Engel is an impact defender, but can he hit enough to stick with White Sox?
These days, everybody on the Chicago White Sox is hitting.
Well, almost everybody.
Heading into Saturday night's game against the Detroit Tigers, the Sox were batting .367 with 12 homers and 59 runs scored in a seven-game stretch.
Yoan Moncada has been on fire. So has Jose Abreu, Avisail Garcia, Tim Anderson, Yolmer Sanchez and Kevan Smith.
Adam Engel has shown some flashes with the bat, but the White Sox's center fielder is sitting on a woeful .184/.253/.318 hitting line in 82 games since arriving from Class AAA Charlotte.
As the Sox play out the season with a hopeful eye on the future, every player on the roster is being evaluated.
For Engel, that is good and bad.
Defensively, he might be the Sox's best player. Engel has already robbed Houston's Brian McCann and Cleveland's Austin Jackson of home runs with leaping catches over the fence, and his standout speed instantly made him one of the rangiest center fielders in the game.
But the more Engel plays, the more he reminds you of Gordon Beckham.
During his seven-year run with the White Sox, Beckham caught the ball all over the infield but never was able to hit it at the plate.
Engel is having the same problem.
"Adam can save you quite a few runs," Sox manager Rick Renteria said. "He can run balls down that most other guys can't. He's obviously a tremendously gifted center fielder. The other aspect is we're hoping as he continues to work through his offensive situation in terms of trying to develop a cleaner swing path, continues to have at-bats, putting himself into position where he's going to continue to learn even through failure, that he's going to be able to improve.
"That experience I think is invaluable for him. If you can get a guy who can run balls down like he can and you can get him on a pace to defend himself at the plate. you might have something a little special there."
Mired in a 3-for-18 slump, Engel was not in the starting lineup Saturday. He's working on choking up on the bat to shorten a swing that is decidely too long.
With his standout speed, Engel needs to put the ball in play and get on base. It all starts with his hands.
"As far as mechanics go, I messed with my hands a little bit here and there height wise," Engel said. "Just try to get them to a closer place to where I swing from. I think I came here with my hands up pretty high and I'm trying to slowly drop them down to eliminate movement."