The White Sox intend to advertise catching prospect Edgar Quero, reviews Francys Romero. He’s anticipated to affix the staff for tomorrow afternoon’s sequence finale in opposition to the A’s. It’ll be the primary main league name for the 22-year-old. Quero shouldn’t be on the 40-man roster, so there’ll be a forthcoming transfer in that regard.
Quero, a local of Cuba, signed with the Angels in February 2021. He rapidly impressed prospect evaluators as a complicated switch-hitting catcher. He’d gotten to Double-A at age 20 earlier than the Halos despatched him to the White Sox alongside lefty Ky Bush for Lucas Giolito and Reynaldo López on the 2023 deadline. The Angels regretted that push in a short time thereafter, as they fell firmly out of competition and wound up waiving Giolito and López a month later to shed their salaries.
It was a pleasant return for the White Sox. Quero has ranked within the latter half of Baseball America’s High 100 prospects for every of the previous three years. BA positioned him sixth within the Chicago farm system this winter. That got here on the heels of a robust .280/.366/.463 slash line with 16 house runs between the highest two minor league ranges. He saved his strikeout fee round 17% whereas drawing walks at a stable 9.7% clip.
Evaluators credit score Quero with stable grades throughout the board (apart from the below-average pace anticipated of a catcher). He’s extra of a bat-first participant, drawing specific reward for his superior hit device. BA writes that he has a median arm and has continued to enhance his receiving abilities, although, so there’s not a lot doubt that he can keep behind the plate.
On the time of the Giolito commerce, Quero appeared to be Chicago’s catcher of the long run. That’s not a given, albeit for causes past his management. The White Sox constructed the Garrett Crochet commerce round former first-round choose Kyle Teel. Teel is mostly considered because the superior prospect, although it’s Quero who earns the key league name first.
The 2 highly-regarded younger catchers have cut up the taking part in time at Triple-A Charlotte. Quero has had the significantly better begin to the season. He’s hitting .333/.444/.412 with 11 walks and 14 strikeouts over 63 plate appearances. Teel has fanned 19 occasions and is batting .192 in an identical quantity of taking part in time.
Matt Thaiss and Korey Lee started the season as Will Venable’s catching tandem. The Sox misplaced Lee to an ankle sprain final week. They initially introduced up veteran Omar Narváez from Double-A somewhat than promote Quero or Teel. They’ll reverse course now with Quero, who ought to play pretty usually.
It’s not doable for a participant to accrue the 172 days on an MLB roster essential to get a full yr of service. Quero was a preseason prime 100 prospect at every of Baseball America, ESPN and MLB Pipeline, so he would qualify for the Prospect Promotion Incentive. Which means he may earn a full service yr if he completed within the prime two in AL Rookie of the 12 months balloting. The White Sox would not obtain a bonus draft selection if that occurs as a result of they didn’t promote Quero early sufficient to achieve 172 service days.
