Prospect Colas making most of spring experience with White Sox

March 6th, 2023

This story was excerpted from Scott Merkin's White Sox Beat newsletter. Subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

GLENDALE, Ariz. -- Oscar Colas is fighting for the starting right-field job as part of the 2023 White Sox. But the team’s No. 2 prospect, per MLB Pipeline, is having fun doing so during Spring Training.

“Yes, of course,” said Colas through interpreter Billy Russo. “This is my job, but I enjoy doing it.

“Especially being around the Latino guys and everybody here. They are always messing around with me. Everybody is messing around with everybody here. We are just having fun.”

The clubhouse locker for Colas is located in between Yoán Moncada and Luis Robert, who played for Team Cuba during an exhibition game Sunday prior to official World Baseball Classic competition. He’s also situated near Hanser Alberto, Elvis Andrus, Yasmani Grandal, Billy Hamilton and Tim Anderson, so there’s good veteran influences aplenty for the 24-year-old left-handed hitter.

Following Sunday’s game, Colas was 7-for-18 with a double. He showed the ability to hit the other way, which Colas worked on during the offseason, but also picked up a stolen base, which might be a new addition to his 2023 repertoire.

“I feel comfortable stealing,” Colas said. “The past couple of years, I didn’t have the chance to do it often. But ever since I came here, the manager told me, 'You have good legs. Good speed. We want you to run.' They’ve been giving me the chance and I’ve been taking advantage of it.”

“Colas can be an opportunistic basestealer,” White Sox manager Pedro Grifol said. “He’s got a lot of work to do on the bases. I’ve spoken to him about it. We’ve had our meetings. He’s one guy that we talk about daily on the fundamentals and the details of the game. The bat is the bat, right? Everybody sees that part of it. We want to refine everything else to his game.”

Every day seems to bring a new experience for Colas, including an off-the-field meeting with Hall of Famer Randy Johnson. Colas posted a picture of the two in an Instagram story.

“Actually, when we took the picture, I didn’t know who he was until someone said, ‘That’s Randy Johnson’ and told me about him,” Colas said. “I said, ‘Oh, that’s nice.’ We had a chance to talk for a little bit.”