The White Sox have a pair of potential long-term starting catchers. Kyle Teel and Edgar Quero were each highly-regarded prospects who showed promise as rookies. Teel was particularly good after being called up in early June.
Teams inquired about Chicago’s willingness to trade one of that duo early in the offseason. It doesn’t seem talks ever got far. Teel and Quero now seem all but assured to begin the season with the White Sox. That leaves them with a decision to make on third catcher Korey Lee, himself a former first-round pick who might be squeezed out of the picture.
Lee exhausted his last minor league option in 2025. The Sox need to keep him on the MLB roster at this point. Teel and Quero have options but aren’t in jeopardy of getting sent down. Teel hit .273/.375/.411 through his first 78 MLB games. Quero batted .268/.333/.356 over 111 contests.
Manager Will Venable addressed the catching plans on Monday. “I think it really is going to take care of itself,” the second-year skipper told reporters (including Scott Merkin of MLB.com and LaMond Pope of The Chicago Tribune). “We know that we like Kyle catching and hitting against righties. We know that Edgar can DH. We’ll have a couple of guys who will fill that DH spot versus right-handed pitching.”
Teel, a left-handed hitter, hit .290/.388/.448 against righties. The Sox gave him 52 plate appearances against southpaws, in which he hit .186 without a home run while striking out 20 times. Quero is a switch-hitter whose numbers were much better from the right side. He batted .357/.394/.457 against lefties compared to a .220/.301/.301 line while hitting left-handed.
Venable indicated that the Sox would use Quero more frequently behind the plate when an opposing lefty is on the mound. That’d allow them to spell Teel against southpaws, though the manager added it won’t be a strict platoon. The Sox are still rebuilding and presumably don’t want to firmly lock either player into a platoon role within their first two seasons in the big leagues.
Does that leave room on the roster for Lee? Most teams prefer not to carry three catchers when they’re primarily using a four-man bench. Assuming Quero sees a decent amount of run as a DH against righties, the third catcher would provide Venable more in-game flexibility. If they wanted to pinch-hit for Teel against a tough lefty reliever, they could plug Lee in behind the plate instead of moving Quero there (which would forfeit the DH). There’s also simply the likelihood that another team would claim Lee if the Sox tried to run him through waivers at the end of camp.
Lee didn’t get much of a look last season, only taking 40 plate appearances in 25 MLB games. He put up a solid .255/.313/.405 showing in Triple-A but is a career .193/.234/.321 hitter against big league pitching. Lee had a strong defensive reputation as a prospect. Statcast hasn’t looked favorably on his pitch-framing work in the majors, but he has a plus arm and seems to work well with the pitching staff.
The Padres reportedly had some interest in Lee last summer. They wound up trading for Freddy Fermin from Kansas City instead. San Diego’s already thin catching depth has been hit by injury, but they might be better served signing a veteran to a minor league deal. Their backup catcher Luis Campusano is also out of options, so they’d need to consider Lee a definitive upgrade to put Campusano on waivers.
Speculatively, Lee’s former team in Houston could look for a backup catcher after losing Victor Caratini to free agency. The Rays, Rockies or Mariners are other potential fits to upgrade the #2 catching spot on the depth chart.