PHILADELPHIA -- Caleb Bonemer has built a reputation as the kind of prospect who will happily talk through every wrinkle of his swing, and at the MLB Futures Game, that trait was on full display. Standing at his locker in an All-Star jersey and facing the biggest media crowd of his life, the 20-year-old White Sox infielder kept circling back to the same place: mechanics.
“It’s a problem that I probably have to get a little bit better at, not always over-analyzing it,” said Bonemer
That self-checking nature has long been part of the package. Bonemer, who won’t turn 21 until October, is the sort of hitter who can drift into miming his setup with his hands while explaining what he’s feeling at the plate. He even had only a flicker of recognition when Carlos Quentin’s name came up, though the comparison fit in a familiar way: a hitter obsessed with getting the swing right.
“A lot of guys give me crap a lot of the time for always doing feels and stuff in the mirror, but it’s the way it is and the way I am, because I think mechanics are very important,” Bonemer said. “Guys are telling me, ‘Get out of the mirror!’
But I don’t know. If it works, it works.”
The numbers back up why the White Sox are willing to live with that process. Across High-A and Double-A, Bonemer has hit .246/.381/.528 with 22 home runs in 82 games. He has mostly played third base this season, and he started there Sunday in Philadelphia.
For Bonemer, the swing is the starting point for almost everything. If something is off, he first looks for a mechanical reason. If the approach is slipping, he wants to know whether the swing is the root of it.
“I feel if my swing is locked in, that takes care of a lot of things,” Bonemer said. “It just gives me a lot more room for error with timing and things like that.
So sometimes I do think it can get to me a little bit mentally, too much. Like, I’m always focused on little things in my swing.
But yeah, I’m a big mechanics guy. That’s why I try to be simple, just so I can compete with it.”
That approach hit a snag by the end of May. Bonemer had already launched 15 home runs in his first 49 games, but his strikeout rate had climbed above 30 percent. Pitchers started refusing to give him the fastballs he wanted, and he found himself getting the counterpunch instead.
“There were a few games there where I wasn’t getting any fastballs,” Bonemer said “My whole life I’ve looked fastball, like, be committed to the heater. But it got to the point where it’s like, ‘If I’m not going to get one, why would I look for it?’”
One sign of adjustment came with his most recent home run, when he stayed back on a changeup and drove it to the opposite field. Pulling the ball to left field remains the foundation of his offense, but White Sox hitting director Ryan Fuller has also helped him recognize when he’s leaning too hard into that strength.
“We had a great conversation,” Bonemer said. “He was showing me some data and stuff.
Pretty much he was telling me that my contact point was the farthest out in front out of anybody in all of baseball. Like, major leagues and minor leagues.
When he told me that it was like, ‘Oh wow, that’s kind of crazy.’ After we talked, I made a few adjustments.
I was getting a lot of spin and it was hard for me to keep the breaking balls fair. Not really mechanical adjustments, more mental adjustments, which kind of changed me mechanically.
Even at Double-A, guys have a lot of good spin, you’ve got to be able to handle it.”
Farm director Paul Janish said Bonemer’s move to Birmingham last month came before his biggest statistical surge, but the organization believed the underlying signs were pointing the right way. Since then, Bonemer has kept his strikeout rate under 24 percent in the Southern League.
Even with that progress, he still tends to downplay it. Bonemer smiled when an old story came up about friend Colson Montgomery congratulating him for cracking MLB Pipeline’s top-100 list, only for Bonemer to note that he was merely No.
- The same attitude showed up when he won Carolina League MVP last season and called it just A-ball.
“I don’t really like talking about myself and my accomplishments a lot,” Bonemer said. “It feels good to be able to have success.
It feels good, but I try to keep it in perspective. At the end of the day, it is just the minor leagues.
The goal is to get to The Show and help out the big league club.”
The Futures Game gave him a taste of that next stage, even if the stat line was quiet. Bonemer went 0-for-2 with a popout and a groundout, but he still treated the experience as something useful. The crowd and the pitching talent around him made it feel like a preview.
“I felt like I was playing a video game almost,” Bonemer said afterward. “Great environment. It’s a dream to play in front of a bunch of people like that.”
And the day ended with one more reminder that his swing is getting noticed. After his final round of pregame batting practice, Bonemer was approached by Kenny Lofton. He didn’t immediately recognize the 59-year-old former star, but he knew enough to value what came next.
“He said he liked my swing, so keep doing what I’m doing. So, that was pretty cool.”
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