Tristan Peters and Jacob Gonzalez may have arrived in Chicago with little fanfare, but both White Sox players have spent this season making a case that they belong.
Peters, who was acquired from Tampa after the Rays designated him for assignment last December, has quickly turned into one of the more eye-opening defensive center fielders in the sport. Public metrics have him fifth among center fielders in Outs Above Average, sixth in Defensive Runs Saved, and tied for fifth in Statcast’s outfield jump score. Peters tracks those numbers, along with the White Sox’s internal evaluations, and while he likes what he sees, he’s not treating any of it like a revelation.
"I've always had high expectations for myself in the outfield," Peters said. "It's pretty cool to be up there, really cool to see that, especially because I always felt like I've had that in me."
That confidence fits the way the White Sox viewed him from the start. The club had Luisangel Acuña as its Plan A for a glove-first center fielder, but Peters earned more and more trust during spring training.
First base coach José Leger said Peters was relentless with his pre-pitch movement work, and manager Will Venable pointed out that the surprise has come more with the bat than the glove. Peters is hitting .283/.343/.439, and Venable said, "I think on the offensive side he’s exceeded expectations more than defensively," adding, "Defensively he came in with a very strong reputation and the objective stuff captured that in the projections.
I think it’s more on the offensive side, even though defensively, he’s performing obviously very well. Overall, we’re very happy with the way he’s exceeded expectations."
Peters said his defensive growth has come from more consistent chances in center field, first at Triple-A Durham with Tampa and now with the White Sox, who are his fourth MLB organization. He believes the work on his first step and pre-pitch movement has sharpened because he’s learned to land just after contact, giving himself an extra beat to track the ball. For him, that part of the game has also eased the pressure to hit his way into the lineup.
"That's why I like to focus on my defense so much, too," Peters said. "I think it's being valued more and more now in baseball, and I think it just helps you, it helps the team, really.
It's sneaky. It's not always the flashy plays too.
Getting to the ball, getting to a 20 percent [catch probability] play without diving doesn't make the highlight reel, but helps the team a lot too. I'm just trying to do little things."
Those little things are adding up in a big way.
Jacob Gonzalez has followed a different path, but the same basic theme runs through his season: a player who knew there was more in there, then finally started finding it. He was cut from big league camp three weeks before Opening Day and had come off a .204/.310/.293 season at Triple-A Charlotte, but he never lost faith that he was close.
"I guess I always knew I was good; good enough to be here," Gonzalez said. "So I figured I just needed to figure things out, and luckily we did."
The biggest change came in January, when Gonzalez and Ryan Fuller reworked the weight transfer in his swing. Gonzalez said the goal was to blend his natural tendency to sink into a crouch with the organization’s desire to keep his weight in his back leg. The result was a more upright, laid-back setup that gives him room to load without hunching over or drifting too far toward the pitcher.
Even before that work, Gonzalez sensed something was moving in the right direction. He said that late last year he began striding closed just a little, which helped his hips line up better and stopped him from losing space over the plate.
Once he and Fuller built on that foundation, the progress started to show. He slugged only .278 in 18 Cactus League at-bats, but he also hit the hardest ball of his career in spring, a mark he has since broken again in Charlotte, and he was driving balls to left-center in batting practice.
That progress hasn’t come without bumps. Gonzalez recently went through an 0-for-28 stretch while trying to establish himself in the majors, but he has responded by going 8-for-19 with three of his four extra-base hits over his last five games. Fuller and the White Sox hitting coaches identified the issue when the team returned from being swept in Detroit: Gonzalez’s hips were getting out ahead of the rest of his swing.
"Obviously went through a little drought hitting-wise, but I never felt like I was overmatched," Gonzalez said. "[Derek] Shomon and Joel [McKeiethan told me, and Fuller -- this is probably what was wrong.
I was twisting my hips too soon, so that when I was coming out, they were late. I couldn't get all the way around.
They were like 75 percent there when I was making contact instead 100 percent turned. I made a little adjustment and hopefully it keeps up."
For Gonzalez, the challenge now is different from what most rookies face. He’s not chasing some brand-new version of himself. He’s trying to get back to the version he already found earlier this season.
"It was really just going back to how I started the season," Gonzalez said. "I just slowly started getting more turned without realizing it. So I was just getting back to how I used to hit earlier this year."
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