On the surface it looks like Oscar Colas has earned a promotion to rejoin the Chicago White Sox. Thursday’s double header against the Yankees gave us a snapshot of why he Triple-A as well as a potential opportunity for a call up.
Jimenez Exits Game
After hitting the go-ahead home run to win the first game of Thursday’s doubleheader against the Yankees, Eloy Jimenez exited the second game early with a lower leg injury. He is currently listed as day-to-day. Given Jimenez’s rich injury history, it would not be surprising to see him miss some time.
It raises the question. When will the White Sox call up Colas? Colas is hitting .291 with 17 RBIs, one home run, and a .783 OPS in at-bats in Triple-A Charlotte.
With Gavin Sheets’s recent struggles and Clint Frazier’s sporadic playing time it would seem like one of the two would be expendable in order to give Colas another shot. Sheets is one of the White Sox’s few left-handed power bats so Frazier would likely be the first on the chopping block.
Frazier Working Quality At-Bats
However, Thursday night’s game showed provided an example of why Colas has yet to rejoin the big league club. Clint Frazier drew two walks and worked some really good at-bats. In his first at-bat, he fell behind 1-2 in the count but managed to foul off two pitches and work an eight-pitch walk.
Frazier’s worked another eight-pitch at-bat in his second plate appearance and then another walk in the eighth inning. Even when Frazier isn’t getting hits he puts together quality at-bats and makes the opposing pitchers work hard. It’s why he has a .353 OBP in his first 14 games with the White Sox.
The White Sox rank last in the MLB in walks and 29th in OBP. Putting together quality at-bats is one of the things the White Sox needs to improve on as a team. Especially Colas.
White Sox Want Colas To Improve Plate Discipline
The White Sox’s No. 2 ranked prospect broke spring training with a spot on the MLB roster. However, a 5-for-40 slump that dropped his average to just .211 with one home run, two steaks, and a .541 OPS was enough for the White Sox to make a change.
The White Sox decided to send him down to Triple-A Charlotte after just 84 plate appearances. The White Sox wanted to see him improve his plate discipline. Pedro Grifol cited that Colas needed to play every day and seeing more pitches is the best way to improve.
“He needs to slow down the game a little bit,” Grifol said back in May. ” He’s a really good defender, but he needs to continue to develop out there in the outfield. His plate discipline wasn’t exactly matching the Major League level at this particular time.”
It was evident very early that Colas could have been a better situational hitter. He was impatient at the plate and often tried to do too much with runners in scoring positions. The result was chasing bad pitches.
The 24-year-old’s chase rate was at 38.7, which is 10.3 percent higher than the MLB average. Colas’ 23.4 percent strikeout rate was also a bit too high for the White Sox’s liking. These were all things the White Sox told him to work on.
The organization clearly needs to see an improvement in plate discipline to warrant a call-up. It’s why he has been passed over for players like Billy Hamilton.
Colas has a 10.4 percent walk rate in Triple-A and lowered his strikeout rate to 18.7 percent. It is certainly an improvement from last year’s small sample size in Charlotte when he posted a 36.4 strikeout rate and 6.1 percent walk rate in 33 plate appearances.
It’s yet to be seen if that will be enough to earn the promotion but if Jimenez is placed on the IL he may get another opportunity.
