The White Sox catching situation went from thin to bare in a hurry. Teel, the centerpiece of the Garrett Crochet trade with Boston and Chicago's presumed catcher of the near future, suffered a high ankle sprain and is now looking at a 6-12 week absence that pushes his return into September at the earliest. For a rebuilding club that was counting on Teel to be the everyday guy behind the plate for years, losing him for basically the rest of the summer is a real problem.
MLB Trade Rumors flagged the White Sox as a team actively working the trade market for catching help.
It's not like Chicago had a deep bench to fall back on. With Teel down, the Sox are running Drew Romo and Edgar Quero back there, and neither has hit enough to make anyone forget who's missing. By multiple accounts, White Sox catchers have been the least productive group at the position in all of baseball this season — which was survivable with Teel in the lineup and is a lot harder to stomach with him gone into the fall.
The follow-up report spelled out exactly why Chicago is suddenly desperate for catching depth.
So now the White Sox front office is doing what rebuilding teams do this time of year: picking through other people's rosters for a fix. Reports have linked Chicago to Cincinnati and catcher Tyler Stephenson, though the Sox aren't the only ones sniffing around the catching market — the Yankees are reportedly hunting for an upgrade behind the plate too, which only tightens the supply before the August 3 deadline.
The irony here is that Teel was supposed to be the answer, not part of the problem. He's already dealt with multiple IL stints this year, and this ankle issue is the third notable injury of his season. For a White Sox rebuild that's leaning heavily on player development timelines, having your top young catcher banged up for a third of the year is exactly the kind of setback that slows everything down.
Expect Chicago to be aggressive, or at least loud, over the next 10 days. A club going nowhere in the standings has every incentive to add a stopgap catcher who can also help next year, and the deadline gives them a hard finish line to get a deal done. Whether that's Stephenson or someone else, the Sox need a name behind the plate that isn't just keeping the seat warm until Teel's boot comes off.