White Sox To Give Rookie "Every Opportunity" To Win Job

The Chicago White Sox seem pretty confident that a top Cuban prospect will be ready to take on a significant role in the 2023 season, despite never having played a day in the majors.

Oscar Colas was a big international signing last year by the Pale Hose, and after a robust line in the minors last season, and at the more mature age of 24 for a rookie, they're hoping he's ready to step into their outfield. That's according to manager Pedro Grifol on Chicago sports radio 670 The Score.

Well certainly, Oscar Colas is going to be given every opportunity to see if he can become our right fielder on a daily basis.

Colas hit .314 with 23 homers, 79 RBIs and an .895 OPS in 117 games across three minor league levels in 2022.

The rookie will have to battle it out at spring training with other right field options Gavin Sheets, Leury Garcia and Jake Marisnick.

And while defensively-challenged Eloy Jimenez is probably best-suited to just plug himself into the DH slot all season—for both defensive, and health reasons—Grifol admits that he's "really looking forward to seeing Eloy in right field. I’m not talking about seeing him there every day, but I’m talking about maybe seeing him there a day or two a week if possible and keeping him athletic and keeping him working on the defensive side, because I know that helps on the offensive side as well.”

Jimenez only managed to play 84 games last season, 30 of them in the outfield. but Grifol might have a point, as Jimenez hit 65 points higher when in the lineup as an OF vs. being only a DH, and his OPS was 60 points higher as well.

I don’t expect Eloy Jiménez to just accept that he’s a 25-year-old DH now but the #WhiteSox spent $75 million on Andrew Benintendi and have spent an entire off-season hyping up Oscar Colás. The writing is on the wall.
— James Fox (@JamesFox917) January 23, 2023