White Sox not treating Leury García as a given

Leury García
(Photo by Scott Winters/Icon Sportswire)

Once the initial rush — or the closest thing to it — of the Elvis Andrus signing faded, it was fair to circle back to Romy González, and why the White Sox pumped him up to such a noticeable extent.

Rick Hahn didn’t exactly use the no-brainer nature of a $3 million Andrus to back off. He could’ve said that Andrus was the only freely available player who stabilized the infield at his price, and, should González start the season in Charlotte, he’ll be able to have the kind of developmental experience that injury and illness prevented him from experiencing in 2022. If his World’s Best Offseason translates into Charlotte’s Best April, they’ll be happy to make him an opportunity somehow.

Instead, Hahn maintained González’s readiness with a very aggressive comp.

You can dismiss González measuring up to Zobrist in any meaningful way in 2023, but it’s noteworthy that Hahn went that lofty route when Leury García is right there.

Unless … García isn’t there?

Pedro Grifol made it sound like García’s future isn’t as certain as the remaining two years of his ill-advised three-year, $15.5 million deal would have you believe.

First, Grifol also talked up González:

“Everybody’s competing here other than obviously our main guys,” Grifol said. “I’ve been telling Romy all along even before we spoke about Elvis that he needed to make sure he works at other positions. His bat really looks like it’s going to play at some point. The way he runs, he’s athletic, he’s capable of playing multiple positions. I’ve been telling him all along even prior to Elvis that there’s a good opportunity that he becomes a Swiss Army knife.”

And then he issued a murky forecast for the Swiss Army knife already on the roster.

“I’ve seen Leury play for a while. Leury’s a talented player,” Grifol said. “For the most part, everybody’s competing here, other than obviously our main guys. This is spring training, I get it, but there is some competition.”

García is just a year removed from being a valuable supersub with the White Sox’s only 2021 postseason highlight with resonance. That said, the year he put forth in 2022 is pretty much impossible to distinguish from what González or Lenyn Sosa would look like if you gave them 315 plate appearances — .210/.233/.267, two stolen bases, seven walks, 65 strikeouts.

What’s fascinating is that García is feeling some heat at the same time that guys like Lance Lynn and Yasmani Grandal can refer to 2021 as a past caused by … circumstances … that won’t be repeated because Grifol is now in charge. Andrus himself wanted to turn the page as soon as he arrived, even though he’s one of the few White Sox who could call it a triumph.

“(The White Sox have) great talent. But I don’t think winning teams have too much to do with talent,” Andrus said. “Every team has a lot of talent. It’s about, ‘How can we play as a team, stay together, everybody pulling the same way instead of each guy trying to do their thing?’ I think that was the only thing I saw lacking towards the end of last year.

“We addressed it already. Pedro, he’s an amazing manager. He’s a really smart coach, and he’ll find a way to get us there. As soon as we all stay together, the talent will take over. And there is a lot of talent on this team.”

I get it, but you could make the argument that among the many players who weren’t well-served by the previous administration, Tony La Russa hurt García more than any other individual. We knew going in that La Russa had a favorite utility man at every stop, but even García didn’t understand why he played as much as he did in 2022. La Russa insisted that García wasn’t a superutility guy, but a starter who played many positions, and he led them both over the ledge trying to prove that point.

It’s a miracle that García of all people is the only White Sox left from the first time Rick Hahn tore it down, and considering he has two more years of salary coming his way no matter what, nobody should feel bad if he ends up being the odd man out. The White Sox would have just picked the most confusing way to go about it.

A bench without Leury García

I’m not inclined to think the Sox will be free of García that easily, because they might not want to be. For all they’ve been hyping González, I’m not sure why they couldn’t just call him up in May if García continues to look like toast in April. If you don’t know how messy dinner is going to be, then you may as well grab extra napkins.

There are eight fixed starters:

  • Yasmani Grandal
  • Andrew Vaughn
  • Elvis Andrus
  • Yoán Moncada
  • Tim Anderson
  • Andrew Benintendi
  • Luis Robert Jr.
  • Eloy Jiménez

Let’s say Oscar Colás breaks camp with the big-league club, which gets you to nine.

That brings the bench into the conversation. Seby Zavala should be the backup catcher, and Gavin Sheets should be some form of left-handed power, so that’s 11.

You could theoretically carry González and García with the last two spots, but similar to the discussion last year with García and Josh Harrison, you don’t want to devote finite resources to players who don’t do anything particularly well, because the returns diminish fairly rapidly.

