Behind Edgar Quero's insatiable hunger to be great: 'He wants to be one of the best catchers'

Angel Rosario, the bench coach of the Double-A Birmingham Barons in 2024, remembers the first conversation he had with Edgar Quero. The young catching prospect didn’t wait for his new coaches to come to him with suggestions on where he could improve. He already knew.

“The only thing that he told us was, ‘I want to be better,’ ” Rosario. now the bench coach at Triple-A Charlotte, told the Sun-Times last week. “He told us, ‘I want to do every-thing that I have to do to be better. I have to improve my receiving needs to improve right now.’ ”

It was a snapshot into the mind of a player attuned to his deficiencies and wanting to turn them into strengths.

The White Sox, who called up Quero from Charlotte on April  16, have shown marginal improvements in their defensive consistency and cleanliness of play, but at 7-21, they’re only a little better than last year’s 121-loss group was (6-23) at this point on April 29.

The difference is that this team already has seen the influence of two new talents — Quero and infielder Chase Meidroth. And the season is likely to be viewed through the lens of how much they grow and develop.

Quero, a switch-hitter, has made an instant impact with his bat, impressing manager Will Venable and his teammates by slashing .344/.462/.406 with two doubles and six walks in 11 games. But the bat was never much of a question for him. Proving himself on defense was. Rosario said he and catching coordinator Julio Mosquera worked with Quero to refine his technique and keep his upper body higher to create a bigger target for pitchers.

At Birmingham and Charlotte, he worked the most on his framing but was open to anything to improve. He dug into analytical reports, bought an iPad to do his own scouting reports and watched hours of video of himself from previous years, searching for any information that could help him.

“He’s always ready to work and open to learn,” Rosario said. “He wants to be one of the best catchers in the big leagues.”

Getting to know major-league pitchers and their individual tendencies — a critical part of the game for any catcher — will help, but probably not right away. Matt Thaiss, the Sox’ veteran on staff, said learning a pitching staff is “a lot.”

“It’s something you do over seasons, not just one, but [in] spring training and throughout the year,” Thaiss said.

Because of Quero’s lofty ambitions, Rosario found he sometimes had to reel him in.

“He wants to be better all the time,” Rosario said. “Sometimes he is very hard on himself, and I just try to tell him, ‘Hey, have fun. Don’t forget that.’ ”