Thursday, August 28

BOSTON -- If the name Tim Elko is not familiar to White Sox supporters, then they might want to pay closer attention to what he’s doing currently at Triple-A Charlotte.

In fact, the 6-foot-3, 250-pound first baseman has been hitting since joining the White Sox as a 10th-round pick in the 2022 Draft.

“You gotta give credit, and it’s not just offensively,” White Sox director of player development Paul Janish told me this weekend during an interview at Fenway Park. “Tim does a really good job defensively at what can be an overlooked position.

“First base is a pretty important deal, especially when you have young infielders. Honestly, he’s doing exactly what he needs to do right now to keep his name on the front of everybody’s mind.”

Elko is slashing .361/.443/.607 over 17 games in his second season with the Knights. He has knocked out four home runs and three doubles, with 12 RBIs and 11 runs scored.

At 26, Elko is above the unofficial pure prospect age, and you won’t find his name on MLB Pipeline’s White Sox Top 30 Prospects list. But he has value across the field and off the field, according to those who know him.

“Any time you talk about Tim, you have to talk about the makeup and how good of a human he is,” Janish said. “How much he impacts the people around him, players and staff.”

“Timmy’s a great player, fun to watch. Big-time power. Opposite-field power. Good hitter, and it’s not just juice with him,” said Bobby Dalbec, Elko’s teammate at Charlotte before joining the White Sox on Monday. “He has quality at-bats, plays good defense at first, moves a lot better than you think. Gets down the line pretty quick and can run.”

So where do these plaudits leave Elko? It appears in Charlotte for the immediate future.

Andrew Vaughn is ahead of him at first base at the Major League level. Manager Will Venable has not gone with a set designated hitter, which would be another spot possibly fulfilled by Elko, who is not currently on the 40-man roster.

“This game is a little bit of you are a victim of circumstances with regards to opportunities,” Janish said. “He’s waiting for his opportunity. Tim understands that as well as anybody. If and when that opportunity comes, which hopefully it will, we dang sure know he’s going to show up and give us what he’s got. Hopefully, he plays well when he gets that opportunity.”

“He’s got a good head on him,” Dalbec said. “Excited to see what he’s going to do in his career.”

There were no home runs for Elko during Charlotte’s 14-11 loss to Nashville on Sunday, leaving him as one of the few who didn’t go deep, with 13 long balls in total. Colson Montgomery, the No. 4 White Sox prospect, and No. 36 overall, per Pipeline, had one of those home run swings and extended his hitting streak to six games during which he is 9-for-28 with two homers and three RBIs. It’s a major step forward for the shortstop after a rough 4-for-45 open.

“No question, he’s off to a slow start, but this past week, he’s had better swings,” Janish said. “He’s hitting the ball harder on a line. It’s not the start he wanted. He would be very honest with you and tell you the same thing. But it’s a hard game.

“We are going to ask him to have success at the Major League level at some point. These are the kind of things he has to work through. He’s trending in the right direction and hopefully the next month we will see him get hot.” 

The White Sox continue to Minnesota for the second series of this 10-day, 10-game, three-city, three-time zone road trip covering more than 5,300 air miles. But they return to Chicago before the end of April, playing host to the Brewers from April 29 to May 1 and then receiving a visit from the Astros the ensuing weekend. Day games, with a 1:10 p.m. CT start, are scheduled for Thursday, Saturday and Sunday of that homestand.

Vaughn’s locker was next to Liam Hendriks within the home clubhouse at Rate Field when the gregarious closer was with the White Sox from 2021-23. Vaughn was also one of Hendriks’ many staunch and consistent supporters in his fight to eventually beat cancer. 

The duo reunited on Sunday, in a way, with Vaughn homering in the eighth inning of Hendriks’ big league return. It was Hendriks’ first Major League mound appearance in 681 days, after recovering from Tommy John surgery. 

“Just kind of nodded at him, he smiled. It was kind of funny,” Vaughn said. “The journey he has been through is pretty crazy, and it’s good to see him back on the mound.”

Hendriks didn’t have any on-field humorous words for Vaughn after he went deep, although Vaughn purposely tried to tune him out knowing Hendriks can be talkative.

“It was good. 681 days now, but [freaking] Vaughn,” said Hendriks, who last pitched in the Majors for the White Sox on June 9, 2023. “I just missed a fastball to a fastball hitter.”

“We’ve stayed in touch,” Vaughn said. “It’s just so cool to see him back. It’s almost been two years. That’s a long time.” 

• Here is the pregame playlist from the visiting White Sox clubhouse on Saturday: Christopher Cross’ Sailing, Journey with Don't Stop Believin’ (live version), Pat Benatar’s classic Love is a Battlefield, Cheap Trick’s ballad The Flame and Foreigner’s Break It Up. There were also songs from Heart and Men At Work. It was almost as if I designed this Yacht Rock group of songs.

• Run, don’t walk, to visit Table restaurant on Hanover when you are in Boston. I’m biased, as my friend, Jennifer Royle, owns, operates and makes the food at this establishment, but after eating there again Sunday, I can tell you it’s a can’t-miss for high-end food quality and friendly ambiance. 

“I’m not sure we’re thinking about it necessarily as a road win, we’re just hungry for wins. And every win feels good, and every loss is tough. These guys are working extremely hard, they’re competing. They’re playing hard out there. Just happy for them that they got a good result today.” -- Venable after his team ended an 0-8 road start to the season with an 8-4 win Sunday.

To subscribe to White Sox Beat, visit this page and mark "White Sox Beat" from our newsletter list. Make sure you're following the White Sox or that they're checked as your favorite team.

View Online

© 2025 MLB Advanced Media, L.P. MLB trademarks and copyrights are used with permission of Major League Baseball. Visit MLB.com. Any other marks used herein are trademarks of their respective owners.

Please review our Privacy Policy.

You (mlb-newsletters@mlb.com) received this message because you registered to receive commercial email messages or purchased a ticket from MLB. 

Please add info@marketing.mlbemail.com to your address book to ensure our messages reach your inbox. If you no longer wish to receive commercial email messages from MLB.com, please unsubscribe or log in and manage your email subscriptions.

Postal Address: MLB.com, c/o MLB Advanced Media, L.P., 1271 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.