Perhaps the next time the White Sox have the opportunity to acquire more bats than spots, they should indulge themselves. It turns out that bypassing on fortune doesn’t immunize one from misfortune.
Case in point: Eloy Jiménez is out for five to six months after rupturing his left pectoral tendon on a home-run robbery attempt that is now more ill-fated than awkward.
There are no decent options, especially on a roster where Adam Engel is already injured. Engel was supposed to be the right-handed supplement to Adam Eaton in right field, with Leury García assuming that responsibility after Engel strained his hamstring.
Outside of García, the White Sox’s first idea is to try Andrew Vaughn in left field, which will put a position he’s never played on top of his already immense responsibilities of holding his own as an MLB hitter despite no standard experience above A-ball.
The one advantage of Vaughn playing left — or at least standing in left — is that maybe Zack Collins will be able to prove whether his improved spring is legit. Otherwise, Hahn said he’ll also be monitoring external candidates. Mike Tauchman, crowded out of the Yankees outfield after a disappointing 2020, is one who might actually have some upside.
The depth-free White Sox for your review.
@#$&%!!!!
Too late for Cespedes or Puig? The former is more DH-like at this stage and Puig has the sexual assault allegation…
Cespedes should jump at the opportunity to start regularly and show that he can still play.
This feels very White Sox. What a gut punch. That single ply roster is already looking like swiss cheese.
“Single Ply roster”
hahaha great line
Credit goes to Jim, he got it stuck in my head because of how true it is.
Probably the most annoying thing in my lifetime of being a whitesox fan is the franchises continued BLIND SPOTS on overwhelmingly obvious things. Everyone knew this team lacked depth and they stopped spending at 130 million which is a joke number and everyone knew Eloy would hurt himself in left…. oh well.
Can bitch and moan til the cows come home it is what it is.
Moving forward I would like to see vs right hand pitching Collins DH, Vaughn LF, vs left hand pitching Vaughn DH and Garcia/Engel (once healthy) in LF. Obviously late in games we are leading Garcia or Engel will come in defensively for Vaughn.
I prefer they not sign anyone off the scrap heap, let the season play out a bit and maybe if the situation is bad enough resources via dollars and players can be spent in a trade at the deadline to address left field.
If your reference to blind spot meant an eventual DL stint for Eloy I couldn’t agree more. One could argue that 5 credible outfielders should be enough to get thru the early portion of the season, but with Eloy & Eaton being injury risks having one more solid option should have been obvious. Like you, I’d like to just get Engel back and see how this goes. I fully believe a mid-season acquisition will be required. Eloy is a defensive liability in LF. He’s a danger to Timmy & Luis. His future is DH or a trade. Sad, but the Sox have to face reality.
I don’t know whether to consider this “Plan B” or “Plan C”, but the fact that they’ve descended to “play the rookie in a brand new position” before opening day is even here should validate the depth concerns many of us have had for months.
Maybe Eloy makes a Schwarber-like return in the playoffs but the odds of them even getting to that point just took a major hit.
Yes but when you think about the alternatives…paying a corner outfielder centerfield money? Maybe getting stuck paying for a couple of years in which a guy on a multi-year contract isn’t producing enough to justify his salary? Oh who am I kidding…now I really wish we had signed George Springer.
Not even Springer. Schwarber, Pederson, Rosario, or Brantley would have made this infinitely easier to stomach
Pederson wants to be an everyday player. He’s a platoon corner bat AT BEST. Schwarber is even more of a DH than Eloy and Brantley signed for 15 Million Per year. Maybe Rosario would have been a decent pickup for cheap but he compounded the no walk all swing lineup.
Pederson is better than any on-roster OF the White Sox have excepting Eloy and Luis. He would have made tons of sense before Eloy got injured and would be a godsend now.
Schwarber’s a DH? Great. We don’t have one of those either. The Sox could have signed him to DH (with Vaughn taking the LHP at-bats) and then in the incredibly likely case that one of their corner OFs gets hurts, they could have shifted him there. And his defense in LF isn’t even that bad – he’s a -3 DRS/150 or a 5.3 UZR/150. That’s quite a bit better than Eloy (-13 DRS/150 or -7.3 UZR/150). They’re basically tied in OAA at ‘very bad’ (-15 in the last two years).
I’d literally put Eaton and Engel as better OFs than Pederson. He’s literally a free out against LHP and as you said is Eloy 2.0 in the Field.
And we have way too many DHs. Abroo, Grandal, Collins, Yermin and Vaughn are all jostling for a position that might end up being Eloy’s spot anyway.
How much does the team pay for posting these types of takes and how do I sign up for that program?
Pederson literally says he wants to play everyday and said he signed with the Cubs because they promised him that. You want to put up a .570 OPS hitter against lefties from a Corner bat who can’t field, go ahead.