The 2021 form of García is valuable by himself, but not because he secretly deserves starting plate appearances. No, his appeal is that he covers six positions by himself, which enables another bench spot to go to a specialist, like Jake Burger for power, or Billy Hamilton for speed and defense, or Jake Marisnick for outfield defense and the occasional homer. If you have one Swiss Army knife, you don’t need two Swiss Army knives. You’d rather have one Swiss Army knife and a real pair of scissors, or a full-size screwdriver, or a hand saw.

That’s why García and González strike me as mutually exclusive in the big picture. I just wouldn’t rush to declare a winner anytime soon, because six of the fixed eight above dealt with injury/conditioning concerns of some sort in 2022. In the small picture, we have to see who gets out of spring training alive.

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roke1960

Very good analysis, Jim. I guess Leury and Romy could share the 4th outfield/backup infield spot if they both have good springs, and Jake Burger doesn’t stand out. I’m guessing the bench will be Seby, Sheets, one of Hamilton/Marisnick/Reyes, and one of Romy/Leury.

Dennis

It certainly looks like you got the bench squad correct, Roke. I would have liked to have seen both Mendick and Engel given a chance to come back from their injuries because they seemingly fit the roles. But moving forward, Seby is a given and with new rules, may even start more games than we project. It seems the pitchers prefer him as their receiver. Sheets stays not only as occasional RF or DH, but I doubt that Vaughn is gonna start 162 games, so Sheets might get 35-40 games at 1B also. One of the AAAA outfield trio you mention should start season, but all 3 may have to be used at some point in time (along with maybe Haesely). Leaving Romy and Leury in a competition for the last spot (although the Sox signed non-roster invitees utility infielders Alberto, Gonzalez, and Mondeau before inking Andrus). Burger’s bat would be nice, but unless Moncada or Eloy go down, he seems to be blocked from this bench foursome.

Wayne

I think some of this depends on if Colas is the opening day RF. If Sheets is in RF, then Bench is Seby, one of UT, One of the OF, and Burger and other UT fighting for last spot. If it is Colas, then roke1960 has the bench. 2nd UT player, Burger, and the OF are fighting for last spot. Hell, AAA MI is getting crowded with Sosa, Rodriguez, Yolbert, and the vets.

roke1960

Yeah, I’m assuming Colas is the opening day RF. If he’s not and Sheets is, then I think Burger becomes the power bat off the bench.

Augusto Barojas

I assume Eloy might be the opening day RF, for service time reasons. I hope I’m wrong. I hope Colas is there by May 1, at least. I forget how that works, how many games he needs to miss or whatever before getting called up.

As Cirensica

Colas is 24.5 years old, and not a player deemed to be an elite star. Service time manipulations should be thrown out of the window.

phillyd

Maybe it’s my homerism, but I think if he starts in RF from Day 1 he may accumulate enough stats to garner draft pick compensation for a top 2 ROY finish.

Trooper Galactus

That’s my one hope for running with Colas. Lord knows they could use every draft pick they can get.

Augusto Barojas

I agree service time stuff should be out the window, and Eloy in RF on opening day would qualify as pure nonsense. But Hahn and company live and breathe nonsense, so it is very possible.

As Cirensica

Colas must be the RF on opening day. Anything else is just nonsense.

Augusto Barojas

I’ll believe they DFA Garcia when I see it. Since they are going to be paying him 10M the next 2 years, it would be hard to see them parting ways with him unless he proves as bad or worse than last year. As down on him as I was last year, before that he was not a totally useless player, to be fair. He should benefit from a manager that isn’t enough of a douchebag to hit him 3rd or leadoff, or play him every day!!

roke1960

I really liked Leury before Tony got a hold of him. He was a useful player back then. Tony made him the poster boy of all the wrong things he did as a manager.

Trooper Galactus

They’re paying him $11 million over the next two years, even better!

FishSox

They pay Garcia on or off the roster so the only addition would probably be a league minimum salary to DFA him.

Surrounded by Cubs Fans

The only thing that gives me hope is that Hahn released Keppinger barely a year into a similarly ill-advised contract. Good god, why do I still follow this team…

Augusto Barojas

It wouldn’t do that much for me if they cut Garcia. I mean unless 2022 is a permanent decline in ability, he hit around .270 the prior 5 seasons and was quite consistent. That’s decent for a utility guy. It was La Russa that ruined him and annoyed all of us by playing him every day last year and putting him in nonsensical lineup slots when he was in a terrible slump most of the year.

