Young White Sox hitters gather for mini-camp

No. 23 prospect Robert headlines participants at week-long event

January 15th, 2018

CHICAGO -- The White Sox present and future offensively have significant representation at their 2018 hitters' mini-camp, a week-long event beginning Monday morning at Camelback Ranch in Glendale, Ariz.
Thirty players in total are scheduled to be in attendance, with 13 of those players coming from the White Sox Top 30 Prospects list per MLB Pipeline.
"I'm looking forward to just seeing all of these young hitters," said White Sox manager Rick Renteria, who is in attendance for the mini-camp. "Obviously … our whole hitting coordinating staff within the system is going to be there to make sure that we're all working on the same ideas, the same plan.
"How we're attacking at bats, how we're attacking situations and at the same time looking at that skillset that these kids bring to the table, albeit in BP and what have you. You still get a chance to see some of their swings and some of the eye-hand coordination aspects."
Luis Robert's on-field debut in the United States figures to draw a great deal of attention this week. The 20-year-old outfielder, who is the No. 3 White Sox prospect and No. 23 overall in baseball, received a $26 million signing bonus with the White Sox as a top international free agent from Cuba. He played his first season as part of the organization's Dominican Summer League team and then took part in the Dominican instructional league during November.

Those scheduled to join Robert from the White Sox 40-man roster are Micker Adolfo, Luis Basabe, , Matt Davidson, Nicky Delmonico, , , , , , , and Charlie Tilson. Jimenez ranks as the No. 5 prospect in the game, while Moncada, who rated as the No. 1 prospect in the game for most of the 2017 season before being called up to the White Sox on July 19, continues on as the team's starting second baseman.

Non-40-man roster players scheduled to take part are Joel Booker, Jake Burger, Alex Call, Zack Collins, Luis Curbelo, Jameson Fisher, Ti'Quan Forbes, Luis Gonzalez, Danny Hayes, Patrick Leonard, Tito Polo, Blake Rutherford, Matt Skole, Gavin Sheets, Yeyson Yrrizarri and Seby Zavala. Each day features hitters meetings, cage work and batting practice. It was the 2017 mini-camp where Davidson showed off his re-tuned swing, knocking baseballs around the back fields at Camelback Ranch as a prelude to his 26-home run, 68-RBI big league performance.
"You also get a chance to talk to them a little bit and see where they're at," Renteria said. "The truth is until they get to playing games and things of that nature, you can't really evaluate completely until they're actually trying to perform and trying to deal with those things and those situations that we're going to hopefully address in this hitters' camp."