The tides have really shifted with the White Sox when Luis Robert Jr. can knock himself out of the lineup by taking a ricocheted baseball off the noggin and not crack the three biggest stories of the day for the team.
A source confirms that top catching prospect Kyle Teel, just scratched from the lineup at Triple-A Charlotte, is being called up to Chicago for his major league debut. Another source indicates that fellow rookie Edgar Quero will stay on the major league roster upon Teel's arrival, and that catcher Korey Lee being optioned to Triple-A is the likely corresponding move. A 40-man roster move will also be necessary to add Teel.
It's not like Teel hasn't earned it. He's hitting .295/.394/.492 in 50 games at Triple-A Charlotte, which undersells how hot he's been of recent. Teel is batting .341/.440/.600 since May 1, with 12 extra-base hits in 24 games. And when he spoke with White Sox beat writers after winning the team's minor league player of the month award for May, Teel was more excited about his recent progress defensively.
"Past couple of weeks, I would say defensively, receiving at the bottom of the zone, I feel like my numbers have skyrocketed," said Teel. "I've been good at the top, left--I've been good at both sides, but I've been really trying to hone in on the bottom of the zone receiving. And I feel like my numbers have really gotten better down there. And that's really important, especially when catching pitchers that can locate well."
The framing doesn't even speak to how much Teel feels he's progressed in building scouting reports in the TruMedia interface the White Sox have at Triple-A Charlotte. A possible plan for Teel to contribute defensively while splitting time with Quero behind the plate emerged during that same interview earlier this week, when the 23-year-old revealed that he had begun taking grounders at first base. He's yet to actually appear in a game at first, but both players have made a point to stress the harmony of their working relationship.
"Q is a great guy and I love working with him," Teel told Sox Machine recently. "He's a great athlete and I would say we were competing against each other, but we're good friends off the field too. We have a good relationship. All that stuff helps us play better and what we really care about overall is how can we both help the team win. We kind of did our own business and did the best we could to help the team win. It was less about 'I need to be better than you' or he needs to be better than me, it was more like we need to help the team win. Let's get to work and play baseball."
After a red-hot start to the plate upon being promoted in mid-April, Quero has regressed a bit offensively, hitting .235/.301/.282 while still searching for his first home run of the year.
"I'm a little fucked up with my timing," Quero said on Thursday morning, detailing that he's been working through some adjustments with hitting coach Marcus Thames. "Every time I struggle it's because my timing is bad. But right now I feel good, I'm trying to turn the page."
But teammates and coaches have praised the speed with which Quero has incorporated myriad new concepts, be it with his pitch-framing or game-calling, and disparate offensive results during development comes with the territory for young catchers.
"He's handling it well," Will Venable said Thursday of Quero. "Now it's about finding the solutions to get over the hump and get back swinging and playing well at the plate. He's done a good job defensively. He's done a great job game calling. His ability to connect with the pitchers and help these guys navigate a game has been great. So now, yeah, at the plate it's about finding his adjustments, get back on the heater, get on time and get some hits again."
Back in late April, with Quero on an early-season heater that continued into the majors and Teel cooling off after a hot opening week, this dynamic was flipped. But always and inevitably since Teel was the headliner of the return from the Garrett Crochet trade, he and Quero were bound to go through the major league acclimation process together, with White Sox GM touting Teel's left-handed swing making him a good platoon partner for the switch-hitting Quero.
By all indications, figuring out how they split the work together begins on Friday.
