Remember how, on Wednesday morning, I said Major League Baseball was enmeshed in a couple of ugly situations, but at least it managed to avoid saber-rattling over a potential work stoppage?
Well, the league finally got around to that.
Which makes Rob Manfred’s stance during those talks somewhat surprising. Multiple sources briefed about what occurred in those talks told NBC Sports today that Manfred took an aggressive posture, telling the union that there is “not going to be a deal where we pay you in economics to get labor peace.” Manfred also told union representatives that, “maybe Marvin Miller’s financial system doesn’t work anymore.” Those briefed on Manfred’s comments requested anonymity because they were not permitted to share the details of July’s talks. Officials from the Major League Baseball Players Association declined comment.
Those briefed on Manfred’s comments tell NBC Sports that the impression left by them was that the league plans to take a hard line with the union and is unwilling to make any concessions on the numerous pocketbook issues about which the players are concerned, including tanking, the glacial pace of the free agent market, the Competitive Balance Tax, and qualifying offers.
So that's terrific. Fortunately for baseball, Wednesday also marked the deadline for teams to protect prospects from the Rule 5 draft. The White Sox had seven spots open on their 40-man roster, and they used all seven of them. Patrick wondered if teams around the league might hoard players at this time due to rosters expanding to 26 players, and the Sox certainly acted the part.
The White Sox ended up protecting seven players, including six I listed and one that was off the board.
The list:
Dunning, Lambert and Burdi were all rather obvious selections due to their upside, their proximity to the majors, and the convenience of injuries requiring rehab stints to eat up some of the season.
The question was whether the Sox would go beyond that, especially since all of the remaining players wore some markings of players typically left unprotected.
Yermin Mercedes: No September call-up
Approaching the end of August, Danny Mendick and Yermin Mercedes were in similar situations as older prospects who performed well enough to warrant both Rule 5 protection and an immediate look. Mendick got the call, but Mercedes didn't, even though the Sox could have given him plate appearances.
Welington Castillo made nine starts and absorbed 41 plate appearances. He did some damage, slugging .632, driving in 14 runs over 12 games and feeding my low-grade fears that he'll outhit James McCann next year, but the Sox didn't really need to see him. Nor did they need to see Matt Skole, who made a couple starts at DH and a couple at first.
Mercedes is a grip-and-rip guy who leaves nothing to the imagination with his swing, and he's a catcher in name only, so I could see MLB pitchers working him over and leaving Rick Renteria no way to use him. Still, Mercedes hit .317/.388/.581 between Birmingham and Charlotte last year, so it seemed like a weird stand to take given the lack of talent elsewhere.
They're relaxing their Mercedes policy now, although it's possible they'll deal him as a throw-in before spring training rolls around. The Sox have four catchers on their roster, even if only one of them is really rosterable behind the plate.
Blake Rutherford: Bad in Birmingham
Mercedes stood out in Birmingham because of all the hitters who failed to distinguish, and Rutherford was chief among them. He hit just .265/.319/.365 with 27 extra-base hits to 118 strikeouts over 118 games, and followed it up with an even more uneven Arizona Fall League. It'd be hard to figure out how to carry him on a 25-man roster for a full season, although given that he'd be on the younger side for a Rule 5 pick, perhaps he could bounce back from a year of too few plate appearances better than others.
If you're mining for upside in Rutherford's performance, he did hit .315/.407/.391 over the last month, drawing more than half of his season's walks in August alone (17 over 113 plate appearances). He followed that up by drawing 11 walks in 89 plate appearances during fall ball, although he hit just .179 there. Make of that what you will, because I don't know what to do with that.
Bernardo Flores: Underpowered
Between 2018 and 2019, Flores has a full season's worth of starts at Birmingham, and the results are more than adequate: a 3.04 ERA and just 29 walks over 156⅔ innings. The 116 strikeouts are less impressive, and one wonders if he would've experienced a Kyle Kubat-style rude awakening had he earned a promotion to Charlotte. An oblique strain deprived him of the opportunity, although he did wear a 7.97 ERA while grunting through 20 extra innings in the Arizona Fall League.
It's not a thrilling skill set, but despite his flaws, Flores is one of the few starters on the farm with a whiff of MLB potential, at least until Dunning and Lambert get back into every-five-day routines. He's also good enough against lefties to where a team carrying him could try to use him in a Josh Osich-like role, so there's no point in losing him until other depth materializes.
Matt Foster: Anonymity
Getting added to the 40-man roster is a major triumph for a guy who had retired for a minute a few years ago. Foster doesn't look like much, whether on the mound (a stocky 6 feet) or on paper (20th round pick without a standout season before 2019).
But apparently that 2019 was good enough to merit protection, given the circumstances. After overpowering Double-A hitters in six appearances, he spent the remainder of the season in Charlotte and struck out 62 batters to just 19 walks over 55 innings. The nine homers are more characteristic of the environment, as Foster hadn't been homer prone before discovering the joys of BB&T Ballpark, but he worked around the homers well enough to post a 3.76 ERA.
With a full 40-man roster, none of these players have distinguished themselves to have ironclad grips on their newfound statuses. That said, if the White Sox have to make room, they'll have a number of other guys to choose from. A brief list of the most vulnerable:
As for those left unprotected, recent second-round picks Alec Hansen and Spencer Adams are among them, in case you were worried about what the White Sox might lose in signing a free agent who rejected a qualifying offer.
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The White Sox are at least a month away from unveiling their 2020 development staff, but whenever that roster is released, Omar Vizquel won't be a part of it.
Scott Merkin reported that Vizquel and the Sox are parting ways after two seasons in the system. That robs a lot of White Sox fans of their most obvious Rick Renteria replacement, but whatever magic Vizquel worked in Winston-Salem didn't carry over to Birmingham, where a few guys moved out, but most other players languished.
I didn't buy into the Vizquel hype, mainly because his smallball tendencies appeared even more pronounced than Renteria's, and led to far more unnecessary outs. Laz Rivera went 20-for-38 stealing bases under Vizquel's two teams, while Ti'Quan Forbes managed to go a dreadful 8-for-21. He has an engaging personality and an out-there sense of aesthetics, but the rest of the approach needed work. And instead of devoting space to that work, the White Sox instead might be clearing room for Justin Jirschele to move up a level.
