Meidroth walks White Sox into skid-busting win over Boston
Talk about a player living up to the hype.
Second baseman Chase Meidroth joined the White Sox in the Garrett Crochet trade with a reputation for patience at the plate. Last year at Triple-A Worcester, the Southern California native drew 105 walks, compared to 71 strikeouts.
In his official MLB debut on the South Side, Meidroth had a perfect on-base percentage with 3 walks and a single. Even better, the White Sox snapped their eight-game losing streak by rolling past Boston 11-1 at a chilly, sparsely populated Rate Field on Friday.
“My approach at the plate is I'm trying to give the bat to the next guy with me on first base any way I can,” Meidroth said after the game. “So I'm going up there and I'm going to have a quality at-bat. That's my goal every time up there.”
Meidroth was a fourth-round pick of the Red Sox in 2022 and part of the Crochet return haul, along with catcher Kyle Teel, outfielder Braden Montgomery and pitcher Wikelman Gonzalez — all still in the minors.
For the record, Meidroth does not hold the University of San Diego record for walks in a season. That one belongs to former Cub Kris Bryant. Does he mind being known as a guy who draws walks?
“I think it's great,” Meidroth said. “I'm not looking exactly at how much I walk. I'm just trying to win as many pitches as I can in a game.”
Meidroth said he got to the ballpark at 11 a.m., wanting to give himself time to take it all in. His parents got on a plane at 5:30 a.m. to get to the game from California, and he had a cheering section of about 10-12.
The second baseman left the game in the top of the eighth inning. Manager Will Venable said the rookie was dehydrated, Meidroth maintained he's fine. Outfielder Austin Slater was a late scratch from Friday's game with a right knee issue.
Earlier in the day, Venable and general manager Chris Getz were asked about their mental state. The past week was rough for the White Sox. The skid included blowing a 3-1 lead in the bottom of the ninth at Detroit, walking in the winning run in a 0-0 game against Cleveland, plus Mike Tauchman suffering a hamstring strain on his way to scoring the tying run against the Guardians and being tagged out.
“Adversity never killed anybody,” quipped Davis Martin, Friday's winning pitcher. “So I think we're doing a good job right now of coming to the park, doing our job and taking care of our business.”
Martin was rocked in his previous outing, tagged for 7 earned runs in 5 innings at Detroit. Against Boston, he allowed 1 run over 6 innings, with 6 strikeouts. When he did have traffic on the bases, Martin was able to end the inning with no damage.
“You've got to adjust constantly in this game and I think we had a great game plan,” Martin said. “Offense really set the tone tonight and I was just following, trying to get those guys back in the box as fast as possible.”
Martin also offered praise for Meidroth after the solid big-league debut.
“I told somebody, I think he has the fastest hands I've ever seen,” Martin said of Meidroth. “The (Trevor) Story groundball, I was like, 'Get there, get there,' and you like blink and it's at first. Great defensive player. Looked like he was supposed to be here. He's locked into every pitch.”
While Getz talked about pacing around when things don't go well for the Sox and Venable championed sticking with the process, the players themselves showed it's too soon to write this off as another miserable season.
Michael Taylor (3-for-5), Lenyn Sosa and Brooks Baldwin had multiple hits. Veteran catcher Omar Narvaez, just up from Double-A, drove in 3 runs.
“We came off a tough road trip, no off-day,” Martin said. “Everybody showed up today ready to go with a little hunger in them, so I think that showed what these guys are like. I want to go fight with all these guys.”
Getz said Tauchman was diagnosed with a Grade 2 hamstring strain and will be out a couple of weeks, at least.
One potential outfield replacement is Brandon Drury. He had a great spring for the White Sox, then broke his hand and elected to become a free agent. Now he's back with the Sox, playing games in Arizona and Getz said Drury should move on to Triple-A Charlotte soon.