White Sox leftover center fielder Adam Engel has been summarily unimpressive at the plate for the past two seasons. He’s batting .220 with a .082 ISO, -0.2 WAR and -12.6 offensive value ranking. But…there is one area of his game that is unimpeachable.
On Monday he pulled back a towering fly ball from the Yankees’ Greg Bird, but he had an encore in store for Tuesday night.
I mean, come on!! Engel pulls off two miraculous plays on back-to-back nights, the kind of plays that we thought only Mike Trout was capable of.
Higshioka hit that ball 103 mph with an 88% hit probability. Engel brings it back, just as he did the night before to Greg Bird. Engel > Trout. #whitesox https://t.co/wta2kIKxkh
— Matt Enuco (@Matt_Enuco) August 8, 2018
But will Engel’s latest superhuman display mute the calls to designate him in favor of promoting Eloy Jimenez, whom Bruce Levine believes will be called up this week? Hard to tell. And his immutable hustle and soaring receptions only make the decision to nix Engel all the more troublesome for White Sox brass.
One thing to remember is that despite Engel’s lack of production at the plate, Charlie Tilson was ditched a month ago instead of Engel. It appears to me that Engel knows what he’s doing in the outfield and getting more comfortable. He made a few plays of this ilk last season and perhaps he’s starting to feel a sense of belonging, something every player has to feel in order to settle in.
But, I’m sure most people would love to hold onto these memories of Engel while trading up for Jimenez’s light-tower power. If it does happen this week…well…we’ll always have the memories.
Monday Engel vs. Tuesday Engel… who robbed it better? #WhiteSox pic.twitter.com/rH5jp3tH8b
— Chicago White Sox (@whitesox) August 8, 2018
