White Sox’s Future Leadoff Star Emerges! Chase Meidroth’s Impressive Performance Signals a…
The Chicago White Sox had an impressive showing yesterday against the Seattle Mariners, with their offense exploding for a staggering 18 runs scored.
All but one player in the White Sox starting lineup contributed to the onslaught, with this hopefully being a sign of better days to come.
Luis Robert Jr. jolted the offense to life when he homered in the third inning, driving the ball over the bullpen in leftfield. Robert Jr. went 2-4 on the day with three RBIs, two strikeouts, and scoring one run.
The White Sox also displayed discipline at the plate by walking seven times, with one White Sox top prospect contributing three out of the seven walks to his stat line.
Chicago White Sox prospect has a day at the plate
In the White Sox drubbing of the Mariners, the White Sox’s 13th overall prospect , Chase Meidroth, had an impressive day at the plate, walking three times, scoring a run, and driving on one while lacing a double to the left-centerfield gap.
The most impressive part of Meidroths stat line is the three walks on the day. Meidroth is known for his elite eye at the plate, having more walks (199) than strikeouts (180) in his three seasons in the minor leagues. The 23-year-old was a part of the package of players brought over to the White Sox when they dealt Garrett Crochet to the Boston Red Sox this offseason.
A future leadoff hitter on their hands
Meidroth’s elite eye was on full display last season for the Red Sox Triple-A affiliate, the Worcester Red Sox of the International League, where he walked 105 times while striking out 71 times in 122 games. Eleven of Meidroths 105 walks came off a hit-by-pitch, which led to his .437 on-base percentage for last season.
These promising walk numbers and high on-base percentage will help Meidroth open up Will Venable and Chris Getz’s eyes and lead to him making the White Sox big league roster. These numbers could lead to Meidroth being a possible leadoff option for the White Sox, which they don’t currently have.
FanGraphs projects that outfielder Mike Tauchman will be the White Sox leadoff hitter to start the season. Tauchman has a .344 on-base percentage for his career.
What will make or break Meidroth in making the big league roster is if he can hit at the Major League level. The product of the University of San Diego so far has shown he can hit at all levels in the minor leagues, having a .285 career average and a .293 average last season.
Coming into camp as a non-roster invitee, the 5-10 middle infielder is competing to be one of the White Sox’s starting middle infielders this season. So far this spring, Meidroth has one hit in eight at-bats (12 plate appearances) in five games while walking four times.
Meidroth needs to hit
That is the one thing Meidroth will have to turn around this spring to show he can hit. Getting on-base via walks is all well and good, but adding in hits either down the line or in the gap is what will separate him from the rest.
There’s still time for Meidroth to turn things around and show he can hit, as he will receive plenty of opportunities to do so before the end of spring.
If Meidroth can do this, he’ll force the issue and have a spot on the Major League roster to show what he can do.
The White Sox enter the second year of their rebuild and are seeing who will be the players to build around. Giving Meidroth a chance to go out and play is what should happen for this season.
