The plan sounded like Omar Narvaez was going to help mentor the stud young pitchers the Chicago White Sox have at Double-A.
That would be the assumption when Narvaez agreed to stay within the organization after not making the club as a non-roster invite and being unable to find another team looking for veteran catching help.
He must have been desperate to still play baseball as he agreed to go all the way down to Double-A.
However, it was nice that he agreed to the placement since it meant he could catch the team's prized pitching prospects in Noah Schultz, Hagen Smith, and Grant Taylor.
Although the organization must briefly deviate from that plan and ask him to assist Matt Thaiss in mentoring the young arms at the big-league level after Korey Lee suffered an ankle injury.
Lee was placed on the 10-day IL after rolling his ankle trying to get back to first on a pickoff attempt.
The Sox also lost outfielder Mike Tauchman in that unusual defeat last night. Lee and Tauchman's injury comes on top of the team placing Andrew Benintendi on the 10-day IL with adductor strain.
SoxMachine.com's James Fegan learned last night that Narvaez would be the catcher the team called up.
A source says Omar Narváez is getting called up to the White Sox as Korey Lee looks to be IL-bound. That's almost certainly not the only roster move coming, and only begins to tell the whole story of that game.https://t.co/4xRtlLPNhv
— James Fegan (@JRFegan) April 10, 2025
The Sox made the move official today.
Although some might wonder if it would have been better to call up top-hitting prospect Kyle Teel or his fellow top-100 prospect Edgar Quero.
Especially since Narvaez's days of hitting well at the big-league level are long gone. Add in Quero being off to a great start at Triple-A, and it makes sense to think it would have been more beneficial to give one of these young studs a taste of the big leagues.
The White Sox are making the correct call by going with Narvaez right now.
If the White Sox had more veterans in the rotation, then going with the hot-hitting Quero would be what the team needs, especially with the team struggling to score runs.
Even seeing what Teel could do would have been a better option despite him cooling off considerably after being red-hot in Charlotte's opening series.
Martin Perez is the only veteran arm this rotation has. There are not a ton of veterans in the bullpen either.
Also, baseball has come for young hurlers Sean Burke, Davis Martin, and Jonathan Cannon. Rookie Shane Smith is off to a great start, but it is also a matter of time before hitters start making adjustments to his stuff, which makes getting outs more difficult
It is part of the game.
Burke, Martin, and Cannon have all been impressive, but the book is out on them, and hitters have made it hard for those three to get outs lately. Now that baseball has come for them, they must make adjustments to the adjustments.
Again, that is baseball.
That means a veteran catcher is more beneficial right now to help those three and potentially Smith get through these trying times and prove they can be viable starting pitchers in the majors.
That means going with Narvaez, who was last seen hitting .154 in the bigs with the New York Mets last season, over two young studs who project to be at least solid hitters in the show.
While Korey Lee is still relatively young in his career, he did get valuable tutoring from Martin Maldonado on all of the finer points of helping a pitching staff. That is why it was fine the Sox went with Lee and Thaiss in spring training over Quero and Teel.
Plus, whenever Quero and Teel are both up, you want both of those guys in the lineup everyday. Since only one of them can catch, it means the other must DH. In the case of Teel, he has some athleticism to play the outfield.
Better to get those two acclimated to the mental part of designated hitting at Triple-A, where the games do not matter, or positional reps at other spots.
"As much as a guy might help you win today, we want these guys to be productive major-leaguers and there’s things they need to continue to work on. It’s a balance that we’ll figure out, and I know Getzy’s going to be on it."
— Kyle W (@K_Williamsmedia) April 10, 2025
Narvaez also has experience with how pitches operate at Rate Field, considering he caught for the club from 2016-2018.
Plus, he still has at least good metrics for blocking pitches, and that is needed with ground ball pitchers such as Cannon and Martin. Plus, Burke likes to bounce his slider in the dirt to induce a bad swing by the hitter.
Quero and Teel could still use the reps at Triple-A to work on all those finer points of catching.
While it would be nice to get a glimpse into the future now, it is better to go with the past to get the pitching staff through its current problems.