The catcher of the future, Edgar Quero was one of the best trade deadline acquisitions the White Sox have had in a long time. The cornerstone of the Lucas Giolito trade, the White Sox officially won that trade, as Giolito and Lopez were on the Angels for just about one month. To make matters worse for the Angels, Quero played very well after the trade, which is a great sign for the Sox.
Signed out of Cuba by the Angels in 2021, he would play a bit in Low A and Rookie Ball in Arizona, but he wasn’t overly impressive. He hit .240, but he had an impressive .405 OBP, which shows he can get on base, regardless if he is hitting the ball or not. He would add five home runs and 30 RBIs while walking 28 times in just 39 games.
The Angels would start him back in Low A in 2022, and he played fantastic. He hit .312 with a .435 OBP in 111 games. He would add 17 home runs and 75 RBIs. He walked 73 times while striking out 91, a pretty good ratio for a 19-year-old. This impressive season would earn him the MVP of the league, which prompted the Angels to promote him to AA in 2023, skipping High-A.
With the Angels AA affiliate, he would hit .246 with a .386 OBP in 70 games. The most impressive part of his game is the fact that he walked 55 times, while only striking out 53 times. This is absolutely insane for a 20-year-old in AA and it shows how he has a good feel for the zone. Most players on the White Sox don’t seem to have that ability now. In those 70 games, he would add three home runs and 35 RBIs, which was a modest power output.
The elite walk-to-strikeout ratio is one of the reasons the Sox wanted Quero in the Giolito trade and he played even better after the trade. Once he got to Birmingham, he would hit .277 with a .366 OBP over 31 games. He would add three home runs and 22 RBIs to that total. He would walk 17 times compared to 23 strikeouts. While the walks were a bit down from the Angels AA team, he increased his power, as he hit the same amount of home runs in 40 fewer games, a nice development for the White Sox.
Overall I would grade his season as an A- He is really shaping up to be the White Sox catcher of the future, and I am excited to see if he gets a chance at any point next season. He is a solid defensive catcher, but there is work to be done. It helps that he is a switch hitter, which teams absolutely love out of their backstops. With Korey Lee and Carlos Perez as the only catchers on the roster, if the Sox don’t add another in free agency, he could compete for a spot if he plays out of his mind, although unlikely. The Sox like to take their time with prospects, so it’s likely we see him in 2025.
