On Monday afternoon, the White Sox announced that Eloy Jiménez wouldmiss the Baltimore series due to the death of his grandmother. Nicky Delmonico took his place, and while there isn't a place on the roster for him once Jiménez returns from the bereavement list, it's a lot easier to see how one could become available over the course of a few more weeks.
Delmonico was stuck behind Daniel Palka, Jon Jay and Yonder Alonso in the line for left-handed at-bats in a corner spot or DH. Three weeks into the season, the traffic jam has cleared considerably. You can take the developments from Friday's Ryan Cordell post and apply it to Delmonico -- Alonso's still formidable, but Palka flopped with his chance and Jay has no timetable for his health.
Cordell gets to run with the ball for the time being and he's so far seizing the day. But with Delmonico raking at Charlotte to start the season -- .286/.382/.540 -- he was an easy call to replace Jiménez for a series, and he could be a similarly convenient Plan D if one more domino falls. It was hard to see the depth chart falling back in Cordell's favor when the season started, so it's safe to say a lot of guys are in play now.
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A week ago, Yolmer Sánchez was hitting .143/.182/.190 with nearly as many errors (four) as hits (six). Down in Charlotte, Danny Mendick was among Charlotte's stronger starters, and pushed his OBP back above .400 by reaching base four times last Wednesday. Given the larger context of the Sox' piss-poor start, and there was a considerable amount of teeth-gnashing over the roles of the two, both here and elsewhere.
Since then, Mendick is 0-for-15, sinking his batting average to .200 and taking his other stats along with it (.324 OBP, .333 SLG). Sánchez, conversely, is 8-for-16 with five walks over his last five games, and is now only a few extra-base hits from where the Sox expected him to be all along (.241/.323/.276).
Mendick could still barge his way into the picture, if only because the White Sox will have to consider his Rule 5 status after the season. Sánchez will probably be vulnerable again, as his slumps tend to last longer than most. For the time being, though, this is why you don't make greater roster decisions like waiving out-of-options players a fortnight into the season.
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Yoan Moncada went 20 games without striking out looking. Then he did so in back-to-back games. His strikeout rate is up to 24.7 percent, up from 22 percent a week ago.
Even then, the rise in strikeouts hasn't done much to diminish the damage he's doing. While he's struck out nine times over his last seven games, he's also gone 8-for-28 with three homers and three walks, giving him a .962 OPS.
If Moncada can more or less cap his strikeout rate here, it'll be hugely convenient to writers like myself. Moncada struck out at a 33 percent clip last year, so reducing his K rate to 25 percent is like getting a free plate appearance a game.
You can also point to his improved performance against left-handed pitching for ways he's making extra opportunities for himself. He's still searching for his first walk as a righty, but he's hitting .333/.333/.458 in 24 plate appearances, with only four strikeouts. He slugged .297 last year.
Since we just got done talking about small sample sizes with Sánchez, I'm not going to say Moncada has solved his split chasm. His right-handed swing doesn't seem to generate the same fluid launch of his left-handed version, and maybe it never will. That said, far be it from me to criticize switch-hitters for being a little uneven. When I try to brush my teeth with my left hand, I end up with a bloody nose.
Setting aside swing planes, the barrel control looks better on both sides, and while I wouldn't expect him to carry a .950 OPS through the entire season, Moncada is painting a vivid picture of how it would happen. Moncada had 650 plate appearances last year, but it felt like he only had a chance in 450 of them. If he now makes 100 more chances for himself to put up a fight within the same scope of a season spent near the top of the order, that's a helluva time management trick.
