White Sox demote Colas for second time this season; Monday night game rained out

So much has gone wrong for the White Sox this season.

Monday was a perfect example.

Knowing there was rain in the forecast, the Sox wanted to postpone their game against the Royals early in the day.

Major League Baseball told them to wait, and the game was finally postponed less than two hours before the scheduled first pitch at Guaranteed Rate Field.

To make it up, the White Sox and Kansas City will play a straight doubleheader on Tuesday. Game 1 is scheduled to begin at 3:40 p.m. and the second game will start approximately 30-45 minutes after the opener, but not before 6:40 p.m.

Oscar Colas is another example of what did not happen for the Sox this year.

After a solid showing in spring training, the 24-year-old Colas won the starting job in right field.

Equipped with impressive power, a strong throwing arm and international experience in Japan and his native Cuba, Colas was viewed as a legitimate Rookie of the Year candidate.

Instead of meeting those expectations and finally filling the White Sox's perpetual hole in right field, Colas hit .211/.265/.276 with 1 home run and 7 RBI in 25 games and was optioned to Class AAA Charlotte on May 2.

The 5-foot-11, 220-pounder rejoined the Sox on July 4, but he was demoted to Charlotte again Monday.

Relief pitcher Edgar Navarro was also optioned to Triple-A and the White Sox recalled reliever Deivi Garcia and catcher Carlos Perez from Charlotte.

In 75 games for the White Sox this season, Colas slashed .216/.257/.314 with 5 homers and 19 RBI. The left-hander also struck out 71 times in 263 plate appearances.

"You know what? He's an impactful player," Sox manager Pedro Grifol said. "He obviously has got the tools to impact this team. However, fundamentally he still needs a lot of work. He's got to go down there and take care of those fundamentals.

"We talked a lot here about those fundamentals, we've worked a lot, we'll continue to work with him. However, we thought it was just a good time for him to go down there and attack those things on the minor-league side."

Charlotte has 12 games remaining on its schedule, which is not much time for Colas to smooth out the rough edges in his game.

"I don't know what he did in Japan, the instruction in Japan," Grifol said. "I don't know what he did prior to that. I know what we saw here and I know the work that was put in and fundamentally, he still needs a lot of work. This is the big leagues. We can make mistakes here and I'm OK with that, but we've got to eliminate the amount of mistakes that we make on a daily basis. If you can't eliminate them here then you have to go down there and work on them down there. That's where we're at.

"Again, this is not attacking the tools or anything like that. The tools are impactful tools that can help us. That's why we've made the decision to send him down there and talk with our coaches in Triple-A and hopefully he goes and plays winter ball and continues to develop his fundamentals on the field. It's not about getting stronger, it's not about his arm getting stronger. It's about just the details of the game that we need to continue to attack."

In addition to his struggles at the plate, Colas made frequent gaffes running the bases and he also made poor throwing decisions in right field.

Grifol said he and new general manager Chris Getz are on the same page in putting together a better White Sox team for 2024 and beyond.

"We want to play a fundamental style of baseball," Grifol said. "We want to eliminate mistakes, and details are extremely important to us. That's what we're going to be looking for moving forward."

Can Colas be a part of that group?

"I can envision that, but there's going to be competition in spring training," Grifol said. "And the competition is not just going to be based on the tools that you have, it's going to be based on all the stuff that I've been talking about, the style of baseball that we want to play. We know we need to hit, we know we need to score more runs and situational hit and all of that. But we also need to play defense, we need to run bases. And that's a big part of the direction that we're moving in. He's got the ability to be able to do all of that. So it's important for him to go down there and work, and it's important for him to go ahead and get some at-bats in winter ball and get some games in the tough environment where games continue to mean something."