Fresh off winning Baseball America White Sox minor league player of the year, catching prospect Edgar Quero is Chicago-bound, as Francys Romero first reported and a source confirmed, to join the White Sox taxi squad, and maybe more.
My editor at BA and I settled upon Quero when his back injury timeline still was uncertain rather than a month-long absence that narrowed his workload edge over Noah Schultz, and before he returned for three games at Triple-A that looked like a guy who had missed a month for a back injury getting up to speed (2-for-12 with four strikeouts). He still hit .280/.366/.463 with 16 homers in 98 games, splitting time in Double and Triple-A as a 21-year-old switch-hitter with a new-and-improved loading action in his swing.
Quero is currently the No. 59 overall prospect at MLB Pipeline, which has gone from a bit of trivia to something that potentially nets the White Sox a draft pick if he wins Rookie of the Year next season. Or if he finishes in the top three in MVP voting before hitting arbitration. Shoot for the moon, Edgar; someone should.
That creates at least some incentive for the team to not only let their catcher of the future take the reins sooner than later, but try to enable him to hit the ground running. Quero could be activated this week, although the White Sox would have to open a 40-man roster spot for him since the vacancy left by Chad Kuhl's DFA was filled by the Sox claiming reliever Ron Marinaccio off waivers from the Yankees on Monday.
Activating Quero would create a decent-to-good chance that he's on the field for the White Sox setting or extending the all-time record for losses in a season; an odious benchmark that will haunt the careers for everyone involved. Sox leadership has a lot better feelings about bringing young players into a clubhouse environment weighed down by historical failure and disappointment now that Grady Sizemore is in charge. For Quero it will ideally be a fun bit a trivia at the start of a 14-year career. But it's a tough scene nonetheless.
Speaking of, the White Sox could always not activate Quero. They had to get league approval to do it, but the Los Angeles Dodgers brought up Will Smith at the end of 2018 without ever activating him, focusing instead on letting their catcher of the future acclimate to level of information and game preparation he would need to handle when he made his actual debut the following season. The White Sox already have precedent for end-of-season development list stays for prospects at the level where they will spend the next season.
Smith dominated upon arrival and spoke positively of the experience. But since Vargas is batting .122, Nick Nastrini and Jordan Leasure are finishing out the season in Triple-A and Alexander Albertus missed the second half of the season with a stress reaction in his left tibia, maybe no one is in the mood to hear about Dodgers imports right now. Jeral Perez did hit for a 128 wRC+ in Kannapolis after the trade and doesn't turn 20 for another six weeks, for what it's worth.
Quero being part of a Birmingham team that earned a playoff spot in the first half and is now a game away from winning the Southern League was viewed as a helpful piece for him developing as a catcher who guides his pitchers to victories. The 2024 White Sox are a different vibe.
Charmingly matter-of-fact and bluntly confident, Quero is the sort of youngster who could transcend such a situation where a major league team is farther down at the bottom than literally any major league team has ever been. He is the player who literally summed up an early season offensive slump with "my timing was a little fucked up" and described playing at a bulkier weight last year with "I was a little fat," while summing up his strong 2024 campaign with, "It's just what I expected. I mean, I can do a little bit better."
A larger question is whether literally anyone can transcend this situation, where an offense struggling to a degree not seen in half a century weighs on every member of the lineup. While Andrew Vaughn has risen up to once more become the only active regular with an OPS over .700, the Sox lack a rookie who has so much as managed a .600 OPS, even as giving consistent run to Dominic Fletcher, Bryan Ramos and Miguel Vargas has become a priority.
Focusing on prospects and the future can feel like the only humane thing to offer fans and players, and Quero is eager to be the next Cuban stalwart on the White Sox, well aware of their rich franchise history of them. But a more highly-rated Cuban prospect than Quero has ever been is spending his final week with the White Sox playing the role of a vestigial organ before even reaching the age of 30, so remember not to make too many assumptions about how this all plays out.
The Triple-A season ended on Sunday, and any major league exposure Quero gets over the final week is more development one the Charlotte Knights' top performers would have received otherwise. With more payroll cuts coming and a continuing trend of diminishing returns, the White Sox have a hard time convincing the public that next season is going to be meaningfully better. Quero, Ramos, Vargas, Sean Burke, Davis Martin, Jonathan Cannon, and similar names are supposed to make it more purposeful.
It would be nice to feel and see a purpose in some moments of the final week of this White Sox season, which otherwise feels like it will be a testimony to all that's been wasted.
