White Sox Activate Kyle Teel From 60-Day IL

After an absence of practically three months, the White Sox have their beginning catcher again within the combine. Chicago introduced Monday that Kyle Teel has been reinstated from the 60-day injured listing. He’ll fill the vacant spot on the South Siders’ 40-man roster. Fellow catcher and former prime prospect Edgar Quero has been optioned to Triple-A Charlotte to open a spot on the energetic roster.

Teel has been out since struggling a Grade 2 hamstring pressure through the World Baseball Basic. He was initially slated to overlook 4 to 6 weeks with that damage, however throughout a rehab recreation in mid-Might, the 24-year-old suffered a sprained LCL in his proper knee, shutting him down for one more three to 6 weeks. He’s managed to return on the shorter finish of that timeline and is now in line to lastly make his season debut tonight.

The White Sox added Teel as one of many headliners within the 2024-25 offseason commerce sending Garrett Crochet to the Crimson Sox. Assuming will get the beginning tonight, one-third of the ChiSox’ lineup could have been acquired by way of that commerce. Second baseman Chase Meidroth and outfielder Braden Montgomery each got here to Chicago from Boston as a part of that Crochet blockbuster. The previous has seized they on a regular basis job at second base, whereas Montgomery remains to be simply getting his toes moist within the majors and hoping to cement his place within the on a regular basis lineup as nicely.

Teel and the now-optioned Quero have been each touted as top-100 prospects previous to their respective massive league debuts, however Teel made a stronger impression final 12 months, hitting .273/.375/.411 with eight homers in 297 plate appearances as a rookie. He hit .387/.441/.613 in eight Triple-A rehab video games and appears loads prepared to select up the place he left off.

In the meantime, Quero has seen his inventory proceed to dip. Final 12 months’s .268/.333/.365 slash was higher than that of the common catcher, however Quero paired it with a few of the recreation’s worst defensive grades at his place. His protection this 12 months nonetheless grades out as below-average (albeit not fairly to final 12 months’s extent), and Quero has now seen his offensive manufacturing crater. In 172 plate appearances, he posted a depressing .187/.253/.233 slash with solely three extra-base hits (two homers, one double). He’s since misplaced time to DFA pickup Drew Romo, who isn’t hitting both however is at the very least enjoying sound protection.

White Sox catchers have been far and away the least-productive in Main League Baseball this season. Quero, Romo and Reese McGuire have taken the whole lot of the crew’s enjoying time behind the dish and mixed to bat .167/.242/.268. That batting common and on-base share rank final within the majors. White Sox catchers lead Yankees catchers by the literal narrowest of margins (.268 to .267), sparing them from rating useless final in all three slash stats. Unsurprisingly, the White Sox’ collective 42 wRC+ from their backstops is the worst in baseball.

Teel will return to assist the Sox fill maybe their best want in the meanwhile, and he’ll return to a South Aspect membership that’s proper the thick of the playoff hunt within the American League. The Sox simply dropped three straight to a reeling Tigers crew that’s attempting to get well from a traditionally unhealthy efficiency in Might, however Chicago remains to be two video games over .500 at 39-37, inserting them second place within the American League Central and giving them possession of the second Wild Card spot within the Junior Circuit. Teel’s return is especially well-timed in that it comes simply because the Sox put together to host the division-leading Guardians for a three-game set.