The White Sox are currently ambling through the 2024 season in even worse condition than I would’ve imagined. From a record standpoint, they are still on pace to lose 116 games. Besides that, they have gotten great performances from people I really wasn’t expecting to be this good, Tommy Pham (wasn’t here to start the season), Garrett Crochet (I was wrong about him being reliever emeritus) and Erick Fedde (Korean conversion). And incredibly lousy ones from the likes of incumbent “talents” like Andrews Vaughn and Benintendi, as well as Eloy Jimenez (RIPIP).
Now when we get to this point in the season the most White Sox fan move ever is to start looking at the minors and salivating at what could be. For me, I just don’t get that excited about those types of things. It’s not the last rebuild that burnt me out, it’s just hilarious to watch someone get hooked on a player (let’s say Zack Collins) and then defend them till well past their expiration date. I can’t get in that thing too much because I need to be here to make fun of dunces that do. Nope, I have an entirely other personality flaw when it comes to baseball. Let’s call this “the guy who could become a guy” syndrome. Enter Corey Julks….
Play Corey Julks Everyday!!
It hasn’t even been two weeks since the White Sox saw an opportunity to trade for Corey Julks. He was getting squeezed off the Houston Astros 40 man roster due to them needing more pitching enforcements. Julks is what I would call “the guy” in that he’s already 28, but has barely played in the majors. That’s on the negative side. However, “the guy” managed to stick with the Astros farm system from being drafted (2017 in the 8th round) all the way until this deal. Below is a cut out from Fangraphs notes on him as he was ranked the 18th best prospect (40 FV) in the Astros farm system as recently as last season.
Fangraphs / Longenhagen peg him (not like that) as a likely 5th outfielder / short side platoon guy. His risk level on THE BOARD on fangraphs is “Low” which means, he’s likely this already. Again, this is “the guy” status in that he’s the type that should be able to contribute, right now. Okay…let us focus on the “become a guy” portion of the equation.
Why do I think he could “Become A Guy”
Julks has power, he has speed (including base stealing ability) and he has enough arm for any outfield position. This is all the makings of “the guy” who the consensus thought wouldn’t “become a guy”, but with just a little miss in their projection of the profile, “could become a guy”. We gamble. It’s speculation. Being a big Nassim Taleb fan, we gambling on modelling naturally having errors and leaving exposure for the upside. This is one of those. An upside play, a long-shot, with minimal downside. A potential asymmetric pay-off. Let’s gamble.
Tommy Pham will likely being re-homed before we get to the mid-season siesta. There should be plenty of playing time, despite Luis Robert Jr. occasionally being healthy enough to man Center Field. Right Field is highly unsettled with Dominic Fletcher not taking initially and getting Pedro’d his next time up. Left Field has Andrew Benintendi flirting with history and not in a good way. Why not try this?
Julks’ career minor league on base percentage is .353 with a walk rate north of 10%. At a minimum he should provide an okay at-bat, with occasional upside in that the power and speed should wash over a potentially unappealing strike out rate. As I have noted many times, including in this discussion below with Nick Schaefer from a recent episode of the Au Jus, Hahn was soooo horrible and finding these types of players, edge of the roster, fringy major leaguers and squeezing some quality work out of them, that if Getz could just be league average this, he’d be a monster upgrade over the last regime.
So let’s start with Julks. Let’s find out if he can or can’t play and even if he’s exactly what you thought he was, even if Eric Longenhagen was right, he’s just a short side platoon guy, you still have that, and Julks still has 2 minor league options.
I want more shots at “the guy who could become a guy”. Let’s start here. Don’t let me down Christopher.
-BeefLoaf