CHICAGO -- It has been a few weeks short of four months since Anderson Comás, a Minor League pitcher in the White Sox organization, announced on his personal Instagram account that he is gay.

Aside from some upbeat Instagram stories along the way, Comás, 23, has not spoken of the decision. That is, until Friday via Zoom from Arizona.

“I just felt like now is the right time,” Comás said. “Now is when I feel good with myself. Now I accept myself. I love myself enough to tell people and feel great about it. 

“At first I was afraid to say it, for people to know about me. Now, I feel strong enough to say it to people without caring what they say about me."

Comás became the second player in affiliated baseball to come out while active, with Milwaukee's David Denson doing so in 2015. After playing parts of four Minor League seasons as a left-handed outfielder, Comás was switched to the mound prior to last season.

He struck out 13 over 11 1/3 innings for the Arizona White Sox, walking 11 with a 6.35 ERA. A native of San Cristobal in the Dominican Republic, Comás signed with the White Sox as an amateur free agent in 2016.

His Friday Zoom took place shortly after he pitched during extended Spring Training, with Comás happy about his pitches and adjustments made despite the team losing. He wore a T-shirt with the word “Human” in rainbow colors across it, adding below the shirt on his Instagram story in Spanish, “Un simple humano con un gran corazon que es lo que realmente importa.”

Translation: A simple human with a big heart is what really matters.

“I wanted to help people out there,” said Comás of his original decision to come out. “Those people who don’t feel like they have the support, even [of] their family. I wanted to open that door for those people [who] are fighting for their dreams. I feel like they cannot do it because of people’s opinions, so I wanted to share a little bit to help, to open that door and inspire all of them to keep fighting.

“It’s still a little bit hard for us to be out there visible in the public area because of people’s judgment. Just because they don’t understand things, they judge you, they say, like, not the right words about us. I wanted to be that voice for those people out there.”

Some of Comás’ teammates already knew, so nothing has changed, according to the pitcher. Erin Santana, the White Sox manager of international player development/education, was the first person he told in the organization, and Comás said she was very supportive.

“She’s like our mom here, the mom of Latinos here,” Comás said. “I was really comfortable with her, and I told her about that even before the coming out. I told her, ‘I know I’m going to do this. What do you think?’ 

“And she loved it. So, I shared my story with her first because I was really comfortable with her, and then I did the coming out.”

After Comás' Instagram statement, he received countless DMs from people who were “still in the closet,” according to Comás.

“They were happy I did that. They were feeling better about it,” Comás said. “They were happy to see people out there for them to feel better about themselves. It made me feel like I did a good thing.”

As for that negative attention or responses, Comás smiled and reiterated he doesn’t pay attention to such things.

“For me, it's not that hard because I've been on social media and I know how people react, and I know that people just have comments. But that doesn't define you,” Comás said. “I don't even read those people that are saying those bad messages.

“That is not me. I don't lose my time checking those messages or answering them. I just answer the good ones and send messages to the people who send good messages and good vibes. I don't pay attention to those messages. That's the right way, I think."