Sisson, White Sox 'not giving up' on Lenyn Sosa

BALTIMORE — That infielder Lenyn Sosa came up through the White Sox farm system and is struggling with fundamental elements of fielding is not lost on interim bench coach Doug Sisson.

“It's on us,” Sisson told the Sun-Times. “He came through our system and I’m in charge of it. I take it personally. This is stuff that shouldn’t be happening at this point in his career, so we have to keep pounding on it.”

Playing primarily second base and third base for the Sox, Sosa, 24, has mishandled throws from the outfield and hasn’t always been crisp starting potential double-play ground balls. He has miscommunicated with outfielders on fly balls and with infielders on grounders.

Sisson, who began his seventh season as Sox field coordinator on the player development staff, joined the coaching staff when Pedro Grifol and three coaches were fired Aug. 8. He said Sosa has been taught these things “countless times.”

“I’m not big on talking. It’s drilling, it’s working on things,” Sisson said. “Can’t give up on him. Not going to give up on him. We got to clean it up, though. We have to tighten up his game."

Sosa has appeared in 78 games, which ranks seventh on the team.

“No excuses," Sisson said. "It’s not ‘a different level, the game is going too fast, the game is speeding up on him.’ There’s no giving up. I want the kid to be a good player for us.”

The Sox view Sosa as a versatile infielder with pop in his bat. But he’s batting .214/.247/.292 with 11 homers in 494 plate appearances over parts of three seasons and is a minus-1.8 wins above replacement player this season, per Baseball Reference. His career minor league hitting line (.279/.321/.435) is significantly better.

In a game against the Rangers last week, Sosa wasn’t looking when catcher Chuckie Robinson’s warmup through struck him in the face, a scene that invariably will last as one snapshot of this season that has seen the Sox enter Tuesday’s game against the Orioles with a 31-108 record. Sosa was momentarily dazed, but was lucky to avoid injury.