The timing was slightly off, but the White Sox ultimately confirmed the addition of Jake Lamb on a major-league contract this afternoon.
Lamb appeared on today's lineup card for the Sox's Cactus League finale against the Colorado Rockies...
... which was the first way of finding out that the White Sox indeed verified Monday's reports. The second was the press release that came about 80 minutes later.
There's a high likelihood that Sox fans forget this move was ever made, because while Lamb's left-handed, he's hit righties worse than lefties over the last three years, and neither creates a path for him:
- vs. RHP: .205/.308/.339 over 461 PA
- vs. LHP: .207/.314/.402 over 102 PA
Then again, he's replacing another guy who didn't have much of a path in Nik Turley. Basically, circumstantial evidence says the White Sox swapped an Ethan Katz favorite (Turley went to Harvard-Westlake) with a Tony La Russa favorite (they overlapped with the Diamondbacks last decade), and Lamb's ability to play third offers a more useful form of depth, even if it's hard to see playing time opportunities now.
With Lamb replacing Turley, the White Sox basically have to free up one roster spot to get Andrew Vaughn and Billy Hamilton aboard, should the previous rumblings be true. Eloy Jiménez will create an opening when the Sox shift him to the 60-day injured list. My other thought was José Ruiz, but Daryl Van Schouwen says he's hearing that the White Sox will carry the out-of-options Ruiz on the Opening Day roster.
Jace Fry would be an option for the 60-day injured list if the White Sox don't anticipate his return until June, but he was supposed to recover from his back surgery by the start of May.
PERTINENT: Jonathan Lucroy out, Jake Lamb on White Sox roster
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Speaking of Jiménez, his forecast has improved slightly since the initial timetable, when it was reported that he would miss five to six months due to his ruptured pectoral tendon. Eloy Jiménez. Instead, that window has been narrowed by a month:
(Jon Heyman confirmed this report, in case you don't believe foodstuffs.)
It's one thing for Jiménez to return. It's another thing for him to resemble his old form in-season, but at least there should be a minor-league season to provide him a full rehab stint.
PERTINENT: White Sox need to reconsider left field with or without Eloy Jiménez
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Depending on the strength of Jiménez's return, it puts the White Sox a little bit behind the curve when it comes to his contract extension paying for itself. He's making $1.5 million this season and $3.5 million in 2021, and if he can't contribute much this year, his arbitration path could be lowered.
This doesn't mean it was a bad idea. It just came to mind when reading about the Phillies demoting Scott Kingery, and the Rangers designating Rouged Odor for assignment. Kingery signed a pre-majors contract for six years and $24 million, only to post two sub-replacement-level showings in three years. Odor signed for six years and $49.5 million, but he'll be let go with $24 million owed to him over the final two years of the deal.
Kingery dealt with a rough bout of COVID-19 last season, but his problems finding his footing date back to his rookie season. The Philadelphia Inquirer traced it back to three issues:
First mistake: The Phillies gave Kingery a six-year, $24 million contract, even though he hadn’t played a single major league inning. This made him so important that he would not speak with the press on the day he got paid.
Second mistake: The Phillies moved Kingery from second base, where he’d played breathtakingly well in the minor leagues. Of his 265 big-league starts, Kingery made 113 at shortstop, 74 in the outfield (mostly center), 45 at third base, but just 33 at second base — or, 13%. He’d started 299 of 306 minor-league games at second base — or, 98%. It was madness.
The third mistake was reworking his swing for more homers when that wasn't his game. That one doesn't seem like it's an issue with the White Sox, but the unprecedented defensive responsibilities came to mind when Vaughn, whom the White Sox appear destined to promote to the Opening Day roster even without an extension. I don't think the left field experiment is something that will ruin Vaughn, but it'll be something people can point to if he stumbles out of the gate, similar to how Gordon Beckham stopped hitting after moving from third base to second.
The solace is that there's nowhere else for Vaughn to get meaningful plate appearances out of the gate, and a demotion is always an option if the majors prove to be a little too much for him right now. It's easier to take such a step back when the player isn't earning major league salaries for the next six-plus years.
PERTINENT: Extension or not, Andrew Vaughn allegedly set for Opening Day roster
