Oscar Colas

There was quite a bit of hype around Colas when he signed with the White Sox as an international free agent in January of 2022 and he further fanned the flames in his first year of MLB-affiliated ball, slashing .314/.371/.524 in 526 plate appearances between High-A Winston-Salem, Double-A Birmingham and Triple-A Charlotte. He then lit it up in the Cactus League last spring to earn a spot on Chicago's major-league roster leading into the 2023 season. It was a storybook rise, but what came after was alarming. Colas posted the eighth-worst OPS (.571) of the 328 big-league hitters who logged more than 250 plate appearances and was twice demoted back to the minors. He batted .190/.238/.293 against lefties and racked up 71 total strikeouts to just 12 walks. The hype has waned, so much so that the 25-year-old outfielder will likely go undrafted in most standard leagues for 2024.

For several years, Colas' fame has outstripped his likely MLB value, but his 2022 affiliated debut went about as good as anyone could have hoped. Chicago has fast-tracked the Cuban slugger, assigning him to High-A and then bumping him to Double-A and Triple-A in the same season. All told, he slashed .314/.371/.524 with 23 home runs in 117 games, and general manager Rick Hahn said at the general manager meetings that Colas could be the team's right fielder in 2023. His 25.6 K% and 6.2 BB% as a 23-year-old at Double-A and Triple-A are reasons to expect some bumps in the road during his rookie season. Colas has a chance to be a 30-homer hitter in the big leagues, but he is already physically maxed out at 24 years old, so he could eventually slide to designated hitter. His hit tool in the majors will be the swing skill. If he is a 45- or 50-grade hitter, that should allow him to play every day and drive in a lot of runs without killing fantasy ratios, but it's also possible that he hits for a low enough batting average that he isn't in much demand even if he's playing a lot.