Tristan Peters returns to Canada as an All-Star in his breakout season for White Sox

TORONTO — Tristan Peters checked another box off his list this weekend during a stunning breakout season for the White Sox.

In a year of improbable firsts for the rookie anchoring center field, Peters returned to his native Canada this weekend as an All-Star playing his first big-league games north of the border.

The Sox’ series in Toronto isn’t exactly a homecoming for the 26-year-old, whose hometown of Winkler, Manitoba, is about 500 miles closer to Rate Field than it is to the Rogers Centre.

But it means a lot to the rangy, grinding outfielder who has vaulted himself from an offseason afterthought to a stalwart for the White Sox on both sides of the ball.

“This is obviously the country I was born in, and it has a special place in my heart,” said Peters, who played a youth tournament under the retractable roof in Toronto as a high schooler. “I’ve dreamed of playing in this stadium, too.
It’s one of my favorite ballparks.”

“It was a special team when I was growing up and I loved watching them,” Peters said, idolizing the likes of Jose Bautista and Kevin Pillar, whose high-flying defensive prowess helped model a Canadian youngster’s game. “I liked the way he played the outfield,” Peters said.

With plenty of family and friends among a sold-out crowd, Peters went 1-for-4 with a sacrifice fly in the series opener. He also showcased more of the small ball that has helped quickly make him a fan favorite, hustling to advance to second on a routine flyout to right field. And he made a series of plays look easy in center on balls that, in years past, left fans holding their breath while watching a rotating cast filling in for the oft-injured Luis Robert Jr.

Peters nearly made a spectacular leaping catch at the center field wall in the fourth inning of Saturday’s game, but Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s drive fell for a double.

It all came on the heels of Peters’ All-Star Game appearance in Philadelphia, where he used a banana-emblazoned bat in homage to a key stop on his winding route to the majors.

A walking fun fact, Peters’ birthday is Feb. 29, he played college ball at Southern Illinois University, he’s an avid line dancer — and it helped land him a spot with an early iteration of the wildly popular Savannah Bananas.

“Everybody’s been calling me, like, ‘Banana Man’ or something like that, and I felt like I should just embrace it,” he said.

Peters, who hit for the cycle earlier this month, ranks among the top three qualified rookies in batting average (.297), doubles (20) and triples (3). He’s also tagged three homers while posting an .817 OPS that no one saw coming out of spring training.

Like most fans, manager Will Venable knew next to nothing about Peters before the Sox acquired him from Tampa Bay for a proverbial bucket of baseballs.

“Right away, there [were] objectively projections that really liked him against right-handed pitching,” Venable said. “We had high expectations for him, but certainly not this. He’s performing really well defensively, obviously at the plate as well. And he’s great in the clubhouse.”

More importantly, he’s kept up with big-league pitchers who are still trying to find weaknesses to exploit.

“He’s really made adjustments at the plate with our hitting coaches and made adjustments defensively with his pre-pitch and some of the stuff he’s trying to do out there,” Venable said. “He’s obviously having a lot of success, but has made a lot of adjustments and worked really hard to get there.”

The only thing that might’ve seemed more far-fetched than Peters’ All-Star ascent in February might’ve been the idea that the Sox would be sitting in first place in late July. He’ll take more of the same.

“It’s just the same idea as the first half: we’re going to take it a day at a time, not focus on past wins or past losses,” Peters said. “We’ll look to the future as in goals, but we’re going to try to stay present and focus on the game today.”