Sunday, December 07

CHICAGO -- Austin Slater will look different when he takes the field for the White Sox during the next homestand beginning on the night of June 2, as the outfielder’s mustache will be gone.

“No, I won’t keep it past May,” a smiling Slater recently told MLB.com. “My wife hates it.”

Slater’s mustache growth, in part, was done “to kind of get the juju switched up for a little bit,” according to the veteran, as well as taking your mind off baseball and creating a little camaraderie. The process began in 2019 with Mike Yastrzemski when they were both in Triple-A Sacramento as part of the Giants' organization and they’ve carried it through to the big leagues, but now with a more specific purpose beyond baseball.

Mustache May is intended to raise awareness and money for mental health and treatment plans and programs, with a specific Slater focus on The Road Home Program, as illustrated and explained on mustachemay.com. Brendan Donovan, Austin Wynns, Adam Frazier and Trey Mancini are fellow Major Leaguers part of Team Stache, according to the website.

“It timed up that Mustache May was the start of it and May is also Mental Health Awareness month,” Slater said. “This also resonated with me having had former teammates that have attempted suicide.

“We are trying to shed some light that everyone is going through struggles, whether it be baseball players or regular people too. So just to end the stigma of being able to talk about it and talk about it with the people that you are close with, then try to share some of the burden.”

Drew Robinson is one of those teammates Slater mentioned above, and his story has been well documented. Robinson attempted suicide with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head on April 16, 2020. He survived and now does work through his Better Universe Foundation.

As Yogi Berra once famously said, “Baseball is 90 percent mental. The other half is physical.” The mental part often separates the good players from the great players, regardless of the raw talent. But that mental aspect has a different look for everyone in 2025.

“It’s a constant struggle and it’s something you have to keep working on all the time, especially in the day of social media, where people can hide behind computer screens and try to send hateful things to other people,” Slater said. “That’s another level of, another whole component, which drains players. Makes it even harder to compete and perform at this level.

“Every player that’s in the league right now has gotten some form of that. It’s unfortunate. You expect it in the stands, but when people are trying to message your family or tell you to go kill yourself, or things like that, because they think there are no repercussions, it’s just disgusting. Anyone who says that it doesn’t is probably lying to themselves.”

Even though Slater will be without the mustache in a few days, he encourages people to “care for your homies” because “even the strong have off days,” as the mustachemay.com website states. It’s more than facial hair. It’s more than baseball.

Catcher Kyle Teel, the No. 2 White Sox prospect and No. 28 overall, according to MLB Pipeline, was named International League Player of the Week for Triple-A Charlotte. The left-handed hitter slashed .500/.636/1.188 with two doubles, three home runs, six walks, six RBIs, seven runs scored and a 1.824 OPS over five games vs. Triple-A Round Rock from May 20-25.

Teel is gaining great benefits from catching regularly for the Knights. He also is forcing the issue toward the White Sox, hitting .293 with an .887 OPS to go with seven homers, eight doubles, 27 RBIs and 29 runs scored.

“That [catching] position is very tough,” director of player development Paul Janish told MLB.com of Teel this past weekend. “To transition to the Major League level, there’s a lot of information and nuance that goes along.

“In terms of the skill set, he’s continuing to improve framing, and he can really throw. Pitchers are going to know he has their backs.”

Teel recently talked to MLB.com in Charlotte about managing the expected rollercoaster with the bat, raising the lows and slightly lowering the highs for consistency throughout the season. He’s working hard to pick up information wherever he can concerning the catcher’s position.

Those facts, coupled with his high-level talent, make it easy for Janish to rave about the 23-year-old.

“I give him a hard time when I see him because he has some goofy mannerisms, but what has really stuck out is the way he endears himself to both staff and teammates. It’s the same every day,” Janish said. “What’s really continued to stick out is the competitor which is selfishly for me, and we value.

“You watch him take an at-bat, and he’s locked in. You watch him catch a side at 2 o’clock before the game starts for the 6 or 7 minutes that takes, he’s completely locked in with the pitcher.”

• We were getting off the elevator Sunday when Southpaw, the White Sox mascot soon to turn 21, stepped out, shook hands with Sox Machine’s James Fegan and then walked away. By the time we got to the pressbox one minute later, Southpaw was on the field with kids running the bases. Either Southpaw’s sprint speed is outstanding, or there are at least two Southpaws.

• Happy birthday to my good friend, Maria, who has been celebrating all May, but officially had her big day on Monday. I will not reveal her actual age, although she looks as young as she did when we met 17 years ago.

• Speaking of birthdays, I have just under 300 days until I reach a special milestone in my life. Any suggestions for exciting things I should add to my bucket list over the next 10 months?

“He's so fun to work with, and he's smart. You show him a couple of things, like, ‘Here's where you're late, here's where you're on time, this helps the bat path work when you're on time.’ And it's OK, ‘Got it, go. Let's go work on it.’ So yeah, he's fantastic.” -- Director of hitting Ryan Fuller, on Luis Robert Jr.

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