As the minor league season has come down the stretch, both Rick Hahn and Rick Renteria have said the White Sox will wait until Triple-A Charlotte’s season ends before making decisions on who to bring up for September call-ups.
Well, Charlotte’s season ended on Monday.
The Knights entered the final day of the regular season tied for the International League wild card. The Durham Bulls had the tiebreaker (winning the season head-to-head with the Knights 12-11), meaning the Knights needed to win and have Durham lose.
For a while it looked like that would play out. The Knights jumped ahead early and led 5-2 after seven innings while Durham was getting thumped at home. Durham did end up losing, but the Knights bullpen fell apart in the eighth and gave up four runs.
Nick Madrigal started a ninth-inning rally with his fifth hit of the day and scored the tying run, but the Knights lost in 10 innings.
Now the question becomes who will join the White Sox? Of the hitters, Daniel Palka, Zack Collins, Charlie Tilson and Seby Zavala are all on the 40-man roster. Those are all reasonably safe bets to rejoin the Sox.
Collins will be of interest to White Sox fans. He only got 31 plate appearances with the White Sox before being sent back to Charlotte. When Collins returned to the minors, he looked like a different hitter. The 24-year-old hit .323/.441/.631 in 38 games in his second stint with Charlotte. Importantly, he struck out much less often. Collins struck out in 32 percent of his plate appearances in the first half compared to 19.9 percent in the second half.
Dylan Covey, who gave up two runs in 6 2/3 innings on Monday, is also likely to rejoin the White Sox in some capacity. Relievers Jose Ruiz and Thyago Vieira are also on the 40-man roster and could give Renteria a couple more options out of the pen for the final month of the season.
With the White Sox 40-man roster being full, it would be a surprise to see anyone else up. Luis Robert and Madrigal are big prospects for the future of the team, but all signs are pointing to no when it comes to them making their big league debuts before 2020. Madrigal’s five-hit day brought his final Triple-A batting average to .331 in 29 games.
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