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.”