South Side Sox Top Prospect No. 42: Danny Mendick

Sure, he’s got excessive grindiness going for him — but this mini-mite is a guy you just want to root for

By whisoxman20051917 May 6, 2019, 9:48pm CDT

**Superhero of the spring:** Mendick’s grindy Glendale play won the hearts of many a White Sox fan.

Danny Mendick
5´10´´
189 pounds
Bats: Right
Age: 25
2018 SSS Top Prospect Rank: 38
SSS rank among all shortstops in the system: 5

In three years of collegiate ball (the first in junior college, the final two with the Massachusetts-Lowell River Hawks), Mendick displayed consistently solid hitting skills without much power. In those three years, covering 458 at-bats, Mendick slashed .332/.419/.483 with a combined eight homers, 90 RBIs, 32 stolen bases, 55 walks (10.13%) and 38 strikeouts (7.0%).

Partly because he didn’t hit for much power and his competition level wasn’t quite so fierce, Mendick fell to the White Sox in the 22nd round of the 2015 draft. In his four-year career in the White Sox organization, he has slashed .253/.336/.380 while combining to hit 31 homers and steal 48 bases, while walking and striking out at respectable rates of 9.62% and 12.65% respectively.

In 2018 with Birmingham, which is a notoriously difficult place to hit, Mendick managed to slash .247/.340/.395 in 132 games (453 at-bats) and record career highs in doubles (25), homers (14) and stolen bases (20). He walked (10.78%) and whiffed a bit more (17.01%) as well. Although he only played shortstop in 2018, Mendick has played plenty of games in his career at second and third bases as well.

Mendick does everything a utility infield/bench type is supposed to do: He’s hard-nosed, focused, and squeezes everything he can out of his game. His gritty competitiveness gives him an outside shot at a small, random window of modest success in the big leagues, thanks to hard work and good fortune.

Mendick has had some heroic moments already with the Knights in 2019, and overall he’s slashing .264/.360/.434 over his first 30 games in Charlotte. He is very likely the first call-up in case of any sort of infielder injury on the White Sox, as Mendick has committed only one error this year while seeing time at second base, third base, shortstop and left field.