South Side Sox Player of the Week (April 19-24): Korey Lee

What a difference a year makes

Sure, we have yearly stalwarts like Eloy Jiménez winning these POTW mentions, and the occasional minor-leaguer done good like Chuckie Robinson. Pitchers get their due, with a start or two in a week that teases the imagination, like Michael Soroka or Garrett Crochet. And every so often, a real curveball of a winner is named, like last week, when us fans took the honors.

But it’s fairly rare that an apparent also-ran has even one week of stardom that leads to our South Side Sox honors. Which makes the season-long (OK, April) turnaround of catching prospect Korey Lee so remarkable.

Lee coming to the White Sox last summer from Houston for the low, low price of Kendall Graveman seemed too good to be true — validated, apparently, by how godawful Lee was joining the White Sox. With Charlotte, he whiffed 40% of the time en route to a tepid .255/.309/.275 in Triple-A and then choked out .077/.143/.138 with his courtesy call to the majors.

The odds were against Lee perhaps ever seeing the South Side for significant time again, as the White Sox brought in both Martín Maldonado and Max Stassi to keep home plate warm for blue-chip prospect Edgar Quero in 2024; yep, despite Lee blistering Cactus League pitching this spring (.286/.382/.714), the catcher was sent to minor league (Charlotte) camp on March 20. GM Chris Getz claimed accidental-hero plaudits after Stassi’s extended recovery and new injury necessitated Lee’s return for Opening Day — and the young catcher rewarded the faith by continuing to be (damning with faint praise alert) the best catcher option the White Sox have.

In his first 20 games, Lee is slashing .255/.296/.412 for a 102 OPS+. He has an tepid 5.6% walk rate (contributing to a sub-.300 OBP) but has halved his terrifying K-rate (now at 20.4%). His hard-hit rate is actually down 10%, but his ISO has almost tripled, to .157. He’s also finding success with plate discipline, chasing less often and making better contact more often when he is.

These are signs, however slight and small, of a player attacking his weaknesses and continuing to grow and learn — the difference between a guy who might flame out of baseball quickly and a guy who could stick for five or 10 years.

Defensively, the jury is still out on Lee but he’s still regarded as above average. He’s nailed just 3-of-15 (20%) base-stealers, by traditional measures abysmal, but the White Sox pitching staff has traditional been pretty horrid at holding runners on as well. You’d think Lee’s cannon will carry on as a weapon in the weeks to come.

The No. 1 catching job is Quero’s, beginning as early as this fall. However, Lee has staked a claim as a catching contributor not only this season, but in the near future to come.

2024 South Side Sox Players of the Week

Eloy Jiménez (February 23-March 2)
Eloy Jiménez (March 3-11)
Chuckie Robinson (March 12-19)
Michael Soroka (March 20-27)
Garrett Crochet (March 28-April 3)
Gavin Sheets (April 4-11)
The Fans (April 12-18)
Korey Lee (April 19-24)

Top 10 MVP Standings

Korey Lee (34.7)
Garrett Crochet (30.7)
Erick Fedde (25.2)
Gavin Sheets (24.2)
Chris Flexen (20.5)
Fans for keeping the noise up/getting bored and waving/who stayed/who froze/who had the strength to suffer through this (19.8)
Michael Soroka (19.4)
Michael Kopech (18.3)
Eloy Jiménez (16.7)
Jonathan Cannon (15.9)

Top 10 Cold Cat Standings

Pedro Grifol (-33.7)
The Entire Roster (-24.7)
Andrew Vaughn (-20.4)
Dominic Fletcher (-19.9)
Andrew Benintendi (-19.6)
Luis Robert Jr. (-16.7)
Touki Toussaint (-14.7)
Yoán Moncada (-14.2)
Martín Maldonado (-10.6)
Chris Getz (-10.4)

Garrett Crochet took a huge tumble this week, allowing POTW Korey Lee to topple him from the top spot for the first time all year. The White Sox may be lousy, but the MVP race, soft as it is, should be an interesting follow.

Writer Standings

No shocker here given the team is historically terrible, but at this point not one of our recappers has a coverage record of better than .500. BRUTAL.

If you’re interested in seeing more of Mitch’s work, or if you’d like to purchase original drawings or prints, contact him via Twitter (@soxsketcher), Instagram (@southsidesharpie), or by e-mail at southsidesharpie@gmail.com. Thanks for supporting local artists!