The Sox could have promised Pederson everyday playing time if they weren’t so committed to giving the rookie with 0 ABs above A-ball an unobstructed path to an opening day lineup spot. You know, the guy they only have to pay the major league minimum salary (although I’m sure that’s completely irrelevant information).
And I don’t know if you watched the team last year, but the rest of the guys on the roster are pretty good at hitting LHP *when healthy. I’m sure they could have weathered a couple of months placating Pederson and seeing if he can improve against LHP before playing the matchups more.
Vaughn literally has zero to do with any of this. He’s not even needed. What unobstructed path are you talking about? You think they were gonna bench Eloy and play Vaughn in LF?
Pederson is a 7 year veteran. He can’t hit LHP. He’s one dimensional.
I am definitely in the camp that the Sox should have signed an outfielder over the winter.
However, I would not have been in favor of signing Joc Pederson if it was based on promising to play him everyday. He has a 0.576 ops against lefties in 385 career plate appearances. I think your suggestion to spend “a couple of months placating Pederson and seeing if he can improve against LHP” would have been a regrettable plan.
I don’t know what to say. That’s just an absolutely insane position to hold. Since 2018,
This isn’t particularly close.
The first two already have other positions. Collins is barely a baseball player. Yermin is probably also bad (although PECOTA at least likes him). Vaughn last saw competitive pitching 1.5 years ago in A-ball. If that seems like “sorry there’s no room at the DH inn” to you, then, man, I just don’t know what to tell you.
If you want to rely on Vaughn, fine. But we should at least acknowledge the risk and the value that having a solid lefty hitter to limit his exposure to RHPs would provide (no Zack Collins does not in any material way count as such a lefty hitter).
Edit:
Yes, because past WAR is the only way to judge what a player is gonna do.
“But their wRC+!”
Completely inflated by platooning. If they were everyday hitters they would be much lower. They can’t field so all their value is in their bat.
If it was only RHP and I had to choose only 1 RF to play everyday? Yeah I would pick Pederson. But a normal season and I had a choice between Joc and a platoon of Eaton+Engel, I’d take the second option everytime.
Absolutely no way. The only Defensive metric that likes him is UZR. DRS, OOA and FRAA all list him as a below average fielder at best, a bottom 10% fielder at worst.
Judging this by what? You saw a bunch sporadic 120 innings from Collins and he’s done? Absolutely unfair to him. Both him and Yermin mashed at AAA. They’re both mashing in ST this year. They deserve their shot. There should be no talk about moving up Vaughn. He’s not in a premium position that needs filling.
I don’t quite get the “Sox need to aquire more bats than spots” rationale. Even if they were willing to spend the money, the proven major leaguers available want to play everyday, not just in case of injuries (see Joc P).
They don’t have depth in the OF because their drafting/farm system has failed.
The only reason those everyday at-bats “aren’t available” is because they decided that the rookie with zero plate appearances above A-ball was worthy of a lineup spot without competition months ago.
They could have promised everyday playing time. They could have delivered it. Vaughn would have been the break-in-case-of-injury replacement.
Agreed, the decision to leave Vaughn in AA or AAA would have been a lot easier to justify if they had MLB talent. to the extent they even need to justify it. I’m all about the Vaughn hype train, but this is hardly the same as Kris Bryant or Jarred Kelenic. Dude has only ever faced high-A and ST pitching. It made perfect sense to sign another cromulent OF bat when we had the chance.
Correct. Vaughn didn’t need a place carved out for him on Opening Day.
Until Eloy got hurt I really thought Lucroy was 2nd Catcher and Collins would be the DH. Vaughn would start in the minors. Hue and cry would ensue about service time manipulation. You’re more plugged in than me but I really didn’t think Vaughn had a place “carved out for him”. HE DOES NOW!!!!
Vaughn doesn’t need a spot right now. 1B/DH is the most logjammed position on the roster.
How does that address the outfield problem? Would Nelson Cruz have fixed it?
It’s easy to get upset or say the Sox should have prepared better or signed this guy or whomever. The fact is they’ve had two significant injuries to the OF including of of their best players. No team except for maybe the Dodgers could withstand these injuries so close to opening day and not be seriously impacted. As I said yesterday, the problem is the lack of player development with no solid candidates in the pipeline who could step up.
No one asked them to spend like the Dodgers, just fill the holes or we end up where we were in 2015, a great core that can’t reach the playoffs. Is that too much to ask for when it was repeatedly promised to us in 2017, 2018 and 2019 and 2020?
From Jerry Reinsdorf? Yes.
Ok, Asinwerck, we should know better than to say, “Show me the money!”
Can we ask Jerry to show us the deposit slip?
I could at least dream of that being put into my checking account and then I wouldn’t care who played in left or right field either.
I mean, Adam Engel is only a good OF if you 1) platoon him and 2) look at his stats page so fast that you can only see ‘2020 wOBA’ and nothing else.
It sucks that he’s injured and he’s had an encouraging spring, but he’s a lifetime .270 wOBA player who’s sported a .281 xwOBA and 71 DRC+ over his two ‘good’ seasons.
