Yermín Mercedes Returns

It was announced by Yermín Mercedes at 3 p.m. today that he was un-retiring from baseball.

This is the original Spanish, and for those of you who don’t understand it and don’t want to venture into the Instagram translation, Yermín is saying what you’d expect: I’ve been a minor leaguer for 10 years, my dream is the majors, baseball is in my blood ... and the very end, you can certainly understand.

As much as some readers, and certainly much of the SSS staff, does not wish to engage in speculation about Mercedes out of concern for his well-being, Yermín has in fact now talked himself out of the White Sox organization.

As Brett pointed out yesterday when this news first broke, in comments here or internally on staff, the original retirement-speculation message (“retirado? [thought bubble]”) seemed like a joke or a goof. Now, look where we are, 18 hours later.

As little as any of us know about Yermín and his life struggles, we do know he brings passion. In 2020 spring training, when he was lighting it up, he would send nightly messages out to Chicago fans, saying “Yermín loves you, see you in Chicago!” There’s not a single White Sox fan who doesn’t love the brass of a player far down the depth chart starting a movement — and then, backing it up. His brief debut in 2020’s short season brought tears of appreciation from Mercedes — who can’t tap into that emotion? And of course, his performance out of the gate in 2021 — starting several games solely due to Eloy Jiménez’s injury — is forever-legend material.

Yermín has made his mark on the game, and in White Sox lore. He is with us forever. And we do wish him the very best and safest path personally, and in his future career.

Anyway, not going to belabor this. The White Sox have confirmed Yermín is in Durham, N.C. for the Knights game tonight and is back active with the club. I would expect that whatever trade value Mercedes has will be aggressively explored over the next week.