Bryan Ramos never gets called up in the first place if Lenyn Sosa wasn’t on the Triple-A Charlotte injured list when Danny Mendick’s back tightened up in St. Louis, so there’s a somber symmetry that his major league run ended with Sosa taking his spot.
And despite Sosa’s growing reputation for boffo offensive numbers with the Charlotte Knights that don’t translate in brief, scattered big league stints, Pedro Grifol tried to term it all as everything finding its right place. Ramos is effectively getting the promotion to Triple-A that his season once seemed to be building toward, and surely this time we’ll get to the bottom of why Sosa’s chase rate spikes in major league action.
“He’ll play second, he’ll play third, he might DH once in a while, I’ll mix him in pretty good,” Grifol said of Sosa, who is somehow still 24 years old. “He’s been a really, really good player in Triple A. His ability plays up here. Just need to put the mental side and the physical side together, with some confidence, with some success and see where it goes. Because this kid’s got a lot of ability.”
But as was tacitly acknowledged during his pregame session, Ramos is perceived as the future long-term fixture regardless of his .196/.208/.239 big league audition in 48 plate appearances. Sosa is the sort of player who needs to fight his way to a regular major league role in a season such as this one, when the roster is wide open. And so how the Sox came to this decision that Ramos’ recent struggles were indicative that he belonged in Charlotte, modeling the future left side of the infield with Colson Montgomery, rather than working through them in a season that his learning curve can’t make any worse, is the bigger question.
Grifol foreshadowed the move by saying recently that he didn’t think promoting and demoting top prospects is a third rail, so he struck a familiar tone.
“We gave him a nice opportunity here to come and feel what it’s about at this level: have a little success, face a little adversity and understand the speed of the game up here and go back to your development, what we feel you need to work on and put yourself in position to come back here later on in the year,” Grifol said. “The really good ones go down there with a little bit of an edge. ‘I’ll show you’ type of mentality. I’m not saying that’s where he was, but I like that. There’s a little of that in him. But our conversation was really, really good. He understands things he needs to do. He understands the pace of this game up here. He was in a really good spot, the last thing he said to us was ‘I’ll be back soon.’”
Ramos’ chase rate was nearing prime Luis Robert Jr. levels (36.4 percent, per FanGraphs) in his five hitless games since coming off the IL for a quad strain. And Grifol noted that he was seeing an influx of inner-half velocity after a hot start, which scouting reports had identified as a potential issue for him. It’s something he’ll have to tackle eventually, but Triple-A will offer a lower difficulty level of power sinkers as he improves on tucking his hands in.
“He saw some guys he hadn’t seen before and he saw some pitch movement that he hadn’t seen before,” said hitting coach Marcus Thames. “He just needs to play. He missed 10 days on the IL and then he had three rehab games in Triple-A to the big leagues. He needed more reps. I just felt like his timing was still off a little bit when he came back. Early on he competed and that’s something that’s going to take him a long way. He’s been through so much adversity in his life off the field, it’s going to help him on the field.”
The White Sox offense is, well, very bad by every statistical measure, and full of hitters struggling to out-perform Ramos with less remaining upside. But ultimately this is not something to seek justice for by making a 22-year-old get waylaid by a level of pitching for which he’s not ready. But it was more interesting to watch, and the Sox are still a weekend away from certainly offering something more compelling.
–Which is to say that Robert sounds like he’ll be returning to the White Sox active roster ahead of Tuesday’s Crosstown series, if all goes well, which is always a big qualifier.
“The other day, I was talking to [Justin Jirschele] over there in Triple-A,” Grifol said. “They were going to pinch-run for [Robert] in the ninth inning, and he didn’t want it, he wanted to stay in the game. He feels really good. But again, he suffered a significant injury, and he is a high performer, high speed. So we’ve got to make sure that we’re erring on the side of caution and making sure we’re giving him the proper rest.”
– To discuss someone actually in Friday's lineup for the first time: Corey Julks is batting third for the first time in his major league career. It's awesome for Julks, since he was designated for assignment for the first time in his career earlier this month, and under-heralded players finally getting to show something in a rare opportunity would ideally be a hallmark of this White Sox season.
Julks has hit .303/.410/.485 in 39 plate appearances so far, which is most interesting because his frequent double-digit walk rates from his tours through the minors have translated to the majors early on this year, in a way they didn’t in Houston last season.
“Most guys that walk a lot, they’re aggressive,” Thames said. “They’re hunting their pitch and if they’re not getting it, they shut down on it. That’s a good sign for a hitter.”
First Pitch: White Sox at Brewers
TV: NBC Sports Chicago
Lineups:
| White Sox | Brewers | |
|---|---|---|
| Tommy Pham, CF | 1 | Brice Turang, 2B |
| Nicky Lopez, 2B | 2 | William Contreras, C |
| Corey Julks, RF | 3 | Christian Yelich, LF |
| Gavin Sheets, 1B | 4 | Willy Adamas, SS |
| Korey Lee, DH | 5 | Jake Bauers, 1B |
| Andrew Benintendi, LF | 6 | Rhys Hoskins, DH |
| Paul DeJong, SS | 7 | Sal Frelick, RF |
| Danny Mendick, 3B | 8 | Joey Ortiz, 3B |
| Martín Maldonado, C | 9 | Blake Perkins, CF |
| Erick Fedde | SP | Tobias Myers |
