Cue the Jaws theme: White Sox promote Gordon Beckham to Triple-A Charlotte

Written by: JJ Stankevitz on 27th May 2009

Cue the Jaws theme: White Sox promote Gordon Beckham to Triple-A Charlotte | read this item

Josh Fields just went out for a peaceful night swim one normal August evening. Fields had once been a decent swimmer, but now, he was struggling to stay afloat. Little did he know that a beast was lurking in the shadows, just waiting to take away his life…

In this poorly-put-together metaphor, Gordon Beckham is Jaws and Josh Fields is that swimmer who’s about to be eaten. With Beckham’s promotion to Triple-A Charlotte today, Fields’ time as the White Sox’ starting third baseman could be very limited.

Beckham won’t come up in the next week or two, most likely. He’s going to need to some time to establish that he can hit more advanced pitching in AAA, and one or two weeks of that shouldn’t be enough to convince the White Sox to call Beckham up.

However, if Fields’ OPS continues to sit hover barely above .600, the White Sox may not have a choice but to call up Beckham to play third. The move of Beckham to Charlotte will allow him to play third base every day, as Dayan Viciedo had that position covered in Double-A Birmingham, so he’ll get some valuable defensive experience there. Plus, it’s not like Fields has played a stellar defensive third base (-5.4 UZR according to FanGraphs‘ latest update), so if the Sox do ultimately go with an inexperienced Beckham at third, they might not be losing a whole lot defensively. At the least, if Beckham keeps hitting the way he has in the minors, his offense will make up for whatever defensive deficiencies he has at that position.

The timing of this move is not a coincidence, either. MLBtraderumors had this to say in a piece about Baltimore’s Matt Wieters being called up:

Every player to become a Super Two in the last three offseasons has had at least two years, 130 days service time. Wieters will hit free agency after the 2015 season regardless, but he’ll go to arbitration three times, instead of four.

If Beckham was to be called up today, he wouldn’t be able to have 130 days of MLB service time, so no matter what the White Sox will avoid a Super Two situation with him. Without the threat of sending Beckham to arbitration four times, the White Sox will be free to call him up if Fields’ offensive malaise continues.

Would it be the right move to call Beckham up and essentially give up on Fields? There’s no telling what effects it could have on Beckham’s development, but all reports have him as a polished, mature player who should have no problem fitting in on an MLB club.

Secondly, Fields’ offensive slump is legit. It doesn’t have the telltale “bad luck” sign of a low BABIP—Fields’ has a .320 stat in that category, so he certainly hasn’t been unlucky. He just hasn’t been able to catch up to major league fastballs with consistency,and when six out of ten pitches he sees are fastballs it’s no wonder he hasn’t had much success.

I’d say Fields has about three weeks to chance what he’s doing before Beckham fever hits with full force with the White Sox brass. The White Sox simply cannot afford to have a player with an OPS+ of 56 playing anywhere, let alone a corner position.

Also, if Beckham makes the majors this year, it would mean he would have made the majors quicker than the likes of Evan Longoria, Troy Tulowitzki, Rickie Weeks, and Chase Utley. That’s a pretty impressive list of high-potential draft picks who Beckham would surpass. Of course, that means nothing to Beckham’s future success, so take it with a grain of salt.

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Topics: Gordon Beckham, josh fields, White Sox