As Prospect Week got underway, we asked our 10 WAR supporters about questions they had and White Sox prospects they wanted to hear about. We addressed a lot of those requests over the course of our 60 write-ups and dueling top-10 lists, but a handful of them couldn't quite be neatly stored within a capsule, so let's clean up the loose ends before spring training begins.
As always, thanks for your support and interest, and if you're supporting us at that level, be on the lookout for an email about questions for our next podcast guest.
Is there a potential edge to fielding shorter position players now that the automated strike zone has officially arrived?
The Brewers are the team that brought this question to mind, as they are a sharp org., were relatively short last year, and have only gotten shorter since then. Meanwhile, our Sox have apparently healed all the [Nick] Madrigal-related scars and don't seem to mind targeting shorter prospects ([Chase] Meidroth, [Luisangel] Acuña, [Sam] Antonacci, [William] Bergolla) or marginal signings. Perhaps this is just downstream of budget constraints for each club, as guys with worse measurables and lower theoretical power grades just come cheaper on the trade and FA markets, but it did make me wonder if something could be up.
Might the smaller strike zones be enforced more strictly with the new automated layer? If so, can some combination of good plate discipline and on-base speed tip the scales a bit from the value perspective, especially if the inverse is also true that larger strike zones for taller power hitters might cause more problems for that player type? All of this probably requires an even bigger leap to a Fully Automated Strike Zone in '27 or '28 to mean much, but could the Brewers (and White Sox???) be slightly ahead of the trend and market on this one?
Steve V.
It could have some impact with ABS, in the sense that shorter players tend to have the most too-high strikes called against them, so guys who get on base in spite of that should theoretically have more walks, or at least favorable counts to work with. On the other hand, players on the other end of the height spectrum tend to have the most too-low strikes called against them, so under ABS, the “corrected” strike zones could give them a greater advantage to having long levers, and it evens out on the far ends.
It seems like the Brewers evolved into this approach of having a bunch of little guys who make the most out of their frames at the plate and provide above-average defense wherever they play. Over the course of this Counsell/Murphy era, they started out with identifying big thumpers who could at least platoon, and as they aged or priced themselves out, smaller guys happened to take their places, turning it into a sort of Ship of Theseus in a Bottle. I think it's a hard approach to start from the ground up, because in the White Sox lineup, Isaac Collins-shaped production isn't going to look like a solution to anything, but when he's adding a multiplier to the things the Brewers already do well, he's very useful toward keeping a good thing going. Let's go back in a time machine and put Dominic Fletcher in Milwaukee and see what happens. At the same time, the Brewers have now traded Collins and Caleb Durbin this offseason alone.
Ultimately, when seeing the way they got dismissed by the Dodgers, I'm sure the Brewers would rather have taller players who have an easier time hitting home runs by accident. But it's fun to have diversity in rosters and things that count for helping teams win, so I'd be all for there being some kind of consolation prize for being atypically shaped.
Who ends up holding down the second base job at the end of 2026? Meidroth, Bonemer, Acuña, Sosa, Antonacci?
John S.
Jim: I'm ruling out Bonemer (2027 seems more likely for a debut) and Acuña (the playing time he needs is in the outfield). In the best possible situation, it's some sort of Meidroth/Antonacci platoon. Meidroth played through a few injuries last year, so I'm not ruling out a future where he's entirely capable of being 2-3 WAR second baseman on his own, but if 2025 is more or less what you can expect from him, then both he and Antonacci would be well served to have help in lightening the load while also backing up other infield positions on a given day, assuming his approach at the plate survives the highest levels of pitching.
(Sosa shouldn't be a part of the long-term mix, but he's a survivor with a penchant for finding playing time no matter how resistant the White Sox may be, so I'm not ruling him out of any picture he's remotely qualified for until he's out of the organization.)
Who is the fastest player likely to make the Opening Day roster and compete for the honor of racing children on the kids' deck?
Walker G.
Because I'd discounted Derek Hill's staying power until the White Sox tendered him a split contract, I didn't realize Statcast clocked his sprint speed as 99th-percentile (30.1 feet per second), which has everybody on the 40-man roster beat. Luisangel Acuña is close (29.6 feet per second, 97th percentile), has a more active track record of using it in games, and figures to get a longer runway toward claiming playing time in center field, so let's go with him.
What is the process for the White Sox converting Paez from a Rule 5 with its restrictions to a straight up prospect with his options available? Can they turn one of the PTBNLs into that, or does Paez still have to go through waivers, then the deal between the White and Red Sox can occur?
John G.
Let's go straight to the source for Rule 5 maneuverings, Baseball America editor and #Rule5Fever Patient Zero J.J. Cooper, for the general outline of the mechanics:
If a team decides to clear the Rule 5 pick from their active roster, they have to be placed on waivers. Any other team can then claim the player, and by doing so, that team then assumes the Rule 5 roster responsibilities. If no one claims the player, he is dropped from the 40-man roster and offered back to his original team, which can choose to take him back—and pay back $50,000 of the $100,000 selection fee—and send him to the minors or keep the money and let the player stay with his new team. In that case, the player can now be sent down to the minors by his new team. Sometimes, teams will trade another player to the Rule 5 player’s original team so they can keep the player they selected, but still send him to the minors.
Now, Cooper does concede that a Rule 5 pick could be traded before being waived, but it's something that doesn't happen because teams aren't champing at the bit to give up anything for a player with such restrictions. Whatever trades for Rule 5 picks happen after the DFA process, and usually for cash.
As for players to be named later, they're typically selected from an agreed-upon list of players, but there's a history of the conditions being so open-ended that players have been traded for themselves, so Paez could be used in such a capacity. I don't think it'd be likely in this case – if you can get a pitching prospect of some note back for $50,000, why would you just effectively give him back? – but since there are PTBNLs on both sides of that deal, perhaps they could bake a fresh set of negotiations into that trade.
What would be more surprising in 2026, George Wolkow stealing more than 40 bases or striking out less than 140 times?
Asinwreck
The bigger surprise would be 40 steals, easily. There's the pedantic reason, which is that raw strikeout totals can be lowered by injuries or time on the Development List, while 40 steals would require a healthy and productive season no matter what. But in fairness to the intent behind the question, a 40-steal season for Wolkow requires a narrow set of circumstances where he progresses in terms of OBP abilities, but doesn't make similar gains in power. A more ideal version of Wolkow wouldn't have to steal second so much because he'd be stepping on it during his trot.
