2021 White Sox affiliate preview: Winston-Salem Dash

The Winston-Salem Dash unveiled a new logo for 2020, but you’ll finally see it on a field this year. They kept the purple-based color scheme, but the interlocking W-S is more of a traditional baseball design compared to the vaguely phallic baseball-headed logo of the previous decade.

The uniforms might be classic, but this roster could be cartoonish. There’s a lot of boom and bust potential throughout, and not necessarily because of anything the White Sox did. The influx of players who would normally be ticketed for short-season ball are bumping players who would usually be returning to Kannapolis. Some players are getting promoted before their performance dictates it, and others will be getting bold introductions to full-season stateside ball. The Sox won’t be unique in this regard, so it’ll probably take at least a month or two to truly assess the level of competition.

COACHING STAFF

  • Manager: Ryan Newman
  • Pitching coach: Danny Farquhar
  • Hitting coach: Mike Daniel

The pandemic interrupted what should’ve been a fun year for Farquhar fanatics in 2020, but at least the organizational reshuffling kept his position intact.

STARTING PITCHERS

There isn’t a whole lot of name-brand talent, but they produced a couple of intriguing performance at Kannapolis in 2019 among them. Bilous was ticketed as a future reliever when the Sox drafted him in the 13th round of the 2018 draft, but he managed to cut down his walks in a starting role, issuing only 61 over 104 innings. The good news is he struck out 113 and limited hits enough to post a 3.70 ERA. Martin, drafted one round after Bilous, had the opposite fortune, striking out 156 over 145 innings while only walking 38 … but allowing a 5.04 ERA thanks to a lot of hits and more homers than he’d like. The lefty Varnell had the best performance of this group in 2019, posting a 3.25 ERA over 127⅓ innings across Kannapolis and Winston-Salem. He turns 26 on Wednesday, but he was drafted at 23 and has succeeded at every low-minors stop.

Lewis turns 26 later in the month, and he’ll take another crack at High-A after hitting a wall there in 2019. Mejia spent six years in the Atlanta system, languishing in the low minors regardless of his success. Dominguez hadn’t really started until last year, when he approached 100 innings with a sub-3.00 ERA, although that was buoyed by 11 unearned runs. Also, he was 23 and pitching in the Sally League.

RELIEVERS

There are a few big arms in this bunch. Freeman is the one guy who’s been able to prove it a little, coming out of Texas Tech in the 15th round in 2019. He struck out 38 batters against nine walks (and three HBPs) over 24⅔ innings, which already represented improved control versus his time as a Red Raider. Shilling and Carranza have yet to throw pro pitches since they were drafted on the third day in 2018, thanks to Tommy John surgeries and the pandemic. Ordinarily they’d be rookie ball material, but here they are.

Butler posted impressive strikeout totals across three levels in 2019, including 16 strikeouts against five walks over 9⅓ innings at Kannapolis. However, he also gave up 16 hits. Cronin had a similar experience after he was drafted in the 36th round, but less extreme in both directions. Milto had success going from a starter for the Indiana Hoosiers to the closer for the White Sox’s last team in Great Falls.

A few of (relative) veterans return. Two hail from the University of Oklahoma: Olson, a 10th-round pick in 2017 who has only pitched in 49 games due to Tommy John surgery, and Ramsay, who gave up 16 unearned runs for Kannapolis in 2019. Perez, who came to the Sox in the Joakim Soria trade, had a classic effectively wild profile in his first full season stateside in 2019.

Aiello and Biasi were imported from other organizations. Aiello seemed to have some momentum with an impressive showing for Miami’s Double-A team, with 25 strikeouts against just 13 baserunners over 18 innings, but he had to settle for independent ball last year.

CATCHERS

Skoug has flashed occasional power from behind the plate, but it’s accompanied by a batting average that’s fallen short of .200 in each of his three seasons at A-ball. Lartigue, a third-pairing defenseman for the Quebec Nordiques’ WHA championship team in 1978, saw his production plummet upon a promotion to Double-A in 2019 while in the Phillies’ farm system.

INFIELDERS

Considering he only plays first base, it’d be nice to see Mendoza hit for a little more power than he showed in Arizona or Great Falls. However, the rest of his hitting profile — .292/.369/.439, 39 walks against 61 strikeouts over 415 plate appearances — plays, especially at ages 19 and 20. Sosa had prevailed at the end of a challenging assignment in Kannapolis in 2019 at age 19, but he might have to share shortstop duties with Sánchez, who will be making his stateside debut after spending 2019 in the DSL. If Sánchez meets expectations befitting his price tag ($2.5 million) and experience (a Cuban who turned 24 in March), he could move up to Birmingham in short order. Curbelo will have to curb strikeouts after 181 in 120 games in 2019, but he’ll probably get the bulk of the third-base duties with this roster unless the Sox somehow see better days ahead for Bush.

2021 marks the fifth season Cruz has opened the year with a White Sox A-ball affiliate. Moniot had a rough time in A-ball the only time he’s tried it, posting a .468 OPS over 19 games, most of them with Kannapolis.

Leal is the wild card. He played mostly in the outfield for the 2019 DSL team, but he also made 13 appearances at first base and is listed among the infielders here. He drew 38 walks against 29 strikeouts as a 22-year-old Cuban defector who had missed the previous few seasons, resulting in a .225/.372/.357 line.

OUTFIELDERS

The last we saw Bush, he had moved from third base to right field thanks to defensive difficulties. He had bursts of big production for a 19-year-old among contact issues and bad-luck health problems (bruised foot, bronchitis), so here’s hoping for smoother sailing. Mieses is Mendoza’s counterpoint. He has no production to speak of (.245/.270/.335 over three pro seasons), but he has some fans for the combination of his big frame and ability to make contact.

Ellis was one of a handful of post-draft signings the White Sox struck last year, a speedy center fielder out of the University of Texas. Destino has a mustache fit for Birmingham, but the 25-year-old will return to Winston-Salem after four games there in 2019.


MORE AFFILIATE PREVIEWS

Take a second to support Sox Machine on Patreon
3 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
joewho112

Wow, the minors are absolutely barren of talent

jorgefabregas

None of these rosters are going to seem all that exciting, but hopefully some players took big steps forward during the gap year, similar to how Andrew Vaughn apparently went from pretty good high-A hitter to pretty good major league player.

joewho112

Last year’s 1st Round pick is already on the team so it seems unlikely