Spring Training Surprise: Oscar Colás Shifts to First Base

To the surprise of some and the disgust of others, Oscar Colás played first base for a portion of yesterday’s game. Per Daryl Van Schouwen of the Chicago Sun-Times, he had been taking grounders at first base earlier this spring and finally saw game action at the position yesterday. It is understandable why Colás playing that position elicited such a negative reaction from Sox fans. After all, he is a natural outfielder who was a Top 100 prospect in baseball not even a year ago. The White Sox have also lacked legitimate outfielders so severely in recent years that they have had to put lifetime first basemen in right field consistently. Given these circumstances, it makes no sense why they would even consider playing Colás at first base. But taking a deeper dive into Colás and his situation, there is at least some thought process behind it.

Disappointing Rookie Season

To say Colás’ rookie season was a disaster would be an understatement. He hit just .216 with a .571 OPS in 75 games while striking out a whopping 27% of the time and walking just 4.6% of the time. He was 45% worse than the league average hitter per OPS+, and his ground ball and weak contact percentages were well above the MLB average. Unfortunately for him, his struggles did not end there. Defensively playing primarily right field, Colás had -5 defensive runs saved and an Ultimate Zone Rating (UZR) of -9. He did display an absolute cannon of an arm; he was in the 96th percentile in arm strength last season. But he was only in the 45th percentile of Outs Above Average and the 39th percentile in sprint speed. All told, Colás was worth -1.3 fWAR and -1.5 bWAR in less than half a season. While he was a Top 100 prospect entering 2023, he did not meet those expectations. In fact, he was one of the worst position players in baseball.

It was not just his performance that has seemingly put Colás in the doghouse and on the back burner of the White Sox future plans. He was demoted to the minors twice last season. Last September after his second demotion to AAA, Pedro Grifol said, “We need him to completely clean up his whole game… I’m talking about baserunning, defensively. These are things I’ve spoken about all year.” Grifol also said, “He’s got to go down there and take care of those fundamentals.” Colás’ transition to the major leagues in his rookie season did not go smoothly, to say the least.

Outfield Backup Plans

While one cannot write off a player after such a small sample size during their rookie year, Colás’ struggles were so immense that Chris Getz emphasized stockpiling outfield depth this offseason. He acquired left-handed hitting outfielders Dominic Fletcher and Zach DeLoach in trades while adding outfielders Kevin Pillar, Mark Payton, Rafael Ortega, Brett Phillips, Wynton Bernard, and Peyton Burdick as depth options. While not all of these players will remain in the organization after spring training, the White Sox outfield situation is significantly more crowded than it was at this time last year, and it appears that Colás has fallen down the depth chart. Fletcher seems to be the front-runner for the starting right fielder job in Chicago, which will likely mean Colás will start the season in AAA Charlotte.

Final Word

I do not believe that having Colás play first base in a spring training game means they have given up on him as an outfielder. Instead, I think it means that Pedro Grifol and the rest of the coaching staff want to see if he can handle that position. If he can, it adds to his versatility and makes him more appealing from a roster construction standpoint, especially given the White Sox roster. The team does not have a set-in-stone backup first baseman for Andrew Vaughn. Gavin Sheets and Mike Moustakas are possible options for this role, but Sheets had a terrible 2023 season and Moustakas is on the downside of his career. Colás has far more future upside than either of them, and showing an ability to play first base could help his chances of returning to the majors as soon as possible. Scott Merkin of MLB.com noted that Colás played some first base in his time in Japan, so this is not a completely new idea.

Colás must play better moving forward to have a future in Chicago. That is the bottom line. He will likely start the season in AAA regardless and must prove he belongs in the majors again. But him playing first base in spring training is not anything to overanalyze or freak out about in my opinion.