By Dom DalDegan | November 15, 2022

Grandal warming up | Photo taken by me | Sony A7III | Tamron 70-300mm

The White Sox rebuild was built on a strong foundation headed into the 2019 offseason. Then they started a grease fire. The front office has been throwing water at it ever since.

The fire started when they neglected to make any serious offer to superstar Bryce Harper in an opportunistic 2019 offseason. The White Sox had plenty of money to spend while large-market teams were not looking to spend big. Yet, the White Sox sat on their hands and missed a golden opportunity.

Did you know that Bryce Harper is a left-handed right fielder? Oh, the heartache the front office could have saved White Sox fans with just that one signing! You would be better off not looking up right fielders for the Sox since that disaster of an offseason, as you can make the case that the most qualified person to play right field among that long, curled up list is probably Adam Engel.

Rather than addressing their weaknesses, they have neglected them for far too long. Instead of answering the team’s many problems, they have proceeded to spend an inordinate amount of money on the bullpen, acquiring endless relievers who have proven to be overpaid. To say the least, the White Sox have not done a great job of improving the roster.

If the White Sox hope to compete again, they need to finally address these needs heading into the 2023 regular season. 

Outfield Defense

Your eyes are not deceiving you, the White Sox were absolutely dreadful in the outfield in 2022. This was in large part due to depth.

Throughout the season, the White Sox continuously put first baseman Andrew Vaughn out in right field and hoped for the best. They even put A.J. Pollock in right field on opening day, who had played less than 1% of his games for his career at that position. Sure, both of these players will be out of the outfield picture in 2023, but the point remains that the Sox should acquire more qualified players who can patrol the outfield this time around. 

According to Baseball Savant, White Sox outfielders were -21 in OAA (Outs Above Average) with an out of position Andrew Vaughn accumulating most of that negative statistic to no fault of his own. The Sox were looking for gold glove center fielder Luis Robert to bail out the weak corner outfield the front office had built, but that did not work out. Without the ability to play Vaughn and Pollock out of position full-time, general manager Rick Hahn will finally have to do something about right field.

By the way, who is playing left field? Eloy Jiménez?

If you are being optimistic, the front office has a clean slate to work with. It is time to finally address the outfield. 

Offensive Output Against Right-Handed Pitching

Whenever the White Sox square off against the Guardians’ right-handed dominant pitching staff, I always get a sinking feeling of doom as I prepare for the Guardians to strike out at least ten Sox hitters. Facing the Royals’ mediocre but predominantly right-handed pitching staff also gives the Sox lots of trouble. These are divisional opponents we cannot afford to be so noncompetitive against, as we finished with a record of 16-22 against both clubs this past season. 

To combat right-handers, the White Sox were banking on the switch hitting Moncada and Grandal to come through. While it does not help that both players had woeful seasons, it would be nice to not solely rely on switch hitters to do damage against right handed pitching. While good switch hitters do exist, somebody like José Ramírez is a generational talent. It would be a safer bet if we had at least one other true left-handed hitter we can depend on other than Gavin Sheets. 

Sheets taking a swing | Photo taken by me | Sony A7III | Tamron 70-300mm

Overall, the White Sox slashed .251/.303/.375 to make up an OPS of .678 against right-handed pitching to rank 23rd in all of baseball only ahead of bottom-dwelling teams. The team had nearly a 4:1 strikeout to walk ratio in this department as well. We are in desperate need of some left-handed help to try and balance the lineup. 

Power

The White Sox need to figure out an answer to their power outage in 2022. The 2021 White Sox managed to slug at a .422 clip which was good enough to win the AL Central. In 2022, nobody on the roster reached twenty home runs which is bizarre considering the team’s positive outlook before the season started. Only the Marlins, Tigers, and Reds (none of which are playoff teams) joined the White Sox in this category. This led to a poor .387 slugging percentage which was only good for a .500 win-loss record.  However, a healthy Eloy Jiménez will boost these totals if he can stay on the field, as he was on a 162 game pace to hit thirty home runs. 

Eloy in the box | Photo taken by me | Sony A7III | Tamron 70-300mm

While improving the team via free agency or trade could help home run output, perhaps a change in philosophy from within can create a greater difference across the board. New White Sox manager Pedro Grifol has already suggested a more patient hitting approach in his introductory press conference by stating that he would like to see Moncada draw eighty walks again like he did in 2021. Perhaps being more selective will allow the White Sox to drive more hittable pitches.  Here’s to hoping that the new coaching staff can make a difference.