Having looked at the ascendant White Sox prospects, the injured guys and the recently drafted/signed, we now turn our attention to players who could be forgiven for initial struggles due to inexperience and/or being young for the level, especially since an advanced short-season stop like Great Falls is no longer available.
Last year's group of such players had about a 50-50 hit rate. Bryan Ramos and Lenyn Sosa had seasons that couldn't be topped, while Matthew Thompson and Luis Mieses overcame bumps to maintain detectable progress. The less said about the others, the better.
Wilfred Veras
Two years into his professional career, Wilfred Veras' production has been ... fine. Admirable even, considering the aggressiveness of the assignments.
Signed for $200,000 out of the Dominican Republic back in 2019, the son of Wilton Veras had to wait until 2021 to make his professional debut, and it was stateside in Arizona as an 18-year-old. He hit .322/.416/.533 there, which allowed him to open the 2022 season with Kannapolis. That proved tougher, but he kept his head above water in the end, hitting .267/.319/.454 with 17 homers, two triples and 19 doubles over 101 games. That earned him a call to the Barons as part of Project Birmingham, where he also hit .267 and bashed three homers in 12 games. He turned 20 after the season.
So what's not to like? He doesn't really have a position. The error counts are pretty ugly in the infield corners, so he spent winter ball playing the outfield, which looks like it'll be left field at best.
His bat has to keep buying him time to find a way to get him in the lineup, and with 132 strikeouts against 30 walks over 113 games in 2022, there's a chance his plate discipline makes everything a lot tougher to negotiate. But there's no point in harping on it, because he's doing just fine right now.
Wes Kath
For instance, you'd rather have Veras' first two years of production than Kath's first two years of production. Kath struck out 213 times over his first 140 professional games, which is the biggest reason he hit just .238/.343/.397 for Kannapolis in 2022.
There were some signs of progress toward the end of the season, at least with regards to contact quality. He hit .265/.380/.482 over his last 100 plate appearances with the Cannon Ballers, with four homers, six doubles and 16 walks. He also struck out 35 times, so he couldn't really say he solved the contact frequency issue before the White Sox ported him to Project Birmingham, where he predictably struggled.
He's probably a good third baseman and has the arm to play right field, but everything takes a backseat to whether he can put a dent in that strikeout rate against low-minors pitching. He's still young enough that scuffles in A-ball can be excused, but everybody's hoping it won't look the same at this point next year.
Victor Quezada
Quezada might've had the most disappointing 2022 season, as he hit just .151/.256/.261 in his stateside debut while striking out in nearly half of his 137 plate appearances. He was a lot more interesting at this time last year, when he brushed off a slow start to hit .250/.353/.436 as a 17-year-old in the DSL while committing only five errors in 47 games at third base.
He might've been a DSL mirage, but the White Sox gave him a $525,000 bonus, so it's worth tracking him for another year, even if his year is likely to start in June than April.
Dario Borrero
Borrero's move to the U.S. was considerably smoother, even though injuries limited him to five games in the DSL in 2021. He showed decent bat-to-ball abilities in his first real sample, hitting .313/.349/.374 with just 29 strikeouts over 175 plate appearances.
He drew just seven walks, and he's still in search of his first professional homer, which is a problem for a guy who profiles as a first baseman. He's 6'5" and turned 19 after the season, so there's a chance it could come around. The White Sox signed him out of Venezuela for $350,000 in 2020.