I highly doubt that Romy is going to produce better than what Garcia did from 2017 to 2021. Garcia isn’t blocking anybody, look at their depth. He might wind up their best backup outfielder considering their other answers are Hamilton or Marisnick. Marisnick hasn’t had a WAR season over 1 since 2019, Hamilton since 2017. Hamilton has a cumulative WAR under 1 since 2018. Yuck. Hamilton is one of the worst hitters I’ve ever seen. I’ll take Leury over either of those chumps in a heartbeat, again unless his 2022 is a new norm for Leury. Leury isn’t this team’s bigest problem. The fact that they don’t have anybody better and have worse players as depth is the problem.

Steve

I will now only see TLR as “Joe Joe the Circus Boy” regarding super-utility guys.

calcetinesblancos

The idea of Grandal being the starting catcher keeps making me laugh. If he plays even half the games I’ll be absolutely floored.

Augusto Barojas

I agree. So the question is, how good will Zavala prove to be, after showing some encouraging signs? They are counting on him, he will probably wind up catching more games than Grandal.

HallofFrank

If you’ll be “absolutely floored” that he’ll meet the projection of literally every system, you should probably adjust your expectations. It’s highly unlikely Grandal went from “best catcher in baseball” to “worst catcher in baseball” in about six months. I don’t expect him to capture his 2021 form, but there’s little reason to think a sub-70 wRC+ is a new normal for him.

calcetinesblancos

Hey I’d love for him to play an entire season and be decent, but with his age and injury history I just don’t have any confidence he’ll be able to catch half the games. We shall see how everything unfolds.

HallofFrank

There are actually other outcomes between “less than half the games” and “the entire season.”

calcetinesblancos

Yeah but that’s what I said in the initial comment you responded to.

HallofFrank

You said you’d be “absolutely floored” if he caught half the games—so you expect him to catch less than half the games. If his history and projections are any indication, he’ll almost certainly catch half the games or more. So, I guess prepare to be absolutely floored?

calcetinesblancos

Are you ok?

soxygen

Me too – I think catching depth was arguably as big a need as middle infield depth. But hopefully this catcher will age better than many catchers do and better than the last couple of years would indicate he will age. As you say, we’ll see!

As Cirensica

Putting Romy in the same sentence as fortysomething career WAR Zobrist is, well, laughable.

I believe Leury will be the utility bench player, but he will have a very short leash. If 2022 Leury shows up, he should be gone in May. Of course, it all depends on injuries. The White Sox health has been such that Leury is a necessity you wish you didn’t need.

Trooper Galactus

Zobrist was one of the ten best players in the league in the early 2010s. That comparison was beyond ridiculous.

bobsquad

Player A in minors: 9.5% BB%, 28.0% K%
Player B in minors: 15.3% BB%, 11.9% K%

Can you guess which player is Zobrist and which is Romy? (Of course you can, because Hahn seems to have forgotten which of Zobrist’s skills made him such a good player.)

hitlesswonder

Hahn said it was “Zobrist like role”…which is different than saying Romy is like Zobrist.

Hahn is saying they are going pretend Romy is like Zobrist. It’s very Sox. Like how they had Vaughn play a Mookie Betts role last season.

Trooper Galactus

There are a zillion ways to say a guy is a utility player without bringing up Zobrist.

As Cirensica

The thing is, it is not a Zobrist like role. It is more like an Emilio Bonifacio role. Hahn obviously used Zobrist in an attempt to embellish his mistake.

texag10

Or nobody remembers Emilio Bonifacio but everyone remembers Ben Zobrist.

bobsquad

I remember Bonifacio being put on the map by an MVP-caliber first week to the 2009 season (.583/.600/1.433, 4 SBs). He did have one good season and a few okay ones, but I always wondered how many of his chances around the league were carried by goodwill from that hot start.

soxygen

No, I think As Cirensica nailed it. If nobody remembers Bonafacio…it’s because he wasn’t memorable in performing what is usually not a very important role. Rick Hahn chose to use as an example someone who is one of the most remarkable and memorable utility players of all time to make his point. Doing so served Rick Hahn’s interests.

Trooper Galactus

Leury can still be a useful player free from Tony’s mismanagement (like so many others), but it’s ridiculous that he’s still here, much less for two more seasons. No other team would have given him a multi-year deal and the White Sox went out of their way to bid against themselves to retain him.

shaggy65

I always viewed the $15M as a “Thanks for being a good team player on some bad teams. Why don’t you stick around and watch us get good.” (It was also a chance for Rick & the Gang to pat themselves on the back for acquiring such a stand-up guy in the first place.) It was always more about the previous 9 years than about the next 3.

That’s not how most good organizations run themselves, but Jerry has always rewarded loyalty to a fault. Considering all the other faults with the organization, I’m willing to let this one slide and almost convince myself to find it endearing.

