors this long.

Ask Gordon Beckham and Chris Sale.  

As number-one picks by the White Sox, they both raced through the minors at warp speed. Beckham played only 77 games before getting called up to the bigs in 2009. Most would agree that decision backfired. He needed more seasoning at the lower levels and never met the sky-high expectations that followed him. Sale? He pitched a grand total of 10.1 innings between Winston-Salem and Charlotte after being drafted in June of 2010. He was in the White Sox bullpen by August, dominated from the start and has become one of the best pitchers of his generation.

But as Williams put it, they were in “win-now” mode back then. In 2018, he has a different way of judging wins and losses in regards to the rebuild.

“I’ve communicated to all of our staff that we can only win by being more patient with all the kids development. The way we lose is if we’re impatient, we give in to what’s happening at the major league level right now and foresake that needed growth, that needed experience,” Williams said.

How much more experience do Jimenez and Kopech need?

“While Eloy Jimenez is hitting .370 in the minor leagues (up to .383 while writing this) and can compete at the major league level right now, there are some things we want him to experience defensively so that he’s more of a well-rounded player when he comes here. And the kids who are even below him or even with him like Michael Kopech,” Williams said.

Jimenez has played 378 games in the minor leagues, five times more than Beckham did before his call-up. This includes 25 in Triple-A where he’s slashing .383/.422/.691. In his last 10 games, he’s batting .500 with 4 HRs and 10 RBIs. There’s no question that his bat is ready for the majors. If it’s only his defense holding him back, you’d like to think he’ll be in Chicago sometime soon.

As for Kopech, he’s had some rocky moments this season, but he’s definitely trending in the right direction. In his last 4 starts, he’s given up only 4 earned runs with 24 strikeouts and 2 walks. But as they’re doing with many of their prospects, the White Sox are looking at more than just stats. They’re focusing on the nitty-gritty of today, hoping to avoid the major problems of tomorrow.

“Some of the things you see, let’s say in a Michael Kopech right now that where he’ll have a bad game here or there. We understand that he’s doing a few things that may not help him in that game on that day in Triple-A, but will help him battle the Cleveland Indians with all their left-handed hitters in another year, in another two years.  So it’s not just the raw numbers we’re looking at, we’re looking at very specific things,” Williams said. “Usage of your change-up, where are you throwing your curveball vs. your slider and when you don’t have one or the other are you able to make that adjustment, and how are you able to make that adjustment and can you pitch backwards at a given time?”

If the White Sox were battling for a playoff spot, and had a winning core of players already in their clubhouse,  Jimenez and Kopech might already be here to add to the mix. Same with a certain starting pitcher in Birmingham who has been raising eyebrows all season long.

“Dylan Cease, he could pitch in the big leagues right now, but what we want is people to be able to compete at a championship level when they get here, not have so much of a growth curve to get on,”  Williams said.

And yet, that time is coming when the next batch of top White Sox prospects will be here. When exactly? That’s the big question. But even the currently patient Williams knows that they are inching closer to a certain tipping point.

“It’s tough because you’re competitive and you want to win every day. Even though in the structures of baseball and sports there are certain advantages to not winning, you reach a point where enough is enough and we really want to turn that around into a winning culture because I really believe you have to take those baby steps and to start winning games and to start winning close games for you to graduate to the next level and the level beyond that,”  Williams said.

With so many young prospects eventually arriving in Chicago, the White Sox will need some veterans to help show them away. Does Williams see the White Sox adding some experienced players this winter to fill in some of the gaps?

“Yes, yes, but the conversation that Rick, Jerry and I have had is yes, in terms of those veterans, but we have to be very strategic about it and will those veterans fit into the next 2 or 3 year window and thereby allow some of those youngsters we just talked about and some of them who have been derailed by injury even more time to get healthy and come up.  You’re on the money on that.”

