WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- We here at Sox Machine are not above crowd work. So here's Charlotte Knights manager Sergio Santos talking about that rascal Tim Elko, who was at it again on Friday night, launching his seventh home run of the season. His strikeout rate is still around 30 percent, but Elko is now hitting .355/.432/.684 in 21 games.
Santos managed Elko for parts of last season with Double-A Birmingham, so he has a more realized view than most of how Elko has improved from 2024.
"Timmy is one of my all-time favorites that I've managed, he's just such a great human being," Santos said. "It's awesome to see the maturation process from the hitter he was last year. He was good, but obviously there was some swing and miss. You've seen him clean that up going into this season and becoming a more complete hitter. Obviously the power has always been there. It's just about swinging at pitches he can do some damage with and he's done that so far.
He plays, to me, above-average defense. He's a really, really good first baseman. He's doing everything he can. Obviously, he's one of these guys that continually will have to post everywhere he goes, and he's done that, so hopefully he gets his shot here soon."
Ryan Fuller gave a mention to Elko being a fervent adopter of the Trajekt machine in spring training, and Santos echoed that he's developed a routine with his machine work in Charlotte with hitting coach Jim Rickon. But as Santos mentioned, a lack of draft status and pre-existing questions about Elko's hit tool means there will be an extra emphasis for him to prove his worth with results all the way through his progression.
As much as managing a Triple-A team while the major league roster is in turmoil seems like it make it harder for Santos to install a team culture, he actually finds that it only makes his stoicism-influenced approach even more relevant.
"I mentioned to Timmy that baseball, like life, is unfair sometimes," Santos said. "There's different paths to the mountaintop. Just because this guy's path is this way doesn't mean that's the way for you. He understands it. He knows it. He doesn't complain about it. He just goes out and he posts."
Colson Montgomery's struggles
After Montgomery spent so much time lambasting himself for being too pull-conscious in 2024, it seemed unlikely that would be his ailment again in 2025. But the on-site testimonials are indicating otherwise amid his .169/.242/.289 open to the season with a 42.9 percent strikeout rate.
"Guys that are really skilled, have really good bat-to-ball skills and are really strong, sometimes we try to manipulate and we try to make things happen, and he tried to hit four home runs in one at-bat, which we all know is not possible," Santos said. "He kind of fell victim to hitting a home run in the first game. Especially in our ballpark in Charlotte, it's definitely very hitter-friendly. As I try to explain to him, he's such an incredible athlete and he's got really good power, he doesn't need to cheat or try to pull the ball. That just happens when you're on the ball and you're thinking oppo and just reacting to [pitches inside]. He's been doing that and his at-bats have looked incredibly better."
Santos insists that Montgomery has looked better over the past two weeks, and the slow upward creep of his numbers suggests a measure of progress, even if the past year-plus of results is suggesting a sharp tilt towards a power-over-hit profile. Again, here is where Santos' message of focusing on controllable elements is applicable.
"When you get off to a bad start, it can start to leak to other parts of your game and he hasn't allowed that to happen. He's played some outstanding shortstop," Santos said. "Triple-A is a different beast where you know you're so close. I just challenge him to be present and be where your feet are. Nothing's going to happen unless he takes care of what's going on here in Charlotte. He knows that and he's been really great about it."
Kyle Teel as primary catcher
The White Sox certainly didn't stick with the arrangement of two prized catching prospects at Triple-A for very long. Notably in the video the team published of Edgar Quero being told he was being called up, Santos acknowledged that the 22-year-old hadn't been catching as much as he would like, and certainly thinks Teel will benefit from getting starting catcher reps again.
"I think it's going to be great for Kyle," Santos said. "What he needed is game reps. That's the only way you can really get better defensively. That goes for any position, but especially catcher because there's so much going on. There's so much that they're in control of. So I think this is a really good thing and I think he's going to make some big leaps and bounds in that part of his game now that he's catching on a more consistent basis."
Teel started out so hot offensively that he won International League Player of the Week honors, before cooling off and running an elevated strikeout rate (30.1 percent) that is driving some projections that he'll be a power-over-hit guy in the majors. He's currently sitting at .222/.323/.395 through 22 games.
"My guy can hit. He's been a really good hitter, he's always going to hit," Santos said. "He's a naturally energetic and positive kid. We know that hitting .400 is unsustainable. It's incredibly hard to do that. But he's had some good at-bats and it's just about weathering the storm, the peaks and valleys of it. He's done a good job of that. His attitude has always been great every single day and he has his routine and he does it every single day. He's putting himself in a good spot."
Bullet points:
-- Bryan Ramos has started very slow offensively, but Santos chalked it up to just trying to find rhythm and timing after a spring mostly spent rehabbing an injury.
-- After managing him with Birmingham last year, Santos mostly liked what he saw from Tyler Schweitzer's Triple-A debut despite the rough final line. He thought Schweitzer came out too keyed up and had trouble sustaining it in the back half of his outing but that his stuff had noticeably jumped a notch.
-- Asked for sleepers, Santos pointed to Adisyn Coffey and the recently promoted Caleb Freeman in the Knights bullpen. Discussing Coffey occasionally using his changeup to throw off opposing hitters led to Santos reminiscing about surprising Miguel Cabrera with one on a full count to escape an eighth-inning bases loaded jam.
"I was like 'OK, I'm either going to be a zero or a hero for this one, here we go," Santos said with a laugh. "I remember coming set thinking like, 'Holy cow, I'm about to throw a 3-2 changeup. Bases loaded up by one in the eighth. And luckily for me, it worked."
