GLENDALE, Ariz. — Catcher Seby Zavala is something of a survivor, and the way he sees it, he’s the type of scrapper the White Sox need.
“It’s been a weird road,” he said of a three-year major-league career that saw him limited to playing at the Schaumburg training facility in 2020 and surviving an outright off the 40-man roster and clearing waivers last April. “It hasn’t always been easy but this is what we need on this team, we need some grinders, people who are willing to fight every day. I feel like I bring that with the way I play and my attitude I bring on and off the field.”
Zavala is No. 2 on the depth chart behind Yasmani Grandal. If the Sox don’t trade for a catcher before the opener, as they did last year for Reese McGuire, and Zavala breaks camp with the Sox, it will be his first flight with the team for Opening Day.
“It would be awesome,” Zavala said. “I told my wife, if it does happen, I really want you there. It would be special. It would be a great moment for me and my family.”
Manager Pedro Grifol, a former catcher, said Zavala “slows down the game pretty good” and “handles pitchers well and has a good feel for calling a game.”
Pitchers do like throwing to him.
“Seby is tough; he’s a grinder,” right-hander Dylan Cease said. “He’s a hard-nosed player, which is a big thing. He is unselfish in what he does. He’s there to catch, there to block the ball, put you in a good position, and as pitchers we really appreciate that. I love throwing to Seby. We have great options on this team.”
Zavala is one of Lucas Giolito’s best friends on the team, so he might be biased when it comes to assessing him as a catcher, but “having a relationship is a bonus,” Giolito said.
“But Seby is always calm, cool, collected. He likes to develop relationships and understand how each pitcher likes to navigate through a game. He adapts. The qualities you look for in a quality backstop.”
Zavala hit a 400-foot home run Tuesday against the Diamondbacks. He walked and scored on Leury Garcia’s homer against the Rockies on Thursday. Zavala had his best offensive season in 2022, batting .270/.347/.382 with two homers in 61 games. At 1.0, he ranked 12th on the Sox in wins above replacement, per Baseball Reference.
Zavala senses more urgency in the clubhouse this spring after the 81-81 disappointment of a year ago.
“We lacked that attention to detail, urgency last year in spring training and it kind of trickled into the season and we were never able to get it back,” Zavala said. “But this year everybody is real detail-oriented and making sure we do the little things and make sure something like last year doesn’t happen again. We have too many talented people on this team to have a repeat of last year.”
Grifol, the Royals’ bench coach the last three seasons, has offered fresh insights and a point of view of the Sox from the opposite dugout.
“He’s what we need,” Zavala said. “Someone with a sense of urgency. He’s talking about culture. It’s what we need, we need a team. We need everybody on the same side, pulling from the same rope so we can accomplish our goals. If we don’t do that it’s going to be real hard.”
