Just before Opening Day, FanGraphs finished its position-by-position review across the league. Here's a quick summary of how and why the White Sox project as well as they do. Or as poorly as they do. Thanks to an injury and other questionable choices, the Sox have both sides of the scale covered.
CATCHER: FIRST
Rest of AL Central: Royals (7), Twins (8), Cleveland (12), Tigers (25)
Yasmani Grandal gives the Sox a healthy lead over the rest of baseball by more than a half-win. James McCann wouldn't have offered much stat-padding this time around, because the projections aren't yet buying into his framing improvement.
FIRST BASE: 13TH
Rest of AL Central: Twins (10), Royals (14), Tigers (16), Cleveland (24)
Freddie Freeman won the MVP as a first baseman in the National League, and the Braves rank first at 4.5 WAR. José Abreu won the MVP as a first baseman in the American League, and the White Sox middle of the pack at 1.6. Like McCann, 60 games wasn't enough to offset the previous decline and lackluster defensive metrics.
SECOND BASE: EIGHTH
Rest of AL Central: Twins (7), Cleveland (15), Tigers (16), Royals (25)
Nick Madrigal shows pretty well in these rankings due to defense, but then he rushed a throw for a key error in the first game of the season, so who can say.
THIRD BASE: 11TH
Rest of AL Central: Cleveland (1), Twins (6), Tigers (18), Royals (22)
Yoán Moncada is one of many bounceback candidates at third base, who could all be top five if they can overcome misfortune from the previous season. Minnesota has one in Josh Donaldson, although he left the opener with a hamstring issue.
SHORTSTOP: 15TH
Rest of AL Central: Twins (10), Royals (18), Tigers (22), Cleveland (24)
Shortstop is stacked, but Anderson still suffers from systems struggling to buy into his BABIP-oriented approach. It's not the easiest way to live, but he does it his way.
LEFT FIELD: 27TH
Rest of AL Central: Cleveland (8), Royals (15), Twins (17), Tigers (25)
The White Sox dropped from third to 27th due to Eloy Jiménez's injury, and when watching Leury García go 0-for-4 with two strikeouts in the opener paints a clear picture of the drop-off.
CENTER FIELD: 6TH
Rest of AL Central: Twins (4), Cleveland (22), Tigers (23), Royals (25)
Here's the opposite of the White Sox's situations at first and short, where Luis Robert's defense gives him a high floor despite all the other uncertainties. Minnesota has the same thing going with Byron Buxton.
RIGHT FIELD: 19TH
Rest of AL Central: Twins (8), Royals (12), Cleveland (23), Tigers (28)
Adam Eaton opened the season with a two-run homer while Max Kepler dropped a key fly for the Twins, so we can finally stop saying that Opening Day only confirmed previously held beliefs.
DESIGNATED HITTER: 14TH
Rest of AL Central: Twins (3), Royals (5), Cleveland (6), Tigers (13)
You can see the pressure on an Eaton rebound and immediate competence from Andrew Vaughn, because otherwise it's hard to have little offense from lowest end of the defensive spectrum.
STARTING ROTATION: SEVENTH
Rest of AL Central: Twins (12), Cleveland (15), Royals (24), Tigers (27)
It's alien to see Cleveland in the middle of the pack, but Shane Bieber's company loses name-brand recognition after Zach Plesac, thanks to the trades of Mike Clevinger and Carlos Carrasco. It'll test their ability to develop starters on the fly, whereas the White Sox acquired Lance Lynn as a tacit acknowledgement of their struggles regenerating depth.
BULLPEN: THIRD
Rest of AL Central: Twins (9), Cleveland (10), Royals (27), Tigers (30)
Entering Opening Day, you might be wondering how anybody could say two teams are better. After one game? It may take a few games for this group to coalesce. Fortunately for the White Sox, Alex Colomé was equally disappointing.
SUMMARY
This is a pretty effective way to look at how the Twins project better than the White Sox. Minnesota gets there with slightly more talent across the board, and power from DH. PItching is where the White Sox can make the biggest dent on paper, but that similarly relies on the front-line guys to hold up, or for help to arrive at the deadline. This battle doesn't figure to be a comfortable one, which is only part of what White Sox fans signed up for.
