The White Sox finally stop pretending with Yonder Alonso

The White Sox pulled the plug on Yonder Alonso just as his bad start officially crossed the line into a bad season. There’s no getting out from under a half of .178/.275/.301 as a first baseman/DH unless Albert Belle’s 1998 second half is waiting in the wings, and with his contact quality moving in the wrong direction and his speed and spray charts also working against him, bad luck could finally be thrown out, too.

The White Sox could have picked slightly better timing. Word leaked that the Sox were designating him for assignment a couple hours after the team issued a press release reminding the media about his charity bowling event.

But then again, bad timing is somewhat fitting for his exit, because the Alonso trade was destined for the bad idea bin as soon as Manny Machado signed with the San Diego Padres for $50 million more than the White Sox were willing to guarantee.

Alonso never made sense for the White Sox as a talent. Yes, they could’ve used a left-handed hitter with a good idea of the strike zone, but they didn’t need to block off their DH spot so early in the offseason while helping a cash-strapped division rival shed a salary it didn’t want. Judging it only as a baseball decision, it had the kind of low ceiling and low future value that the White Sox said they weren’t interested in when it came to upgrading their pitching staff beyond Iván Nova.

I disliked the move even more at the time, as it reminded me a little too much of the Adam LaRoche signing.

Maybe it’s just me, but I’ve learned to cringe when the White Sox pick up somebody who had more homers than doubles the year before. It’s one thing when Dunn did it, because he averaged 40 homers from 2004-10. It’s less impressive when the homer total starts with a “2.” That caught my eye when the Sox signed LaRoche, and Alonso’s in the same situation:

*LaRoche, 2014: 26 homers, 19 doubles over 586 PA
*Alonso, 2018: 23 homers, 19 doubles over 574 PA

Basically, it seems unsound to save the DH job for a guy who has never topped 50 extra-base hits in a season, especially when it helps out a division rival’s payroll in the process.

If that comparison came up short, it was only because Alonso hit worse than LaRoche did.

  • LaRoche, 2015: .207/.293/.340, 78 OPS+, -0.8 bWAR
  • Alonso, 2019: .178/275/.301, 56 OPS+, -1.0 bWAR

Otherwise, it’s a pretty good fit, even down to family ties biting them in the ass.

Rick Hahn put himself in a difficult position when he traded for Alonso. Everybody immediately connected the dots and said the Sox didn’t trade for “Yonder Alonso” as much as they traded for “Manny Machado’s brother-in-law,” but Hahn couldn’t admit that without coming off as disingenuous to Machado and low-rent to everybody.

In order to thread this needle, Hahn had to really stress the talent, then pray that Machado signed with the Sox. And hey, had Jerry Reinsdorf committed to Machado, the end would have justified Hahn’s approach to the offseason. It backfired instead. Reinsdorf didn’t play ball, and the talent Hahn stressed with Alonso turned out to be nonexistent, leaving everybody with yet another acquisition to add to the pile of disasters that define Hahn’s career.

At least the White Sox are making the right decision to move on. The writing was on the wall since the Sox cut Alonso’s playing time in June and his bat failed to respond (4-for-32, all singles). Charlotte is making all hitters look better than they are — see this morning’s Minor Keys regarding Adam Engel — but between Zack Collins and Daniel Palka, they have two more productive uses of those DH at-bats. Welington Castillo may only require the use of one of them if he’s ready to return. I’ll update this post when the White Sox officially announce how they’re going to make it all happen.

Hopefully the White Sox are done with rushing toward low-impact first basemen to clog their DH spot, and hopefully Hahn won’t again design his entire offseason around Reinsdorf setting the market, because Lucy will just keep pulling that football. If there’s anything for us to learn, we now know that the presence of a charity event on a calendar can be ignored when it comes to the timing of a DFA. Given the woeful track record of the White Sox’ pro scouting department, it’s a lesson that stands a non-negligible chance of resurfacing.

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KenWo4LiFe

If only the white Sox decided to rid the Indians of Edwin encarnacion’s contract instead.

Josh Nelson

Palka Party Time

NDSox12

I can’t wait for the first time we see an outfield alignment of Jimenez – Tilson – Palka. That should be highly entertaining.

Right Size Wrong Shape

In Little League during the last regular season game out coach let everybody pick a position to play that they had never played before. It was a disaster. I imagine it looking something like that.

DougWW

Agree. 3 Ralph Garr’s?

PauliePaulie

Entertaining
I do not think it means what you think it means.

Lurker Laura

Why Palka, who will take away at-bats from Collins, instead of Mendick? Is it just 40-man roster concerns?

Lurker Laura

Right. I admit to not really keeping track of such things.

Once again, I wish for Dr. Frankenstein-like powers, so I could meld Palka’s home runs with Adam Engel’s defense. Such a creature still wouldn’t get on base much, but would be highly entertaining.

Patrick Nolan

I think Palka and Collins can co-exist, because nominally Palka is a right fielder as well, and the White Sox currently don’t have a viable right fielder if Garcia shifts to short.

melidoperez

So infielders are dropping like flies, they have an infielder they actually need to evaluate in a somewhat sane environment (Mendick), and the answer is to call up a corner bat AAAA outfielder who only hits scrubs. Really just have to tip my cap at this sustained effort by the org to make me feel personally trolled.

