So much excitement hinged on the White Sox winning the No. 1 pick in the MLB draft lottery at the Winter Meetings last month because with Roch Cholowsky, there was a clear-cut favorite for the first-overall selection that warranted the hype.
But as somebody who 1) doesn't fashion himself a college baseball expert and 2) remembers a couple of draft-related hashtags that didn't unfold quite as the White Sox fan base expected, for better (#RoadToRodon) or worse (#Tank4Beer), I'm on guard against priors that are slow to update. Granted, I think refreshed reads on amateur players are quicker to circulate than they were a decade ago, but it's also my responsibility to help circulate them.
Baseball America's latest College Baseball Podcast offered one such resource, as Jacob Rudner and Carlos Collazo devoted 13 minutes to how Cholowsky compared to previous No. 1 draft prospects, and the result of this hype check is "It's OK to be hyped."
In his post in the lottery's wake, Josh called Cholowsky the most hyped college hitter since Dylan Crews, and that's the player Rudner and Collazo spent most of their time discussing. Crews didn't end up going 1-1 in 2023, but that's only because his LSU teammate Paul Skenes took the leap of all leaps. As a college bat, Crews' production was unimpeachable, and it's one that Cholowsky still has to keep pace with.
Where Cholowsky separates himself is with defense. Crews played center field for LSU, but has spent most of his professional career in right, whereas Cholowsky figures to play shortstop until somebody superior requires the spot. When up-the-middle surety is brought into play, then Rudner and Collazo invoke Adley Rutschman, who was the last season preseason No. 1 pick who held that title wire-to-wire back in 2019. A Rutschman-type impact would be a terrific outcome for the White Sox, even if Josh might point to Bobby Witt Jr. taken one spot after Rutschman as a better one.
Spare Parts
- What's holding up Cody Bellinger's Yankees talks with rival execs surprised by issue -- New York Post
- Yankees-Cody Bellinger staredown featuers disconnect over free agency trends: Sources -- The Athletic
Jon Heyman says the Yankees have inquired about Luis Robert Jr. during their impasse in the Cody Bellinger negotiations, which gives it the feeling of a tepid leverage ploy.
That said, Alex Bregman's lengthy stalemate with the Red Sox turned into a five-year, $175 million contract with the Cubs, so there is a chance that the Yankees have to look elsewhere if they hold firm.
Baseball America expanded its international prospects list to 100 players in anticipation of the signing period that opens Thursday, but the White Sox are still connected to the same two players, Venezuelan catcher Fernando Graterol (No. 25) and Venezuelan outfielder Sebastian Romero (No. 29).
Madrigal signed a split contract with the Mets last season, but fractured his shoulder in spring training and missed the entire season, so he had to settle for a true minor league deal this time around. The Angels are making a small bet on a Henry Rowengartner-like power surge, but hedged their bets by pulling in multiple former White Sox second basemen, having signed Yolmer Sánchez to a minor league deal last month.
Eloy Jiménez also didn't appear in the majors last year, but that's because he hit just .278/.335/.397 with Triple-A Durham. That doesn't stop him from getting the one-name treatment in MLB.com headlines, however. This is technically a re-signing, since Jiménez hooked on with the Jays late last year and appeared in six games at Triple-A Buffalo. He’s been playing first base more than anywhere else for Toros del Este in LIDOM this winter, hitting .246/.324/.426 in 36 games.
Bobby Nightengale reports that the Twins have hired the newly retired Michael A. Taylor as an outfield instructor. During his media scrum on the last day of the 2025 season, Taylor hinted at having some interest in coaching down the road, but reserved his excitement for the prospect of spending more time with his wife and children than the MLB schedule allows. While Taylor is expected to be at Twins spring training and make trips out to their affiliates during the season for roving instructional work, Nightengale imparts that the role is really meant to allow the 34-year-old to test out whether he's interested in coaching full-time, so it sounds like he's splitting the difference.
- What Tarik Skubal's record arbitration case could mean for MLB -- ESPN
- How Tarik Skubal's case could test the norms of MLB's arbitration system -- The Athletic
With the White Sox having reached agreements -- or at least conclusions -- with all their arbitration-eligible players, they can watch from the sidelines as Scott Boras and the Tigers hash out a $13 million gap in their exchanged filing numbers. Jeff Passan's article predated the announcement of the figures, but he does a good job explaining why the system is what it is, as archaic as it may seem.
- How did curling become a Winter Olympics sensation? Inside the sport's unique history -- Los Angeles Times
- An uninhabited Scottish isle is home to the golden granite used in Olympic curling stones -- Associated Press
I spent the weekend in Las Vegas doing what everybody does there, which is curling in regional playdowns in an attempt to qualify for the U.S. Club National Championships. We finished 2-3 and came up one shot short of forcing a final game, but it's fulfilling to compete in a meaningful way after 40, even if my back, hamstrings and shoulders are saying otherwise after three games and six hours on the ice in one day.
Anyway, with the Winter Olympics a month away, this is every curling enthusiast's time to talk about how great it is, because this is the only window we get to make it a bigger thing.
The U.S., which has won two Olympic curling medals, both in the men’s competition, will also have a dozen curlers in Italy competing in all three events. But if the sport is a national pastime in Canada, one that competes with hockey for fans and media attention, it remains something of an oddity in the U.S., where it draws huge TV audiences every four years during the Olympics, then fades from view until the next Winter Games.
“It’s so frustrating to see curling become the next best thing to sliced bread for a month and then it comes off the radar for four years,” said Korey Dropkin, a five-time U.S. champion and a 2023 world champion in mixed doubles. “I want to see something that’s on national television in the U.S. every week. I want to be able to expose our amazing sport to the U.S. audience day in, day out.
“I hope that in the near future we’ll be able to create more opportunities for exposure for curling.”
