A studious union man, newest White Sox outfielder Austin Slater had observed the last few free agency markets, and figured he'd either end up signing right away or waiting for a suitable offer all the way up to the open of spring training.
Since he's doing an introductory Zoom with reporters a week before Thanksgiving, after signing a one-year, $1.75 million deal with a potential extra half-million in performance bonuses, he did not have to sweat it out. Deep in a rebuild, coming off an 121-loss season that's still getting piled on by former franchise mainstays, and absent any notion of pursuing high-dollar signings, enthusiasm was at the heart of the White Sox sales pitch to a player who was ready to be wanted again.
"Free agency started, and the White Sox were the first team to reach out," Slater said. "They told me I was their top target, and that was super encouraging. I think that meant a lot, considering how difficult I felt last year went."
"Top target" could be assumed to mean for this specific role, since the White Sox have also stated a desire to add an innings-soaking starting pitcher, and they carry a higher baseline price on average. But then again, it's not my job to force you to make assumptions.
Slater's early signing coming off a down season (.209/.321/.266) invited comparisons to throwing Paul DeJong a guaranteed major league life preserver last November even before they were revealed to have the same base salary. Where DeJong offered a higher floor for value by way of defending an up-the-middle position everyday, Slater counters with the idea that his downward trend is shorter and more confined to an aberrant 2024. On top of the early May concussion that cost him a month off the field and a longer absence from looking like himself, Slater related how difficult getting traded twice in a season was alongside his wife being pregnant with their recently born son, Beau Jackson Slater.
In that context, the White Sox took on the look of a serviceable port in a storm. Slater confirmed that while his agent asked him to not giddily discuss a reunion together until an actual agreement was in hand, the hire of director of hitting Ryan Fuller after they worked together the last two months of the season in Baltimore was a significant incentive. Slater also declared Chicago to be his favorite MLB city -- New York in size, but with nice people -- and his early conversations with Will Venable indicated someone who understood the plight of the platoon outfielder.
"I think he understands the struggle that is being a big leaguer. Not everyone is the Juan Sotos and Aaron Judges of the world," Slater said. "To have a guy that bounced around and, in his own words, was at the end of a roster quite a few times and played the game for the love of the game, it's comforting. And just his personality in general was very calming and very relaxed, which I think players typically respond to when baseball can be such a high-pressure, anxiety-driven game sometimes."
Slater being a platoon outfielder on the White Sox, where he's a career .271/.364/.429 bat against left-handed pitching, probably depends on one or two players with less big league success in their history (Dominic Fletcher, Zach DeLoach, Mystery Left-Handed Outfielder) playing him off the field. He mentioned playing time being part of what he found appealing with the Sox. And while Slater acknowledged there have been no guarantees made beyond his traditional lefty-mashing role, he said his ability to mix in at center was part of his appeal to the team, and that at 31, he still views himself as a potential everyday player.
Even without a history of driving the ball against right-handers, Slater offers a .342 career on-base percentage that easy to imagine taking on a larger role of stabilizing the White Sox offense if it falls into the state of disrepair it's been known to frequent in recent decades. Slater's initial work with Fuller in the final months of 2024 with Baltimore were rooted in keeping him loaded in his back hip for longer, so that he could stay back and return to being a reliable source of good swing decisions that managers tend to value.
"[It's] making sure that he had the ability to load his hands back to let the bat slot get turned behind him and work up through the zone, so he's able to cover the back of the zone on the fastest pitch he's going to face and also carry his bat path up and through to catch those breaking balls out in front," Fuller said. "A push pattern where the hands outrun the torso, what happens is you're making decisions more out in front, and you're cutting off that on-plane window from the back of the zone through the front, and it's really only the front of the zone. You're going to have to make more decisions if you catch that ball a little bit deeper, you're going to be able to shoot the ball through the right-center field gap. If you're a little bit early, you can stay through the left-center field gap.
"Getting those movements down, he has a great approach. It's usually an awesome plan going into his at-bat and he's one of the more skilled guys going in for those lefty matchups, late-game, pinch-hit situations. He comes into the day knowing if he's not starting, he's not going to spend his time thinking about who the starter is. All his focus and preparation for that day is going to line up for that one at-bat."
For a White Sox offense that was usually more than one at-bat away, Slater's past triumphs can sound like the purchase of new food processor for a kitchen where the odor of sulfur is too strong for anyone to consider turning on the stove. But just as the vegetables still need to be chopped, corner outfield at-bats against left-handers shouldn't be thrown away.
Slater adds demonstrated proficiency for a job where the Sox roster previously could only offer hope, and if the value of the next DeJong doesn't push you toward excitement, maybe Jarold Rosado's strikeout rate at Winston-Salem nudges you slightly closer. That Slater can look at the current state of the Sox roster and clearly see room to expand his territory is Chris Getz's problem to solve, and at least he's given himself plenty of time.