Tavarin

I’d rather have Palka as a bench bat and let Mendick actually get playing time in AAA frankly.

Lurker Laura

See Jim’s comment, that TA’s spot, when he goes on the IL, remains unfilled.

Now, if they bring up Escobar instead of Mendick, they’re definitely trolling.

Tavarin

Anderson went on the IL today and they called up Detwiler, so unless they are going to drop down to 12 pitchers there isn’t a spot for Mendick.

Willardmarshall

I’ll go to my grave with the Machado affair still lodged in my craw….

Patrick Nolan

Can’t wait for the day when the bag-over-the-head feature image becomes a seldom-used one. That day is coming…right?

MrStealYoBase

I came to the comment section to say exactly that.

It’s gotten some significant mileage.

35Shields

leaving everybody with yet another acquisition to add to the pile of disasters that define Hahn’s career.

I’m sorry, Jim. You must be mistaken. Hahn’s career is defined by a pile of disasters caused by Kenny Williams. After all, all bad moves were actually made by Kenny. Since Alonso was a bad one, it must have been Kenny.

tommytwonines

leaving everybody with yet another acquisition to add to the pile of disasters that define Hahn’s career.

Why you guys can’t get a press pass for Soxfest, I’ll never know. 

Patrick Nolan

Wonder when Hahn’s coming back on the podcast, haha.

Kidding aside, even the hype train blogs were being denied passes.

PauliePaulie

“low-impact first baseman to clog their DH spot”
I’ll be thinking of that when Jose gets his 3 year extension.

roke1960

Yesterday, Josh put up a list of uninspiring names of 1st basemen who will be free agents next year. And many of you have said that the Sox can do much better than Abreu until Vaughn comes up. So I would like to know who you have in mind to replace him. If there is someone better, who is it? Just to say we can do better than Jose isn’t enough. We need some names.

Neat_on_the_rocks

Yes, exactly this. For anybody who thinks Jose would be a waste of money, I’d love to know who we can get next year that will be notably better than him. The options are very bad. One can believe that Abreu is over valued or what have you all they want, thats fine. But if you let him go and your only replacements are Palka or Collins. Well, thats not really ideal.

lil jimmy

and here’s the second part.
It’s not like picking the bunch of bananas you like. You have to pay more than anyone else that might also like the same bunch of bananas.

As Cirensica

Encarnacion, JD Martinez, probably Nelson Cruz (whom I predicted in my off season plan to be better sign than Abreu, and voila!)

As Cirensica

My list above assumes Eloy will man 1B. Or Collins.

roke1960

Those guys can fill the DH spot well. I don’t think Eloy is an option at 1st. Collins might be.

MrTopaz

There’s really no reason to question the wisdom of “1st base is the easiest to get adequate production out of,” but it’s remarkable how some teams (the Red Sox, Yankees and Rockies spring to mind) seem to spend years cycling through sub-cromulent options before lucking into a guy who’s adequate. I don’t want to cripple the Sox with a José extension, but I’d love it if he stuck around.

egib52

Cripple the Sox with his extension? They just saved $30 million +, by mailing in free agency.

lil jimmy

Castillo, Jay, Jones, Nova, Yonder. That’s 35 million plus.

egib52

Yet we still only rank 25th in baseball in a major market. Plus Jay, Yonder and possibly Castillo won’t be on the books next year.

MrTopaz

Well, these are all reasons the Sox should be able to sign him, then.

PauliePaulie

I think only one person advocated moving on from Abreu after this season. I said offer him 1/$10mil.
If he turns it down, Palka can give you a sub .300OBP, bad defense and 30HR’s for 1/20th the $.
There is a big difference,imo, between that and the 2 or three years some wanted to give Jose.

roke1960

No, Palka would give you defense worse than his rf defense. And that’s horrific. I’d be fine with 1/$10M with a team option for 2021 just in case Vaughn is not ready. I way over-estimated his value yesterday when I said 2/$33M. But knowing Jerry’s loyalty, he’ll probably give him that.

mikeyb

Jose Abreu is arguably one of the 5 worst defensive first basement in baseball.

lil jimmy

yep 10 mil. for three years. Take it or leave it.

David

Say farewell to the fabled Yo-Yo-Yo lineup.  ?

MrTopaz

Not if the Sox sign Yoelkis!

lil jimmy

or sign and rush Yolbert Sanchez

MrTopaz

It’s good to have options.

Steve

Shoot… I was hoping to finish my “When does Yonder Alonso’s option vest?” app before he went away.

rotofool

Cmon fellas, to decide the SOX should offer Abreu only a $10M take it or leave it contract ignores the fact that baseball is entertainment; the SOX derive PROFIT ($160M last year) from putting on entertainment; Abreu is one of their best entertainers; Abreu has contributed enough as a main attraction as to have earned a greater slice of that entertainment profit; the extra $10M Abreu deserves will go into Reinsdorf’s pocket unless he’s properly compensated for the entertainment he’s given us over the years; and it will be our suffering asses with a worse hitting and less entertaining club in Abreu’s absence.

Stop being company men and pay the guy.