Yes, sometimes a non-roster invite makes the team out of camp, but more often than not they don't. Aside from the minor leaguers the team just wants to get a nice look at, the others are usually the type of players that are washed-up but can't admit it to themselves, and the team doesn't mind using their body during camp.
Hey there, Brad Penny. No, I'm not talking about you! I'm sure you still have "it!"
But this year there's one invite that I would almost consider a lock to make the Opening Day roster. His name is Geovany Soto.
Rick Hahn collected catchers this winter like Miley Cyrus collects communicable diseases. The White Sox will enter camp with Tyler Flowers as your expected starter and a slew of other guys competing for that second catcher spot.
Soto will be joined by Rob Brantly, George Kottaras, Adrian Nieto and Kevan Smith. That's five backstops competing for the right to be Tyler Flowers' backup, and Soto has a clear edge over all of them.
Geovany Soto is not the same player we saw over four seasons with the Cubs starting with his 2008 Rookie of the Year win (Soto actually beat Joey Votto for that honor). From 2008 to 2011 he put up a line of .254/.347/.452 with 68 homers and an OPS+ of 108. He hasn't produced anything near that level since, but he did show some signs last year.
A torn meniscus cost Soto the entire first half of the season last year and he only played 10 games with Texas before making his way to Oakland. Once he got to the Athletics, though, he played pretty well. As happens so often to players who make their way to the Athletics, he remembered how to take a walk.
It's an extremely limited sample size, but in his 14 games with Oakland Soto managed to put up a line of .262/.354/.357. His extra-base power seems to have disappeared, but that OBP is nice, and Soto is still suitable defensively.
But even though these numbers aren't exactly impressive, let's compare it to the 2014 lines of the catchers he'll be competing with.
Adrian Nieto: .236/.296/.340
Rob Brantly: .211/.263/.265 (this is from 2013 as Brantly spent 2014 in the Pacific Coast League where he had a line of .255/.291/.341)
George Kottaras: .233/.351/.533 (18 games with three different teams)
Kevan Smith: .290/.376/.437 (in Charlotte)
So sizing up Soto's competition, I don't think Brantly has a chance to stick, though he could serve as organizational depth if he doesn't mind the idea. Kottaras has always been keen to take a walk, but he also strikes out a lot and I don't think he's ever been considered a defensive catcher. Adrian Nieto handled himself as well as any of us could reasonably expect last year, but he was only on the Sox roster because he had to be. I think the brass would much prefer to let him play every day in Charlotte or Birmingham to develop him.
Kevan Smith is intriguing. I have no idea how he is defensively, but he has a career line of .296/.374/.471 in four minor league seasons, though he's been older than the average age of players at each of his minor league stops. So while he's interesting, I don't know that I'd consider him legit.
So should Soto stay healthy, and that's certainly no guarantee with him, I think he's the logical choice barring some kind of amazing performance from one of the other catchers this spring. Or maybe the fact he's right-handed hurts him. Maybe the Sox want somebody who hits lefty, though that would make more sense to me platoon-wise of Flowers wasn't the guy that was going to get the majority of the starts.
But that's another point in Soto's favor. When you look at all these options, who is the only one you can say without sounding insane has a chance of being better than Flowers?
It's Soto. That's it.
So while Geo signed a minor league deal with the White Sox, he did so for a reason. He knows his chances to make this roster out of camp.
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