Oscar Colás describes his daily baseball routine as beginning when he wakes up, reaching for his tablet and queueing up videos of his at-bats from the night before.
“Trying to identify what I did good, what I missed,” Colas said through an interpreter.
By the time he’s arrived at the park, and meeting up with hitting coach José Castro in the batting cage, Colás has brought notes about his swing decisions and how the upcoming starting pitcher will attack him. Colás states that their sessions together have helped him improve and learn.
Asked to assess how his season has gone, Colás issued himself a 50 out of 100. There are a couple of ways to read that figure. One would be as a failing grade.
Tapped by general manager Rick Hahn as the potential solution in right field as far back as late November, Colás won a roster spot out of spring training, but was demoted to Triple-A after a difficult opening month. Recalled two solid months in Charlotte later, Colás’ offensive results have yet to meaningfully improve. Per FanGraphs, he is both chasing pitches out of the zone and swinging and missing at even higher rates since being recalled.
His season batting line of .215/.259/.291 with three home runs would rank Colás among the worst offensive regulars in baseball if he had enough plate appearances to qualify. Colás has a strong throwing arm, possesses enough range to play center field in a pinch and is rated as an above-average defender by Statcast. But his four errors are representative of lapses of focus that manager Pedro Grifol has cited in pre and postgame comments at times.
“We’re throwing a lot at him and he’s embracing it and he’s working on it,” said Grifol. “You’ll see spurts of plate discipline and good fundamental baseball, and you’ll see spurts of chasing and not that good of fundamental baseball. That’s just part of the development process that we’re going through.”
“Unfortunately, the results weren’t there during my first stint with the team,” Colás said. “Now, I think the results are a little bit better in the [plate discipline] aspect. But it’s a work in progress. I’m improving. I’m trying to improve.”
Another way to read 50 out of 100 is that Colás is halfway to where he needs to be, with this difficult experience moving him closer even as results lag behind. The White Sox have had problems and shortfalls way beyond and more significant than Colás, and consistent opportunities for the 24-year-old to develop into a tenable option for next year are as worthwhile use of the final six weeks of this lost season as any.
“My goal is to find the best way that I can feel comfortable, that I can feel like I’m doing my job, like I’m showing all the stuff I can do on the field,” Colás said. “We have goals. Like for example, if I have the goal to hit 20 homers before the season started, now you have to adjust that and see how close I can get.”
The small progress of an eight-game on-base streak (with a pair of homers mixed in) entering Tuesday is a glimmer of hope, but a more common compliment issued by the coaching staff is Colás interest in critiques, which are daily and often public matter.
Asked if Colás erred in missing a cutoff man in an ill-fated attempt to throw out Brewers first baseman Carlos Santana at third on Friday, Grifol explained that he had erred twice: both when he failed to anticipate the attempt and when he overreacted. These constructive critiques figure to remain a soundtrack for the rest of the season.
“I listen,” Colás said of how he deals with all the feedback. “I just try to listen and put into play all the stuff people are trying to teach me.”