The difference, of course, between this deal and the deals given to Konerko and Abreu in their mid-30’s is that Leury had never been particularly good in the first place.

Alfornia Jones

This, JR does have some good attributes. That said, cut his ass if he can’t earn a spot in ST. Spending $5.5M or $6.3M isn’t an important difference.

670WMAQtheElder

Reading your column from March 2021 TLR sure got the style of team he wanted in 2022. Explains a lot of the roster moves in the 21-22 offseason. Relief pitchers like Joe Kelly and later that guy from Boston. Leury’s contract. Players got the word to strike out less like TLR wanted, so we got a lot more weak contact and a lot fewer HRs. And didn’t win.

Before 2022 Leury was on the bubble every ST. As he should have been because you don’t build a team (or a line up) around a guy like that. So I guess the 2023 leadership is telling Leury he’s back on the bubble, contract be damned. And that’s okay.

GrinnellSteve

I read Hahn’s comments as, “I had nothing to do with the Leury signing. If I have to cut him, Jerry can complain about the $11M to Tony.” And Grifol isn’t beholden to anyone on the roster.

Augusto Barojas

I think suggesting he would cut Leury is giving Hahn too much credit, and his comparison of Romy to Zobrist is as nonsensical as anything he’s ever said.

I highly doubt anybody will be gushing about how great Romy is probably ever, realistically. Leury hopefully won’t be as awful this year, and Romy probably will not wind up being a better option in the end. Cutting Leury doesn’t make sense unless they have someone better, which is doubtful.

Greg Nix

If this is the end, then it sucks Leury’s going to go out like this. They could have just let him walk after 2020 and he’d be a fan favorite forever. I suppose he might prefer the extra $15 mil, but it’s another example of the White Sox habitually ruining anything remotely fun about them for fans.

rugbysox

I think Leurys fate is mostly based on what to do with Burger. Career .892 OPS vs LHP. Question is how to get him the at bats or if it’s worth wasting one more development year in AAA. Platoon with moncada? Could they get him to 200-250 ab if he was the 26th man all season? 75 from Yoan , 75 from colas (means eloy is in RF..), and 50 from Vaughn?

Trooper Galactus

Killing LHP is hardly an issue for this team, so Burger seems a bit redundant, especially given he’s another 1B/DH guy who probably shouldn’t be trusted with 3B duties.

FishSox

I don’t believe the strike the fear into LHP’s that they have in the past.

a-t

they may not wreck LHPs to quite the same ridiculous degree, but it’s highly unlikely to be anything but a strength, and Burger can’t play any positions where it makes sense to include him there. If he could play corner OF, that would be a different story, bc then he could spell the newly left-handed corner OFs, but he can’t.

a-t

I do not understand this FO effusiveness about Romy Gonzalez. It’s certainly neat that the guy was an 18th round pick who has made it to the bigs, can play all over the diamond, and has plus power while doing so. But the difference between him and Zobrist (ffs lol) is at least three full goddamn standard deviations of hit tool. The guy has a giant hole in his swing! If that is magically fixed, fuckin’ wonderful, but somehow I doubt it.

calcetinesblancos

The funniest part about people losing their minds over that comment is that since Romy has barely played in the bigs, we still have no idea what he actually is. Which is pretty absurd considering the people we’ve had playing 2B in particular the past few years.

texag10

Romy has more WAR and a higher wRC+ in his first 2 seasons than Zobrist did. Does that mean a damn thing? Nope. But it took Zobrist until his 4th year to break out and then he was the best player in baseball. Romy obviously won’t follow that path but Zobrist was the poster child for superutility guys for a long time. Would you have preferred him to say a “Chris Taylor role”? I feel like saying a “Leury Garcia” role would have made things kind of awkward in the clubhouse.

a-t

What? We can look at what a guy did in the minors in both stats and scouting reports from BP or FG and have a pretty good idea of what he is.

Nellie Fox

interesting move, sos signed bryan shaw today. bullpen help in case ?

steelydan52

Just trade Garcia for Mendick and throw a few dollars into the deal to make it work. I’ll chip in.

soxygen

Rick Hahn from Fegan’s piece: “I did expect there to be more trades… You go into the offseason with needs and potential fits, and over the course of the offseason, you adjust based on what’s viable, both in free agency and via trade. Sometimes teams are pricing guys differently than expected.”

You know what never changes though? Rick Hahn’s commitment to whatever his own initial pricing was. If a deal didn’t get done, it’s because Rick Hahn stood by his assessment of market value rather than being the fool.

I guess we’re supposed to admire or respect that the GM doesn’t overpay, but it does make you wonder what they taught him in business school since winning any auction involves being…you know…the highest bidder.