Bryan Ramos is back from the 10-day IL and the Chicago White Sox made the right call by not keeping him in the minors or have coming off the bench.
The Sox have wisely decided the rookie should be the everyday third baseman.
There was wonder what would become of Bryan Ramos upon Danny Mendick’s return from the IL. Then Ramos went on the IL. Now they’re both healthy, and Ramos is going to be the Sox’ everyday third baseman, with Mendick getting playing time at second base.
— Vinnie Duber (@VinnieDuber) May 25, 2024
Ramos was originally called up early this month after injuries ravaged the infield. He was the only viable infielder left on the 40-man roster despite a rough start to the season at Double-A. Ramos got right at the big-league level and he was so impressive that the Sox should have considered this move before Danny Medick was set to come off the 10-day IL.
Then Ramos got hurt on May 14th trying to go from first to third, a hustle play that manager Pedro Grifol ripped him. Ramos is now back and hopefully all is forgotten.
The Sox front office needs to see if Ramos is the future at third base.
This is a lost season and Ramos has flashed enough potential to see if he is capable of replacing Yoan Moncada in the long run. Moncada's injury history makes it nearly impossible that the club will be exercising his $26 million option next season.
The Sox can use this time to see if one of their top five prospects can man third base the rest of the decade, and fingers crossed, stay healthy.
Ramos has a great fielding range and now it is time to see how he deals with struggles once baseball figures him out. Plus, he has proven he is not overwhelmed by the big-league game.
Even if Moncada does return before the season's end, Ramos should stay at third while Moncada gets moved to first base or DH.
Now the White Sox must make the same decision with pitcher Jonathan Cannon by designating Mike Clevinger for assignment.
The White Sox made the right call when they designated Brad Keller for assignment and brought pitching prospect Nick Nastrini up for the rest of the season. Nastrini got rocked in his first start against Toronto since his return to the majors. Getting roughed up is part of the development process.
Nastrini knows what he needs to work on and can still be molded into a good pitcher whereas Keller was already a lost cause.
Clevinger has been ineffective during his first four starts. He struggles to make it through 4.2 innings while Jonathan Cannon continues to waste the precious figuratively limited bullets in his arm in Triple-A.
Cannon flashed potential in two big-league starts early this season that he might be an effective MLB starter. Pitchers only have so many pitches in their arms before injuries might render them useless. That is why the time should be now to bring up Cannon and realize Clevinger, or Chris Flexen for that matter, is blocking Cannon's development.
Plus, the Sox have barely been competitive when Clevinger starts. A lot of that has been because of the holes Mike has put the team in. The White Sox have at least won a game when Cannon has started.
Clevinger's trade value is not suddenly going to rise dramatically with even a few decent outings. The market has already rejected him twice and it is time the White Sox reject him too.