Good News

Four White Sox rookies stepped up yesterday to help take the three-game series against the Rays with a 5-1 win heavy on the contribution of starter Shane Smith. What a story Smith is, the Rule 5 player who made the All-Star team and then looked ready to flame out only to come back strong. Smith had an ERA of 4.26 going into the break. After 5.1 shutout innings yesterday, he’s lowered it to 3.78. The 25-year old righthander has been pretty much lights-out since the start of August. This returns him to “keeper” status in my books. Chase Meidroth? Maybe, maybe not, but he has been on a tear lately, going 13-for-24 over his last seven games. To be truly effective, Meidroth has to get on base and score, as he did yesterday, going 2-for-2 with two walks and a run scored. He’s now hitting .269 on the year with a .348 on-base percentage. The problem here concerns durability and defense. The 24-year old has gotten dinged up a lot over the season, which may or may not affect his play in the field. He’s good on groundballs and double plays, has good range at both second and short but looks to be below-average on anything flared over his head. Did I mention the Sox have a ton of intriguing middle infielders in their system? So many in fact it may affect Colson Montgomery’s future. I’d say our young shortstop is a keeper, but I’m not sure where, exactly. He could stay at short, and that’d be fine. Or he could slide over or try center field in the not-too-distant future; we’ll see. What I can say with certainty is Montgomery delivered yesterday when it counted, with a two-run single in the first inning. He now has a ridiculous 49 RBIs in just 202 at-bats. The .228 BA is nothing to write home about and the 65 strikeouts are a cause for concern, but, still. The 23-year lefthanded hitter old has shown a knack for coming through in the clutch. And his hit yesterday came off a lefty, Ian Seymour, who entered the game with a 2.89 ERA. There is, I think, cause for hope. Ditto with Kyle Teel, whose two-run pinch-hit single in the seventh inning gives him a fairly ridiculous 31 RBIs in 207 at-bats. Oh, and the batting average is an impressive .290. As ever with this rebuild, the question becomes where does Teel play? Somehow, the Sox have ended up with two talented starting catchers, the other being switch-hitting Edgar Quero, and they haven’t shown a willingness to play either Teel or Quero anywhere but catcher and DH. That is less a solution than putting off an inevitable decision. But that’s for another season. Right now, the Sox have some good young players who make the upcoming offseason both tolerable and a little irritating. Why so long until Opening Day, 2026?