Edgar Quero Is Being Severely Underrated

As the new prospect lists are slowly being released this offseason, one name has either been ranked very low or has been left off the list entirely. This is Edgar Quero, the White Sox’s top-catching prospect. 

These lower rankings are very curious, as he played very well since he was traded to the White Sox in the Lucas Giolito trade. In 31 games after the trade, Quero hit .277 with three home runs. That was just as many as he had in 40 more games with the Angels AA affiliate, showing the stark improvement since the trade. 

In those 31 games, he added a .366 OBP with 22 RBIs. One of his more impressive stats is his strikeout-to-walk ratio, as he walked 17 times to only 23 strikeouts. If you can keep it close to even, that is extremely impressive. Overall in 2023, he struck out 76 times while walking 72. That is extremely impressive in its own right, but even more so considering he turned 20 early into the season in AA. 

Yet for some reason, he has been ranked lower on many of the new lists and even left off some of the lists entirely. This is absolutely insane. 

He was listed on the Baseball Prospectus list, at 78, but he was left off the Baseball America list, not even receiving votes like other White Sox prospects Nick Nastrini and Bryan Ramos. MLB Pipeline even released their top 10 catching prospect list, and he fell down two spots, as they ranked him 9th overall this year, when he was ranked 7th last year.

His fall is very curious. He did start the season off a bit slow, but once he was traded to the White Sox, he finished very strong and made an immediate impact in Birmingham. 

At this point, he is the second-highest-ranked White Sox position player, just slotted behind top prospect Colson Montgomery. He is still going to be the catcher of the future and if he starts off the season hot, he could make a push to join the ballclub in September. 

We are not sure how Chris Getz will handle prospects, as Rick Hahn liked to take it slow with them. If Chris Getz is serious about getting this team competitive soon, it would be advantageous for Quero to be up sooner rather than later if he is playing well in the upper minors this year. 

It would make sense not only from a reward standpoint with your prospects, as you should promote your prospects when they are playing well and look major league ready, but Quero could learn a lot from the veteran catchers on the roster this year, such as Max Stassi or Martin Maldonado. 

Regardless of how the prospects lists feel about him, the Whtie Sox are still very high on him, as according to Francys Romero, they have invited him to Major League Spring Training. This should be a good chance to see what he can do against major-league talent, and he can pick the brains of the veteran catchers on the team.

Hopefully, as the year goes on, he will get the recognition he deserves around the league.