White Sox Trip the Catching Carousel

Kyle Teel has some catching as much as do.

Teel is about to start the season on the injured listing. He pulled his hamstring whereas legging out a double for Group Italy final week on the World Baseball Traditional. The prognosis is a Grade 2 pressure, which might preserve him out for many of April. It’s an unlucky begin to what was meant to be his first full large league season.

In some methods, this solutions an important query for the White Sox: Who will begin at catcher on Opening Day? Teel, 23, would have been the plain selection for many rebuilding organizations. He was a prime 100 prospect final yr earlier than his debut in June, and he then posted a 125 wRC+ in 297 plate appearances. He’s on the forefront of Chicago’s burgeoning prospect pipeline and a key determine because the group searches for its subsequent core.

However the identical will also be mentioned for Edgar Quero, a equally rated prospect who debuted final yr at simply 22 years outdated. Quero is now set for the beginning job proper out of camp, and he’ll have the primary likelihood to showcase his improvement in 2026.

The Jam

It’s uncommon for a significant league workforce to have two catchers this younger. Teel and Quero have been the primary catcher teammates to have no less than 250 plate appearances at age 23 or youthful since 1975, when two tandems achieved the feat: Gary Carter and Barry Foote for Montreal, and Darrell Porter and Charlie Moore for Milwaukee. Earlier than them, it was Frank Snyder and Ivey Wingo in 1914 for St. Louis, and earlier than them it was a bunch of dudes within the 1800s.

Now, these are considerably aggressive cutoffs. I used to be capable of finding a number of groups every season who gave semi-regular taking part in time to a number of catchers underneath 25. However the one groups within the divisional period with a youthful common catcher age than final yr’s White Sox are the 2007 Braves and 1996 Pirates.

Catchers take awhile to develop via the minors. Not solely should they discover ways to hit pitches, additionally they should discover ways to body pitches, block pitches, and name pitches for dozens of their teammates. And since catching is a bodily demanding job that requires extra days off (except you’re Cal Raleigh), they develop these expertise a contact slower than their friends. Evaluation from 2012 exhibits catchers are likely to peak two years later than gamers at different positions. Groups have responded by delaying their debut:

Catcher can also be distinctive in that the ability set isn’t parallel to different positions. A workforce with a pair of starling proper fielders may transfer one to left to get each of their bats within the lineup. However a catcher’s worth is mostly tied to catching itself, and only a few hit effectively sufficient to the place a place swap (or vital DH responsibility) may be justified. If a workforce finds itself with a number of catchers of worth, it’s usually inclined to commerce one.

Or no less than, that’s my concept to clarify this: 25 of the 66 catching prospects graded 45 FV or increased between 2021 and 2025 have been traded. If we faux reliever prospects don’t exist for a second, that’s the very best fee of prospect trades at any place.

This evaluation is a bit of tough. Prospect lists are cyclical, whereas transacting is close to fixed, and positions and grades can change. The entire prospect depend contains any participant who ever acquired a forty five grade or higher on any of our preseason lists from 2021 to 2025; gamers who acquired such a grade a number of occasions are included simply as soon as for every place. The commerce depend contains any prospect who additionally appeared within the commerce log from RosterResource; gamers traded a number of occasions are included simply as soon as for every place. The result’s a broader slice that will miss a number of gamers on the edges, however I believe the image is obvious: Catcher prospects get traded lots.

The truth is, the catching prospect carousel is how the White Sox created this log jam within the first place. Teel and Quero (and even third stringer Korey Lee) are every former prime prospects traded from groups not fairly able to make use of them.

Quero signed with the Angels out of Cuba in February 2021. They superior him shortly, as they’re recognized to do, and he appeared to reply, working onto our 2023 Prime 100 Prospects listing on the age of 19. “Quero is a bat-first catching prospect distant from the large leagues,” wrote Eric Longenhagen and Tess Taruskin of their analysis of him on the time. The problem for the Angels was they already had Logan O’Hoppe, who ranked even increased on the identical listing and located fast success upon his debut. On the commerce deadline, maybe in denial of their standing forward of Shohei Ohtani’s looming free company, the Angels shipped Quero to the White Sox for Lucas Giolito.

Teel was drafted by the Pink Sox out of the College of Virginia in 2023. He, too, superior shortly, and located himself on our 2024 Prime 100 Prospects listing on the age of twenty-two. “Teel is a adorned school catcher with a superb offensive résumé,” Eric Longenhagen and Tess Taruskin wrote of their prospect report on him two years in the past. Whereas the Pink Sox didn’t have a system-wide catching log jam, they have been out there for a frontline beginning pitcher with large league expertise. Teel was a lovely commerce chip worthy of headlining a deal to get Garrett Crochet.

The logic of this for the White Sox — making two essential, franchise-altering offers for gamers on the similar place — raised various questions. However as Ben Clemens famous on the time, for a rebuilding workforce with nothing lose, it’s usually clever to assault prospect attrition head on. Log jams exist in concept extra usually than in actuality.

