The White Sox are winning by minimizing suckage

I’ve been deep into the NBA this year, in part because my favorite team, the Phoenix Suns, is good for the first time in recent memory. A lot of the credit in their dramatic turnaround from the worst franchise in basketball to the league’s second-best record goes their new Hall of Fame point guard/Winston-Salem Dash co-owner, Chris Paul. But co-equal credit should go to their devotion to a theory developed by podcaster Chris Vernon: Don’t Play Guys Who Suck. The idea is that you can offset a relative lack of high-end talent by having a deep roster of players who are not outright minuses. It’s harder than it sounds!

That mantra came to mind when I was browsing FanGraphs yesterday, because the White Sox had only one position player (Yoan Moncada) in the top-50 in fWAR entering Wednesday’s games. Surprising for a team nine games above .500 and sitting in first place. For comparison, the Angels had three position players in that same top-50 (Mike Trout, Shohei Ohtani, and Jared Walsh) but were in last place, six games under .500.

A few thoughts, beyond that it sucks to be an Angels fan. For one thing, this illustrates that the 2021 Sox have largely been carried by their pitching staff (Carlos Rodon, Lance Lynn, Dylan Cease, and Michael Kopech are all among the top-50 pitchers in fWAR). Secondly, what the team lacks in superstars, they have so far made up for with cromulent performances throughout the lineup and bench. In fact, they’ve fielded only two under-replacement level position players: Leury Garcia who has battled his way back to -0.2 wins after a brutal start, and Nick Williams, who put up -0.2 wins himself in just 13 plate appearances.

This is especially surprising considering the early injuries to Eloy Jimenez, Luis Robert, and Adam Engel that have destroyed the team’s outfield depth. It’s also especially surprising considering it’s the friggin’ White Sox, and we have grown accustomed to wasted roster spots.

Here’s a fun list of all the below-replacement position players the team has fielded in the last three seasons (minimum 10 plate appearances):

Long-suffering White Sox fans will also recall the deep pits of suck that submarined promising rosters in the Chris Sale years, and even the post-World Series teams. Guys like Dioner Navarro, Adam LaRoche, Jeff Keppinger, and Mark Kotsay sabotaged otherwise promising seasons by being total black holes.

But we’re not seeing that so far this year. Even players who looked like dead weight entering the year (*cough* Jake Lamb *cough*) have scratched out ways to not subtract from what the rest of the team is doing, even if they’re not actively adding much to the winning efforts.

There’s probably a bit of luck involved here, but credit the White Sox front office for (finally!) filling out the roster with guys who can be counted on to do at least one thing well enough to keep them afloat. Billy Hamilton doesn’t hit, but he can run and defend. Neither Adam Eaton nor Yasmani Grandal are making contact, but both are getting on base enough to add value. Blessedly absent are the Delmonicos and Jays who make you wonder how exactly the team envisioned them contributing at all.

And despite his blundering incompetence in other areas, some credit should also go to Tony La Russa for generally putting imperfect players in the positions where they’re most likely to succeed. Lamb has only one plate appearance against a lefty so far. Hamilton’s contributions with the glove have outweighed his weak stick in part because he’s played 38 2/3 innings as a defensive replacement.

The big question now is whether this will last, particularly if Eaton and Kopech’s dueling hamstring issues — tightness for the former, soreness for the latter — keep either or both of them out for an extended stretch. Kopech’s universal awesomeness has covered for disappointing performances elsewhere in the bullpen (though Evan Marshall is the only arm actually below replacement). And obviously losing another outfielder will not make La Russa’s job any easier, even if Eaton and Engel trade places on the active roster. Surprising performances from depth pieces like Rodon, Cease, Yermin Mercedes, et al., have already bought the Sox time for Moncada and Jose Abreu to rebound from slow Aprils… Is there enough talent left to patch even more holes?

Hopefully, the front office will extend the newfound “Don’t Suck” philosophy to the trade deadline, and we’ll see actual reinforcements instead of the end-of-career vets that have been White Sox staple acquisitions. If so, and if Jimenez, Robert, and Engel all return to their pre-injury forms at some point, there’s no reason we should have to watch below-replacement baseball at all this summer (except in Minnesota ????).

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