Pregame notes: Post-All-Star break roster shuffle

Brooks Baldwin is less than a month away from his 24th birthday, but looks a little young to even be a graduate of Whiteville High School, let alone a big leaguer. His youthful face is the only wrinkle in a story of a Day 3 draft pick grinding his way to the majors on merit before top prospects he played alongside.

"I love that kid," said fellow call-up Chuckie Robinson.

"Really, really smart," said Drew Thorpe, who played with Baldwin at Double-A for much of the first half. "It seemed like when we were at Birmingham that he had two hits every game."

Describing the moment he learned the news, Baldwin seemed as challenged to sum up all the emotions as he was when Charlotte Knights manager Justin Jirschele told him the news earlier this week while he was at Lowe's with his mother. Baldwin remembers they were shopping for supplies to fix the screen door because the family dogs had torn it up, and he remembers that his father largely was tasked with fixing the screen afterward.

The rest is a bit of a blur.

"I don’t really know what happened after that," Baldwin said. "I was kind of in shock and couldn’t really talk back. But after a couple of minutes, I was able to say thank you and it’s a great opportunity."

Baldwin lit High-A pitching ablaze for 26 games at the end of last season, but still didn't even assume that meant he would start this year at Birmingham. So no, a major league chance this season wasn't necessarily on his radar. Yet conversations with Barons coaches about moving him around the diamond were frequently mixed with insight that he was "closer than I expected," to Chicago. Plus, Baldwin doesn't really mind moving around the diamond.

"I don’t, not at all," Baldwin said when asked if he had a favorite position. "I just like being able to be versatile and play each position very well."

Cutting his strikeout rate below 20 percent for the first time as a professional seems to have keyed Baldwin's offensive breakout (.324/.391/.460 across two levels), and he identified plate discipline as the skill that's taken off for him.

"Kind of getting all the mechanics down, keeping everything in motion and being able to see pitches better has been a big part," Baldwin said. "I’m really aggressive at the plate most of the time and I still have that aggression but laying off pitchers pitches early has been the biggest."

Baldwin is starting at second base Friday night and Pedro Grifol hinted that most of his opportunities would be there to start off, but he will eventually play all over the diamond like usual.

Given how faithful of a defender of Martín Maldonado's defensive skills he was throughout the first half, it took a while to get Grifol going lauding him one last time after his ouster. Grifol foreshadowed a youth movement before the break, and made it clear that Robinson, 29, is also someone they wanted to evaluate for a major league role next season. After an out in his minor league contract prompted Robinson being added to the 40-man roster last month, a similar mechanism could be at work in the timing here.

But even Grifol's praise for Maldonado had a way of highlighting his limitations.

"There's not many catchers out there--if there are, I'd like to see them--that really just focus on one side of the ball, which is the defensive side and making sure that those pitchers are having success," Grifol said. "So he did a really, really good job for us."

Robinson is a .272/.330/.423 hitter across 183 career games at Triple-A, so it would be a disservice to his offense to compare him to Maldonado off the bat, but he has the markers of a player who also be valued for managing pitchers and playing defense. After one brief major league stint in 2022, Robinson is looking to establish he belongs at this level as well.

"It’s been two years," Robinson said. "I have a family now so it’s a different feeling. I’ve grown a lot as a ballplayer and a man. I think the game is going to slow down a lot more my second time around."

The White Sox did have a charter plane to Kansas City, but roughly a third of their normal traveling party utilized it, with players typically flying in from all over the country out of the All-Star break. While many were delayed, no one was as acutely affected as newly signed Nick Senzel, who was still en route to the ballpark by the time Grifol was addressing media pregame.

"I'm hoping he gets here in time, he's in the lineup," Grifol said.

Inauspicious beginnings aside, Grifol said Senzel will also move all over the diamond with the Sox, as he has past experience at third base, second base, and all three outfield positions. Senzel is an above-average hitter for his career against left-handed pitching, and Grifol made a nod to him being a useful piece for certain matchups. Given the composition of the White Sox roster, it's safe to expect his usage getting extended well beyond that.

Grifol said Sox pro scouts were enthusiastic about giving Senzel a chance after he was designated for assignment last week. He also assured that Lenyn Sosa will get another shot at some point, but the number of times the 24-year-old has been optioned to Charlotte speaks louder than words.

Having fellow All-Star players treat him as a peer, and talking shop with the greatest in the sport is the experience that Garrett Crochet will treasure most from his week in Arlington.

As far as his inning of work, he's just happy with a zero.

"I mean, I was still trying not to look like a dumbass and make a fool of myself out there," Crochet said.

Crochet clarified that this is his primary goal for every outing, and the bigger stage only heightened it. In that case, mission accomplished.

There is a tapering plan in place for Crochet's second half innings, but his next outing figures to resemble a normal start much more than last Friday's two frames against Pittsburgh.

"Feeling really good," Crochet said. "I feel like I could have thrown today if need be. My recovery has been great throughout the year. And just the upkeep I’ve been doing with my body has allowed me to recover fairly quickly from start to start, outing to outing."

Grifol's last update on Yoán Moncada's rehab from an adductor strain fueled speculation that he was nearing a return, saying earlier this month that "we want to push this thing."

His latest update, for a Moncada that is very much still not here, was much more conservative.

"It’s a slow process. Sometimes he feels really good, sometimes he doesn’t feel that good. We’re definitely not going to rush this thing."

The White Sox also announced their starters for the entirety of this seven-game road trip, and Mike Clevinger is not a part of it.

Don't forget, Danny Mendick is here forever. He cleared waivers and was outrighted to Triple-A Charlotte after being designated for assignment on Wednesday. Jimmy Lambert (shoulder) is beginning a rehab assignment in the ACL.

Michael Soroka said he has a sub-scapular strain in his throwing shoulder. He is shut down from throwing until the symptoms subside, but feels like he sensed it coming on soon enough to avoid something worse.

"In 2018 I did have a small subscap strain and pushed it, played the hard-head and it didn’t work out for me," Soroka said. "Still a good amount of season left and I want to get out there and let it rip."

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