Would the White Sox be better with him? Absolutely. Would I be interested to see if he can prove 2020 and this year’s ST wasn’t a fluke? Totally. Would any good team be hobbled by his loss? No.
The White Sox make 800,000 dollars per game in television revenue according to analysis done by fangraphs. That number is the third best in baseball.
There was plenty of money there to build more depth Jerry just prefers to pocket it.
I think when you adjust for revenue he is the cheapest owner in all of baseball, he even has Nutting beat
I get tired of people trotting out this Dodger money line when the Sox have money
TV revenue isn’t the only revenue generator for teams. In-game revenue (Tickets, Concessions) are 40% of team’s revenue. The White Sox are usually bottom of the league in attendance.
According to Forbes, The White Sox are 20th in revenue:
https://www.forbes.com/mlb-valuations/list/#header:revenue_sortreverse:true
Forbes doesn’t give any methodology for those numbers, so it tough to break them down.
Color me skeptical we are behind the Brewers in revenue given the the massive gap between our tv contract and their tv contract.
Furthermore, any attendance issue falls on Jerry’s lap. The year after the sox won the World series the organization was top five in attendance. People will show up for good product.
You know you’re an eternal optimist when your first response to this post is, “what a hell of a thing it would be if Vaughn turned into a decent LF!”
This is really sad. I am sad.
I really wish we had signed Harper.
ugh.
dammit! Eloy is my daughter’s favorite player (because of his red batting gloves). She was looking forward to opening day and seeing him play. Jerk.
Same. My 5 year old loved watching Eloy. Those gloves were a hit.
He’s an idiot
The Yankees are looking for a reliever for Michael Tauchman. Zack Burdi throws very hard and has many years of control remaining (alongside his propensity to get hit very hard). Tauchman would offer good OBP skills from the left side, and can credibly play corner OF. He would have been good for this roster even before Eloy’s injury, and he makes more sense now.
I don’t hate the idea. Don’t know if Tauchman will repeat his 2019 exploits or his Spring will carry into the regular season but his glove is good. I doubt the Yankees will trade him for Burdi alone. Most likely its gonna be Leury in left.
I’m guessing the Yankees would probably be looking for a reliever who is actually good!
Of course, but you could squint and see the value in Burdi. Tauchman is out of options and has no place on that roster, so they don’t have a lot of time to act.
According to Gameday, Cease had a walk followed by four straight line drives in the 2nd and only gave up 1 run.
Madrigal had a swinging strikeout. They’re out of sorts!
Watching the game, it’s not as bad as it looks. All very soft liners. Madrigal made a beautiful jumping catch to catch a Nicky Delmonica jammed liner (I expect if TA was there he gets a glove on it standing lol)
On the webcast of the game, Chuck Garfien just went there and talked about how Eloy’s return will be like a great late season acquisition. Everybody saw that take coming.
I should have known that the only thing worse than this injury would be the team’s response to it.
“Have the rookie learn a brand new position” and “well now we won’t need to add at the trade deadline” prove that this team is literally impossible to parody.
Eloy is the new Rodón!
Oh, God.
White Sox state run media always at the ready. Baghdad Bob is impressed.
The White Sox are actually going to wish they still have Nomar Mazara…
Probably not.
Wait until you see at bats by Hamilton/Gonzalez and Cia.
I posted this on another forum:
The ongoing debate seems to be more about having Eloy play LF than about OF depth. If Petersen had accepted the Sox $10M to be a platoon OF then Eloy would still be the starting LF. It is very rare that a young player on his first contract enthusiastically accepts the DH role. When I first read about the injury I thought Eloy had run into the wall. The actual injury is stranger than that, to the point that I don’t know if it is a result of Eloy’s lack of skill or just a coincidental fluke.
Either way, the issue seems to be more about the LF position itself than about depth. Let’s go get Cepedes, Puig, or some other veteran OFer and win the damn division anyway.
I was confused about this as well. It almost looked like he was playing around (not exactly unheard of for the fun-loving Eloy).
When the chain links gave more than he expected, he reactively (and perhaps unnecessarily?) hung on the wall momentarily to stick a better landing. This accident looks fluky and avoidable in the future. Dare I say, a correctible mistake/behavior.
Conspiracy Theory:
1. Jerry has known that the prognosis for Eloy was bad ever since right after it happened.
2. Vaughn is never intended to play LF, and the sox front office don’t really think he has any chance at the position.
3. The team is going to use “emergency training time to work on his LF defense” as a reason to keep Vaughn down an extra few weeks.
4. That’s why Jerry leaked the weird “it’s all but official” Vaughn story to Bob @ USAToday before the print deadline last night, and why it reads so strange.
——
I’m probably way over thinking this, and Vaughn will start opening day at DH or LF.
We all deal with grief in our own ways, & I’m grieving all the times I will miss seeing Eloy “hi mom” the camera 🙁