The decision by the Chicago White Sox to promote slugging first baseman Tim Elko from Triple-A Charlotte for Saturday’s game against the Miami Marlins was not at all surprising.
What do they have to lose?
The Sox are 11-28 after Friday’s 6-2 win over the Marlins, the same record they had after 39 games in last year’s record 121-loss season.
Only a team as awful as the Marlins (14-23) could make the Sox offense look prolific. The Sox finished with only six hits but took advantage of Marlins starter Max Meyer’s wildness in a three-run seventh to snap a 2-2 tie and end a four-game losing streak.
Elko, a 10th-round pick in 2022 out of Mississippi, has torn up minor-league pitching this spring with 10 home runs, 23 RBIs and a .348 average in only 31 games. He’s tied for the minor-league lead in home runs and second in slugging percentage (.670) and OPS (1.100).
While he’s not on the 40-man roster — forcing a move — the Sox could not wait any longer with Andrew Vaughn continuing a seasonlong slump that has contributed to the team’s offensive malaise.
Vaughn was inserted into the DH spot Friday and homered in his first at-bat off Meyer, but his minus-1.0 WAR was the worst among qualified hitters beginning the day.
Manager Will Venable said both Elko and Vaughn will be in the starting lineup Saturday but he had not decided which would be at first and which would DH.
“He’s obviously been swinging very well and excited to add him to the lineup,” Venable said of Elko.
Asked about the struggles of Vaughn and Luis Robert Jr. before the game, Venable said it was his job “to put these guys in a good spot to succeed and to make sure they have everything they need to perform at their best.”
That’s a standard issue statement from any manager. But Venable then surprised reporters by adding: “I don’t know that I would agree that Luis is in a slump. I know we expect a lot of things from both of those guys. I don’t know the exact number, I think over the last two weeks Luis has got like a .880 OPS. He’s been playing well and impacting the game.
“But yeah, we need everything we can out of those guys and we’re going to do everything we can to support them.”
Robert was indeed hitting .289 with and .896 OPS over his last 13 games before Friday. But he still began the day hitting .192, showing how far he has fallen from his All-Star season in 2023, when Robert hit 28 home runs and batted .264 while playing stellar defense in center.
The defense remains strong and Robert’s base-stealing prowess has been on display, but he’s not the same player who could once carry the team’s offense on his shoulders. The Sox appear determined to get a couple of top prospects in a trade for Robert, but that seems unlikely at this point unless he dramatically improves his numbers.
Venable couldn’t deny Vaughn was in a slump. No one can. The former first-round pick was expected to be a big part of the Sox offense for the next decade after his breakthrough season in 2022, but he remains an enigma.
Elko, meanwhile, hit eight home runs in a 10-game stretch in April and was named the White Sox’s Minor League Player of the Month for March/April. Sox fans have been pining for him to come up, and finally general manager Chris Getz pulled the trigger.
Now the Sox will find out whether Elko can help fix a problem that has gone on for more than two seasons — and counting.
