You gotta love
White Sox manager Rick Renteria. I’m
serious. The Sox sign catcher Yasmani
Grandal to a big deal, and Renteria calls up incumbent James McCann to tell him
it’ll all work out. Props to Renteria
for reaching out, doubts as to the chances of that in fact happening.
McCann is coming
off his best season in the majors, .273 BA/18 homeruns/60 RBIs, and that’s just
the offense. Catching-wise, he had a
caught-stealing rate of 31 percent vs. the league average of 27 percent along
with all of three passed balls. In
addition, starter Lucas Giolito loves throwing to him. And, in so far as I’m a scout worth listening
to, every time I hear McCann talk, he’s comes off as focused, humble and
forever talking about teamwork.
But, yes, he did
slump to .226 in the second half of the season, which is cause for
concern. So, it would seem 440 at-bats would
be his ceiling. Renteria thinks he can
maximize the bats of Grandal and McCann by rotating them between catcher, first
base and DH. Theoretically, that makes
sense, but how much will two catchers want to get their playing time at another
position? And let’s say Renteria pulls
off this juggling act, where does that leave once-top prospect Zack Collins, he
of the .186 BA his rookie season last year?
My guess is, gone,
but we’ll see. Maybe Renteria is up to
the challenge of juggling three catchers, all of whom aspire to start. If nothing else, it should make for an
interesting year.
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