It’s easy for White Sox fans to be impressed with rookie catcher Edgar Quero.
They can see it in the statistics, like the .326 batting average and .442 on-base percentage he put up in his first 15 major league contests.
They can see it in the middle of a game, like the 2-for-3, two-RBI day he had in Friday night’s Sox win.
But it’s not as easy to see what else the Sox themselves have liked about Quero’s early days in the big leagues. What a catcher does working with a pitching staff can’t be looked up in a heartbeat like offensive numbers, can’t be easily isolated to a single trip to the plate.
Make no mistake, though, Quero is getting rave reviews for that part of his game, too.
“He’s been great,” starting pitcher Sean Burke told the Sun-Times on Saturday. “I’ve been fortunate enough to throw to him in the minors, so we kind of had a relationship coming into this year. But I think everybody’s been super pleased with how he’s been working with the pitching staff, how attentive he’s been to the defensive side of catching, too.
“Obviously, you see he’s a great hitter, but the detail and the preparation he’s putting into the defensive side of it is impressive.”
Quero joined the Sox’ organization as a well regarded prospect, his offensive numbers standing out when he arrived as part of the trade that sent Lucas Giolito and Reynaldo Lopez to the Angels in 2023. And though he raced through the minor leagues – he made his major league debut just 11 days after his 22nd birthday – the compliments going toward his bat meant maybe an idea that he had a lot to improve with his glove.
Not so, according to Burke, who benefitted from Quero’s presence in his most recent start: six innings of shutout, two-hit ball.
“I think he got a little bit of a negative rap for his defense. Just because his hitting was so good, they were like, ‘His defense needs to get better,’” Burke said. “But I don’t think his defense was ever an issue, really. I just think he’s taken that as a chip on his shoulder, where he sees people talking about that or he knows that’s kind of a knock people had on him. But I think he’s been terrific.”
The guy whose job it was to develop Quero into a major league ready player has, perhaps, a slightly more nuanced view of the young backstop’s all-around game. But Sox farm director Paul Janish still liked what he saw from Quero enough to sign off on last month’s promotion from Triple-A to The Show.
That said, development doesn’t stop because a player reaches the big leagues. And whether it’s continuing to refine and improve every facet of his game or continuing to learn the ins and outs of the Sox’ pitching staff, there’s plenty more for Quero to achieve as the organization looks at him as a potential cornerstone of their long-term rebuilding project.
“That’s the one thing about this year, in particular, that we really got from him in Charlotte, at the minor league level: He was acknowledging that he is open and wants to continue to get better,” Janish said during a Saturday media session. “He’s not going to tell you that he’s a finished product defensively. And that’s pretty much in all facets, if we’re talking about framing or game-planning.
“Look, we’re not hiding here, there’s going to be a lot from that standpoint that he needs to learn about a new pitching staff at the major league level, new hitters at the major league level. All of those things go into the equation. But the one thing that stuck out was his openness and acknowledgement that there’s a lot that goes into it and he wants to continue to get better at it.”
