The White Sox press release announcing a crop of 16 new international free agents, delivered before 2 p.m. on the first day of the new signing period, doesn't hint at a department that installed a new leader in September alongside a larger staffing overhaul, and is still scrambling to allocate another ~$1 million in bonus pool room.
— Chicago White Sox (@whitesox) January 15, 2025
In 2023, the Sox waited until the first Monday after the period opened the day before to announce seven signings, before rolling out 11 additional signings all from Venezuela over a week later. Last year, it took until the 24th before a batch of four international deals were announced, and since previous periods orbited around Cuban signings like Norge Vera, Yoelqui Céspedes and Oscar Colás, the timing of the public releases mirrored the unorthodox nature of those pursuits.
But special assistant to the general manager David Keller wouldn't try to hide the tumult that produced these normal-looking results.
"I would be remiss not to mention the hard work that was contributed by people that were in this department and in this role prior to me coming on board," Keller said via Zoom, fresh off being present for a slate of in-person signings in the Dominican Republic. "To have turnover in personnel, rebuild and hire staffing, implement a process and strategy that's new, and do all that simultaneously while sprinting toward a pretty real deadline, those are pretty challenging circumstances."
This duality is reflected with the two headliners of the class, both ranked as top-100 prospects of this international period by Baseball America. While 18-year-old Cuban third baseman Alejandro Cruz's reported $2 million is by far the largest of the group after building out a scouting reputation in international tournaments, Keller admitted "I haven’t spent as much time with" him as other members of the class.
It’s a tall, athletic, lean frame, one that has room to add strength. He’s a polished defender at third base. The thing that stands out in my short period of time watching him play is that he puts together professional at-bats. We are going to find out very quickly how that translates into the DSL and into pro baseball.
Keller on class headliner, 18-year-old 3B Alejandro Cruz
The coup of signing Venezuelan outfielder Orlando Patiño (for a reported $570,000) away from an initial commitment to the Dodgers as the reigning champs marshaled resources for their Rōki Sasaki bid, on the other hand, is more of an immediate triumph.
"We’ve seen some things that we don’t normally see in an international signing period. As a result, there have been opportunities for us and for other teams to potentially take advantage of those opportunities," Keller said about Sasaki's effect on the market. "This was an opportunity that was presented, again, as a reflection of some really diligent work by our group in Venezuela and put us in a position that when his agent decided to make him available, we were able to see him live and in person. I think we were the first team to do that. And I can't overstate, that doesn't happen without really good people on the ground."
We're very excited about this young man's athletic ability. He's someone who can impact a baseball. We believe in the power potential and the bat, but we don't think it's a power-only type of package. Currently there's limited chase, there's limited swing-and-miss and we think that he has a chance to be a dual-threat bat combo: hitting and power. And [there's] enough athleticism and run tool to begin in center field. If at some point he would have to slide [over], we are confident and we believe that the power is going to translate to a corner.
Keller on 17-year-old OF Orlando PatiÑo
It's common for White Sox international signing announcements to finish with a promise of future additions, and Keller thinks the fallout from Sasaki will present itself with a stream of action across the industry. But in a field of talent acquisition where pre-agreed-upon deals are already the open secret that make public comments on behind-the-scenes work tricky, the Sox had already been working up to the whistle.
Keller told reporters he's flying out to Bogota, Colombia, early Thursday morning to be present at a signing event for their cadre of Venezuelan additions, and after speaking to Sox Machine at the winter meetings about wanting to increase the organization's presence in the Dominican Republic, he beamed with pride about the four Dominican pitchers who were added to round out a class that was initially fronted with the sort of Cuban signings for which the previous regime was known.
"We're excited about all the arms we've been able to add to this point, and some of whom we believe we have a shot at acquiring in the next couple of weeks," Keller said. "From an evaluation standpoint, we're really spending time and focusing on acquiring players that we believe are athletic on the mound, that have starter traits and have the stuff and weapons to get players out -- not only in the DSL, but projected to do that at higher levels as well."
It's a good frame, it's a body that can add additional weight and muscle. We've seen him up to 93 mph. On the mound, he's an athletic mover with a repeatable delivery, throws an elite amount of strikes. And he's got a changeup that, in my estimation, projects to be plus when it's all said and done.
Keller on 16-year-old RHP Yobal Rodríguez
Projecting 16-year-old (or younger) pitchers out of the DR is typically has larger error bars than evaluating a 20-something member of the Cuban national team at an international tournament, so Keller's emphasis on interpolating more "objective information" into the White Sox scouting process while simultaneously diving headlong intro more challenging markets needed some sort of resolution. As it turns out, the answer is always an investment into greater resources.
"The credit here goes to Chris [Getz] and Jerry [Reinsdorf] and the organization in funding some changes in how we go about accumulating that information and objective data," Keller said. "We've purchased portable Trackman units that we can take to any field in the Dominican Republic and set up. We've purchased video cameras and different things that previously weren’t a part of what was happening in the international market for the Chicago White Sox. And now they are."
With apologies to Yobal Rodríguez's changeup or any future players the White Sox can land amid Sasaki-inspired chaos, this might be a larger development than any individual signing. It would only be fair to place fewer expectations on this class than on future classes where Keller has more than four months on the job from which to draw. And it would only be fair to expect more in the future if the new regime is actually being set up for success.
"I don't know that data and Trackman information and video alone helps you make good decisions," Keller said. "The implementation of that, and the ability to to take the information and analyze it and leverage it over time will help you make better decisions. So I feel very fortunate that Chris and Jerry believe in the vision and the plan that we have here, and I'm excited to see how it plays out.
