MINNEAPOLIS -- Nick Nastrini's calm and composed mound presence is an oft-praised quality in the White Sox organization, and it's easy to imagine his methodical step-back wind-up as part of it. But as he returns to Triple-A Charlotte, he could afford to step on the gas more to get out of the 92-93 mph range his fastball receded to at the back of his two major league outings.
"One thing we did show him is the tempo in his delivery was a lot slower in Philadelphia compared to where it had been," said Ethan Katz. "That was something we wanted him to pick up. He got very methodical and there was a big noticeable difference between what he had been doing to where he was.
Nastrini was roughed up for eight runs (seven earned) in 3⅔ innings in his first start back at Triple-A, striking out six but walking four.
"He works very well, he understands the shot clock and nothing speeds up on him, but it just got so slow delivery-wise, that's why his velo was down a tick," Katz said. We feel like the tempo with the delivery leads to the output."
That is technically prospect talk, which is a good segue to a series of updates from new White Sox Director of Player Development Paul Janish. Like our Jim Margalus, Janish is particularly high on the Birmingham Barons roster, even while stating he doesn't think they're clicking offensively yet amid their 14-6 start. While any decision on keeping the group together to chase Southern League first half titles is early, Janish thinks the roster is full of future big leaguers and repeatedly said we shouldn't be surprised to see the Sox promote someone directly from Double-A to the majors.
Bryan Ramos' confounding first few weeks (.134/.237/.194) at a level where he's previously thrived are top of mind when it comes to the Barons offense not reaching its potential yet. Janish did not describe it as anything more than a slump, but hopes it will be beneficial for Ramos in the long-term. Despite being a consistent offensive performer on a season-to-season basis while young for every level thanks to his revered makeup, the 22-year-old Ramos has dealt with these sorts of cold stretches before.
"From a development standpoint, he does need to get better at it shrinking these stints," Janish said. "He's going to come out of it. He's going to continue to play well and and we're going to say this was really good for him, because it's better for this to happen now."
Ramos has collected his first homer and first double on the year in the past three days, for what it's worth.
Edgar Quero has accrued more than 500 career plate appearances at the Double-A level and is currently faring well against Southern League pitching (.271/.366/.559), so if he were a bat-first prospect, promotion talk might be circling him more right now with the way his offseason body composition changes are paying dividends. Instead, Quero is a 21-year-old helming the most complicated and communication heavy defensive position in the sport while speaking two languages, and his quick rapport with Jairo Iriarte is viewed as a big positive.
"If he continues to do what he's doing then obviously he's going to push the envelope, but I just don't think there's any rush with him right now," Janish said. "One thing that impressed me about him so far is the actual catching piece. In particular, the rapport-building with pitchers because I think that's in some ways innate. He's exhibiting a lot of the character traits of what you see in long-term, well-known catchers that have had success because of their ability to control a pitching staff."
Despite typically getting graded out with average speed, Janish feels Samuel Zavala's routes and reads in the outfield are sharp enough to allow him play center "in at least short stints" at the major league level. That would lessen the pressure on the development of his bat (.218/.299/.372), which is both precocious as a 19-year-old in High-A, but has raised some concern from scouts about his vulnerability on pitches above the belt. Janish said it's too early in Zavala's development to think about mechanical alterations to that effect.
"He spins the ball really, meaning that he hits the ball the other way and the ball spins right," Janish said. "In this last week or so he's kind of struggled but he does seem to be a durable kid. When I say durable, it's not physically, but mentally. He has got this calm demeanor to him that is very encouraging for a young player."
When he's on, Noah Schultz can pretty easily tear through High-A lineups with just his fastball and slider (27 strikeouts to five walks with a 4.50 ERA in 16 innings), making it perhaps not the environment that's going to lead him to refining his changeup. But with the primary goal of this season to build up the 20-year-old's inning capacity and strength, that's not front of mind.
"He's a very tall guy, he's got long levers," Janish said. "From a physical development standpoint, he's going to, he needs to and will continue to get stronger. That's going to help aid him in maintaining health and durability.
"If he's healthy and continues to develop even just a little bit, he's going to have success at the major league level. It's our job to do what we can to be diligent with saying let's do everything in our power to keep him healthy throughout an entire season, understanding that two years from now is probably more important than in the first half of this season in Winston-Salem."
Brooks Baldwin and Mason Adams are sort of the hitter and pitcher equivalent of each other, in they're both third-day draft picks putting up dominant statistical performance at Double-A that are eye-opening, but the general assessment is: Let's give them every chance to keep it going and assess what we have at the end of the year.
Baldwin is hitting a casual .425/.475/.589 through 19 games despite not touting big-time power. After health problems that have kept the 23-year-old off the field for stretches, Janish's primary goal for Baldwin was to give him a chance to be an everyday shortstop and see how his intangible strengths played out over a season. That he's currently playing like a Southern League Honus Wagner is just kind of a bonus.
"A really good example that draft status is not the most important thing," Janish said. "He's the kind of guy that you need to see four or five days, maybe even longer to really appreciate everything he's doing. The thing that gets lost with him is he is a quiet leader. If you go watch those games and have the unique opportunity to be in that clubhouse, I think that intangible is an important thing to highlight."
Adams gets lauded by scouts and coaches for the sorts of things that make an arsenal play up: flat approach angle with all of his pitches coming out of the same tunnel. But as a short (6 feet even) right-handed pitcher sitting in the low-90s, he needs to keep producing to win converts that his stuff can play against advanced hitters. A 3.68 ERA over 22 innings with 29 strikeouts and just three walks is a good start. But I can't emphasize enough how much Janish was trying to make the following comment complimentary, but not a direct comparison.
