Mercifully, September is upon us, and so are expanded rosters, giving the White Sox the opportunity to make the first two transactions of the Chris Getz Era.
José Rodríguez and Luis Patiño will the answers to that trivia question, as they'll be the 27th and 28th men on the White Sox active roster when they host the Detroit Tigers tonight.
If Rodríguez is here for the rest of the season, it'll complete a rather strange development path for 2023. This will be his second stint with the White Sox around another full season in Birmingham, but he has thus far avoided Charlotte.
The White Sox promoted Rodríguez to the 26-man roster back in June, but it had all the markings of an emergency measure. Romy González had succumbed to the injured list due to his troublesome right shoulder, so the Sox called up Rodríguez for multi-positional backup, even though Rodríguez hadn't been hitting all that well in Double-A. As it became clear that Pedro Grifol wouldn't trust Rodríguez in his current state -- and he didn't really have reason to -- the White Sox eventually replaced him with a real outfielder in Adam Haseley. Rodríguez was limited to one pinch-running appearance during his first cup of coffee.
Since returning to Birmingham, Rodríguez has resembled his old self. He's hitting .290/.320/.472 with nine homers, eight doubles and 19 steals in 20 attempts. His strikeout-to-walk ratio remains a real concern -- 43 strikeouts to eight walks over 203 plate appearances -- but when it comes to White Sox prospects, 'twas ever thus.
As for Patiño, the White Sox acquired him from the Tampa Bay Rays for cash on Aug. 1, around the same time they traded Keynan Middleton to the Yankees.
That was quite the fall for Patiño, who was a top-30 prospect as recently as 2021, but the oblique and shoulder issues he suffered in 2022 have really derailed him. Things haven't improved since the trade, as he's recorded more walks (13) than strikeouts (12) over his 14⅓ innings with Charlotte.
The only thing going for him is the ability to throw multiple innings, as he's stretched out to cover at least three innings in each of his last three outings. He's also walked 11 batters over those 11 innings, including seven over four innings back on Aug. 22. It's probably not going to be pretty, but if the goal is to get through the rest of the schedule using a few pitchers as possible on a daily basis, he might be able to help toward that end.
