Chicago White Sox: Three early All-Star Game candidates

Yermín Mercedes has been one of the Chicago White Sox best hitters this year.

Yermín Mercedes is taking the baseball world by storm and for good reason. Not only is he an All-Star candidate but he is an MVP candidate as well.  The 5-11, 245-pound catcher turned DH considered quitting baseball after spending a decade bouncing around the Minor Leagues, independent leagues, and the Dominican Summer and Winter League. He entered spring training in 2021 as a long shot to make the team and is now leading the MLB with a .380 batting average.

Mercedes was given the large task of filling Eloy Jimenez’s hole in the lineup and he has exceeded expectations. In April he won Rookie of the Month after he started the season a perfect 8-for 8 at the plate. That set a record for the most by a player in the modern era since 1900. Yermín proved it was no fluke either.

He finished April with a .415/.455/.659 slash line and a 1.113 OPS. He also launched five home runs and hit five doubles. Mercedes’ 34 hits in the month of April set a Sox rookie record, surpassing the mark of 31 set by his teammate Jose Abreu.

There are more accolades where that came from. On top of that, Mercedes became the first White Sox player with three hits or more in a game three times in his first four games of a season. He also had 12 hits in the first four games which are the most that any White Sox player has ever hit during the first four games of a season.

He surpassed Ducky Homes’s mark of 11 in 1904. Not only is he mashing baseballs but he is working good at-bats. Mercedes has shown an excellent two-strike approach and the ability to draw walks. He has a .420 OPB which is good enough for the seventh-best in the MLB.

Mercedes is arguably the best story in baseball this season. He has captured the heart of White Sox fans. He already has his own “Yerminator” T-shirts and a “Yerminator” sandwich. It is time to take Yermin Mercedes mania to Colorado for the rest of the league to see.