As Kyle Teel nears his return, Chicago White Sox relying on Edgar Quero and Drew Romo behind the plate
The Chicago White Sox hadn't had much offensive production Tuesday, with just one hit through four innings against the Kansas City Royals at Rate Field.
Drew Romo helped with a momentum shift, hitting a home run on a 1-0 cutter with one out in the fifth. That started a five-run inning for the Sox, who went on to win 6-5.
Romo has four home runs and five RBIs since being called up from Triple-A Charlotte on April 25 to be part of the team’s catching tandem with Edgar Quero.
Bench coach Walker McKinven, who has been working with the catchers, recently offered observations of what he has seen from the pair of players behind the plate.
“Relating to Drew, energy infusion when he got here, obviously offensively popping a couple of homers,” McKinven said Sunday. “Really, really fun, really cool to see. Incredible kid. Trust him inherently, just the relationships he built in spring training. Exceptional human being, trustworthy dude, does his homework, speaks up. Is accountable, all the things you'd ask from a catcher.
“Again, a very very young player (24 years old) to be catching at the major-league level. But we're lucky to have him.”
Romo came into Wednesday’s game against the Royals with a .185/.389/.667 slash line in 10 games. He was 5-for-27 with eight walks and six runs. Sox pitchers had a 3.90 ERA when he was behind the plate, and he had thrown out 3-of-15 attempted base stealers.
Quero entered Wednesday with a .159/.258/.171 slash line in 30 games. He was 13-for-82 with one double and seven RBIs. And Sox pitchers had a 4.14 ERA when he was behind the plate. He’s thrown out 6-of-16 attempted base stealers.
“Edgar, having a tough go of it offensively, admittedly,” McKinven said. “But still working really hard, we rely on him a lot from a run-prevention standpoint. The pitching coaches heavily rely on him. He still continues to work on his defense daily, nightly, with hyperfocus. We've seen minor improvements, but arrow pointing up in that area. Something we've been drilling him on really, really hard since last season.
“Like what he's doing there on the defensive side of the ball, the arrow's in the right direction there. And we do know that he can hit. So we're expecting that to get back. Got to be reminded, Edgar's the same age as (minor-league outfield prospect) Braden (Montgomery, both are 23 and were born in April 2003). And we ask a ton of him in his second year in the big leagues. There's going to be ups and downs for him.”
Part of the learning process for both continues to be when to utilize the Automated Ball-Strike (ABS) challenge system. Through Tuesday, Quero made 42 challenges and won 18, while Romo made nine challenges and won two. The 42 ABS challenges were the second-most in baseball to Milwaukee’s William Contreras (48).
“It’s an added element to the game, for sure,” McKinven said. “Our catchers have gone out and have done what we asked them to do. And we've asked them to be super aggressive with using them. We've seen some good, seen some bad. Still trying to calibrate ourselves.
“The tricky thing is it changes with the hitter, right? And so making sure our catchers are aware that a strike for one guy is not a strike for another guy. So definitely a bunch of coaching points of things we need to continue to train and get better at to improve our accuracy. But on the whole with the ABS, we've asked guys to be aggressive. They're been aggressive and so far we're happy with where we're at with it.”
The Sox are also happy about Kyle Teel’s potential return from a right hamstring strain suffered March 10. He appeared in his first rehab assignment game Tuesday with Charlotte and went 1-for-4 with a home run and two RBIs against Norfolk.
“Very, very excited to get Kyle back,” McKinven said. “I think there's a very high ceiling defensively for Kyle. I think he's one of the most athletic people in the position in the league. Yeah, very excited about the prospects of him and blocking, throwing, receiving, game-calling - all the things that go into a catcher's job.”
Injury update
The Sox said reliever Prelander Berroa was scheduled to begin an injury rehab assignment Wednesday with the Arizona Complex League White Sox. The right-hander has been recovering after undergoing Tommy John surgery in March 2025. He had a 3.32 ERA in 17 relief appearances with the Sox in 2024.
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This story was originally published May 13, 2026 at 6:43 PM.