It was only a matter of time before the White Sox had to deal with a drug-related suspension for an active player.
Welington Castillo will be the one to set the precedent. Reports came out of the Dominican Republic on Wednesday that he'd join Robinson Cano in serving an 80-game suspension, and Ken Rosenthal verified it with a clarification:
The Sox hadn't been completely clean this decade, even if they'd fared better than others in this area. Andre Rienzo made it to the majors with the Sox after serving a 50-gamer in the minors. The Sox also traded for prospects who had served suspensions (Michael Kopech, Jose Quintana, Tyler Flowers), and acquired a couple MLB players who had starred in rather notorious cases (Manny Ramirez, Melky Cabrera).
Castillo broke new ground as an active White Sox. I suppose the good news is that it wasn't a player who had established an ironclad reputation and connection with the fan base. Castillo just got here, and while he'd more or less lived up to expectations with his performance -- .267/.309/.466 at the plate with framing numbers on the rebound after a rough start -- he hadn't become part of the organization's fabric.
The bad news? Well, there's a lot of bad news. Castillo was supposed to bolster the batteries and lineup over the next couple years while testing the Sox' abilities to evaluate free-agent hitters, and both are going to be difficult to do when missing the next 80 games.
More crucially, it hits the White Sox where it hurts on the depth chart. Omar Narvaez has been awful this season, hitting .180/.275/.246 and striking out 23 percent of the time for whatever reason, and he's also incredibly leaky defensively, whether in terms of strikes or passed pitches. Baseball Prospectus already has him as the worst catcher at blocking, even though he's only played part of the time.
And while Kevan Smith would normally be called up for better (decent hitter for a catcher) or worse (opponents are still running wild on him), he's currently on the DL with an injury James Fegan said is ankle-related.
That leaves Alfredo Gonzalez as the next catcher up. He's well-regarded defensively, but he's hitting just .169/.279/.191 and striking out 31 percent of the time at Charlotte. Brett Austin is backing him up, but he's one of a few catchers the Sox use to plug gaps.
If none of the Triple-A guys seem suitable for one reason or another, then you're looking at Zack Collins. Collins is hitting .288/.461/.530 in May with an equal number of walks and strikeouts (21), but he's also allowed six passed balls and committed four errors in just 24 games. Seby Zavala is on the disabled list with a wrist issue, and organizational catcher Casey Schroeder has taken his spot for the time being.
I'm guessing you'd see Gonzalez come up if only for the defense, while hunting for a veteran catcher who would be just about done for any other franchise (Geovany Soto remains unsigned).
And if that's not enough, the Sox may have to make a move in the outfield after Leury Garcia sprained his knee sliding into third. Adam Engel went 4-for-4 to paper over some of the immediate pain in the outfield, but the situation looked dire when Nicky Delmonico broke his hand. This leaves Trayce Thompson as a starter until further moves are made.
The Sox have added a couple of veteran outfielders to Charlotte's mix this week -- Michael Saunders and Alex Presley -- and maybe one of them will shape up enough to hold a spot in time. If the Sox want to avoid adding two players to the 40-man (assuming a catcher is one) over the next couple of days, then it looks like the Sox would have to bank on Charlie Tilson's May being evidence of his getting up to speed (.276/.295/.316), and not just a temporary brand of empty Triple-A adequacy. Maybe the baseball gods just want to see how far the Sox have to go to justify keeping Eloy Jimenez in Birmingham.
And to think -- this all happened while the Sox were securing a winning homestand for the first time all season. It makes sense that this would be what qualifies as "fun baseball" for the White Sox in 2018.