Speaking of money, the White Sox entered this season with a payroll of $71 million, their lowest since 2004. They’ve been competitive in the free agent market in the recent past, giving big contracts to the likes of Adam Dunn, John Danks, David Robertson, Melky Cabrera and signing Jose Abreu out of Cuba. The free agent class this off-season is a big one.  Will the White Sox be looking to take advantage of it?

“The answer to that question is yes, we have positioned ourselves, not only prospect wise but in a fiscally responsible way where we’ll be able to compete in the open market, yes,”  Williams said.

At least that’s the plan.

He continued, “Often times you start planning and plotting these things and you get to the winter and this guy re-signed with that club or all of a sudden that guy is going to go with that club and you have to be very careful not to sign guys just to sign them and block the opportunity of some of these kids to grow into part of the equation.  And that’s what we want to allow for with all the guys in the minor leagues, because the competition is cool to watch because they are fighting to win the games down there, but they are also fighting prospect to prospect. How’s this guy doing, how’s that guy doing? It’s competitive as you want to get it.”

You’re seeing this from Kannapolis to Birmingham, rosters overflowing with talent.  Some of these players came from the big rebuild trades, but Williams gives credit to the White Sox scouting staff that has stocked the system since Nick Hostetler took over as scouting director in 2015.

“The depth of some of these drafts and what that’s starting to yield, especially some of the power arm pitching. It’s not just top loaded. It is deep and I see that top 30 prospect list and I can come up with 10 more names,” Williams said. “There are people down there that you can see this particular player being in the mix at some point. That’s encouraging and that’s hard work from our area scouts and scouting department and the trade front.”

The pain of the White Sox rebuild can easily be found in the standings, as well as the Twitter feeds of the fan base which is aching for new blood from the minors. They see their favorite prospects knocking on the door, but instead of watching them play on the White Sox, they’re stuck following box scores or watching graining video streams of minor league games on the computer.  I know. I get it. This has been my life since April.

But if you take a step back and look at the world view of the White Sox rebuild, you’ll see a front office that has quickly turned the franchise around, faster than they probably should have been able to. The 2012 Astros and the 2013 Cubs would be envious of what the White Sox have been able to accomplish so far.

You got an early taste of the future with the promotions last year of Yoan Moncada, Lucas Giolito and Reynaldo Lopez. We’re approaching August and are still waiting for the next round of high-end prospects to arrive.

Williams is preaching patience, a word rarely used in his vocabulary.

How is he doing it? I’m actually not sure.  

At some point, Jimenez and Kopech will be in Chicago and you’ll forget this period of time when you waited for their arrivals.

In the meantime, keep following along with what’s happening in Charlotte, Birmingham, Winston-Salem, etc. That talent will eventually make its way here.

“With where we started (the rebuild) and when we started it, I don’t know that I could reasonably feel any better. You see the possibilities,”  Williams said. “It’s going to be fun around the ballpark here in the next couple of years and for a long time.”

Other thoughts from Williams on the White Sox youngsters:

On newly acquired left-handed pitcher Kodi Medeiros:
“I’m excited for this kid. That’s just not the scouting from the last few months. We sent people to Hawaii and saw him in high school and followed him along the way with our professional scouts. The process has worked, we just need to continue to grind, not take anything for granted and cross our fingers health wise."
 
On first round pick Nick Madrigal:
"He had to grow on me a little bit because the first few times you’re looking.  He’s undersized, is he strong enough, is he quick enough, is he enough? And everytime you walk out of the ballpark you go, ‘That son of a gun did something today to help his team win.’ It’s not flashy, but he’s coming to beat you every single day and you better be ready for him."
 
On Yoan Moncada:
“This guy’s talent is off the board. It’s been logged enough. Not everyone comes to the major leagues and just dominates from day one. It take some time generally. The good thing about it is, you see enough. You see that it’s all there, offensively and defensively. There’s been some defensive lapses, more attributable to concentration than talent. Exercise a double dose of patience. As long as he keeps coming out and working hard and grinding. The coaches communicate that to us then we’ll stand by him. If he loses the coaches, then it’s a different conversation that we have to have.”
 

 

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