"The player that I played with that comes to mind when I watch Mason go about his business -- how consistent he is and how even-keeled he is -- is Tim Hudson. I'm not saying Mason is Tim Hudson, who won over 200 games in the major leagues, just saying it's a similar profile, skill set, demeanor, all the stuff, competitor. He's had success up to this point. Let's let him keep doing what he's been doing and he'll show us what he is."
Wilfred Veras has somehow reached a more intense level of being Wilfred Veras than previously seen, as he's hitting .318/.324/.500 in the early going at Double-A Birmingham with 26 strikeouts to one walk on the year. The level of chase rate that comes alongside production like this leads a lot of scouts to write off Veras' ability to be a major league regular despite impressive pop and more speed than you might think.
But Jim might need to make room on Wilfred Island. Janish sees Veras as a better fielder and baserunner than some scouting projections that have the 21-year-old moving to first base at some point, and calls him a "quiet competitor" whose drive to get better is not untapped by traditional methods.
"Yelling at him is not necessarily going to motivate him, but you've got to figure out ways to challenge him because he does want to be good," Janish said. "He can do some things that other people can't do offensively. We'll continue to try to help him understand which pitches he handles and what types of pitchers are trying to do what types of things to him. From a development standpoint that's where he needs to continue to understand what's going on. Because when he's right, he hits the ball physically as hard as anybody."
I literally could not find a descriptive write-up of 20-year-old Dominican right-hander Aldrin Batista at any major outlet. But since coming over from the Dodgers alongside Maximo Martínez last August for international bonus pool money, Batista has a 2.08 ERA at Low-A Kannapolis with 40 strikeouts and 10 walks in 39 innings.
"It's hard to predict what he is because he's so young," Janish said, who tilted the focus toward the youngster's makeup and visible confidence. "You've got to let him prove that he can't be a starting pitcher down the road. He's still young. I'm super-encouraged about him because he wants the ball, he's not timid whatsoever. If you watch him pitch, the body language is very deliberate. He's coming down the mound, he's getting down the mound, he's back on the rubber. A couple guys on base, he's not getting flustered."
Janish also loves the edge that former second round pick Peyton Pallette brings to the mound.
"He's not a quiet competitor, he's a loud competitor," Janish said. "He's not 'super young,' but he is still young relative to the pro level. My read on him is he does have a fairly high aptitude so I think he's going to make changes and adjustments fairly quickly."
But there's a three-true-outcome nature to the 22-year-old Pallette's first three starts at Winston-Salem. Of the 51 hitters he's faced, 23 have either struck out, walked, been hit by a pitch, or homered, which makes it tricky to get deep into games. The 27.5 percent strikeout rate is nice, though.
"The stuff is not going to be what holds him back," Janish said. "He needs to continue to get more efficient with his pitches and understand just from a usage standpoint how to accomplish that, but I'm really excited about Peyton."
We discussed Jacob Gonzalez's offseason changes fairly recently, but Janish's recent time at Rice positioned him to be much less worried about his poor 2023 pro debut than all of us, for whom it was our first impression of the 21-year-old. Gonzalez described his adjustments to stop pulling off the ball in his swing in plain terms, whereas Janish said that biomechanical analysis informed some of the work to make him more viable on the outer half of the plate.
"Honestly it just looks like he's in a better position pitch to pitch, at-bat to at-bat right now to make a move to the baseball," Janish said of Gonzalez, who is hitting .254/.367/.373 at Winston-Salem. "He's got high-level awareness on the field. He does a lot of good baseball things in terms of being in the right spot and anticipation."
Was it sort of a bit to wait until we were 2,000 words deep to mention Drew Thorpe, who has allowed all of two runs in 24 innings of work, four starts into his time in the White Sox organization? Sort of, but now that we're discussing a player whose command and changeup is making mincemeat of the Southern League, it's an opportunity to ask if there's a real chance to add to his low-90s velocity to project better against major leaguers.
"The term 'organically,' for me is what resonates," Janish said about Thorpe adding velocity down the road. "He is outrageously intentional with his prep from a game-planning standpoint, from a body maintenance standpoint, nutritionally, he's a very calculated guy, so there is reason to believe, relatively speaking. He's a younger guy, he's going to continue to physically get stronger, he takes care of his body at a very high level. So I don't think it's outrageous to assume he might get another mile or two or three, but on the flip side of that, he controls the baseball as well as anybody."
Jairo Iriarte does not control the baseball as well as anybody (11 walks in 17⅓ innings), but it's not hurting the 22-year-old at Double-A at the moment (one earned run allowed, 21 strikeouts).
"He's throwing enough strikes right now," Janish said.
Comments from people in the organization emphasize how raw he is, despite being the age of a recent college draft pick and relative proximity to the majors. Brian Bannister explained that his elevated walk totals are less indicative of his physical ability to repeat his delivery, but more of an early point in his understanding of how to use his stuff efficiently. Janish recalled Iriarte dealing with nerves throughout his first bullpen with the Sox organization after being traded, and heaped credit upon Quero for guiding the right-hander through his hot start to the season.
"I would go as far as to say he's going to pitch in the major leagues," Janish said. "The strike-throwing is why a lot of evaluators say maybe he's going to be a bullpen guy. I lean toward the concept of, 'Let's make him prove that to us.' We're going to give him every chance to start as of right now. I know the way Banny feels about him. We're pretty optimistic that over the course of the time he can continue to get more efficient and the stuff is going to take care of itself."
