White Sox Minor League Weekly Update: May 9-15

Charlotte Knights

Romy González: .100/.250/.100 - 2 BB, 2 K, 1 RBI, 1 SB
Seby Zavala: .455/.667/.818 — 1 HR, 7 BB, 3 K, 4 R, 3 RBI **Weekly MVP**
Micker Adolfo: .471/.524/.824 — 1 HR, 2 BB, 3 K, 5 R, 5 RBI
Yolbert Sánchez: .000/.294/.000 - 3 BB, 3 K
Yermín Mercedes: .200/.294/.667 — 2 HR, 1 BB, 8 K, 3 RBI
Carlos Pérez: .333/.368/.778 - 2 HR, 1 BB, 1 K, 4 R, 6 RBI
Jake Burger: .227/.414/.364 - 1 HR, 6 BB, 3 , 6 R, 3 RBI
Kade McClure: 3 IP, 9.00 ERA, 1 BB, 3 K
Davis Martin: 6 IP, 0.00 ERA, 1 BB, 4 K
Johnny Cueto: 5 ¹⁄₃ IP, 3.38 ERA, 1 BB, 6 K

Seby Zavala had the offensive week of his life, with a 1.485 OPS and a 281 wRC+. Not even video game numbers could measure up to Zavala. He showed great power with a couple of homers, but even better plate discipline (which is something he does not do often).

Zavala currently has a 36.3% K-rate, so he was seeing the ball extremely well the past seven days. Since he started to shuttle between Charlotte and Chicago, his offense has suffered overall and he has not had an above-average offensive stretch since 2018 in Double-A. This year so far, he’s sporting an OBP of better than .400, and the power is back with a .259 ISO.

Zavala really is not a prospect at this point in his career, and he has fallen in the catching depth chart after he was DFA’ed. In fact, he is now primarily a first baseman. In the 24 games he has played for the Knights, he has started at first in 17 of them and has only caught six games, as Carlos Pérez has taken over as the primary catcher. The bat has been playing, so maybe Zavala can get back up to the bigs one day — maybe just not as a White Sox.

Birmingham Barons

José Rodríguez: .231/.313/.333 — 0 BB, 2 K, 3 R, 4 RBI, 2 SB
Lenyn Sosa: .360/.407/.520 — 1 HR, 2 BB, 3 K, 5 R, 4 RBI
Craig Dedelow: .313/.455/.750 - 2 HR, 5 BB, 8 K, 4 R, 4 RBI, 1 SB **Weekly MVP**
Yoelqui Céspedes: .320/.320/.440 — 1 HR, 0 BB, 8 K, 4 R, 2 RBI
Jason Bilous: 5 IP, 10.12 ERA, 7 BB, 5 K
Sean Burke: 5 IP, 9.00, 1 BB, 7 K
Caleb Freeman: (Did not pitch last week)

Craig Dedelow is having the best offensive season of his career so far, with a 122 wRC+. He just has a 40% K-rate, so the MLB ceiling is just not there.

So with the weekly MVP being more or less a career minor leaguer in Dedelow, there’s no better time to finally have that talk about José Rodríguez’s season.

So far, in 29 games this season for Rodríguez, he has .584 OPS and a 56 wRC+, really bad numbers. His BABIP is low at .263 if somebody wants to grasp at him being unlucky with batted balls, but Popeye has weakened in many areas. His strikeout rate is up a bit to 15.7%, and he has not improved in the walk department, either. So if Rodríguez is going to have a low BABIP and still not walk very often, he is going to have a hard time reaching base — and that is what is happening with a .268 OBP.

Rodríguez is also having a power outage, with just one homer and a .092 ISO, which is not going to cut it. Such a batted-ball profile would indicate weaker contact. He is not pulling the ball that much (35%, which would be a career low) and he isn’t using center, either, so Rodríguez really is not using all fields; just going opposite field indicates generally weaker contact. Rodríguez is overmatched right now; hopefully he can turn it around sooner than later.

Winston-Salem Dash

Oscar Colás: 2-for-5, 1 HR, 1 BB, 1 K, 2 R
Bryan Ramos: .087/.192/.087 — 2 BB, 5 K, 2 R, 1 RBI
Luis Míeses: .348/.423/.609 — 1 HR, 3 BB, 3 K, 2 R, 4 RBI
Adam Hackenberg: .133/.188/.133 — 1 BB, 5 K
Drew Dalquist: 5 IP, 5.40 ERA, 2 BB, 1 K
Matthew Thompson: 4 IP, 11.25 ERA, 1 BB, 3 K
Chase Soleky: 10 IP, 0.90 ERA, 5 BB, 6 K **Weekly MVP**

Chase Solesky was a 21st round draft pick way back in 2019 and has been a starter in the White Sox system ever since — just not a high-profile one. Part of the reason that Solesky is not high profile is that his current ERA (4.55) would be the best in his professional career and first ERA of less than 5.00. So he has not been very productive. But in this past week, he really was. Solesky is not relying on strikeouts, with just a 14.5% K-rate, but the BABIP was low enough this past week to go 10 innings with just one run allowed. Solesky still had a 5.67 FIP, so his season really could take a turn for the worse. But he had a great week while many Winston-Salem players did not.

Kannapolis Cannon Ballers

Misael González: .125/.211/.188 — 1 BB, 6 K, 1 R, 1 RBI
Colson Montgomery: 5-for-10, 0 BB, 3 K, 2 R
Wes Kath: .207/.233/.345 — 1 HR, 0 BB, 12 K, 3 R, 3 RBI
Wilfred Veras: .500/.583/.650 — 1 HR, 4 BB, 2 K, 4 R, 3 RBI **Weekly MVP**
Jared Kelley: (Did not play last week)
Cristian Mena: 4 IP, 0.00 ERA, 2 BB, 8 K

This was one of Wilfred Veras’ good weeks, and though that understates what he accomplished, hopefully this is the start of a more consistent hitter. Veras did not start the year particularly well, but has put it together in the month of May. His slash line is .366/.435/.463, but the power is down during this hot stretch, which hopefully is not the type of hitter he turns out to be.

Thankfully, Veras’ plate discipline numbers are pretty similar to rookie ball, as his walks are down 1.3% and strikeouts are up about 2%, but those numbers are improving lately. Veras might not be a top prospect yet, but he is having a better year than Bryan Ramos and José Rodríguez in Kannapolis — at least so far.