The Jelly

This technique seems fairly prescient now, with Teel set to overlook the primary a number of weeks of the season.

Quero will get the primary shot at full-time catching duties, simply as he did in 2025. He held is personal in 403 plate appearances after an April call-up, with a 95 wRC+, a 17.6% strikeout fee, and a 7.9% stroll fee. He had some nice months and a few horrible months, and that every one labored out to an OK yr on the plate.

His is the kind of offensive profile I have a tendency to explain as “fascinating” greater than “thrilling.” He swings very gradual — the Tenth-slowest swing of 2025 — however he additionally tends to swing precisely, squaring up 43.3% of his contact (fifth general) and barely whiffing. He additionally tends to swing at good pitches: His chase fee was Tenth finest in 2025, and he was certainly one of solely two gamers to not swing at a single pitch within the waste area. (Why this didn’t end in extra walks is evaluation for one more day.)

Nonetheless, the dearth of bat velocity does put Quero in a clumsy tweener area. Sure, he topped 95 mph on 46.3% of his batted balls final yr, however he hardly ever went above and past that mark. His .451 xwOBA on hard-hit balls was fifth lowest within the majors. He additionally ran one of many 10 lowest pull charges of 2025. It’s a profile that results in numerous groundballs to center infielders, and fly balls to the gaps at center depth, hardly ever difficult outfielders on the wall. A step ahead in 2026 would come with growing the highest vary of his exit velocity, or pulling the ball within the air extra usually.

Sadly, his future within the majors probably depends on that step ahead on the plate. Quero was the worst pitch framer of 2025, ending with -13 catcher framing runs. His different defensive metrics (blocking and throwing) have been successfully impartial. It’s attainable he improves his receiving expertise (as soon as once more emphasizing his age), however protection has all the time been his restrict, and it’s robust to seek out taking part in time for a catcher who can’t catch.

Teel will begin a bit later as soon as his hammy is healed, seeking to construct off a superb rookie efficiency. He posted a 125 wRC+, a 25.9% strikeout fee, and a 12.5% stroll fee in 297 plate appearances following his June debut. He merely hit and hit and hit and solely improved because the season wore on.

Once more, it’s an “fascinating” profile. Like Quero, Teel doesn’t swing notably exhausting, however not like Quero, he doesn’t swing precisely, hardly ever squaring up the ball and whiffing usually. His carrying contact trait is a near-flawless launch angle distribution, posting a 47.8% sweet-spot fee in 2025, a mark that will have led the league had he certified.

The contact kinds paint an fascinating distinction. Quero makes up for his gentle swing by maximizing his exit velocity and spraying reasonably exhausting contact everywhere in the area, hoping sufficient of it finds grass. Teel, however, merely lofts the ball, usually to the pull aspect, hoping a number of plop over the fence.

I are likely to choose Teel’s method to the bat-speed dilemma. His pinpoint launch angle makes even his weak contact aggressive. When he does make good contact, it’s more likely to be touring within the air towards the shallowest a part of the park. Teel additionally seemed considerably higher than Quero by the varied x-metrics, regardless of a a lot worse hard-hit fee; launch angle, it’s necessary! Now, Teel’s eye for the zone was not fairly as sharp as Quero’s, but it surely was nonetheless excellent, and Teel (once more, for causes unclear to me) appeared to translate his method into a powerful variety of walks. A step ahead on the plate in 2026 would probably embody reducing again on the strikeouts, and if we’re being grasping, discovering the barrel extra usually.

So far as protection, nevertheless, Teel wasn’t fairly as sharp as one would’ve hoped. His framing was basically impartial, and his blocking was among the many league’s worst. The scouting studies are a bit friendlier, and I do put some inventory into the truth that the White Sox gave him a larger share of the catching duties close to the tip of the season. I’m keen to chalk this as much as small samples and assume he’ll enhance with extra taking part in time.

That’s all to say, each Teel and Quero posted robust rookie seasons for his or her age and place, and each confirmed indicators of their future worth, however neither catcher has completed sufficient to power the workforce to maneuver on from the opposite one. For what it’s price, the White Sox got here in at simply twenty sixth on our positional energy rankings. However even that ordinal rating may not be telling us all that a lot, contemplating there’s solely marginal separation between their projected worth at catcher and the anticipated manufacturing on the place for every of the six groups forward of them.

How will this work as soon as Teel returns? Earlier than the damage, supervisor Will Venable recommended the plan is to have Teel catch when going through right-handed beginning pitchers, with Quero at DH. In opposition to lefties, Quero will catch and Teel will sit. It’s a platoon, in different phrases. Quero is a switch-hitter who’s stronger towards lefties; Teel is a lefty batter who’s stronger towards righties. Each are primed for loads of taking part in time.

How will this work long-term? That’s much less clear. It’s attainable certainly one of them runs away with the job, or that neither of them does. However it’s additionally attainable each wind up as moderately good choices when the White Sox are aggressive once more. What occurs from there’s a downside I’m certain they’d every prefer to have.