Podcast: Chicago White Sox 2023 Infield Review
Rundown:
- Shortstop Review [1:45]: Tim Anderson had a career worst season in 2023. Should the White Sox bring him back for $14 million?
- First Base Review [21:55]: When will Andrew Vaughn break out?
- Third Base Review [37:23]: Can Yoan Moncada return to his 4 WAR production?
- Second Base Review [48:38]: White Sox second base options all failed in 2023. What’s the best route to improve this position in 2024?
Author
Patrick and Josh are, in my opinion, too harsh on Lenyn Sosa. I am not ready to give up on him yet. He is still young, and Sosa’s start of his major league career reminds me a bit Marcus Semien’s. We gave up too soon on Semien. I would rather spend $ in addressing RF than 2B. I mean Colas is not near close to be a major leaguer, and might never be.
Also the free agency for 2B is truly awful. I prefer Sosa than a Merrifield.
Mike Trout’s first 135 PA resulted in a .220 average and an 89 OPS+. Now I understand he was just 19 and everything in his performance topped Sosa’s, but the point is young players often need time to acclimate to the big.
Sosa will never be an infield Mike Trout, but it’s way to early to dismiss him. We might as well learn what we have rather than spend money to add 3 wins to what promises to be an awful team.
So that’s Sosa’s comps now, Marcus Semien and Mike Trout…. Great, I’m sure Hahn is beside himself at home with his grievance of being dismissed for his abilities.
I was merely using Trout to illustrate that young players often struggle mightily when first exposed to the bigs.
Ok, but why not use Romy Gonzalez who had similar production in the exact same spot on the exact same team at the exact same time. Or any of the other 1000s of guys with similar stats who never got beyond them.
Romy is 27. Sosa is 23. That’s why.
And he showed signs of life late in the season more in keeping with his minor league production. SSS or an indication of making adjustments? No one knows, but in a lost season I’m willing to find out.
Trout was 19, Marcus Semien didn’t become Marcus Semien until 2019.
The two points being made were A) the Sox gave up too soon on Semien, who became a useful player in 2015 before becoming a star, and B) many players, even stars, struggle in their first exposure to the major leagues. Nothing more.
Sosa won’t be Trout or Semien, but the Sox might as well find out if he can be useful while they concentrate on bigger deficiencies elsewhere.
Is age the deciding factor? Fine then, Yolmer Sanchez, same age, same position, same team. Of course Yolmer was a significantly better fielder.
Sosa has shown some power. He hit 24 homers at age 22 betwee the minors and the majors. He has 7 homers in fewer than 200 PAs in the majors. Yolmer never had that kind of power at any level. It is an interesting difference.
Nobody is comparing Sosa with Trout or Semien. Actually, Steve literally wrote “Sosa will never be an infield Mike Trout”. And all I said was that Sosa reminds me Semien in a way we gave up too soon on him.
Semien and Trout were miles better than Sosa in the Minors, but by overall production and by K/BB. It’s almost unreal the comps people here come up with
If they are going into a teardown and don’t get a legit 2B prospect then I have no problem giving Sosa another shot at starting. Otherwise, he can contend for utility infielder and take it from there. At no point though in the next 5 months should he be considered Plan A for 2B.
I find a question about whether they are going into a teardown humorous. Robert and Cease are the only two above average players on the roster. The demolition has already been done, this team is as torn down as it gets. Even if Getz were to say the goal next year is to compete, it won’t change that this team won’t win 70 games for 3 or 4 years no matter what the F he does.
Might as well play Sosa, why bother signing another bum 2b and have him sit? Sosa makes sense as plan A, for now. The next three seasons will be worthless, there is no need to waste money trying to put lipstick on this pig. Sosa over Merrifield as As C said. They have nothing to lose.
Again the Astros are the model of how to do it right. They were bottom 3 in payroll for 5 straight years from 2011-15. They didn’t waste oodles of money on garbage players like the Sox idiotically do. The Sox should not spend a dime this winter, honestly. That is absolutely the smartest thing they can do.
Astros were in the era where tanking insured high draft picks.
In the non-catcher division is Vaughn the slowest mid-career player ever? I think a 27-year-old Paulie would run circles around him. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a slower player.
Who would win a race from home to first – Vaughn or Grandal? It would be like one of those baby races. My nod goes to Grandal.
Dan Pasqua was really slow mid-career. Luzinski was the slower but he wasn’t mid-career with the Sox.
Pasqua is a good candidate. Late Luzinski was slow. I think Vaughn has them non-beat though for similar times in their careers.
Paulie was sneaky fast!
Monty Stratton?
This needs all the recs.
He got mine, though I’m not sure Vaughn could have beaten him.
The 27 year old Paulie who half assed it to first when he hit a weak pop fly or ground ball only to be credited for being too hard on himself and never had his effort questioned?
Never.
It’s quite a mess isn’t it? At this time it will be interesting to see how much money Getz has for 2024 contracts. I’d think starting pitching, relief pitching, catcher, and right field are larger priorities than the infield. Having said so I wouldn’t be shocked if they roll with the Royals and get Salvy to catch and Merrifield to play second. The pitching staff would then be filled out with triple re-treads and guys from the poor White Sox farm system.
Nice to see Baltimore implode, their need for starting pitching could not be more obvious. All of their top prospects are position players, so they won’t get any help there. Cease would be perfect for them.
God willing they part ways with TA, rather than throw 14M away on a guy who won’t fetch a prospect worth 1/10th of that. Save the money now, spend it later. I’m done with TA, Yoan, Eloy… when they are all gone it will not be soon enough. A combined WAR under 3 for that trio since 2021. Woof.
Moncada’s great when healthy. He’ll never be healthy for any significant length of time, whether due to mishandling, improper conditioning, or bad luck. In some ways he reminds me of onetime Yankees phenom Nick Johnson, though Moncada can stay on the field with some of his ills and just have no production whatsoever.
I expect him to be out of the league in three years. Hope I’m wrong.
Playing baseball every day is hard on the body…but doing that and having disk problems is a tough combo. He’s probably uncomfortable a lot of the time and always at risk of a bigger injury. There isn’t much that he or anyone else can do to change that.
Honestly, I can’t imagine any agent of a worthwhile FA returning Getz’s call. Jerry sealed that fate.
I doubt Hahn even called a worthwhile FA since Machado. We can only hope Getz is given permission to do so around 2026 or 27 if the team isn’t still in shambles by then.
I don’t think picking up Anderson’s option is clearly a bad decision. He could hardly be worse. A $13 million decision is basically “can we get 1.5 war out of this guy?” Our internal options are replacement level or below. We need 324 starts in the middle infield plus at least 40games at 3B. We need 162 games in RF and the “Tatis in RF experiment” might be worth replicating as another alternative. I may not watch any Sox games next year at all, but a team with Lenny Sosa and — and — in the IF and — in RF could be just plain unwatchable.